--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
> To sum up, names with (Greek) <-a-tai> and <-e-tai> can be treated
as extensions of originally shorter ethnonyms. Their characteristic
feature is the presence of *-ta:, Hellenised like the plural of Greek
stems in -te: < *-ta: (i.e. with <-tai>), and always with a voiceless
stop (rather than anything rendered <-toi> or <-doi>). Attempts to
etymologise such names in Iranian terms should begin by stripping off
the pluralising suffix. So much for starters; I'll try to deal with
individual items later on.
>
> Piotr
That being so I shall not tarry in mentioning some possible As-
references from
Strabo, Geography:
7.6.1
(... Apolonnia .. a territory belonging to the Apolloniatae...)
... and all who are cast ashore on this beach are plundered by the
Astae, a Thracian tribe, who are situated above it...
7.6.2
... And above Byzanthium is situated the tribe of the Astae, in whose
territory is a city Calybe [called Pliny and others Cabyle] where
Philip the son of Amynthas settled the most villanous people of his
kingdom...
7.47 (fragment)
...Bizye [(now Visa) was the home of King Tereus (in the story of
Philomela and Procne) and was the residence of the last Thracian
dynasty, which was the stock of the Odrysae.] was the royal residence
of the Astae. The term "Odrysae" is applied by some to all the
peoples living above the seaboard from the Hebrus and Cypsela [now
Ipsala] as far as Odessus [now Varna]...
Torsten