Achaei

Author: Laxman Burdak, IFS (R).

---

Scythian Peoples and Places

Achaei were an ancient people of Scythia, mentioned by Strabo (11.2, together with the Zygoi, Heniochi, and Cercetae and Macropogones) and by Pliny (4.26.2).

Variants

• Achæi (Pliny, vi.5); (Pliny, vi.12)

Jat Gotras Namesake

• Achra = Achæi (Pliny.vi.5)
• Achra - H. W. Bellew writes that Achra may stand for the Achi.
• Achi

History

Pliny mentions a Portus Achaeorum at the mouths of the Danube. The name has been interpreted to mean "river dwellers", from an Indo-European word for "water" (Latin aqua, Old High German aha; Wissowa, Pauly's Real-Encyclopadie s. v. Achaei)

Mention by Strabo

Strabo wrote:

And on the sea lies the Asiatic side of the Bosporus, or the Syndic territory. After this latter, one comes to the Achaei and the Zygii and the Heniochi, and also the Cercetae and the Macropogones. And above these are situated the narrow passes of the Phtheirophagi (Phthirophagi); and after the Heniochi the Colchian country, which lies at the foot of the Caucasian, or Moschian, Mountains. (Strabo, Geographica 11.2)

Mention by Pliny

Pliny mentions...After passing Dioscurias we come to the town of Heracleium⁶, seventy miles distant from Sebastopolis, and then the Achæi⁷, the Mardi⁸, and the Cercetæ⁹, and, behind them, the Cerri and the Cephalotomi.¹⁰

---

6 There were two places called Heracleium on this coast, one north and the other south of the river Achæus: probably the latter is here meant.

7 Probably meaning the "martial people," or the "people of Mars."

8 Said to have been descended from the Achæns or Greeks who accompanied Jason in the Argonautic Expedition, or, according to Ammianus, who resorted thither after the conclusion of the Trojan war.

9 This was the title, not of a single nation, but of a number of peoples distinguished for their predatory habits.

10 This people occupied the N.E. shore of the Euxine, between the Cimmerian Bosporus and the frontier of Colchis. Their name is still in existence, and is applied to the whole western district of the Caucasus, in the forms of Tcherkas, as applied to the people, and Tcherkeskaia or Circassia, to the country.

Mention by Pliny

Pliny mentions...Beyond the Gates of Caucasus, in the Gordyæan Mountains, the Valli and the Suani, uncivilized tribes, are found; still, however, they work the mines of gold there. Beyond these nations, and extending as far away as Pontus, are numerous nations of the Heniochi, and, after them, of the Achæi. Such is the present state of one of the most famous tracts upon the face of the earth.

---