The Macrones ( ka, მაკრონები, ; , ''Makrōnes'') were an ancient Colchian tribe in the east of Pontus, about the Moschici Mountains (modern Yalnizçam Dağlari,

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

). The name is allegedly derived from the name of Kromni valley ( Κορούμ, located 13 km north-east of Gümüşhane) by adding Kartvelian ma- prefix which denotes regional descendance.

History

The Macrones are first mentioned by

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

(c. 450 BC), who relates that they, along with Moschi,

Tibareni The Tibareni (Greek: Τιβαρηνοί, Τιβαρανοί) were a people residing on the coast of ancient Pontus referred to in Herodotus, Xenophon, Strabo and other classical authors. The Tibareni were believed to be of Scythian origin,Schol. a ...

, Mossynoeci, and Marres, formed the nineteenth

satrap A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median kingdom, Median and Achaemenid Empire, Persian (Achaemenid) Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic period, Hellenistic empi ...

y within the

Achaemenid The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the large ...

Persian Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the larg ...

and fought under

Xerxes I Xerxes I ( – August 465 BC), commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was a List of monarchs of Persia, Persian ruler who served as the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 486 BC until his assassination in 465 BC. He was ...

. There are many other subsequent references to them in the Classical accounts.

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; ; 355/354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian. At the age of 30, he was elected as one of the leaders of the retreating Ancient Greek mercenaries, Greek mercenaries, the Ten Thousand, who had been ...

(430–355 BC) places them east of Trapezus (modern

Trabzon Trabzon, historically known as Trebizond, is a city on the Black Sea coast of northeastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. The city was founded in 756 BC as "Trapezous" by colonists from Miletus. It was added into the Achaemenid E ...

, Turkey). They are described as a powerful and wild people wearing garments made of hair, and as using in war wooden helmets, small shields of wicker-work, and short lances with long points.

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 "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

(xii.3.18) remarks, in passing, that the people formerly called Macrones bore in his day the name of

Sanni The Sanni ( ka, სანები) are mentioned by Strabo (1st century BC/1st century AD), Pliny the Elder (1st century AD) and Arrian (2nd century AD) as a people settling near Trebizond (in today's Turkish Black Sea Region). In the 1st a ...

, a claim supported also by

Stephanus of Byzantium Stephanus or Stephen of Byzantium (; , ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD) was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethnica'' (). Only meagre fragments of the dictionary survive, but the epit ...

, though Pliny speaks of the Sanni and Macrones as two distinct peoples. By the 6th century they were known as the Tzanni (). According to

Procopius Procopius of Caesarea (; ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; ; – 565) was a prominent Late antiquity, late antique Byzantine Greeks, Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in Justinian I, Empe ...

, the

Byzantine emperor The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...

Justinian I Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

subdued them in the 520s and converted them to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

. They participated in the

Lazic War The Lazic War, also known as the Colchidian War or in Georgian historiography as the Great War of Egrisi, was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire for control of the ancient Georgia (country), Georgian region of Lazica. The ...

fighting under the Byzantine command. The Macrones are identified by modern scholars as one of the proto-Georgian tribes Suny, Ronald Grigor (1994), ''The Making of the Georgian Nation'' (2nd ed.), p. 8.

Indiana University Press Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes ...

, whose presence in Northeastern

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

might have preceded the Hittite period, and who survived the demise of

Urartu Urartu was an Iron Age kingdom centered around the Armenian highlands between Lake Van, Lake Urmia, and Lake Sevan. The territory of the ancient kingdom of Urartu extended over the modern frontiers of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Armenia.Kleiss, Wo ...

. They are frequently regarded as the possible ancestors of the

Mingrelians The Mingrelians (; ka, მეგრელები, tr) are an indigenous Kartvelian-speaking ethnic subgroup of Georgians that mostly live in the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti (; ka, სამეგრელო, tr) region of Georgia. They also l ...

and

Laz people The Laz people, or Lazi ( ''Lazi''; ka, ლაზი, ''lazi''; or ჭანი, ''ch'ani''; ), are a Kartvelian languages, Kartvelian ethnic group native to the South Caucasus, who mainly live in Black Sea coastal regions of Black Sea Region, ...

(cf. , a Mingrelian self-designation). The Macrones lived along the border with the Machelonoi, another "Sannic" tribe evidently closely related to the Macrones.Edwards, Robert W. (1988), "The Vale of Kola: A Final Preliminary Report on the Marchlands of Northeast Turkey", p. 130. ''Dumbarton Oaks Papers'', Vol. 42.

References

Ancient peoples of Anatolia Ancient peoples of Georgia (country) Laz people Tribes described primarily by Herodotus Anabasis (Xenophon) {{Georgia-hist-stub