Sarmatia

Sarmatia was a geographic region defined in the ancient Graeco-Roman world that encompassed the western Eurasian steppe. It was inhabited by Sarmatians, an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people.

Sarmatia was the name given by the Romans to the region which had formerly been known to the ancient Greeks as Scythia because it had been inhabited by the Scythians. Beginning in the late 4th century BC, a related nomadic Iranian people, the Sarmatians, moved from the east into the Pontic steppe, where they replaced the Scythians as the dominant power. Due to the Sarmatian incursion, "Sarmatia Europea" replaced "Scythia" as the name for the region.