The Akatziri, Akatzirs or Acatiri (, , , ; ) were a tribe that lived north 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 ...

, though the Crimean city of Cherson seemed to be under their control in the sixth century.

Jordanes Jordanes (; Greek language, Greek: Ιορδάνης), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat, claimed to be of Goths, Gothic descent, who became a historian later in life. He wrote two works, one on R ...

( 551) called them a mighty people, not agriculturalists but cattle-breeders and hunters. Their ethnicity is undetermined: the 5th-century historian Priscus describes them as ethnic ()

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 ...

, but they are also referred to as

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was par ...

(''Akatiri Hunni''). Their name has also been connected to the Agathyrsi. However, according to E. A. Thompson, any conjectured connection between the Agathyrsi and the Akatziri should be rejected outright.

History

Roman emperor

Theodosius II Theodosius II ( ; 10 April 401 – 28 July 450), called "the Calligraphy, Calligrapher", was Roman emperor from 402 to 450. He was proclaimed ''Augustus (title), Augustus'' as an infant and ruled as the Eastern Empire's sole emperor after the ...

() sent an envoy to the Akatziri trying to detach them from their alliance with the Hunnic ruler

Attila Attila ( or ; ), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in early 453. He was also the leader of an empire consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, Alans, and Gepids, among others, in Central Europe, C ...

(435–453), an effort made to stir up fighting which also ensued. In 447 or 448 the

successfully campaigned against the Akatziri. In 448 or 449, as Priscus recounts " Onegesius along with the eldest of Attila's children, had been sent to the Akateri, a Scythian people, whom he was bringing into an alliance with Attila". As the Akatziri tribes and clans were ruled by different leaders, emperor Theodosius II tried with gifts to spread animosity among them, but the gifts were not delivered according to rank, Karadach (Kouridachos) warned and called Attila against fellow leaders. So Attila did, Kardach stayed with his tribe or clan in own territory, while the rest of the Akatziri became subjected to Attila. Attila's son Ellac was installed as ruler of the Akatziri. According to Sinor (1990), they were absorbed by the Saragurs in the 460s..

Akatziri rulers

* Karadach, reigned to 448

Attilid dynasty

* Ellac, r. 448–454 *

Dengizich Dengizich (died in 469), was a Huns, Hunnic ruler and son of Attila. After Attila's death in 453 AD, his empire crumbled and its remains were ruled by his three sons, Ellac, Dengizich and Ernak. Dengizich succeeded his older brother Ellac in AD 45 ...

, r. 454–469 * Ernak, r. 454 – after 469

Possible descendants

Akatziri were also hypothesized to be a Turkic tribe, their ethnonym connected to Turkic , 'woodman' or *''Aq Qazir'' "White Khazars". However, Peter B. Golden remarks that: " Neither of these theses has been firmly grounded in anything beyond phonetic resemblance"; and the other hypothesis that Akatziri were ancestors of the Khazars is not backed up by any solid evidence. Omeljan Pritsak links ''Ak-Katzirs'' (< ) to the name Khazar, though he explains that the polity was named Khazar simply because the Ashina-ruled Western Turks, after losing their territories to Tang Chinese, took over the territory formerly occupied by the Akatziri.

References

Notes

Sources

* * * * * * * *Atwood notes that Jordanes describes how the Crimean city of Cherson, "where the avaricious traders bring in the goods of Asia", was under the control of the Akatziri Huns in the sixth century. * {{Huns 5th-century people Scythians Huns