# Ambazoukes and the Gatekeepers of the Darial Pass during Late Antiquity

Nicolas Preud'Homme

► To cite this version:

Nicolas Preud'Homme. Ambazoukes and the Gatekeepers of the Darial Pass during Late Antiquity. Shalva Gloveli; Valerian Vashakidze; Sopio Kadagishvili; Natia Jalabadze. The Caucasian Gates - Northern Outpost of Georgia, TSU - Iv. Javakhishvilis sakhelobis istoriisa da et'nologiis instituti, pp.171-175, 2021, 978-9941-8-3424-0. hal-05054540

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<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>
პავკსიის პარი
—
საქართველოს
ნოდილოეთი პარიბამ

THE CAUCASIAN GATES
—
NORTHERN OUTPOST
OF GEORGIA

მასალები
MATERIALS
<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>

საერთაშორისო სამეცნიერო კონფერენცია

კავკასიის კარი – საქართველოს
ჩრდილოეთი კარიბჭე

25-27 ივნისი, 2021

*International Scientific Conference*

THE CAUCASIAN GATES – NORTHERN
OUTPOST OF GEORGIA

25-27 June, 2021

მასალეგი
MATERIALS
<figure><img src="image_3.png" /></figure>

კრებული იბეჭდება შოთა რუსთაველის საქართველოს ეროვნული სამეცნიერო ფონდის მხარდაჭერით (პროექტი BRG-II-19-137). პუბლიკაციაში გამოთქმული ნებისმიერი მოსაზრება ეკუთვნის ავტორს და შესაძლოა არ ასახავდეს ფონდის შეხედულებებს.

რედაქტორ-შემდგენლები: შ. გლოველი, ვ. ვაშაკიძე, ს. ქადაგიშვილი, ნ. ჯალაბაძე

კომპიუტერული უზრუნველყოფა: ა. რუაძე

© თსუ, ივ. ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის ისტორიისა და ეთნოლოგიის ინსტიტუტი

© ავტორები, 2021

დაიბეჭდა სტამბა კოლორში

ISBN 978-9941-8-3424-0
# სარჩევი

## CONTENTS

### მაქა ალბოგაჩიევა

საქართველო და ინგუშეთი:

კულტურათა ურთიერთმოქმედების გამოცდილება ................................. 7

### Makka Albogachieva

GEORGIA AND INGUSH:

EXPERIENCE OF CULTURAL INTERACTION ................................................................. 21

### აგუსტი ალემანი

დარიალი და დარუბანდი, როგორც საზღვარი

ევრაზიის სტეპების მომთაბარეთა და

ახლო აღმოსავლეთის იმპერიენს შორის:

ზოგიერთი ცნოგა პრეისლამური პერიოდის შესახებ ................................. 32

### Agustí Alemany

DARIAL AND DARBAND AS A BORDER BETWEEN

EURASIAN STEPPE NOMADS AND NEAR EASTERN EMPIRES:

SOME NOTES ON THE PRE-ISLAMIC PERIOD ................................................................. 41

### ისა ალმაზოვი

ფერმინთა ქისტის, ქისტების და ქისტეთის

ისტორიოგრაფიის ევოლუცია XIII-XVIII სს.

დასავლეთევროპულ, ქართულ და სომხურ

დოკუმენტურ წყაროებში ................................................................................ 49

### Issa Almazov

EVOLUTION OF HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE TERMS KISTI, KISTS,

KISTETI IN GEORGIAN AND ARMENIAN DOCUMENTARY

SOURCES OF THE 13TH-18TH CENTURIES ................................................................. 59

### ენდრიუ ენდერსონი

პირველი მსოფლიო რმი,

კავკასიის ფრონტი და საქართველო ................................. 63

### Andrew Andersen

THE CAUCASUS FRONT OF WORLD WAR I:

IMPLICATIONS FOR GEORGIA .................................................................................. 68
ვალერიან ვაშაკიძე, როლანდ თოფიწშვილი

<table><tr><td>ასლო ალმოსავლეთის ცივილიზაციები, ნომადური სამყარო და კავკასიის კლდეკარები</td><td>72</td></tr></table>

Valerian Vashakidze, Roland Topchishvili

<table><tr><td>MIDDLE EASTERN CIVILIZATIONS, THE NOMADIC WORLD, AND THE GATES OF THE CAUCASUS</td><td>84</td></tr></table>

