- Phthirophagi
Phthirophagi — Latyshev V.V.: "Strabo places the Phthirophagi north of Pitiunt, in the Nitica area (modern Sochi), and he is the first in Greek literature to interpret this tribal name as 'lice-eaters.' Since it can be considered proven on the basis of Stein's commentary on Herodotus (A. Stein, Herodotos erklärt, 1888, p. 11) that the Phthirophagi-Geloni were previously thought to eat not lice but pine cones, and also because Pseudo-Scylax (80) places the Geloni in the Caucasus, and Arrian locates them in the Pitiunt area (from πίτυς — pine, pinion) — Strabo's Phthirophagi should also be interpreted as 'pine-cone eaters' (cf. VDI, 1947, No. 4, p. 209, note 8). Pliny's Saltii, whom he locates north of Phasis, in places overgrown with pine forest (these forests stretch in the coastal strip from Sukhumi to Tuapse), where, as Kiessling showed (RE, VIII, I, 261 ff.), tribes related to the Heniochi and united by this name lived (cf. Plin., NH, VI, 14); the Saltii, called Phthirophagi by Pliny, should also be included among these tribes; this name, in relation to the Saltii, is translated as 'pine-cone eaters' also by H. Rackham in the edition of Pliny, Natural History (II, 1942, p. 347)." RGI: "Saltii-Phthirophagi (Greek 'pine-cone eaters') — a tribe living in northern Colchis. For more details on the Phthirophagi and their localization, see note 126 to Mela I, 110."
VARIANT NAMES: Latin. Phthirophagi, Greek. Φθειροφαγοι, Russian. Ftirofagi, Phteirophagi.
Sources:
Ethnogenesis of the Abkhazians. D.A. Arshba, 2015