SASPI´RES
SASPI´RES or
SASPI´RI (
Σάσπειρες,
Σασπειροί,
Hdt. 1.104,
4.37,
40,
7.79:
Apollon. 2.397,
1242;
Steph. B. sub voce: cf.
Amm. Marc. 22.8.21), a Scythian people, dwelling to the S. of Colchis and N. of Media.
According to Herodotus and Stephanus (
ll. cc.) they were an inland people, but Apollonius places them on the seacoast. They belonged to the 18th satrapy of the Persian kingdom (
Hdt. 3.94), and were armed in the same manner as the Colchians, that is, with wooden helmets, small shields of untanned hide, short lances, and swords (Ib. 7.79). The Parisian scholiast on Apollonius derives their name from the abundance of supplies found in their country. The Saspeires appear to have inhabited that district of
Georgia lying on the upper course of the river Cyrus, in which
Tiflis lies, which is still called
Tschin Kartuel; and as the district contains several other places, the names of which begin with the syllable
Tschin, Ritter conjectures that the Saspeires were identical with the eastern Iberians, respecting whom the Greeks invented so many fables. (Rennell,
Geogr. of Herod. p. 503; Ritter,
Erdklunde, ii. p. 922; Bähr,
ad Herod. 1.104.)
[
T.H.D]
