Origin ,
Kazakhstan, III-II c. BC. Excavation of Z. Samashev. The ethnogenesis of the Sarmatians occurred during the 6th to 4th centuries BC, when nomads from
Central Asia migrated into the territory of the
Sauromatians in the southern
Ural Mountains. These nomads conquered the Sauromatians, resulting in an increased incidence of eastern Asiatic features in the Early Sarmatians, similar to those of the
Sakas. The name "Sarmatians" eventually came to be applied to the whole of the new people formed out of these migrations, whose constituent tribes were the
Aorsi,
Roxolani,
Alans, and the
Iazyges. Despite the similarity between the names Sarmatian and Sauromatian, modern authors distinguish between the two, since Sarmatian culture did not directly develop from the Sauromatian culture and the core of the Sarmatian culture was composed of these newly arrived migrants. A typical transitional site between these two periods is found in the
Filippovka kurgans, which are Late
Sauromatian-Early Sarmatian, and dated to the 5th-4th century BC.
In the Pontic Steppe and Europe ,
Volgograd region), 2nd-1st centuries BC. During the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, the centre of Sarmatian power remained north of the Caucasus and in the 3rd century BC the most important centres were around the lower Don,
Kalmykia, the
Kuban area, and the Central Caucasus. During the end of the 4th century BC, the
Scythians, the then dominant power in the Black Sea Steppe, were militarily defeated by the
Macedonian kings
Philip II of Macedon and
Lysimachus in 339 and 313 BC respectively. They experienced another military setback after participating in the
Bosporan Civil War in 309 BC and came under pressure from the
Thracian Getae and the
Celtic Bastarnae. At the same time, in Central Asia, following the Macedonian
conquest of the
Achaemenid Empire, the new
Seleucid Empire started attacking the
Sakā and
Dahā nomads who lived to the north of its borders, who in turn put westward pressure on the Sarmatians. Pressured by the Sakā and Dahā in the east and taking advantage of the decline of Scythian power, the Sarmatians began crossing the Don river and invaded
Scythia and also migrated south into the
North Caucasus. The first wave of westward Sarmatian migration happened during the 2nd century BC, and involved the Royal Sarmatians, or Saioi (from Scytho-Sarmatian , meaning "kings"), who moved into the Pontic Steppe, and the
Iazyges, also called the Iaxamatai or Iazamatai, who initially settled between the Don and Dnieper rivers. The
Roxolani, who might have been a mixed Scytho-Sarmatian tribe, followed the Iazyges and occupied the Black Sea steppes up to the
Dnipro and raided the
Crimean region during that century, at the end of which they were involved in a conflict with the generals of the
Pontic king
Mithridates VI Eupator in the
Bosporan Chersonesus, while the Iazyges became his allies. That the tribes formerly referred to by
Herodotus as Scythians were now called Sarmatians by Hellenistic and Roman authors implies that the Sarmatian conquest did not involve a displacement of the Scythians from the Pontic Steppe, but rather that the Scythian tribes were absorbed by the Sarmatians. After their conquest of Scythia, the Sarmatians became the dominant political power in the northern Pontic Steppe, where Sarmatian graves first started appearing in the 2nd century BC. Meanwhile, the populations which still identified as Scythians proper became reduced to Crimea and the
Dobruja region, and at one point the
Crimean Scythians were the vassals of the Sarmatian queen
Amage. Sarmatian power in the Pontic Steppes was also directed against the
Greek cities on its shores, with the city of
Pontic Olbia being forced to pay repeated tribute to the Royal Sarmatians and their king
Saitapharnes, who is mentioned in the
Protogenes inscription along with the tribes of the
Thisamatae, Scythians, and
Saudaratae. Another Sarmatian king, Gatalos, was named in a peace treaty concluded by the king
Pharnaces I of Pontus with his enemies. Two other Sarmatian tribes, the
Siraces, who had previously originated in the Transcaspian Plains immediately to the northeast of
Hyrcania before migrating to the west, and the
Aorsi, moved to the west across the Volga and into the Caucasus mountains' foothills between the 2nd to 1st centuries BC. From there, the pressure from their growing power forcing the more western Sarmatian tribes to migrate further west, and the Aorsi and Siraces destroyed the power of the Royal Sarmatians and the Iazyges, with the Aorsi being able to extend their rule over a large region stretching from the Caucasus across the
Terek–Kuma Lowland and
Kalmykia in the west up to the Aral Sea region in the east. Yet another new Sarmatian group, the
Alans, originated in Central Asia out of the merger of some old tribal groups with the
Massagetae. Related to the
Asii who invaded
Bactria in the 2nd century BC, the Alans were pushed west by the
Kangju people (known to Graeco-Roman authors as the in Greek, and the in Latin) who were living in the
Syr Darya basin, from where they expanded their rule from Fergana to the Aral Sea region. The hegemony of the Sarmatians in the Pontic Steppe continued during the 1st century BC, when they were allied with the Scythians against
Diophantus, a general of Mithradates VI Eupator, before allying with Mithradates against the
Romans and fighting for him in both Europe and Asia, demonstrating the Sarmatians' complete involvement in the affairs of the Pontic and Danubian regions. During the early part of the century, the Alans had migrated to the area to the northeast of the
Lake Maeotis. Meanwhile, the Iazyges moved westwards until they reached the
Danube, and the Roxolani moved into the area between the Dnipro and the Danube and from there further west. These two peoples attacked the regions around
Tomis and
Moesia, respectively. During this period, the
Iazyges and
Roxolani also attacked the Roman province of
Thracia, whose governor
Tiberius Plautius Silvanus Aelianus had to defend the Roman border of the Danube. During the 1st century BC, various Sarmatians reached the
Pannonian Basin, with the Iazyges passing through the territories corresponding to modern-day
Moldavia and
Wallachia before settling in the
Tisza valley, by the middle of the century. Although the Sarmatian were defeated and their movements stopped temporarily during the 1st century BC due to the rise of the
Dacian kingdom of
Burebista, they resumed after the collapse of his kingdom following his assassination and in 16 BC.
