Heniochi

The Heniochi (Georgian: ჰენიოხები, Greek: Ἡνίοχοι, Heníochoi "charioteers") were an ancient tribe inhabiting northwest shores of Colchis (present-day Abkhazia,[note 1] northwestern Georgia) and some say Phasis area. Their country was called Heniocheia (Ancient Greek: Ἡνιοχεία).[1]

Heniochi in a map of the voyage of the Argonauts by Abraham Ortelius, 1624

They are attested by a number of ancient historians and others alike, namely: Aristotle, Artemidorus Ephesius, Ovid, Pliny the Elder, Arrian, Strabo and others. It is pointed out that they lived in a quite wide area from Dioscurias (Διοσκουριάς), to Trabzon.

Sources from the 5th to 4th century BC till the 1st century AD note the Heniokhs lived from modern Sochi till Pitiunt - Dioskourias. It is difficult to identify with certainty the relationship between the tribes mentioned by classical authors and the contemporary ethnic groups.[2] Various scholars relate the tribe to modern day Georgians (specifically Zans and Svans) and Abkhaz.[3]

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).[4] Aristotle describes the Heniochi (along with the Acaei) as a group of people "ready enough to kill and eat men."[5]

Notes
  1. The political status of Abkhazia is disputed. Having unilaterally declared independence from Georgia in 1992, Abkhazia is formally recognised as an independent state by 5 UN member states (two other states previously recognised it but then withdrew their recognition), while the remainder of the international community recognizes it as as de jure Georgian territory. Georgia continues to claim the area as its own territory, designating it as Russian-occupied territory.

References
  1. Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, § H302.11
  2. Hewitt, George. The Abkhazians. A handbook. 1998: St Martin Press. pp. 13–14. ISBN 9780312219758.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  3. /0001/001021/Abxazia.pdf Essays from the History of Georgia – Abkhazia from ancient times till the present days Archived 2013-11-12 at the Wayback Machine, p. 57-61
  4. M. Inadze, Institute of History, Georgian Academy of Sciences, PROBLEMS OF ETHNOPOLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT ABKHAZIA
  5. Aristotle (1885). Benjamin Jowett (ed.). The Politics of Aristotle. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 248. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  • 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 Tsetskhladze, Gocha R. (1998). The Greek colonisation of the Black Sea area: historical interpretation of archaeology. Franz Steiner Verlag. p. 271. ISBN 978-3-515-07302-8.
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