Sarmatians

Sarmatians (anc. Sarmatæ, Sauromatæ), a race who spoke the same language as the Scythians (q.v.), and who are believed to have been of Median descent and so Iranian in stock, though some authorities think they belonged to the Ural-Altaic family. They were nomads, wild and savage in appearance, excellent horsemen and archers, and dressed in leather armour. Their young women went into battle on horseback; hence probably the Greek legends about the Amazons. Several tribes were embraced under the name; they roamed over the wide plains of eastern Europe, from the Vistula and the Danube to the Volga and the Caucasus. Their country was arbitrarily divided by the ancient writers into European and Asiatic Sarmatia, the river Don being made the dividing-line. In the second half of the 4th century B.C. they subjected the Scythians to their yoke. Their empire lasted until the 4th century A.D., when it was overthrown by the Goths. Shortly after that their name disappears from history. The Jazyges (q.v.) were a Sarmatian tribe who also disappeared amongst Goths and Huns. But the name of Sarmatia is sometimes applied to the vast region in which the Sarmatians roamed, and is sometimes rhetorically used for Poland.