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No longer a residential diocese, Chersonesus in Zechia is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular archbishopric, since the early 20th century, originally called Cherson(a) or Chersonesus, since 1933 specifically Chersonesus in Zechia, avoiding confusion with other sees called Chersonesus (notably in Crete) by specifying it is Crimean.
It is vacant for decades, having had the following incumbents, all of the intermediary (archiepiscopal) rank:
Chersonesus's ancient ruins are presently located in one of Sevastopol's suburbs. They were excavated by the Russian government, starting from 1827. They are today a popular tourist attraction, protected as an archaeological park.
The buildings mix influences of Greek, Roman and Byzantine culture. The defensive wall was approximately long, 3.5 to 4 metres wide and 8 to 10 metres high with towers at a height of 10 to 12 metres. The walls enclosed an area of about . Buildings include a Roman amphitheatre and a Greek temple.
The surrounding land under the control of the city, the chora, consists of several square kilometres of ancient but now barren farmland, with remains of wine presses and defensive towers. According to archaeologists, the evidence suggests that the locals were paid to do the farm work instead of being enslaved.
The excavated tombstones hint at burial practices that were different from the Greek ones. Each stone marks the tomb of an individual, instead of the whole family and the decorations include only objects like sashes and weapons, instead of burial statues. Over half of the tombs archaeologists have found have bones of children. Burned remnants suggest that the city was plundered and destroyed.
In 2007, Chersonesus tied for fifth in the Seven Wonders of Ukraine poll.
On February 13, 2009, Ukrainian Defence Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov called on Russia's Black Sea naval fleet to move its automobile depot from the site to another place. The location of the Russian Black Sea naval fleet's automobile depot was one of the obstacles to the inclusion of the reserve on UNESCO's list of world heritage sites.
In 2017, archaeologists discovered on the outskirts of Sevastopol, fragments of an ancient Greek altar with figures of gods.
The 1935 basilica is the most famous basilica excavated in Chersonesus. The original name is unknown so "1935" refers to the year it was opened. The basilica was probably built in the 6th century on the site of an earlier temple, assumed by historians to be a synagogue, itself replacing a small temple dating from the early days of Christianity. The 1935 basilica is often used as an image representing Chersonesos. Its picture appears on one Ukrainian banknote.
As well as the archaeological sites, the museum has around 200,000 smaller items from 5 AD to the 15th century, over 5,000 of which are currently exhibited. These include:
The Institute of Classical Archaeology of the University of Texas at Austin and the local Archaeological Park has investigated the site since 1992. The Ukrainian government has included the site on its tentative World Heritage List. The site, however, is in danger of further urban encroachment and coastal erosion.
In 2013, "The Ancient City of Tauric Chersonese and its Chora" was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This World Heritage Site consists of seven locations that encompass the city of Chersonesus and six plots of agricultural land. The site was designated as a World Heritage site under the UNESCO criterion (ii) and (v). UNESCO considers these areas to show cultural lifestyles and land use of ancient populations that inhabited these areas.
During the 2014 Crimean crisis, the Crimean peninsula was annexed by Russia, but UNESCO has maintained that it will continue to recognize Crimea and its heritage sites as belonging to Ukraine.
The encroachment of modern building in and around the ancient archaeological site, coupled with a lack of funding to prevent such development pressures, has left the site of Chersonesus firmly at risk.
In an October 2010 report titled "Saving Our Vanishing Heritage", Global Heritage Fund identified Chersonesus as one of 12 worldwide sites most "On the Verge" of irreparable loss and destruction, citing insufficient management and development pressures as primary causes.
On July 29, 2015 governor of Sevastopol Sergei Menyailo (Сергей Меняйло), after firing the director of Chersonesus Preserve Andrey Kulagin (Андрей Кулагин), appointed a priest, Sergiy Khalyuta (Сергий Халюта) to the position. This move caused heated protests of the staff, and the 109 members unanimously refused to work under the new director. The conflict attracted a significant attention of the media. The workers claim that the conflict of the governor and the director of the Preserve started on July 11, when director complained about road construction works within the territory of the Preserve, approved by Governor without the permits necessary for works in protected areas. Eventually, under the pressure, Father Sergiy stepped down.
