The Asii, Osii, Ossii, Asoi, Asioi, Asini or Aseni were an ancient

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

people of

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

, during the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE. Known only from Classical Greek and Roman sources, they were one of the peoples held to be responsible for the downfall of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. In Greek Mythology they were the children of Iapetus and

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

. Modern scholars have attempted to identify the Asii with other peoples known from European and Chinese sources including the:

Yuezhi The Yuezhi were an ancient people first described in China, Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu, during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defea ...

, Tocharians, Issedones/

Wusun The Wusun ( ) were an ancient semi-Eurasian nomads, nomadic Eurasian Steppe, steppe people of unknown origin mentioned in Chinese people, Chinese records from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. The Wusun originally l ...

and/or

Alans The Alans () were an ancient and medieval Iranian peoples, Iranic Eurasian nomads, nomadic pastoral people who migrated to what is today North Caucasus – while some continued on to Europe and later North Africa. They are generally regarded ...

Historical sources

The classical European sources relating to the Asii are brief. They sometimes survive only as quotations in other ancient sources, with textual variations that have led to widely varying translations and interpretations. During the 4th and 3rd Centuries BCE, Megasthenes, who lived in Arachosia and was an ambassador to the Mauryan court in Pataliputra, refers in his work ''Indika'' to three tribes with similar and possibly related names, in separate parts of South Asia: * the ''Aseni'' had three cities and their capital was the Bucephala (where

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

had buried his horse by the same name), the site of which is a matter of controversy; * the ''Osii'' were near neighbours of the Taxillae in the Indus Valley, and; * the ''Asoi'' lived on plains known as ''Amanda'' (probably Gandhara), alongside tribes such as the Peucolaitae (Pushkalavati) and Geretae (Panjkorans). These references by Megasthenes have survived only as citations in other texts. In the 1st century BCE, Trogus names – in the ''Historiae Philppicae'' (of which only the "Prologues" have survived intact) – three tribes involved in the conquest of Bactria: the Asiani, Sacaraucae and Tochari (i.e. the Tukhara of Bactria rather than the so-called Tocharians of the Tarim Basin). The Tochari are reported to have, at some point, become subject to the ruling elite of the Asiani. According to Trogus, the Sacaraucae had since been destroyed. (In about 200 CE, the Roman historian, Justin (Marcus Junianus Justinus), wrote an ''epitome'' or condensation of Trogus's history. The last datable event recorded by Justin is the recovery of the Roman standards captured by the Parthians in 20 BCE, although Trogus' original history may have dealt with events into the first decade of the 1st-century CE.) Strabo completed his ''Geography'' in 23 CE. He mentions four tribes: the Asioi, Pasianoi, Sakaraulai, and Tokharoi. Pliny the Elder, in about 77–79 CE, makes a brief mention of a people called the ''Asini'' in his ''Naturalis Historia''. According to P. H. L. Eggermont:

Pliny mentions ... the Asini, who are reigning in the city of Bucephela. From these three data, 1) the Tacoraei are neighbours of the Besadae/Sosaeadae; 2) the Asini are the neighbours of the Sosaeadae ossibly the Kirata">Kirata.html" ;"title="ossibly the Kirata">ossibly the Kirata [and] 3) The Asiani are kings of the Thocari, it follows that the Asini of Pliny's text are identical with the Asiani, who are the kings of the Tocharians. This implies that—at least in the time of Pliny—the Kushāṇas were kings of the region between Jhelam and Indus and that Bucephala was one of their cities. It seems that Pliny availed himself of a recent description of this territory and that Ptolemy knew these data too.

Possible links to other peoples

Many theories have been proposed by historians and other scholars as to their origins, relationships, language, culture, etc., but so far no consensus has emerged. It is generally accepted that the Asiani mentioned by Trogus were probably identical to the Asii of Strabo. There is no agreement over whether another tribe mentioned by Strabo, the "Pasiani" were likewise related. Scholars such as W. W. Tarn, Moti Chandra believe that "as Asiani is the (Iranian) adjectival form of Asii, so Pasiani would be the similar adjectival form of, and would imply, a name such as ''*Pasii'' or ''*Pasi''". This may suggest that Strabo was referring to a group of Persians ( Old Persian ''Pārsa'') or Parsis who had settled in Central Asia. However, scholars such as J. Marquart believe that they were synonymous with the Asiani. In other words, the Asii and the Pasiani were one and the same, and "Pasiani" was a misspelling of Asiani or a variant of the same name. Others suggest that the name is a misspelling of ''Gasiani'', a name which is believed by Chinese scholars to be connected to the

Kushan Empire The Kushan Empire (– CE) was a Syncretism, syncretic empire formed by the Yuezhi in the Bactrian territories in the early 1st century. It spread to encompass much of what is now Afghanistan, Eastern Iran, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbe ...