ებერჰარდ ვ. ზაუერი, ლანა ჩოლოგაური,

ივ მაკდონალდი, დავით ნასყიდაშვილი, სეთ მ.ნ. ფრისთმანი

<table><tr><td>დარიალის ციხესიმაგრის მომავალი:<br/>საფრთხეები, კითხვეები და კვლევის სტრატეგია</td><td>93</td></tr></table>

Eberhard W. Sauer, Lana Chologauri,

Eve MacDonald, Davit Naskidashvili, Seth M.N. Priestman

THE FUTURE OF DARIALI FORT:

<table><tr><td>DANGERS, QUESTIONS AND A RESEARCH STRATEGY</td><td>104</td></tr></table>

ალექსანდრე თვარაძე

<table><tr><td>კასპიის კარი (დარიალი)<br/>პრესპიტერი იოანეს ეპისტოლეში</td><td>112</td></tr></table>

Alexander Tvaradze

DARIALI – THE CASPIAN GATES IN THE EPISTLE

<table><tr><td>OF JOHN THE PRESBYTER</td><td>122</td></tr></table>

ნინო მინდაძე

<table><tr><td>ანტროპოეკოლოგიის ხალხური ტრადიციები ხევში</td><td>130</td></tr></table>

Nino Mindadze

<table><tr><td>FOLK TRADITIONS OF ANTHROPOECOLOGY IN KHEVI</td><td>139</td></tr></table>

დავით მინდორაშვილი

<table><tr><td>დარიალის ციხის ისტორიიდან</td><td>147</td></tr></table>

David Mindorashvili

<table><tr><td>FROM THE HISTORY OF DARIALI FORTRESS</td><td>157</td></tr></table>

ნიკოლა ჯ. პროდომი

<table><tr><td>ამბაზუკი და დარიალის ხელის კარიერის მცველები<br/>გვიან ანტიკურ ხანაში</td><td>165</td></tr></table>

Nicolas J. Preud'homme

<table><tr><td>AMBAZOUKES AND THE GATEKEEPERS OF THE DARIAL PASS DURING LATE ANTIQUITY</td><td>171</td></tr></table>
ლიუბოვ სოლოვიოვა

ძართველი მთიელები ჩრდილოეთ რსეთში:

ხალხური ტრადიციების შენარჩუნება .................................................. 176

Lyubov Solovyova

GEORGIAN HIGHLANDERS IN NORTH OSSETIA:

PRESERVING FOLK TRADITIONS .................................................................................... 183

ქეთევან ქუთათელაძე

დარიალის სახელწოდება „ძართლის ცხოვრების“

მიხედვით და მისი დიალექტური შესატყვისობანი ........................ 189

Ketevan Kutateladze

THE NAME OF DARIALI ACCORDING TO THE GEORGIAN

CHRONICLES AND ITS DIALECTICAL CORRESPONDENCES .................... 209

გაგა შურლაია

ვახფანგ გორგასლის ლაშქროგა ჩრდილოეთ კავკასიაში .... 226

Gaga Shurgaia

EXPEDITION OF VAKHTANG I GORGASALI TO

THE NORTH CAUCASUS .................................................................................... 228

მერაბ ჩუხუა

საქართველოს ჩრდილოეთის კარიბჭე –

დარიალი/დარიალანი .................................................................................. 230

Merab Chukhua

NORTHERN GATE OF GEORGIA – DARIALI / DARIALANI.................... 235

მარიამ ჩხარტიშვილი

მთა და მთიელები ძართულ იდენტობრივ ნარაფივში ................ 240

Mariam Chkhartishvili

MOUNTAINS AND MOUNTAINEERS IN THE

GEORGIAN IDENTITY NARRATIVE ........................................................................ 252

მარიელ ცაროევა

რუსეთის მცდელოგა ინგუშებს შორის

„გამძრალი“ ძრისფიანობის აღსადგენად (XVIII-XIX სს.) ............ 261

Mariel Tsaroieva

RUSSIA'S ATTEMPTS TO RESTORE THE FADED

CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE INGUSH

(18th-19th CENTURIES) .................................................................................... 271
ნათია ჯალაბაძე

<table>
   <tr>
    <td>
     ყაზპეგის რაიონი რუსული ჰიგრიდული მმის
    </td>
    <td>
     პროპაგანდისტული პოლიტიკის ჭრილში....................................................279
    </td>
   </tr>
  </table>