Sevastopol City Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine
The Sevastopol City Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, commonly referred to as the Sevastopol CPU gorkom, was the position of highest authority in the city of Kiev.
The position was created in 1954, and abolished in August 1991.
The First Secretary was a de facto appointed position usually by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine or the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine. The First Secretary exercised a large influence throughout the Soviet Union.
Maciej (Suleyman bey) Sulkiewicz (, , , Matvei (Magomet) Sulkevich; 20 June 1865, Kiemiejšy, now Voranava District, Grodno Region, Belarus – 15 July 1920, Baku) was a Imperial Russian lieutenant general, Prime Minister of Crimean Regional Government (1918), and Chief of General Staff of Azerbaijani Armed Forces in 1918–20.
Born to parents of Lipka Tatar origin, he changed his name to Mohammad after settling in Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, but in Azerbaijan he is still known as Suleyman bey Sulkiewicz and Mammad bey Sulkiewicz.
He was executed by the Bolsheviks, after the Bolshevik invasion of Azerbaijan in 1920.
The intermittent Germanisation of Prussia was a historical process that resulted in the region’s inclusion in various German states. Originating with the arrival of ethnically German groups in the Baltic region, it progressed sporadically with the development of the Teutonic Order and then much later under the Kingdom of Prussia, which continued to impact the region with germanising policies generally aimed at enhancing state control. Ultimately, attempts at Germanisation peaked as the Prussian state transitioned into the German Empire, by which point the main target of reforms were Germany's Polish subjects, only to be halted by the outbreak of the First World War.
From the early 13th century the establishment of trade settlements in the Baltic began, advancing the economic interests of a powerful German, mercantile, ruling-class. Consequently, this settlement coincided with growth of the Hanseatic League, particularly north of Prussia with the growth of the Brothers of the Sword Order. This established a definitively German presence in the region, allowing for future expansion, contemporarily promoted as crusading. This was especially the case for Prussia, which scholars have contrasted to other incursions such as those into Livonia and Lithuania as the best example of conventional crusading, with religious justifications remaining central rather than political or economic motivations taking precedence.
Having formally crowned himself King "in" Prussia, Frederick III (then Frederick I of Prussia) cemented the unification of the remaining secularised possessions of the Teutonic Order with the Duchy of Brandenburg in 1701, ending Brandenburg-Prussia. Frederick I's father, Frederick William the Great Elector, had been previously granted full sovereignty over Ducal Prussia, the eastern portion of Prussia, for his eventual support of Poland in the Second Northern War. The 'in' rather than 'of' in 'King in Prussia' was stipulated so as to reconcile a desire for greater political clout with the appeasement of the Polish crown by not directly threatening its titles.
This re-iterated geographical concerns associated with the separation of Prussian possessions, which Frederick the Great, the grandson of Frederick I, sought to remedy. By 1772, Frederick the Great had acquired the vast majority of West Prussia from Poland through a diplomatic "fait accompli", backed by Russia and Austria in what was the First Partition of Poland. Thus, Frederick restored much of the Teutonic Order's former territory to Germanic ownership, bar the cities of Danzig and Thorn which remained for a short while longer in Poland's possession. Moreover, this united the region of Prussia with the remainder of the Kingdom as predominately a singular landmass.
Under Frederick the Great's father, Frederick William I of Prussia, any historical records linking Prussia to the Polish crown were erased, so as to assert the region's independence and justify the continuance of The Prussian Kingdom.
Importantly, Frederick the Great considered the Polish to be an inferior people, underscoring the resumption of Germanisation policies, albeit with greater vigour than previous historical occurrences. Altogether, his reforms were numerous and formative in encouraging efficient integration, with every fifth Prussian being involved in the mass resettlement across Prussia at the time of his death.
