IAZYGES

iazyges, a tribe of sarmatians first heard of on the maeotis, where they were among the allies of mithradates the great. moving westward across scythia, and hence called metanastae, they were on the lower danube by the time of ovid, and about a.d. 50 occupied the plains east of the theiss. here, under the general name of sarmatae, they were a perpetual trouble to the roman province of dacia. they were divided into freemen and serfs (_sarmatae limigantes_), the latter of whom had a different manner of life and were probably an older settled population enslaved by nomad masters. they rose against them in a.d. 334, but were repressed by foreign aid. nothing is heard of iazyges or sarmatae after the hunnish invasions. graves at keszthely and elsewhere in the theiss valley, shown by their contents to belong to nomads of the first centuries a.d., are referred to the iazyges. (e. h. m.)