The Mariandyni (Μαριανδυνοί or Μαρυανδυνοί) were an ancient tribe in the north-east of

Bithynia Bithynia (; Koine Greek: , ''Bithynía'') was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey), adjoining the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, and the Black Sea. It bordered Mysia to the southwest, Pa ...

. Their country was called ''Mariandynia'' (Μαριανδυνία,

Stephanus of Byzantium Stephanus or Stephan of Byzantium ( la, Stephanus Byzantinus; grc-gre, Στέφανος Βυζάντιος, ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD), was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethni ...

s. v.) and Pliny speaks of a ''Sinus Mariandynus'' ("Mariandynian Gulf") on their coast. Greek myths have

Mariandynus In Greek mythology, Mariandynus (Ancient Greek: Μαριανδυνός) was the eponymous hero of the Mariandyni tribe in Northern Anatolia. He was an Aeolian, a son of either Cimmerius, or Phrixus, or Phineus (and in the latter case, brother of T ...

as their presumed

eponym An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

ous hero. The Mariandyni inhabited the region between the rivers

Sangarius The Sakarya (Sakara River, tr, Sakarya Irmağı; gr, Σαγγάριος, translit=Sangarios; Latin: ''Sangarius'') is the third longest river in Turkey. It runs through the region known in ancient times as Phrygia. It was considered one of t ...

and

Billaeus The Filyos River is a river in northern Turkey. The longest branch of the Filyos is formed near Karabük by several tributaries. It flows to the west through a deep canyon past Yenice, Karabük, Yenice. Just north of Devrek, it is joined by m ...

, on the east of the territory occupied by another tribe called

Thyni The Thyni ( el, Θυνοί) were a Thracian tribe that lived in south-eastern Thrace. The Thyni were closely related to the Bithynians, with whom they often exchanged troops and royal marriages, later a section of the Thyni, along with the Bithyni ...

or Bithyni. According to

Scylax of Caryanda Scylax of Caryanda ( el, Σκύλαξ ὁ Καρυανδεύς) was a Greek explorer and writer of the late 6th and early 5th centuries BCE. His own writings are lost, though occasionally cited or quoted by later Greek and Roman authors. The peri ...

,Scylax, p. 34 they did not extend as far west as the Sangarius, for according to him the river Hypius formed the boundary between the Bithyni and Mariandyni. Ancient sources are vague as to the ethnic affiliation of the Mariandyni.

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 "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...

expresses a belief that the Mariandyni were a branch of the Bithynians, a belief which cannot be well reconciled with the statement of

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...

, who clearly distinguishes the Mariandyni from the Thracians or Thyni in

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

. Elsewhere, Strabo states that Mariandyni are Paphlagonians. The descriptions provided by Herodotus suggest that in the

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

army they appeared quite distinct from the Bithyni, and their armor resembled that of the Paphlagonians, which was quite different from that of the Bithyni. The chief city in their territory was Heraclea Pontica, the inhabitants of which reduced the Mariandyni, for a time, to a state of servitude resembling that of the

Cretan Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

Mnoae, or the Thessalian Penestae. According to modern researcher John Hind,

"...the Mariandyni may have initially ceded some coastal territory o the Heracleot colonistsfairly peacefully, being in need of protection from... the Bebrykes and the Paphlagones. In time the Herakleots acquired the Lycus Valley as the basis of their prosperity, and the Mariandyni entered a form of collective serfdom in which the saving grace was that they could not be dispersed or sold abroad. How this state of affairs was arrived at is not clear, bur the people may have been sold into it at a time of weakness by their chieftains, or may have slowly descended into it as a result of "being protected out of all they owned" by the Herakleots... The vigorous expansion of the Herakleot territory resulted in the locking of the Mariandyni into their agricultural villages as a dependent people, subject also to impressment as rowers in the fleet."

In the early 5th century they seem to still have been an independent people, paying tribute directly to Lydian king Croesus, and to have been at war with Heraclea. Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'', 5. 26. 7; Justinus, 163. 8 In the division of the Persian empire they formed part of the third Persian

satrapy A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires. The satrap served as viceroy to the king, though with consid ...

Notes

Sources

*Hind, John. Megarian Colonization in the Western Half of the Black Sea (Sister- and Daughter Cities of Herakleia). In: Tsetskhladze, Gocha R. (ed.) The Greek Colonization of The Black Sea Area. Historical Interpretation of Archaeology. Stuttgart : Franz Steiner Verlag, 1998, pp. 131 – 152 {{SmithDGRG, title=Mariandyni Bithynia Ancient peoples of Anatolia Heraclea Pontica