While policy norms established by Frederick the Great focused upon tolerance, regarding Poles as inferior but still respecting their cultural differences, the policy shift under Otto von Bismarck following the unification of Germany was significant. Correspondingly, a determination to eradicate non-German cultural aspects exhibited themselves again amongst the Prussian region, targeting particularly education and land ownership. Moreover, the targeting and disempowerment of the Polish and other minorities was also driven by martial interests, due to the strategic proximity of Polish populations to the capital in Berlin. Here, the security interests of the military additionally saw Polish soldiers diffused throughout the German army, so as to prevent a concentration of Polish soldiers at a regimental level.
Center for Urban History of East Central Europe
The Center for Urban History of East Central Europe (Ukrainian: Центр міської історії центрально-східної Європи) is an independent research center, that was founded by the Austrian historian Harald Binder in 2004 as a private non-profit organization. It is one of the principal academic establishments looking at the urban history of East Central Europe, the region between the German-speaking countries and Russia. The academic principal of the center is Sofia Dyak.
The Center for Urban History is located on Akademika Bohomoltsia Street off of Ivana Franka Street. The Center is not far from Soborna Square and the Danylo Halytsky Monument and about a ten-minute walk from Rynok Square. The building was developed by the renowned Ukrainian architect Ivan Levynskyi and is considered to be one of Lviv's best preserved clusters of Art Nouveau architecture. Secessionist latticework consisting of leaves and flowers dominates in its facade over its Neo-Renaissance layout which follows Classical order principles.
The database project «Урбаністичні образи» (“Urban Images”) aims at collecting and processing the urban image of East and Central Europe through engravings, photos and postcards and openly accessible.
The Center has hosted a number of conferences:
The Sarmatians (; Greek: ; , ) were a large Iranian confederation that existed in classical antiquity, flourishing from about the fifth century BC to the fourth century AD.
Originating in the central parts of the Eurasian Steppe, the Sarmatians were part of the wider Scythian cultures. They started migrating westward around the fourth and third centuries BC, coming to dominate the closely related Scythians by 200 BC. At their greatest reported extent, around first century AD, these tribes ranged from the Vistula River to the mouth of the Danube and eastward to the Volga, bordering the shores of the Black and Caspian seas as well as the Caucasus to the south.
The Sarmatians were eventually decisively assimilated (e.g. Slavicisation) and absorbed by the Proto-Slavic population of Eastern Europe.
"Sarmatae" probably originated as just one of several tribal names of the Sarmatians, but one that Greco-Roman ethnography came to apply as an exonym to the entire group. Strabo in the first century names as the main tribes of the Sarmatians the Iazyges, the Roxolani, the Aorsi, and the Siraces.
The Greek name "Sarmatai" (Σαυρομάται) sometimes appears as "Sauromatai", which is almost certainly no more than a variant of the same name. Nevertheless, historians often regarded these as two separate peoples, while archaeologists habitually use the term 'Sauromatian' to identify the earliest phase of Sarmatian culture. Any idea that the name derives from the word lizard ("sauros"), linking to the Sarmatians' use of reptile-like scale armour and dragon standards, is almost certainly unfounded. Whereas the word "ὀμμάτιον/ μάτι", meaning eye, would suggest the origin of the name could be due to having what appeared as lizard eyes to Greeks.
Both Pliny the Elder ("Natural History" book iv) and Jordanes recognised the "Sar-" and "Sauro-" elements as interchangeable variants, referring to the same people. Greek authors of the fourth century (Pseudo-Scylax, Eudoxus of Cnidus) mention "Syrmatae" as the name of a people living at the Don, perhaps reflecting the ethnonym as it was pronounced in the final phase of Sarmatian culture.
