The Apsilae or Apsili were an ancient tribe inhabiting the territory of Apsilia, in modern Abkhazia.[1][2]
Location
The tribal territory was located on the Black Sea coast of the northwest Caucasus near the estuary of Kodori.[3] The settlements of Sebastopolis and Tibeleos (associated with Tsebelda by George Hewitt[4]) were located in their territory.[5]
Identity
The Apsilae may have been the ancestors of the Abkhaz people (in Abkhaz Аҧсуаа Apswa).[6]
Their culture is known as the Tsebelda culture, marked by well-developed local manufacturing of metal products and tools.
History
The first known record of the Apsilae occurs in the writings of Pliny of the 1st century AD,[1] as well as of Flavius Arrianus in the 2nd century (Greek: Αψιλαι).[7] The territory became an official division of the Roman Empire under Trajan (98-117).[8] It was absorbed by the surrounding, more powerful principality of the Abasgoi, in approximately 730 AD, and the Apsilae are no longer recorded after the second half of the 8th century.[2] Later, and after the inclusion of other territories and people including Misiminia, it became the Kingdom of Abkhazia.
References
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