The lazyges were an Iranian-speaking tribe, their nomadic ancestors originally from Asia; they are classified as Sarmatians. Their early history is not known, other than that they lived east of the Carpathian Mountains in eastern Europe, probably in western Russia.
In the first century b. c.e. lazyges joined King Mithridates VI Eupator (Mithridates the Great) of Pontus, a kingdom in Asia Minor, in his wars against Rome, attracting the attention of the Romans as enemies. Sometime after 20 C. E. lazyges settled on the Hungarian plain in present-day Hungary along the Tizsa River.
By the mid-second century C. E. Germanic pressures on the Roman frontiers intensified. In 167 C. E. the lazyges joined Germanic tribes, the Marcomanni and the Quadi, in a massive invasion southward, reaching the head of the Adriatic Sea. The Romans under Emperor Caracalla (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus) waged successful warfare against them, restoring the Danube frontier. Some 8,000 lazyge cavalry were forced to serve in the Roman army The arrival in their homeland of first the Vandals in the third century and then the Huns in the late fourth century led to the dispersion of the lazyges. Some of them were said to be among the Lombards in the sixth century.
Further Reading
Andras Paloczi Horvath. Pechenegs, Cumuns, lasians: Steppe Peoples in Medieval Hungary (Budapest: Corvina, 1989).
World History