English scholar Harold Walter Bailey (1899–1996) derived the base word from Avestan "sar-" (to move suddenly) from "tsar-" in Old Iranian ("tsarati, tsaru-", hunter), which also gave its name to the western Avestan region of "Sairima" ("*salm", "– *Sairmi"), and also connected it to the tenth–eleventh century AD Persian epic "Shahnameh"s character "Salm".
Oleg Trubachyov derived the name from the Indo-Aryan "*sar-ma(n)t" (feminine – rich in women, ruled by women), the Indo-Aryan and Indo-Iranian word "*sar-" (woman) and the Indo-Iranian adjective suffix "-ma(n)t/wa(n)t". By this derivation was noted the high status of women (matriarchy) that was unusual from the Greek point of view and went to the invention of Amazons (thus the Greek name for Sarmatians as "Sarmatai Gynaikokratoumenoi", ruled by women).
The Sarmatians were part of the Iranian steppe peoples, among whom were also Scythians and Saka. These also are grouped together as "East Iranians". Archaeology has established the connection 'between the Iranian-speaking Scythians, Sarmatians, and Saka and the earlier Timber-grave and Andronovo cultures'. Based on building construction, these three peoples were the likely descendants of those earlier archaeological cultures. The Sarmatians and Saka used the same stone construction methods as the earlier Andronovo culture. The Timber grave (Srubnaya culture) and Andronovo house building traditions were further developed by these three peoples. Andronovo pottery was continued by the Saka and Sarmatians. Archaeologists describe the Andronovo culture people as exhibiting pronounced Caucasoid features.
The Sarmatians differed from the Scythians in their veneration of a fire deity rather than a nature deity, and the prominent role of women in warfare that may have served as inspiration for the Amazons.
There are two theories accounting for the origin of the Sarmatian culture.
In 1947, Soviet archaeologist Boris Grakov defined a culture flourishing from the sixth century BC to the fourth century AD, apparent in late kurgan graves (buried within earthwork mounds), sometimes reusing part of much older kurgans. It was a nomadic steppe culture ranging from the Black Sea eastward to beyond the Volga that is especially evident at two of the major sites at Kardaielova and Chernaya in the trans-Uralic steppe. The four phases – distinguished by grave construction, burial customs, grave goods, and geographical spread – are:
While "Sarmatian" and "Sauromatian" are synonymous as ethnonyms, purely by convention they are given different meanings as archaeological technical terms. The term "Prokhorovka culture" derives from a complex of mounds in the Prokhorovski District, Orenburg region, excavated by S. I. Rudenko in 1916.
Reportedly, during 2001 and 2006 a great Late Sarmatian pottery centre was unearthed near Budapest, Hungary in the Üllő5 archaeological site. Typical grey, granular Üllő5 ceramics form a distinct group of Sarmatian pottery is found ubiquitously in the north-central part of the Great Hungarian Plain region, indicating a lively trading activity.
A 1998 paper on the study of glass beads found in Sarmatian graves suggests wide cultural and trade links.
Archaeological evidence suggests that Scythian-Sarmatian cultures may have given rise to the Greek legends of Amazons. Graves of armed women have been found in southern Ukraine and Russia. David Anthony noted that approximately 20% of Scythian-Sarmatian "warrior graves" on the lower Don and lower Volga contained women dressed for battle as warriors and he asserts that encountering that cultural phenomenon "probably inspired the Greek tales about the Amazons".
The Sarmatians spoke an Iranian language that was derived from 'Old Iranian' and it was heterogenous. By the first century BC, the Iranian tribes in what is today South Russia spoke different languages or dialects, clearly distinguishable. According to a group of Iranologists writing in 1968, the numerous Iranian personal names in Greek inscriptions from the Black Sea coast indicate that the Sarmatians spoke a North-Eastern Iranian dialect ancestral to Alanian-Ossetian. However, Harmatta (1970) argued that "the language of the Sarmatians or that of the Alans as a whole cannot be simply regarded as being Old Ossetian".