Natia Jalabadze

<table>
   <tr>
    <td>
     KAZBEGI DISTRICT IN THE CONTEXT OF THE PROPAGANDA POLICY OF THE RUSSIAN HYBRID WARFARE
    </td>
    <td>
     288
    </td>
   </tr>
  </table>

ლავრენტი ჯანიშვილი

<table>
   <tr>
    <td>
     თრუსოს ეთნოდემოგრაფიული
    </td>
    <td>
     დინამიკის ზოგიერთი ასპექტი....................................................295
    </td>
   </tr>
  </table>

Lavrenti Janiashvili

<table>
   <tr>
    <td>
     SOME ASPECTS OF THE ETHNODEMOGRAPHIC DYNAMICS OF TRUSSO
    </td>
    <td>
     ..................................................................................307
    </td>
   </tr>
  </table>
AMBAZOUKES AND THE GATEKEEPERS OF THE DARIAL
PASS DURING LATE ANTIQUITY

Nicolas J. Preud'homme

France

The strengthening of the Iranian presence in South Caucasia during Late Antiquity was combined with the weakening of the Iberian monarchy which ended in the 6th century CE<fnref n="1" />. These two phenomena owe a great deal to the history of the Darial Gorge, which underwent profound changes between the end of the 4th century CE and the Arab conquest in the 8th century. The entering of Darial into Iranian influence has been recorded in sources from various origins, emanating both from Byzantine historians, Caucasian chronicles of the Bagratid era, and archaeological excavations<fnref n="2" />. These sources seem to agree on the crucial importance of mountain peoples residing within or near the Darial Gorge, whose allegiance was coveted by neighbouring kingdoms and empires. These political transformations had consequent effects on the identity and perception of these nations in Late Antique and medieval literature.

Procopius of Caesarea relates the complex evolution of the imperial guardian-
ship established on the Darial Pass at the turn of the 5th and 6th centuries CE. In his
account, this Byzantine author emphasizes the role played by a certain Ambazoukes,
Hun chief in the Caucasus allied with the emperor Anastasius and whose death would
have marked the beginning of the Sasanian grip on the Darial Gorge.

„And this [fortress of the Caspian Gates] was held by many men in turn as time
went on, and finally by Ambazoukes, a Hun by birth, but a friend of the Romans and
the Emperor Anastasius. Now when this Ambazoukes had reached an advanced age
and was near to death, he sent to Anastasius asking that money be given him, on
condition that he hand over the fortress and the Caspian Gates to the Romans. But the
Emperor Anastasius was incapable of doing anything without careful investigation,
nor was it his custom to act thus reasoning, therefore, that it was impossible for him
to support soldiers in a place which was destitute of all good things, and which had
nowhere in the neighbourhood a nation subject to the Romans, he expressed deep
gratitude to the man for his good-will toward him, but by no means accepted this
proposition. So Ambazoukes died of disease not long afterwards, and Cabades over-
powered his sons and took possession of the Gates"<fnref n="3" />.

<footnote n="1">¹ Schleicher F. „Die Chronologie der k‘art‘velischen Könige und das Ende des iberischen Königtums“, in Iberien zwischen Rom und Iran, ed. Frank Schleicher, Timo Stickler and Udo Hartmann, Stuttgart, 2019, pp. 69–98.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Sauer E. and al., Dariali: The „Caspian Gates“ in the Caucasus from Antiquity to the Age of the Huns and the Middle Ages. 2020.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ Procopius. History of the Wars. I, 10, pp. 9-12.</footnote>
At the end of his life, around the beginning of the 6th century, Ambazoukes would have proposed to Anastasius to recover the fortress for a sum of money. After Ambazoukes' death, the šāhān šāh Kavād I took advantage of the vacancy by expelling the sons of the Hun prince and established his control on the Darial Pass<fnref n="1" />. Procopius' narrative points at a subcontracting of Darial supervision devolved by imperial powers to the local actors. This type of indirect control, which was probably to be fed by grants and diplomatic gifts, saved the Romans and the Iranians from setting up an expensive garrison, but it was all the more subject to the vagaries of political reversals.

