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The Sarmatians (Latin: ''Sarmatæ'' or ''Sauromatæ'', Greek: ) were a large confederation of Iranian people during classical antiquity, flourishing from about the 5th century BC to the 4th century AD.〔J.Harmatta: "Scythians" in UNESCO Collection of History of Humanity – Volume III: From the Seventh Century BC to the Seventh Century AD. Routledge/UNESCO. 1996. pg. 182〕 They spoke Scythian, an Indo-European language from the Eastern Iranian family. Originating in Central Asia, the Sarmatians started their westward migration around the 6th century BC, coming to dominate the closely related Scythians by the 2nd century BC.〔 The Sarmatians differed from the Scythians in their veneration of the god of fire rather than god of nature, and women's prominent role in warfare, which possibly served as the inspiration for the Amazons.〔 At their greatest reported extent, around 1st century AD, these tribes ranged from the Vistula River to the mouth of the Danube and eastward to the Volga, bordering the shores of the Black and Caspian seas as well as the Caucasus to the south.〔Apollonius (''Argonautica'', iii) envisaged the ''Sauromatai'' as the bitter foe of King Aietes of Colchis (modern Georgia).〕 Their territory, which was known as Sarmatia to Greco-Roman ethnographers, corresponded to the western part of greater Scythia (mostly modern Ukraine and Southern Russia, also to a smaller extent north eastern Balkans around Moldova). According to authors Arrowsmith, Fellowes and Graves Hansard in their book ''A Grammar of Ancient Geography'' published in 1832, Sarmatia had two parts, Sarmatia Europea and Sarmatia Asiatica covering a combined area of 503,000 sq mi or 1,302,764 km2. In the 1st century AD the Sarmatians began encroaching upon the Roman Empire in alliance with Germanic tribes.〔 In the 3rd century AD their dominance of the Pontic Steppe was broken by the Germanic Goths.〔 With the Hunnic invasions of the 4th century, many Sarmatians joined the Goths and other Germanic tribes (Vandals) in the settlement of the Western Roman Empire.〔 A related people to the Sarmatians known as the Alans survived in the North Caucasus into the Early Middle Ages, ultimately giving rise to the modern Ossetic ethnic group.〔James Minahan, "One Europe, Many Nations", Published by Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000. pg 518: "The Ossetians, calling themselves Iristi and their homeland Iryston are the most northerly Iranian people. ... They are descended from a division of Sarmatians, the Alans who were pushed out of the Terek River lowlands and in the Caucasus foothills by invading Huns in the fourth century A.D.〕 The Sarmatians were eventually decisively assimilated (e.g. Slavicisation) and absorbed by the Proto-Slavic population of Eastern Europe. ==Etymology== ''Sarmatae'' probably originated as just one of several tribal names of the Sarmatians, but one that Greco-Roman ethnography came to apply as an exonym to the entire group. Strabo in the 1st century names as the main tribes of the Sarmatians the Iazyges, the Roxolani, the Aorsi and the Siraces. The Greek name ''Sarmatai'' sometimes appears as "Sauromatai", which is almost certainly no more than a variant of the same name. Nevertheless, historians often regarded these as two separate peoples, while archaeologists habitually use the term 'Sauromatian' to identify the earliest phase of Sarmatian culture. Any idea that the name derives from the word lizard (''sauros''), linking to the Sarmatians' use of reptile-like scale armour and dragon standards, is almost certainly unfounded. Both Pliny the Elder ((''Natural History'' book iv )) and Jordanes recognised the ''Sar-'' and ''Sauro-'' elements as interchangeable variants, referring to the same people. Greek authors of the 4th century (Pseudo-Scylax, Eudoxus of Cnidus) mention ''Syrmatae'' as the name of a people living at the Don, perhaps reflecting the ethnonym as it was pronounced in the final phase of Sarmatian culture. Oleg Trubachyov derived the name from the Indo-Aryan '' *sar-ma(n)t'' (feminine – rich in women, ruled by women), the Indo-Aryan and Indo-Iranian word '' *sar-'' (woman) and the Indo-Iranian adjective suffix ''-ma(n)t/wa(n)t''. By this derivation was noted the unusual high status of women (Matriarchy) from the Greeks point of view and went to the invention of Amazons (thus the Greek name for Sarmatians as ''Sarmatai Gynaikokratoumenoi'', ruled by women).〔 Other scholars, like Harold Walter Bailey, derived the base word from Avestan ''sar-'' (to move suddenly) from ''tsar-'' in Old Iranian (''tsarati, tsaru-'', hunter). It was also derived from the name of Avestan region in the west ''Sairima'' ('' *salm'', ''< *Sairmi''), and connected with the 10–11th century AD Persian epic ''Shahnamehs character "Salm".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sarmatians」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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