AMARDI
Eth.
AMARDI or
MARDI (Eth.
Ἀμαρδός, Eth.
Ἄμαρδος, Eth.
Μαρδοί), a warlike Asiatic tribe. Stephanus (s. v.
Ἄμαρδοί), following Strabo, places the Amardi near the Hyrcani; and adds “there are also Persian Mardi without the
α.” Strabo (p. 514) says, “in a circle round the Caspian sea after the Hyrcani are the Amardi, &c.” Under Mardi, Stephanus (quoting Apollodorus) speaks of them as an Hyrcanian tribe, who were robbers and archers. Curtius (
6.5) describes them as bordering on Hyrcania, and inhabiting mountains which were covered with forests. They occupied therefore part of the mountain tract which forms the southern boundary of the basin of the Caspian.
The name Mardi or Amardi, which we may assume to be the same, was widely spread, for we find Mardi mentioned as being in Hyrcania, and Margiana, also as a nomadic Persian tribe (
Hdt. 1.125; Strab. p. 524), and as being in Armenia (
Tac. Ann. 14.23), and in other places.
This wide distribution of the name may be partly attributed to the ignorance of the Greek and Roman writers of the geography of Asia, but not entirely.
[
G.L]