A genetic study published in "Nature Communications" in March 2017 examined several Sarmatian individuals buried in Pokrovka, Russia (southwest of the Ural Mountains) between the fifth century BC and the second century BC. The sample of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1b1a2a2. This was the dominant lineage among males of the earlier Yamnaya culture. The eleven samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to the haplogroups U3, M, U1a'c, T, F1b, N1a1a1a1a, T2, U2e2, H2a1f, T1a, and U5a1d2b. The Sarmatians examined were found to be closely related to peoples of the earlier Yamnaya culture and to the Poltavka culture.
A genetic study published in "Nature" in May 2018 examined the remains of twelve Sarmatians buried between 400 BC and 400 AD. The five samples of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1a1, I2b, R (two samples), and R1. The eleven samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to C4a1a, U4a2 (two samples), C4b1, I1, A, U2e1h (two samples), U4b1a4, H28, and U5a1.
A genetic study published in "Science Advances" in October 2018 examined the remains of five Sarmatians buried between 55 AD and 320 AD. The three samples of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1a1a and R1b1a2a2 (two samples), while the five samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to haplogroup H2a1, T1a1, U5b2b (two samples), and D4q.
A genetic study published in "Current Biology" in July 2019 examined the remains of nine Sarmatians. The five samples of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup Q1c-L332, R1a1e-CTS1123, R1a-Z645 (two samples), and E2b1-PF6746, while the nine samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to haplogroup W, W3a, T1a1, U5a2, U5b2a1a2, T1a1d, C1e, U5b2a1a1, U5b2c, and U5b2c.
In a study conducted in 2014 by Gennady Afanasiev, Dmitry Korobov and Irina Reshetova from the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, DNA was extracted from bone fragments found in seven out of ten Alanic burials on the Don River. Four of them turned out to belong to yDNA Haplogroup G2 and six of them possessed mtDNA haplogroup I.
In 2015, the Institute of Archaeology in Moscow conducted research on various Sarmato-Alan and Saltovo-Mayaki culture Kurgan burials. In these analyses, the two Alan samples from the fourth to sixth century AD turned out to belong to yDNA haplogroups G2a-P15 and R1a-z94, while two of the three Sarmatian samples from the second to third century AD were found to belong to yDNA haplogroup J1-M267 while one belonged to R1a. Three Saltovo-Mayaki samples from the eighth to ninth century AD turned out to have yDNA corresponding to haplogroups G, J2a-M410 and R1a-z94.
In the late second or early third century AD, the Greek physician Galen declared that Sarmatians, Scythians, and other northern peoples had reddish hair. They are said to owe their name (Sarmatae) to that characteristic.
The Alans were a group of Sarmatian tribes, according to the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus. He wrote that nearly all the Alani were "of great stature and beauty, their hair is somewhat yellow, their eyes are frighteningly fierce".
Herodotus ("Histories" 4.21) in the fifth century BC placed the land of the Sarmatians east of the Tanais, beginning at the corner of the Maeotian Lake, stretching northward for a fifteen-day journey, and adjacent to the forested land of the Budinoi.
Herodotus (4.118–144) later relates how the Sauromatians under their king Scopasis, answered the Scythian call for help against the Persian King Darius I, to repel his campaign in Scythia, along with the Gelonians and the Boudinians. The Persians invaded much of the Sauromatian territory, but eventually were forced to withdraw due to the tactics used by the tribespeople, of delay and the use of a scorched earth policy.
Hippocrates explicitly classes them as Scythian and describes their warlike women and their customs:
Polybius (XXV, 1) mentions them for the first time as a force to be reckoned with in 179 B.C.
Strabo mentions the Sarmatians in a number of places, but never says much about them. He uses both the terms of Sarmatai and Sauromatai, but never together, and never suggesting that they are different peoples. He often pairs Sarmatians and Scythians in reference to a series of ethnic names, never stating which is which, as though Sarmatian or Scythian could apply equally to them all.
