Maeotian marshes

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In the geography of Antiquity the Maeotian marshes (Palus Maeotis) lay where the Don River emptied into the "Maeotian Lake" (the Sea of Azov), in Lesser Scythia. The marshes served as a check to westward migrations of peoples from Scythia, the steppe of central Asia.

The Hervarar saga mentions it as Myrkviðr, the forest that separated the Goths from the Huns before the great Hunnish westward movement of the 4th century.

The Iazyges, an apparently Iranian people were a tribe of Sarmatians that were first heard of on the Maeotis, where they were among the allies of Mithridates II of Parthia.

The Roman emperor Marcus Claudius Tacitus, during a brief reign (September 25, 275, to April 276) secured a victory over the Alans near the Palus Maeotis.

The Magyars tell the tale of the White Stag of the Maeotian marshes.

 



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