Zygii

The Zygii, or Zygoi, were a people of the north-eastern Black Sea coast mentioned by Greek and Roman geographers such as Strabo, who described them as pirates. Generally seen as ancestors of the Circassians, they gave their name to the medieval land of Zichia, where Byzantine Christianity spread and Genoese merchants later kept trading posts. In Byzantine and Italian sources the Circassians long continued to be called Zichians.