Strabo wrote that the Sarmatians extend from above the Danube eastward to the Volga, and from north of the Dnieper River into the Caucasus, where, he says, they are called Caucasii like everyone else there. This statement indicates that the Alans already had a home in the Caucasus, without waiting for the Huns to push them there.
Even more significantly, Strabo points to a Celtic admixture in the region of the Basternae and he notes that they were of Germanic origin. He places the Celtic Boii, Scordisci, and Taurisci there as well as a fourth ethnic element interacting and intermarrying, the Thracians (7.3.2), and moreover, that the peoples toward the north were Keltoskythai, "Celtic Scythians" (11.6.2).
Strabo portrays the peoples of the region as being nomadic, or Hamaksoikoi, "wagon-dwellers", and Galaktophagoi, "milk-eaters". This latter likely referred to the universal "kumis" eaten in historical times. The wagons were used for transporting tents made of felt, a type of the yurts used universally by Asian nomads.
According to Pliny, Scythian rule once extended as far as Germany. Jordanes supports this hypothesis by telling us on the one hand that he was familiar with the "Geography" of Ptolemy that includes the entire Balto-Slavic territory in Sarmatia, and on the other that this same region was Scythia. By "Sarmatia", Jordanes means only the Aryan territory. The Sarmatians were, therefore, a sub-group of the broader Scythian peoples.
In his "De Origine et situ Germanorum", Tacitus speaks of "mutual fear" between Germanic peoples and Sarmatians:
According to Tacitus, the Sarmatians wore long, flowing robes similar to the Persians (ch 17). He also noted that the Sarmatians exacted tribute from the Cotini and Osi, and that they exacted iron from the Cotini (ch. 43), "to their shame" (presumably because they could have used the iron to arm themselves and resist).
By the third century BC, the Sarmatian name appears to have supplanted the Scythian in the plains of what now is south Ukraine. The geographer, Ptolemy, reported them at what must be their maximum extent, divided into adjoining European and central Asian sections. Considering the overlap of tribal names between the Scythians and the Sarmatians, no new displacements probably took place. The people were the same Indo-Europeans, but were referred to under yet another name.
Later, Pausanias, viewing votive offerings near the Athenian Acropolis in the second century AD, found among them a Sauromic breastplate.
The description by Pausanias is well borne out in a relief from Tanais (see image). These facts are not necessarily incompatible with Tacitus, as the western Sarmatians might have kept their iron to themselves, it having been a scarce commodity on the plains.
In the late fourth century, Ammianus Marcellinus describes a severe defeat that Sarmatian raiders inflicted upon Roman forces in the province of Valeria in Pannonia in late 374 AD. The Sarmatians almost destroyed two legions: one recruited from Moesia and one from Pannonia. The latter had been sent to intercept a party of Sarmatians that had been in pursuit of a senior Roman officer named Aequitius. The two legions failed to coordinate, allowing the Sarmatians to catch them unprepared.
In the fourth and fifth centuries the Huns expanded and conquered both the Sarmatians and the Germanic tribes living between the Black Sea and the borders of the Roman Empire. From bases in modern-day Hungary, the Huns ruled the entire territory formerly ruled by the Sarmatians. Their various constituents flourished under Hunnish rule, fought for the Huns against a combination of Roman and Germanic troops, and departed after the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (451), the death of Attila (453), and the appearance of the Bulgar ruling elements west of the Volga.
During the Early Middle Ages, eventually the Proto-Slavic population of Eastern Europe decisively assimilated and absorbed the Sarmatians. However, a people related to the Sarmatians, known as the Alans, survived in the North Caucasus into the Early Middle Ages, ultimately giving rise to the modern Ossetic ethnic group.
Sarmatism (or Sarmatianism) is an ethno-cultural concept with a shade of politics designating the formation of an idea of the origin of Poland from Sarmatians within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The dominant Baroque culture and ideology of the nobility ("szlachta") that existed in times of the Renaissance to the eighteenth centuries. Together with another concept of "Golden Liberty", it formed a central aspect of the Commonwealth's culture and society. At its core was the unifying belief that the people of the Polish Commonwealth descended from the ancient Iranic Sarmatians, the legendary invaders of Slavic lands in antiquity.
