People
Sarmate Vagi
Sauromatum
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Sarmatae Vagi, the wandering Sarmatians, is the map's label for a loose confederation of Iranian-speaking steppe peoples, named for their largely nomadic way of life. The same phrase turns up in a Roman imperial law of AD 400. The name runs across a wide stretch of the map's Scythia, one of several Sarmatian entries that mirror the many groups moving west from the steppes by the Volga and the southern Urals towards the Danube. It probably entered the map in the second century, when Rome's wars with Parthia drew attention to these peoples, famed for their heavily armoured horsemen.