Heniochi
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The Heniochi (, ''Heníochoi'' "charioteers") were an ancient tribe inhabiting northwest shores of
Colchis In classical antiquity and Greco-Roman geography, Colchis (; ) was an exonym for the Georgian polity of Egrisi ( ka, ეგრისი) located on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia. Its population, the ...
(present-day
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, northwestern
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) and some say Phasis area. Their country was called Heniocheia (). They are attested by a number of ancient historians and others alike, namely:
Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
, Artemidorus Ephesius,
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,
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,
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,
Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...
and others. It is pointed out that they lived in a quite wide area from Dioscurias (), to
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. Sources from the 5th to 4th century BC till the 1st century AD note the Heniokhs lived from modern
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till Pitiunt - Dioskourias. It is difficult to identify with certainty the relationship between the tribes mentioned by classical authors and the contemporary ethnic groups. Various scholars relate the tribe to modern day
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(specifically
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and Svans) and/or Abkhaz. The tribe of Heniochs according to Artemidorus of Ephesus, occupied in the 5th - 1st cc. B.C, the Black Sea littoral that is part of present-day Abkhazia: - from the environs of Pitiunt or Pityus to the river Achaeuntus (the Shakhe river near present-day Tuapse). Aristotle describes the Heniochi (along with the Acaei) as a group of people "ready enough to kill and eat men."


Notes


References

* Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia, vol. 11, pg.624, Tb. 1987. * D. Asheri, "The Achaeans and the Heniochi. Reflections on the Origins and History of a Greek Rhetorical Topos", quoted from {{Authority control Ancient peoples of Georgia (country) Tribes in classical historiography Ancient peoples of Anatolia