(endonym: ''Kushano''; Chinese: ''Guishuang'' 貴霜).

Yuezhi & Tocharians

Other scholars have proposed, more controversially, that the Asii,

and/or Tocharians were closely related. Alfred von Gutschmid believed that Asii, Pasiani and other names mentioned by Strabo are an attempt to render ''Yuezhi'' in Greek. W. W. Tarn first thought that the Asii were probably one part of the Yuezhi, the other being the Tocharians. However, he later expressed doubts as to this position. By the middle of the 1st Millennium CE, speakers of the so-called Tocharian A language in the Tarim Basin, apparently referred to themselves as ''Ārśi'' (pronounced "arshi"; apparently meaning "shining" or "brilliant").

Issedones/Wusun

Asii or Asiani may simply be a

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

of the name of the Issedones – an Iranian people mentioned by Herodotus – who are frequently identified with the

mentioned in contemporaneous Chinese sources. Taishan Yu proposes that Asii were "probably" the dominant tribe of a confederacy of four Issedonean tribes "from the time that they had settled in the valleys of the Ili and Chu" who later invaded Sogdiana and Bactria. "This would account for their being called collectively "Issedones" by Herodotus." He also states that the "Issedon Scythia and the Issedon Serica took their names from the Issedones." Yu believes that the Issedones must have migrated to the Ili and Chu valleys, "at the latest towards the end of the 7th century B.C."J. P. Mallory and Victor H.Mair. (2000) ''The Tarim Mummies'', p. 92. Thames & Hudson Ltd., New York and London. .

The Alans

A rival theory instead identifies the Asii/Asiani/Asioi with the

, an Iranian tribe who migrated from the Eurasian Steppe into Europe during the early Middle Ages. There is circumstantial evidence for such a link in: * the name of the Aorsi, who migrated from

during the late 5th century BCE, to areas north and west 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, ...

, and;Richard Brzezinski & M. Mielczarek, 2002, ''The Sarmatians, 600 BC - AD 450'', Oxford, Osprey Military, pp. 7–8, 92. * a state known to 2nd and 1st century BCE Chinese scholars as ''Yancai'' and ''Alanliao'',Y. A. Zadneprovskiy, 1994, "The Nomads of Northern Central Asia After The Invasion of Alexander", in János Harmatta, ''History of Civilizations of Central Asia: the Development of Sedentary and Nomadic Civilizations, 700 B. C. to A. D. 250'', Paris, UNESCO, pp. 457–472. which was located north of the Aral Sea. The Alans were first documented by European scholars during the 1st century CE, on the Pontic-Caspian Steppe. Onomastic evidence for the identification of the Asii and Alans is provided by later medieval European scholars and travellers. In the 13th century, Giovanni da Pian del Carpine (''Johannes de Plano Carpini'') referred to ''Alani sive Assi'' ("Alans or Assi") and William of Rubrouck used the name ''Alani sive Aas'' ("Alans or Aas"). In the 15th century, Josephus Barbarus reported that the Alans referred to themselves by the name ''As''. The name of the

Ossetians The Ossetians ( or ; ),Merriam-Webster (2021), s.v"Ossete" also known as Ossetes ( ), Ossets ( ), and Alans ( ), are an Iranian peoples, Iranian ethnic group who are indigenous to Ossetia, a region situated across the northern and southern side ...

, who are descended from the Alans, also has its root in the alternate ethnonym '' Osi''. However, names similar to Alan (e.g. '' Aryan'' and ''

Iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

'') were clearly used by distantly-related Iranian tribes in very different historical contexts and the identification of the Alans with the Asii requires them to have migrated more than 2,800 kilometres (1,750 miles) in the space of several decades. According to archaeologist Claude Rapin, it is unlikely that the Asii of Bactria migrated further west than Kangju/ Sogdia. Rapin, Claude (2007). "Nomads and the Shaping of Central Asia." In: ''After Alexander: Central Asia before Islam. Proceedings of the British Academy – 133'', Eds. Joe Cribb & Georgina Herrmann, pp. 59–60. .

References