The Mares ( ka, მარები ) were an ancient
Colchian tribe. They entered ancient history with the writings of
Hecataeus of Miletus
Hecataeus of Miletus (; ; c. 550 – c. 476 BC), son of Hegesander, was an early Greek historian and geographer.
Biography
Hailing from a very wealthy family, he lived in Miletus, then under Persian rule in the satrapy of Lydia ...
. He gives a brief description of the tribe and mentions that they lived between closely akin Colchian tribal groups
Macrones
The Macrones ( ka, მაკრონები, ; , ''Makrōnes'') were an ancient Colchian tribe in the east of Pontus, about the Moschici Mountains (modern Yalnizçam Dağlari, Turkey). The name is allegedly derived from the name of Kromni ...
and
Mossynoeci. They inhabited the southeast periphery of the
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...
, more precisely the mountains of Northeast
Anatolia
Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...
, which constitutes, along with South Caucasus, a proposed homeland of the Kartvelian languages and the convergent territory in which they were molded into a nation. According to
Herodotus
Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...
, they had the same leader as the Colchians, who were the larger entity created through a process of political consolidation and amalgamation of tribes. After the rapid rise of
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian peoples, Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, i ...
, they were incorporated into the
XIX Satrapy, along with other Colchian tribes
Mushki
The Mushki (sometimes transliterated as Muški) were an Iron Age people of Anatolia who appear in sources from Assyria but not from the Hittites. Several authors have connected them with the Moschoi (Μόσχοι) of Greek sources and the Geor ...
,
Tibareni
The Tibareni (Greek: Τιβαρηνοί, Τιβαρανοί) were a people residing on the coast of ancient Pontus referred to in Herodotus, Xenophon, Strabo and other classical authors. The Tibareni were believed to be of Scythian origin,Schol. a ...
,
Macrones
The Macrones ( ka, მაკრონები, ; , ''Makrōnes'') were an ancient Colchian tribe in the east of Pontus, about the Moschici Mountains (modern Yalnizçam Dağlari, Turkey). The name is allegedly derived from the name of Kromni ...
and
Mossynoeci.
See also
*
Mares and Maris
External links
Iberiana - Georgian Tribes
{{Ancient Georgians
Ancient peoples of Georgia (country)
Tribes in classical historiography
Ancient peoples of Anatolia