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The Zygii () or ''Zygians'', were described by Strabo as a nation to the north of Colchis. He wrote:
William Smith observes that "they were partly nomad shepherds, partly brigands and pirates, for which latter vocation they had ships specially adapted".〔William Smith, LLD. ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography''. London. Walton and Maberly, Upper Gower Street and Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row; John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1854.〕 They inhabited the region known as Zyx, which is on the northern slopes of the Caucasus east of Elbrus. To the east were the Avars, and to the west were the Circassians. To the north was Sarmatian territory, and to the south lay the part of Colchis inhabited by the Svans (''Soanes'' of Strabo and Pliny the Elder). Zyx in Greek literature referred to people inhabiting the area that is now occupied by the republics of Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia-Alania and Checheno-Ingushetia. Confusingly, mediaeval Latin historians re-applied the term to those Circassians who formed a coastal federation in the sixth to eighth centuries A.D. This tribe also features in several ancient and medieval works, notably in Pliny (''Zichoi''), Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos, medieval Georgian chroniclers (''Jikebi''), Marco Polo, and Johannes de Galonifontibus, who, in his ''Libellus de notitia orbis'', speaks of "Zikia or Circassia" and their language, perhaps the earliest reference to the Northwest Caucasian languages.〔Glanville Price (1998), ''Encyclopedia of the Languages of Europe'', p. 60. Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 0-631-22039-9.〕 They were undone by invaders from the North, who possessed superior military technology - the Cimmerians and Scythians - in the 6th and 7th centuries BCE.〔Jaimoukha. ''Chechens''. Page 26〕 It is notable that the term may have been used differently by the Romans, to describe a more westerly, ethnically Circassian people different from the people described in the earlier Greek documents. == See also == *Sanigs 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Zygii」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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