In the chronicle of the Life of the Kings included in the Georgian corpus Life of Kʻartʻli (Kʻartʻlis Cʻxovreba), an excerpt evokes the legendary war waged by the Armenian hero Sumbat Biwritian against the Ossetians. A story is narrated that implies „two gigantic brothers called Bazuk and Abazuk“, who „came forth with the army of Ossetia“. „They brought with them Pačaniks and Jikʻs“, allied with the Kʻartʻvelians and the Leks against the Armenians<fnref n="2" />.

„Bazok, king of the Ossetes, threatened him, sent a messenger, and challenged him to single combat. Sumbat equipped himself, mounted his steed, and went out through the ranks. Bazok came forth from his side. They both shouted out, and attacked. Sumbat struck a spear at (Bazok's) belt, and it came out of his back a cubit's length. He knocked him off his horse and cast him to the ground. Then Anbazuk attacked in order to help his brother. But Sumbat seized his spear, went to meet him, and gave him such a blow that it pierced him. He knocked him over and cast him to the ground, saying: „This is for the sake of the men, women, and young children of the Armenians whom you killed“<fnref n="3" />.

The link between the two Ossetian brothers Bazuk (or Bazok) and Abazuk (or Anbazuk), on the one hand, and the Hun chief Ambazoukes in Procopius' account, on the other hand, was proposed in an interesting way by Giorgi Kavtaradze<fnref n="4" />. According to him, the couple Bazok-Abazuk would be a reminiscence of Gog and Magog – these mythical nations coming from the North to invade the civilized world<fnref n="5" />. Despite its interest, this interpretation seems a little too far-fetched, due to the lack of explicit references to this religious theme in the story of Bazuk and Abazuk.

<footnote n="1">¹ Alemany A. „Sixth Century Alania: between Byzantium, Sasanian Iran and the Turkic World“, Ērān ud Anērān. 1, 2003, p. 3; Sauer and al., Dariali, 2020, vol. 2, p. 876.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Life of the Kings in Kʻartʻlis Cʻxovreba. ed. Simon Qauxčišvili. §45, trans. Robert W. Thomson, p. 54.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ Ibid, §46, trans. Robert W. Thomson, p. 55.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ Kavtaradze G. The Georgian Chronicles and the Raison d'Être of the Iberian Kingdom. Orbis Terrarum, 6, 2000-2001, p. 214.</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ Quran. Surah of the Cave. XVIII, 94. Andrew R. Anderson, Alexander's Gate, Gog and Magog, and the Inclosed Nations (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Mediaeval Academy of America, 1932). Emeri Van Donzel and Andrea Schmidt, Gog and Magog in Early Christian and Islamic Sources, 2010; Stephen H. Rapp Jr., The Sasanian World through Georgian Eyes. 2014, pp. 134–135.</footnote>
The motif of the fight between a king and giants of the North Caucasus also appears in the History of Armenia by Movsēs Xorenacʻi<fnref n="1" />, about Trdat against the king of the Basilkʻ in the plain of Gargar. This nation called Barsilians or Basilians is probably of Hunnic or Khazar origin<fnref n="2" />. The Armenian Geography (Ašxarhacʻoyc') locates the Basłkʻ in Sarmatian land, near the river Volga<fnref n="3" />. According to Theophanes<fnref n="4" />, the Khazars came from the land of Berzilia to Sarmatia Prima, while Michael Syrus refers to the land of the Alans „which is called Barsalia“<fnref n="5" />. Movsēs Xorenacʻi<fnref n="6" /> situates them in North Caucasia, like Al-Balādhurī who mentions a country of Baršaliyah<fnref n="7" />. However, the anonymous Persian geography called Ḩudūd al-ʻĀlam<fnref n="8" /> locates the Barşula in the Middle Volga<fnref n="9" />. Perhaps these Ba(r)silians were a nation divided into two groups by migrations, wars and military expeditions. Although this people is quite distinct from the Ossetians or the Alans, it is not impossible that its presence in North Caucasia could have given rise to a couple of names distorted in Georgian with Abazuk and Bazok – nevertheless, this hypothesis is not the most convincing.

