Heniochi

The Heniochi (Georgian: ჰენიოხები, Greek: Ἡνίοχοι, Heníochoi "charioteers") were an ancient tribe inhabiting northwest shores of Colchis (present-day Abkhazia,[note 1] northwestern Georgia) and some say Phasis area. Their country was called Heniocheia (Ancient Greek: Ἡνιοχεία).[1]

Heniochi in a map of the voyage of the Argonauts by Abraham Ortelius, 1624

They are attested by a number of ancient historians and others alike, namely: Aristotle, Artemidorus Ephesius, Ovid, Pliny the Elder, Arrian, Strabo and others. It is pointed out that they lived in a quite wide area from Dioscurias (Διοσκουριάς), to Trabzon.

Sources from the 5th to 4th century BC till the 1st century AD note the Heniokhs lived from modern Sochi till Pitiunt - Dioskourias. It is difficult to identify with certainty the relationship between the tribes mentioned by classical authors and the contemporary ethnic groups.[2] Various scholars relate the tribe to modern day Georgians (specifically Zans and Svans) and Abkhaz.[3]

The tribe of Heniochs according to Artemidorus of Ephesus, occupied in the 5th - 1st cc. B.C, the Black Sea littoral that is part of present-day Abkhazia: - from the environs of Pitiunt or Pityus to the river Achaeuntus (the Shakhe river near present-day Tuapse).[4] Aristotle describes the Heniochi (along with the Acaei) as a group of people "ready enough to kill and eat men."[5]

Notes
  1. The political status of Abkhazia is disputed. Having unilaterally declared independence from Georgia in 1992, Abkhazia is formally recognised as an independent state by 5 UN member states (two other states recognised it but then withdrew their recognition), while Georgia continues to claim it as part of its own territory, designating it as Russian-occupied territory.

References
  1. Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, § H302.11
  2. Hewitt, George. The Abkhazians. A handbook. 1998: St Martin Press. pp. 13–14. ISBN 9780312219758.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  3. /0001/001021/Abxazia.pdf Essays from the History of Georgia – Abkhazia from ancient times till the present days Archived 2013-11-12 at the Wayback Machine, p. 57-61
  4. M. Inadze, Institute of History, Georgian Academy of Sciences, PROBLEMS OF ETHNOPOLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT ABKHAZIA
  5. Aristotle (1885). Benjamin Jowett (ed.). The Politics of Aristotle. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 248. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  • Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia, vol. 11, pg.624, Tb. 1987.
  • D. Asheri, "The Achaeans and the Heniochi. Reflections on the Origins and History of a Greek Rhetorical Topos", quoted from Tsetskhladze, Gocha R. (1998). The Greek colonisation of the Black Sea area: historical interpretation of archaeology. Franz Steiner Verlag. p. 271. ISBN 978-3-515-07302-8.
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