Hamaxobii Explained

The Hamaxobii (grc|Ἁμαξόβιοι), Anglicized Hamaxobians or Amaxobians, were a nomadic tribe who lived in chariots with leather tents mounted on them.[1] They were Scythians.[2] They were said to be descendants of the Medes.[3]

According to William Smith the name Hamaxobii was merely a descriptive term rather than an actual tribe.[4]

Name

Their name means “dwellers in chariots”,[5] and is compounded of the words ἄμαξα ("chariot"), and βίος ("life").

Historical Mentions

Pomponius Mela

Pomponius Mela (§ 2.2) mentions the Hamaxobii in his work Chorographia. And calls them as Hamaxobioe. According to him they had gotten their name due to their use of wagons. He places the tribe near the Paulus Maeotis (Sea of Azov).[6]

Pliny the Elder

Pliny the Elder (4.25) states that the Hamaxobii were a group of Sarmatians. And that they were equivalent to the Aorsi.[7]

Strabo (11.2) describes the Aorsi, and Siraces as being Wagon-dwellers, which is similar to the wagon lifestyle Pomponius Mela had described the Hamaxobii as being.[8]

Ptolemy

Ptolemy places the Hamaxobii further west than other ancient authors having placed them near the Borysthenes (Dnieper).

Ptolemy also mentions a tribe called the Exobygitae dwelling between the Roxolani, and the Hamaxobii. Whom Gudmund Schütte links to the Hamaxobii. With the by in the tribe's name being as misreading of the bii in the name Hamaxobii Scithae. And the gitae in its name being a vulgar Latin form of Scithae.[9] [10]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Constable. Archibald. Encyclopædia Britannica: Or, A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature, Enlarged and Improved, Volume 10. 1823. University of Michigan. 233. 6.
  2. Web site: Hămaxŏbĭi. Archimedes.fas.harvard.edu/. 7 November 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161108135113/http://archimedes.fas.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/dict?name=ls&lang=la&word=hamaxobii&filter=GreekXlit. 8 November 2016. dead.
  3. Book: Turner. Richard. A View of the Earth as it was known to the Ancients, being a short but comprehensive system of classical geography. 1779. The British Library. 22.
  4. Web site: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), SARMA´TIA . 2025-11-03 . www.perseus.tufts.edu.
  5. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0062%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DH%3Aentry+group%3D2%3Aentry%3Dhamaxobii-harpers Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Hamaxobii
  6. Web site: 43 . Pomponius Mela, Chorographia . 2025-11-03 . babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015042048507 . en.
  7. Web site: Pliny the Elder . The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6) . 2025-11-03 . gutenberg.org . en.
  8. Web site: LacusCurtius • Strabo's Geography — Book XI Chapter 2 . 2025-11-03 . penelope.uchicago.edu.
  9. Book: Ptolemy . The Geography . 1991 . Mineola, N.Y.: Dover; Toronto: General Pub. Co.; London: Constable . Internet Archive . 978-0-486-26896-5.
  10. Book: Schütte, Gudmund . Ptolemy's maps of northern Europe, a reconstruction of the prototypes . 1917 . Kjøbenhavn, H. Hagerup . University of California Libraries.

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