Both Ambazoukes and Bazok names are absent from Greek epigraphy. Several more or less similar forms have been noted by Ferdinand Justi: Ampak<fnref n="10" />, Ambārχāne (Kurdish lady) and, more interestingly, Amboustos, a Scythian in Cimmerian Bosphorus around 220 CE<fnref n="11" /> and Bazūk<fnref n="12" />. The most likely origin of the name Ambazoukes seems to be found in the field of Iranian languages<fnref n="13" />. In Middle Persian, the word hambāz means the ‘partner’<fnref n="14" />. A link can be established with Khotanese hambā ‘share’<fnref n="15" />. In Armenian, the common name bazuk (pūqni) means ‘arm’, with the

<footnote n="1">¹ Movsēs Xorenacʻi, History of Armenia, 1901, II, p. 85.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Artamonov M. I. История Хазар. Издательство Государственного Эрмитажа, Л., 1962, pp.131–132; Golden P. B. Khazar Studies, Budapest, 1980, p. 143; Hewsen R. H. The Geography of Ananias of Širak (Ašxarhacʻoyc'), 1992, n. 47, p. 114, n. 108, p. 123.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ Hewsen. The Geography of Ananias of Širak (Ašxarhacʻoyc'). 55A §18 and p. 430.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ Theophanes the Confessor. Chronographia. ed. Karl de Boor, vol. I, p. 358, l. 8: „Βερζλίας“.</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ Josef Marquart, Ērānšahr nach der Geographie des ps. Moses Xorenacʻi, Berlin, 1901, pp. 484-485.</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶ Movsēs Xorenacʻi, History of Armenia, 1901, II, pp. 58, 65.</footnote>

<footnote n="7">⁷ Al-Balādhurī, The Origins of the Islamic State. Philip Khūri Ḩitti, ed., 1916, p. 307.</footnote>

<footnote n="8">⁸ Ḩudūd al-ʻĀlam. Vladimir Minorsky, ed., §51, 1930, p. 162.</footnote>

<footnote n="9">⁹ Hewsen. The Geography of Ananias of Širak (Ašxarhacʻoyc'). 1992, n. 47, p. 114</footnote>

<footnote n="10">¹⁰ Armenian lord in Movsēs Xorenacʻi, History of Armenia, I, 1901.</footnote>

<footnote n="11">¹¹ CIRB 1278: „Αμβούστου“.</footnote>

<footnote n="12">¹² Also in Movsēs Xorenacʻi, History of Armenia. 1901; I. Ferdinand Justi, Iranisches Namenbuch. 1895, pp. 14, 66;</footnote>

<footnote n="13">¹³ Maenchen-Helfen O. The World of the Huns. Los Angeles; London: Berkeley, 1973, p. 390; Martindale J. R. The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire. II, A.D. 395-527, Cambridge, 1980, p. 68.</footnote>

<footnote n="14">¹⁴ MacKenzie D. N. A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary. London, 1971, p. 40.</footnote>

<footnote n="15">¹⁵ Nyberg H. S. Hilfsbuch des Pehlevi. Leipzig, Otto Harrassowitz, 1928-1931, p. 94; Harold Walter Bailey, Dictionary of Khotan Saka. Cambridge, 1979, pp. 456a, 461b, 462a; Leonard G. Herzenberg, „Studies in Persian Etymology I“, Acta Linguistica Petropolitana, 2011, volume 7, part 1, pp. 207-208.</footnote>
figurative meanings of ‘force’ and ‘power’<fnref n="1" />; it probably comes from Middle-Iranian, with a cognate in Middle-Persian bāzā, ‘arm’<fnref n="2" />.

Even if this hypothesis is attractive, it is not entirely certain that the historical Ambazoukes of Procopius would be at the origin of the legends relating to Bazok and Abazuk in the Kʻartʻlis Cʻxovreba and to the king of the Basilkʻ in Movsēs Xorenacʻi's narrative. However, these onomastic considerations seriously question the Hunnic origin of Ambazoukes alleged by Procopius. Of course, it is not forbidden to assume that a man bearing an Iranian name may have joined a community of Huns in the Caucasus, whose invasion in 395 had left its mark. Nevertheless, onomastics would tend rather to suggest that Ambazoukes must have been part of an Iranian-speaking, Sarmatian or Alan people, whose presence in the Caucasus is attested through a large set of sources<fnref n="3" />. Otherwise, the question of the languages spoken by the Huns remains a topic of discussion<fnref n="4" />.

