TheMariandyni (Ancient Greek:Μαριανδυνοί or Μαρυανδυνοί) were anThracian origin tribe in the north-east ofBithynia. Their country was calledMariandynia (Μαριανδυνία,Stephanus of Byzantium s. v.) and Pliny[1] speaks of aSinus Mariandynus ("Mariandynian Gulf") on their coast. Greek myths haveMariandynus as their presumedeponymous hero.
The Mariandyni lived in theKingdom of Bithynia, in the region between theSangarius andBillaeus Rivers, east of the lands inhabited byThracian tribes calledThyni andBithyni.[2] According toScylax of Caryanda,[2] they did not extend as far west as the Sangarius, for according to him the riverHypius formed the boundary between the Bithyni and Mariandyni.
Ancient sources are vague as to the ethnic affiliation of the Mariandyni.Strabo[3] expresses a belief that the Mariandyni were a branch of the Bithynians, a belief which cannot be well reconciled with the statement ofHerodotus,[4] who clearly distinguishes the Mariandyni from theThracians or Thyni inAsia Minor. Elsewhere, Strabo states that Mariandyni arePaphlagonians.[5] The descriptions provided by Herodotus suggest that in thePersian army they appeared quite distinct from the Bithyni, and their armor resembled that of the Paphlagonians, which was quite different from that of the Bithyni.[6]
The chief city in their territory wasHeraclea Pontica, the inhabitants of which reduced the Mariandyni, for a time, to a state of servitude resembling that of theCretan Mnoae, or theThessalianPenestae. According to modern researcher John Hind,
"...the Mariandyni may have initially ceded some coastal territory [to the Heracleot colonists] fairly peacefully, being in need of protection from... the Bebrykes and the Paphlagones. In time the Herakleots acquired the Lycus Valley as the basis of their prosperity, and the Mariandyni entered a form of collective serfdom in which the saving grace was that they could not be dispersed or sold abroad. How this state of affairs was arrived at is not clear, but the people may have been sold into it at a time of weakness by their chieftains, or may have slowly descended into it as a result of "being protected out of all they owned" by the Herakleots... The vigorous expansion of the Herakleot territory resulted in the locking of the Mariandyni into their agricultural villages as a dependent people, subject also to impressment as rowers in the fleet."[7]
In the early 6th century they seem to still have been an independent people, paying tribute directly to Lydian king Croesus,[8] and to have been at war with Heraclea.[9] In the division of the Persian empire they formed part of the third Persiansatrapy.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Mariandyni".Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.