- Sanigians
Sanigians — a tribe of the Heniochi on the Caucasian coast of the Pontus Euxinus (modern Black Sea). Some researchers identify these tribes with the Sanici, Saginae, and Sanni and place them in the region of Dioscurias. A Black Sea tribe on whose lands the Roman fortifications of Pitiunt (modern Pitsunda) and Sebastopolis (modern Sukhumi) were founded.
The first to mention the Sanigi in history was Memnon of Heraclea (1st century BC) — he wrote that Cleochares, a protege of Mithridates VI Eupator, fled from Sinope in the 70s BC (calling the Sanigi "Sanegae"). Then Strabo wrote about them, indicating their habitation near Sebastopolis and calling them "Soani" (the ancient Greek name for the Svans). Then Pliny the Elder places them between the Apsilae and the Heniochi, calling them "Sanici." In 137 AD, Flavius Arrian wrote that "next to the Abasgians are the Sanigi, in whose land Sebastopolis lies." At that time, the Sanigi were ruled by "King" Spadag, confirmed by Emperor Hadrian. Since there is no reason to suppose a change of population around Dioscurias (during the 1st-3rd centuries AD), the Sanegae-Sanici-Soani-Sanigi are one and the same ancient pre-Abkhazian tribes (Heniochi). In Georgian sources, the Sanigi later came to be called "Sanigeti." According to most sources, the Sanigi were a tribe living in the neighborhood of the Abasgians, with the eastern border between them being the Abascus River (most likely the Khashipse, or possibly the Bzyb).
Archaeological artifacts indicate that the Sanigi had maritime trade with Rome and the Bosporus. Supplies of imports went to Sanigia through a transshipment route that ran from the coast through Vorontsovka, bypassing the peak of Akhuts on Krasnaya Polyana and further to the North Caucasus. A clay jug found on Krasnaya Polyana, made in an Apsilian workshop of the 4th-5th centuries, confirms the Sanigi's connections with their neighbors, the Apsilae. The territory of the Sanigi extended northwest to the Akheunt River (modern Ashe), beyond which lived the Zikhs (Djiks). It is known that in the 4th century, the Byzantines built a number of fortifications on the territory of Sanigia. In the early medieval era, the Sanigi (Sadzy), although they used their own dialect in everyday life, as a whole already constituted an ethnic branch of the Abkhazian feudal nationality.
VARIANT NAMES: Latin. Saginae, Sanices, Saniches, Sanniggii, Sannigae, Sanni, Greek. Σαγηναι, Σαγιδαι, Σαγγιναι, Σαγιναι, Σανηγαι, Σανικαι, Σανιχα, Σαννιγαι, Σαννοι, Russian. Sanigi, Sanegi, Saginy, Saniki, Sany, Sanikhi, Sanniggii, Sannigi, Sanniki, Sanny.
Sources:
Ethnogenesis of the Abkhazians. D.A. Arshba, 2015