Sarmatia was a geographic region defined in the ancient
Graeco-Roman world that encompassed the western
Eurasian steppe
The Eurasian Steppe, also called the Great Steppe or The Steppes, is the vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia in the temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome. It stretches through Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, Siberia, Europea ...
. It was inhabited by
Sarmatians
The Sarmatians (; ; Latin: ) were a large confederation of Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Iranian Eurasian nomads, equestrian nomadic peoples who dominated the Pontic–Caspian steppe, Pontic steppe from about the 5th century BCE to the 4t ...
, an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people.
Sarmatia was the name given by the Romans to the region which had formerly been known to the ancient Greeks as
Scythia because it had been inhabited by the
Scythians
The Scythians ( or ) or Scyths (, but note Scytho- () in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians, were an Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian peoples, Iranian Eurasian noma ...
. Beginning in the late 4th century BC, a related nomadic Iranian people, the Sarmatians, moved from the east into the
Pontic steppe, where they replaced the Scythians as the dominant power. Due to the Sarmatian incursion, "" replaced "" as the name for the region.
Geography
According to the map of
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa transmitted by
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...
in the late 1st century BCE, Sarmatia and Scythia Taurica were the countries between the
Dnipro
Dnipro is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper River, Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is t ...
, the
Volga and
Ciscaucasia; and
Pomponius Mela in the 1st century CE described Sarmatia as a large country found between the
Vistula
The Vistula (; ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest in Europe, at in length. Its drainage basin, extending into three other countries apart from Poland, covers , of which is in Poland.
The Vistula rises at Barania Góra i ...
and the
Ister.
Claudius Ptolemy divided Sarmatia into two parts: European Sarmatia and Asiatic Sarmatia.
European Sarmatia
European Sarmatia (), bounded by the Vistula and the
Sarmatian Mountains in the west; the
Maeotian Sea and the
river Tanais in the east; the territory of the
Iazyges
The Iazyges () were an ancient Sarmatians, Sarmatian tribe that traveled westward in 200BC from Central Asia to the steppes of modern Ukraine. In , they moved into modern-day Hungary and Serbia near the Pannonian steppe between the Danube ...
,
Dacia
Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus ro ...
and the
Pontus Euxinus
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 ...
in the south; and the
Venedicus Bay of the
Sarmatian Ocean and part of an unknown land in the north.
Asiatic Sarmatia
Asiatic Sarmatia (), bounded by European Sarmatia in the west; Scythia and part of the
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...
in the east; the states of the
Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...
in the south; and an unknown land in the north.
See also
*
Sarmatism
References
Sources
*
*
{{Scythia
Classical geography
Scythia