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, ...

. Their country was called ''Mariandynia'' (Μαριανδυνία, Stephanus of Byzantium 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 ...

as their presumed eponymous 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 o ...

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. Just north of Devrek, it is joined by major branches flo ...

, 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 Bithyn ...

Bithyni The Bithyni (; el, Βιθυνοί) were a Thracian tribe who, along with the Thyni, migrated to Anatolia. Herodotus, Xenophon and Strabo all assert that the Bithyni and Thyni settled together in what would be known as Bithynia and Thynia In the ...

. According to Scylax of Caryanda,Scylax, p. 34 they did not extend as far west as the Sangarius, for according to him the river

Hypius Hypius or Hypios ( grc, Ὕπιος), also Hyppius or Hyppios (Ὕππιος), was a river of ancient Bithynia, not far westward from the Sangarius River. The river itself is very small; but at its mouth it is so broad that the greater part of the ...

formed the boundary between the Bithyni and Mariandyni. Ancient sources are vague as to the ethnic affiliation of the Mariandyni. Strabo expresses a belief that the Mariandyni were a branch of the Bithynians, a belief which cannot be well reconciled with the statement of Herodotus, who clearly distinguishes the Mariandyni from the

Thracia Thracia or Thrace ( ''Thrakē'') is the ancient name given to the southeastern Balkan region, the land inhabited by the Thracians. Thrace was ruled by the Odrysian kingdom during the Classical and Hellenistic eras, and briefly by the Greek ...

ns 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, ...

Mnoae, or the

Thessalian Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thess ...

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 Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to: * Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium'' *Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC * Pausanias of Sicily, physician of ...

, ''Description of Greece'', 5. 26. 7; Justinus, 163. 8 In the division of the Persian empire they formed part of the third Persian satrapy.

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