Lucius Tarius Rufus had to repel a Sarmatian attack on Thracia and
Macedonia, while further attacks around 10 BC and 2 BC were defeated by
Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus. Meanwhile, other Sarmatian tribes, possibly the Aorsi, sent ambassadors to the Roman emperor
Augustus, who tried to establish a diplomatic accommodation with them. During the 1st century AD, the Siraces and Aorsi, who were mutually hostile, participated in the
Roman–Bosporan War on opposite sides: the Siraces and their king
Zorsines allied with
Mithridates III against his half-brother
Cotys I, who was allied with Rome and the Aorsi. With the defeat of Mithridates, the Siraces were also routed and lost rulership over most of their lands. Between 50 and 60 AD, the Alans had appeared in the foothills of the Caucasus, from where they attacked the Caucasus and Transcaucasus areas and the
Parthian Empire. During the 1st century AD, the Alans expanded across the Volga to the west, absorbing part of the Aorsi and displacing the rest, and pressure from the Alans forced the Iazyges and Roxolani to continue attacking the Roman Empire from across the Danube. During the 1st century AD, two Sarmatian rulers from the steppe named Pharzoios and Inismeōs were minting coins in Pontic Olbia. The Roxolani continued their westward migration following the conflict on the Bosporan Chersonesus, and by 69 AD they were close enough to the lower Danube that they were able to attack across the river when it was frozen in winter, and soon later they and the Alans were living on the coast of the Black Sea, and they later moved further west and were living in the areas corresponding to modern-day
Moldavia and western
Ukraine. The Sarmatian tribe of the Arraei, who had had close contacts with the Romans, eventually settled to the south of the Danube river, in Thrace, and another Sarmatian tribe, the Koralloi, were also living in the same area alongside a section of the Scythian
Sindi. During the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, the Iazyges often bothered the Roman authorities in
Pannonia; they participated in the destruction of the
Quadian kingdom of
Vannius, and often migrated to the east across the
Transylvanian Plateau and the
Carpathian Mountains during seasonal movements or for trade. By the 2nd century AD, the Alans had conquered the steppes of the north Caucasus and of the north Black Sea area and created a powerful confederation of tribes under their rule. Under the hegemony of the Alans a trade route connected the Pontic Steppe, the southern Urals, and the region presently known as
Western Turkestan. One group of the Alans, the
Antae, migrated north into the territory of what is presently
Poland. s during
Dacian Wars as depicted on
Trajan's Column.
Decline The hegemony of the Sarmatians in the steppes began to decline over the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, when the
Huns conquered Sarmatian territory in the Caspian Steppe and the Ural region. The supremacy of the Sarmatians was finally destroyed when the
Germanic Goths migrating from the
Baltic Sea region conquered the Pontic Steppe around 200. In 375, the Huns conquered most of the Alans living to the east of the Don river, massacred a significant number of them, and absorbed them into their tribal polity, while the Alans to the west of the Don remained free from Hunnish domination. As part of the Hunnic state, the Alans participated in the Huns' defeat and conquest of the kingdom of the Ostrogoths on the Pontic Steppe. Some free Alans fled into the mountains of the Caucasus, where they participated in the ethnogenesis of populations including the
Ossetians and the
Kabardians, and other Alan groupings survived in Crimea. Others migrated into Central and then Western Europe, from where some of them went to
Britannia and
Hispania, and some joined the Germanic
Vandals into crossing the
Strait of Gibraltar and creating the
Vandal Kingdom in North Africa. The Sarmatians in the
Bosporan Kingdom assimilated into the Greek civilization. Others assimilated with the proto-
Circassian Meot people, and may have influenced the
Circassian language. Some Sarmatians were absorbed by the
Alans and
Goths. During the Early Middle Ages, the
Proto-Slavic population of
Eastern Europe assimilated and absorbed Sarmatians during the political upheavals of that era. However, a people related to the Sarmatians, known as the
Alans, survived in the
North Caucasus into the Early
Middle Ages, ultimately giving rise to the modern
Ossetic ethnic group. ==Archaeology==