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 The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom () was a Ancient Greece, Greek state of the Hellenistic period located in Central Asia, Central-South Asia. The kingdom was founded by the Seleucid Empire, Seleucid satrap Diodotus I, Diodotus I Soter in about 256 BC, ...

. In Greek Mythology they were the children of

Iapetus In Greek mythology, Iapetus (; ; ), also Japetus, is a Titan, the son of Uranus and Gaia and father of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius. He was also called the father of Buphagus and Anchiale in other sources. Iapetus was linked ...

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 The Tocharians or Tokharians ( ; ) were speakers of the Tocharian languages, a group of Indo-European languages known from around 7,600 documents from the 6th and 7th centuries, found on the northern edge of the Tarim Basin (modern-day Xinj ...

Issedones The Issedones () were an ancient people of Central Asia at the end of the trade route leading north-east from Scythia, described in the lost ''Arimaspeia'' of Aristeas, by Herodotus in his ''History'' (IV.16-25) and by Ptolemy in his ''Geography''. ...

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 Megasthenes ( ; , died 290 BCE) was an ancient Greek historian, indologist, diplomat, ethnographer and explorer in the Hellenistic period. He described India in his book '' Indica'', which is now lost, but has been partially reconstructe ...

, who lived in Arachosia and was an ambassador to the

Mauryan The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in South Asia with its power base in Magadha. Founded by Chandragupta Maurya around c. 320 BCE, it existed in loose-knit fashion until 185 BCE. The primary sourc ...

court in

Pataliputra Pataliputra (IAST: ), adjacent to modern-day Patna, Bihar, was a city in ancient India, originally built by Magadha ruler Ajatashatru in 490 BCE, as a small fort () near the Ganges river.. Udayin laid the foundation of the city of Pataliput ...

, 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 Gandhara () was an ancient Indo-Aryan people, Indo-Aryan civilization in present-day northwest Pakistan and northeast Afghanistan. The core of the region of Gandhara was the Peshawar valley, Peshawar (Pushkalawati) and Swat valleys extending ...

), 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 The kingdom of Tushara, according to ancient Indian literature, such as the epic '' Mahabharata'', was a land located beyond north-west India. In the ''Mahabharata'', its inhabitants, known as the Tusharas, are depicted as '' mlechchas'' ("bar ...

of Bactria rather than the so-called

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 Justin may refer to: People and fictional characters * Justin (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Justin (historian), Latin historian who lived under the Roman Empire * Justin I (c. 450–527) ...

(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 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 ...

completed his ''Geography'' in 23 CE. He mentions four tribes: the Asioi, Pasianoi, Sakaraulai, and Tokharoi.

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 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 Persians ( ), or the Persian people (), are an Iranian ethnic group from West Asia that came from an earlier group called the Proto-Iranians, which likely split from the Indo-Iranians in 1800 BCE from either Afghanistan or Central Asia. They ...

(

Old Persian Old Persian is one of two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of the Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native speakers as (I ...

''Pārsa'') or

Parsi The Parsis or Parsees () are a Zoroastrian ethnic group in the Indian subcontinent. They are descended from Persian refugees who migrated to the Indian subcontinent during and after the Arab-Islamic conquest of Iran in the 7th century, w ...

s 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

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 Tocharian A, also known as Tokharian A, Eastern Tocharian, Agnean (), Karashahrian or Turfanian is a dead language that was in use in the 1st millennium AD in the Karashahr and Turpan, Turfan region of the Tarim Basin, present-day Xinjiang, West ...

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

– 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 Chu or CHU may refer to: Chinese history * Chu (state) (c. 1030 BC–223 BC), a state during the Zhou dynasty * Western Chu (206 BC–202 BC), a state founded and ruled by Xiang Yu * Chu Kingdom (Han dynasty) (201 BC–70 AD), a kingdom of the H ...

" 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 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 ...

into Europe during the early Middle Ages. There is circumstantial evidence for such a link in: * the name of the

Aorsi The Aorsi, known in Greek sources as the Aorsoi (Ἄορσοι), were an ancient Iranian people of the Sarmatian group, who played a major role in the events of the Pontic Steppe from the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD. They are often rega ...

, 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 Aral Sea () was an endorheic lake lying between Kazakhstan to its north and Uzbekistan to its south, which began shrinking in the 1960s and had largely dried up into desert by the 2010s. It was in the Aktobe and Kyzylorda regions of Kazakhst ...

. The Alans were first documented by European scholars during the 1st century CE, on the Pontic-Caspian Steppe.

Onomastic Onomastics (or onomatology in older texts) is the study of proper names, including their etymology, history, and use. An ''alethonym'' ('true name') or an ''orthonym'' ('real name') is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onom ...

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 Giovanni da Pian del Carpine (or Carpini; anglicised as ''John of Plano Carpini''; – 1 August 1252) was a medieval Italian diplomat, Catholic archbishop, explorer and one of the first Europeans to enter the court of the Great Khan of t ...

(''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 ''Aryan'' (), or ''Arya'' (borrowed from Sanskrit ''ārya''), Oxford English Dictionary Online 2024, s.v. ''Aryan'' (adj. & n.); ''Arya'' (n.)''.'' is a term originating from the ethno-cultural self-designation of the Indo-Iranians. It stood ...

'' 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 Kangju (; Eastern Han Chinese: ''kʰɑŋ-kɨɑ'' standard Chinese ''Kāngjū''), proposes that it was an Iranian word meaning "stone", and compares it to Pashto ''kā́ṇay'' "stone". Joseph Marquart, Omeljan Pritsak and Peter B. Golde ...

Sogdia Sogdia () or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian peoples, Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also a province of the Achaemen ...

. 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