Malkh

The Malkhi (Μαχλυη) were an ancient nation, living in the Western/Central North Caucasus, mentioned in classical sources, primarily by ancient Greco-Syrian writer Lucian and ancient Roman writer Claudius Aelianus.

Mention in the source
Malkhi are mentioned by ancient Greco-Syrian writer Lucian and ancient Roman writer Claudius Aelianus. Despite Lucian's work having a literary and narrative nature, it shows what image the people living in Bosporan Kingdom had about the military-political union of the ancient Nakh peoples, which they knew as "Malkhi". As per the tradition, Malkh acted as one of the large state formations of Southeast Europe in the second half of the 1st millennium BC, having connections with Bosporus, as well as competing with it and with the Scythians, the Colchis.

Identity
Some historians consider them as Maeotian, while others consider them equivalent to the Durdzuks, an ethnonym mentioned primarily in Georgian sources. Some historians consider that the ethnonym was used to designate Nakh peoples.