Ancient Circassian tribes

thumb|right|Map of the Roman empire under Hadrian (), showing the location of the Maeotae on the eastern shore of the eponymous ([[Sea of Azov)]]

The Zygii (, Zygoí) or Zygians were described by Strabo as a nation to the north of Colchis. He wrote: And on the sea lies the Asiatic side of the Bosporus, or the Syndic territory. After this latter, one comes to the Achaei and the Zygii and the Heniochi, and also the Cercetae and the Macropogones. And above these are situated the narrow passes of the Phtheirophagi (Phthirophagi); and after the Heniochi the Colchian country, which lies at the foot of the Caucasian, or Moschian, Mountains. (Strabo, Geographica 11.2)

The Dandarii or Dandaridae were an ancient people dwelling along the Palus Maeotis in antiquity. Strabo describes them as living among the Maeotae, Sindi, Toreatae, Agri, Arrechi, Tarpetes, Obidiaceni, Sittaceni, Dosci, and Aspurgiani, among others. The Dandarii were one of the Maeotae tribes, who lived in the 1st millennium BC on the east and the south-eastern coast of the Azov sea. In the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, they were concluded to have been one of the ancestors to the Circassians. Maeotae were engaged in farming and fishing. In the 4th–3rd centuries BC many of the Maeotae tribes were