The Alans () were an ancient and medieval Iranian nomadic pastoral people of the North Caucasus - generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have connected the Alans with the Central Asian Yancai of Chinese sources and with the Aorsi of Roman sources. Having migrated westwards and become dominant among the Sarmatians on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, the Alans are mentioned by Roman sources in the 1st century AD. At that time they had settled the region north of the Black Sea and frequently raided the Parthian Empire and the Caucasian provinces of the Roman Empire. From 215250 AD, their power on the Pontic Steppe was broken by the Goths.
Upon the Hunnic defeat of the Goths on the Pontic Steppe around 375AD, many of the Alans migrated westwards along with various Germanic tribes. They crossed the Rhine in 406AD along with the Vandals and Suebi, settling in Orléans and Valence. Around 409 AD, they joined the Vandals and Suebi in crossing the Pyrenees into the Iberian Peninsula, settling in Lusitania and Hispania Carthaginensis. The Iberian Alans were soundly defeated by the Visigoths in 418 AD and subsequently surrendered their authority to the Hasdingi Vandals. In 428AD, the Vandals and Alans crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into North Africa, where they founded a powerful kingdom which lasted until its conquest by forces of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in 534 AD.
The Alans who remained under Hunnic rule founded a powerful kingdom in the North Caucasus in the Middle Ages, which survived until the Mongol invasions in the 13th century AD. These Alans are said to be the ancestors of the modern Ossetians.
The Alans spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.
The name "Alan" is an Iranian dialectal form of "Aryan".
The Alans were documented by foreign observers from the 1st century CE onward under similar names: ; '; ' (Pinyin; "Alan" + "Liu") in the 2nd century, ' in the 3rd century, later "Alanguo" (); Parthian and Middle Persian "Alānān" (plural); Arabic "Alān" (singular); Syriac "Alānayē"; Classical Armenian "Alank; Georgian "Alaneti" ('country of the Alans'); Hebrew "Alan" (pl. "Alanim"). Rarer Latin spellings include "Alauni" or "Halani". The name was also preserved in the modern Ossetian language as "Allon".
The ethnonym "Alān" is a dialectal variant of the Old Iranian *"Aryāna", itself derived from the root "arya"-, meaning 'Aryan', the common self-designation of Indo-Iranian peoples. It probably came in use in the early history of the Alans for the purpose of uniting a heterogeneous group of tribes through the invocation of a common, ancestral 'Aryan' origin. Like the name of Iran (*"Aryānām"), the adjective *"aryāna" appears to be related to "Airyanəm Waēǰō" ('stretch of the Aryas'), the mythical homeland of the early Iranians mentioned in the "Avesta".
Some other ethnonyms also bear the name of the Alans: the "Rhoxolāni" ('Bright Alans'), an offshoot of the Alans whose name may be linked to religious practices, and the "Alanorsoi" ('White Alans'), perhaps a conglomerate of Alans and Aorsi. The personal names "Alan" and "Alain" (from Latin "Alanus") may have been introduced by Alan settlers to Western Europe during the first millennium CE.
The Alans were also known over the course of their history by another group of related names including the variations "Asi", "As", and "Os" (Romanian ', Bulgarian ', Hungarian ', Russian ', Georgian ""). It is this name at the root of the modern "Ossetian".
The first mentions of names that historians link with the "Alani" appear at almost the same time in texts from the Mediterranean, Middle East and China.
The fact that the Alans invaded Parthia through Hyrcania shows that at the time many Alans were still based north-east of the Caspian Sea. By the early 2nd century CE the Alans were in firm control of the Lower Volga and Kuban. These lands had earlier been occupied by the Aorsi and the Siraces, whom the Alans apparently absorbed, dispersed and/or destroyed, since they were no longer mentioned in contemporaneous accounts. It is likely that the Alans' influence stretched further westwards, encompassing most of the Sarmatian world, which by then possessed a relatively homogenous culture.