The link between these different characters is therefore not so much to be found in factual history, but rather in languages and fiction literature. The Iranian words hambāz and bāzā at the root of the names Ambazoukes, Bazok and Abazuk have in common that they refer to the lexical field of warlike heroism. This imagery populated by giants and valiant fighters naturally refers to the Nart sagas, studied by Georges Dumézil<fnref n="5" />. The very term of Narts probably originates from the Indo-Iranian radical nar, cognate to Greek anēr, ‘man’ and Old Irish nert meaning ‘force’, ‘power’<fnref n="6" />. An account of this epic contains the story of twin brothers Æhsar and Æhsærtæg, sons of Uærhæg, emphasizing their valour as warriors<fnref n="7" />. Of particular interest is the specific trait of forming two twin names linked by their consonance – in that case, they derive from the Ossetian æhsar, hsar(t), ‘bravery’<fnref n="8" />. In the Epic of the Narts, the giants appear not as the heroes, but as the monstrous adversaries to be fought<fnref n="9" />.

Iranian onomastics seems to suggest the weight of a heroic imagery which was transmitted at least orally during Late Antiquity and the High Middle Ages, and prob-

<footnote n="1">¹ Matthias Bedrossian. New Armenian-English Dictionary. Venice, 1875-1879, p. 87; Acharyan. Հրաչյա Աճառյանի անվան Լեզվի Ինստիտուտ, Ժամանակակից հայոց լեզվի բացատրական բառարան, Երևան: Հայկական ՍՍՀ Գիտությունների Ակադեմիայի Հրատարակչություն, 1969, p. 267.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² MacKenzie, A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary. 2016, p. 18.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ Czeglédy K. Khazar Raids in Transcaucasia in 762-764 AD. Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 1960, no. 7, p. 77.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ Lebedynsky I. Les Nomades. Paris, 2007, pp. 148-151.</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ Dumézil G. Le Livre des Héros. Paris, 1965.</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶ Abaev V. I. ed., Историко-этимологический словарь осетинского языка: указатель. II (L-R), M., pp. 158-159; Georges Dumézil, Loki. Paris, 1948, p. 170; Dumézil. Livre des Héros. 1965, p. 11.</footnote>

<footnote n="7">⁷ Dumézil, Livre des Héros, 1965, pp. 23–30.</footnote>

<footnote n="8">⁸ Ibid, 24 n. p. 4.</footnote>

<footnote n="9">⁹ Ibid, pp. 55-59, 199-200.</footnote>
ably akin to the Nart sagas. The circulation of oral traditions from Iranian-speaking peoples of the Caucasus visibly inspired their Georgian and Armenian neighbours with a phantasmagoric representation of Caucasian mountain chiefs, formidable by their gigantic size and their military value. From the perspective of political history, the emergence of this cliché came after the time when the weakening of Armenian and Iberian kingdoms was translated into a new partnership between Sasanians and Alans for the control of Darial. While ancient sources, in particular Strabo<fnref n="1" />, tended rather to emphasize the close interweaving of the Alano-Sarmatian and Iberian populations, later documents – and Georgian chronicles in particular – are inclined rather to underline the distinct identity of these Caucasian peoples of the North, notably by using this fantasy of the invading giant warrior. After the disappearance of Sasanian power in the 7th century, the Alan chiefs kept the keys of the Caucasian Gates and this literary caricature continued to persist. The figure of Ambazoukes and its legendary repercussions on the Armenian and Georgian traditions thus played a significant role in the ethnogenesis of Caucasian nations.

<footnote n="1">¹ Strabo. Geography. XI, 3, p. 3.</footnote>
ADDENDUM AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

About the etymology of Bazuk and Abazuk, Marie-Félicité Brosset interpreted these
two names presenting “a false Armenian air” as *bazuk*: ‘arm’ and *anbazuk*: ‘without arm’.<fnref n="1" />
Vasily Abaev considers the Ossetian nouns *bazyg* and *bazug*, ‘arm above elbow’, with therefore
*bazug*, плечо (‘shoulder’) and *æmbazug* ‘равноплечий’ (‘equal shoulders’).<fnref n="2" /> Another
etymological proposition is *amabāzuka*, ‘having arms with power’.<fnref n="3" />

Nicolas Preud'homme, June 19, 2021.

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<footnote n="3">³ Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen, "Iranian Names of Huns". In W. B. *Henning Memorial Volume*, Mary Boyce and Ilya Gershevitch, 275 (London: Lund Humphries, 1970). Rüdiger Schmitt, *Compendium linguarum Iranicarum* (Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 1989), 243. Alemany, *Sources on the Alans*, 325.</footnote>
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