--- tolgs001 <
george_st@...> wrote:
>
> Some people assume that As (and Ossetic + Jassic) is
> a short form of
> Aorsi.
****GK: I'm still working out the intricacies of what
follows, so just take it as an eminently modifiable
working hypothesis. "Aorsi" supposedly meant "of the
west", so these would also have been Alans ("of the
west", and the As/Os "of the east" (Alans)... When
Strabo was writing, his "upper Aorsi" were located in
the area between Caspian and Aral. That is where
Chinese Chronicles (the SHIJI particularly, relying on
the material of Zhang Qian's embassy to the Central
Asian "Tocharians" (Yuezhi) in 129-128 BCE) place "the
kingdom of Yantsai", independent at the time. The same
source identifies "Kangju", an associate power of the
Yuezhi, somewhere near today's Tashkent. Now neither
Yantsai nor Kangju are given ethnic labels, but we
know from Justin (Prol. to ch. 41) that the ruling
class of the latter was composed of "Saraucae"
[=Sakarauka, usually translated "royal Scythians"] and
"Asiani" [and these Strabo simply calls
"Asii"/XI.8.2/. ] BTW the same two groups (Sakarauka
and Asii/Asiani) were the ruling class of the
Tocharians settled south of "Kangju" in Sogdiana and
Bactria.== At some point after 128 BCE, possibly but
not certainly before 50 BCE, "Kangju" imposed its
dominance on "Yantsai". We know this from the Han
Chronicle HOU HANSHU (drawn up in the 3rd c. CE, but
incorporating material going back to the great general
Pan or Ban Chao (1rst c. CE). The HOU HANSHU states
that the conquered Yantsai "has changed its name to
the kingdom of Alan-liao". We know from Justin that in
both kingdoms of Kangju and Yuezhi (the latter became
the Kushans) there was a bloody elimination of the
Sakarauka by the Asiani.== Right now, I am leaning
towards the theory that the Alans imposed their
domination on a pretty wide area in the 1rst c. BCE.
They ruled over Kangju (Tashkent)+ Yantsai
(Caspia/Aral) + Yan (a territory north of Yantsai),
and were also the "reges Tocharorum Asiani" as Justin
refers to them in the Prol. to his ch. 42). For the
time being, the Aorsi remained independent (Pliny
distinguishes them from the Alans).I'm wondering if
the Siraces mentioned by Strabo were
Sa(ka)rauka...****
An Alanic people mentioned by Strabo in
> Geografia, 23, XI, v. 8:
>
> "The next peoples to which one comes between Lake
> Maeotis and the
> Caspian Sea are nomads, the Nabianai and the
> Panxini, and then next
> the tribes of the Siraces and the Aorsi. The Aorsi
> and the Siraces are
> thought to be fugitives from the upper tribes of
> those names and the
> Aorsi are more to the north than the Siraces.
>
> Now Abeacus, king of the Siraces, sent forth twenty
> thousand horsemen
> at the time when Phrarnaces [_II Anatolian king of
> Pontus and son of
> Mithradates VI Eupator_] held the Bosporus [_63-47
> BCE_]; and
> Spadines, king of the Aorsi, two hundred thousand;
> but the upper Aorsi
> sent a still larger number, for they held dominion
> over more land,
> and, one may almost say, ruled over most of the
> Caspian coast; and
> consequently they could import on camels the Indian
> and Babylonian
> merchandise, receiving it in their turn from the
> Armenians and the
> Medes, and also, owing to their wealth, could wear
> golden ornaments.
>
> Now the Aorsi live along the Tanaïs, but the Siraces
> live along the
> chardeüs [the Kuban] which flows from the Caucasus
> and empties into
> Lake Maeotis."
>
> How about Æsir and Asgard? :-)
****GK:I suggest we leave this alone (:=)))*****
>
> George
>
>
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