In 135 CE, the Alans made a huge raid into Asia Minor via the Caucasus, ravaging Media and Armenia. They were eventually driven back by Arrian, the governor of Cappadocia, who wrote a detailed report ("Ektaxis kata Alanoon" or 'War Against the Alans') that is a major source for studying Roman military tactics.
From 215 to 250 CE, the Germanic Goths expanded south-eastwards and broke the Alan dominance on the Pontic Steppe. The Alans however seem to have had a significant influence on Gothic culture, who became excellent horsemen and adopted the Alanic animal style art. (The Roman Empire, during the chaos of the 3rd century civil wars, suffered damaging raids by the Gothic armies with their heavy cavalry before the Illyrian Emperors adapted to the Gothic tactics, reorganized and expanded the Roman heavy cavalry, and defeated the Goths under Gallienus, Claudius II and Aurelian).
After the Gothic entry to the steppe, many of the Alans seem to have retreated eastwards towards the Don, where they seem to have established contacts with the Huns. Ammianus writes that the Alans were "somewhat like the Huns, but in their manner of life and their habits they are less savage." Jordanes contrasted them with the Huns, noting that the Alans "were their equals in battle, but unlike them in their civilisation, manners and appearance". In the late 4th century, Vegetius conflates Alans and Huns in his military treatise "Hunnorum Alannorumque natio", the "nation of Huns and Alans"and collocates Goths, Huns and Alans, "exemplo Gothorum et Alannorum Hunnorumque".
The 4th century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus noted that the Alans were "formerly called Massagetae," while Dio Cassius wrote that "they are Massagetae." It is likely that the Alans were an amalgamation of various Iranian peoples, including Sarmatians, Massagetae and Sakas. Scholars have connected the Alans to the nomadic state of Yancai mentioned in Chinese sources. The Yancai are first mentioned in connection with late 2nd century BCE diplomat Zhang Qian's travels in Chapter 123 of "Shiji" (whose author, Sima Qian, died c. 90 BCE). The Yancai of Chinese records has again been equated with the Aorsi, a powerful Sarmatian tribe living between the Don River and the Aral Sea, mentioned in Roman records, in particular Strabo.
Link to "Yancai" (奄蔡) /"Alanliao" (阿蘭聊) /"Hesu" (闔蘇).
The Later Han dynasty Chinese chronicle, the "Hou Hanshu", 88 (covering the period 25–220 and completed in the 5th century), mentioned a report that the "Yancai" nation (奄蔡 lit "Vast Steppes" or "Extensive Grasslands" < LHC *"ʔɨamB"-"sɑC", compare Latin "Abzoae", identified with the Aorsi (Ancient Greek "Αορσιοι")) had become a vassal state of the Kangju and was now known as "Alanliao" (阿蘭聊)
Y. A. Zadneprovskiy suggests that the Kangju subjugation of Yancai occurred in the 1st century BCE, and that this subjugation caused various Sarmatian tribes, including the Aorsi, to migrate westwards, which played a major role in starting the Migration Period. The 3rd century Weilüe also notes that Yancai was then known to be Alans, although they were no longer vassals of the Kangju.
Dutch Sinologist A. F. P. Hulsewé noted that:
Around 370, according to Ammianus, the peaceful relations between the Alans and Huns were broken, after the Huns attacked the Don Alans, killing many of them and establishing an alliance with the survivors. These Alans successfully invaded the Goths in 375 together with the Huns. They subsequently accompanied the Huns in their westward expansion.
Under Beorgor (), they moved throughout Gaul, till the reign of Petronius Maximus, when they crossed the Alps in the winter of 464, into Liguria, but were there defeated, and Beorgor slain, by Ricimer, commander of the Emperor's forces.