The Machelones ( ka, მახელონები) (Machelônes, Machelonoi; ) were a
Colchian
In Greco-Roman geography, Colchis (; ) was an exonym for the Georgian polity of Egrisi ( ka, ეგრისი) located on the coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia.
Its population, the Colchians are generally thoug ...
tribe located to the far south of the Phasis (modern-day
Rioni River, western
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
). There are several references to them in
Classical sources. This group may be the Machorones of
Pliny (NH 6.4.11) who placed them between the
Ophis (modern Of,
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...
) and Prytanis rivers.
[Edwards, Robert W. (1988), The Vale of Kola: A Final Preliminary Report on the Marchlands of Northeast Turkey, pp. 129-131. ''Dumbarton Oaks Papers'', Vol. 42.]
The 1st century AD writer
Lucian
Lucian of Samosata, '; la, Lucianus Samosatensis ( 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridiculed supersti ...
also comments about the Machlyai and their ruler, but the account seems to be entirely fictional.
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...
, in the early 2nd century AD, mentions the town of Mechlessos on the border of Colchis, but adds nothing substantive. His contemporary author,
Arrian
Arrian of Nicomedia (; Greek: ''Arrianos''; la, Lucius Flavius Arrianus; )
was a Greek historian, public servant, military commander and philosopher of the Roman period.
''The Anabasis of Alexander'' by Arrian is considered the best ...
, lists on a west to east orientation the
Sannoi,
Drilae
Drilae ( ka, დრილები, ''Drilebi'') were an ancient western Georgian tribe, inhabiting mountainous coasts of the southern shores of the Black Sea. In the hinterland of Trapezus dwelt the Drilae (Dri/lai, Dri/llai), a Kartvelian tribe ...
, Machelonoi,
Heniochoi
The Heniochi ( ka, ჰენიოხები, gr, Ἡνίοχοι, ''Heníochoi'' "charioteers") were an ancient tribe inhabiting northwest shores of Colchis (present-day Abkhazia, northwestern Georgia) and some say Phasis area. Their country ...
,
Zudreitai, and
Lazoi (''Perip''. 1 1.1-2). Writing in the early 3rd century about an event a hundred years earlier (AD 117),
Dio Cassius
Lucius Cassius Dio (), also known as Dio Cassius ( ), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history on ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...
(68.19) relates that the Machelonoi and the neighboring Heniochoi were ruled by a single "king", Anchialos, who submitted to the Roman emperor
Trajan
Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presi ...
. There is a special mention in the anonymous (probably post-4th century) ''Periplus Ponti Evcines'' that both the Machelones and Heniochoi were once called Ekcheireis. The country called Machelonia, a
client state
A client state, in international relations, is a state that is economically, politically, and/or militarily subordinate to another more powerful state (called the "controlling state"). A client state may variously be described as satellite sta ...
of the
Sassanid
The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...
Persian Empire
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest emp ...
, figures in the so-called ''
Res Gestae Divi Saporis'' (
Ka'ba-i Zartosht), the mid-3rd-century AD trilingual inscription concerning the political, military, and religious activities of
Shapur I
Shapur I (also spelled Shabuhr I; pal, 𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩, Šābuhr ) was the second Sasanian King of Kings of Iran. The dating of his reign is disputed, but it is generally agreed that he ruled from 240 to 270, with his father Ardas ...
, and appears, in this case, to be synonymous to Colchis.
The Machelones were closely related ethnically to the neighboring
Macrones (a tribe believed to be the ancestors of present-day
Mingrelians
The Mingrelians ( xmf, მარგალეფი, margalefi; ka, მეგრელები, tr) are an indigenous Kartvelian languages, Kartvelian-speaking Ethnic subgroups, ethnic subgroup of Georgians that mostly live in the Mingrelia ( x ...
, a subethnic group of the Georgian people), known since at least the 5th century BC.
[Rayfield, D. (2020, February 07). Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia. Chapitre 1 : The Emergence of the Kartvelians p.20]
References
Ancient peoples of Georgia (country)
Tribes in Greco-Roman historiography
Anatolia
Provinces of the Sasanian Empire
{{Georgia-hist-stub