Sarma′tians, a race who spoke the same language as the Scythians. They were nomads, wild and savage in looks, good horsemen and bowmen, and dressed in leather armor. Their young women went into battle on horseback, a custom, which may have caused the Greek stories about the Amazons. They were made of several tribes that roamed the wide plains from the Vistula and the Danube to the Volga and the Caucasus. In the second half of the 4th century B. C. they conquered the Scythians (q. v.). Their empire lasted till the 4th century A. D., when it was overthrown by the Goths.
