Apsilae

The Apsilae or Apsili were an ancient tribe inhabiting the territory of Apsilia, in modern Abkhazia.

Location
The tribal territory was located on the Black Sea coast of the northwest Caucasus near the estuary of Kodori. The settlements of Sebastopolis and Tibeleos (associated with Tsebelda by George Hewitt ) were located in their territory.

Identity
The Apsilae may have been the ancestors of the Abkhaz people (in Abkhaz Аҧсуаа Apswa).

Their culture is known as the Tsebelda culture, marked by well-developed local manufacturing of metal products and tools.

History
The first known record of the Apsilae occurs in the writings of Pliny of the 1st century AD, as well as of Flavius Arrianus in the 2nd century. The territory became an official division of the Roman Empire under Trajan (98-117). It was absorbed by the surrounding, more powerful principality of the Abasgoi, in approximately 730 AD, and the Apsilae are no longer recorded after the second half of the 8th century. Later, and after the inclusion of other territories and people including Misiminia, it became the Kingdom of Abkhazia.