The Mazices were Berbers of North Africa who appear in classical and late antique Greek and Latin sources. Many variants of the name are known: Maxyes in Herodotus; Mazyes in Hecataeus; Mazaces; Mazikes; Mazazaces; etc. They are all derived from the Berber autoethnonym Imazighen (singular Amazigh). These terms were used both for Berbers in general and for certain Berber tribes. It is not clear if the original Berber term was used to refer to all Berbers or only a tribe or other subset.[1] The Egyptian term Meshwesh for a tribe of ancient Libyans is probably a cognate.[2]
In the 1st century AD, Lucan uses Mazax, the singular form of Mazaces, as a collective noun for the people.[3] In the 3rd century, the Chronicle of Pseudo-Hippolytus placed the Mazices on the same level as the Mauri, Gaetuli and Afri.[1]
In the last decade of the 4th century, the Mazices and Austurians began ravaging Cyrenaica. During the tenure of the strategos Cerealis, the Mazices besieged Cyrene. Bishop Synesius took part in the defence of the city. The period of unrest in Cyrenaica lasts until about 410.[4] In 407 or 408, the Mazices raided the monasteries of Scetis. Among their victims were Abba Moses the Black and seven companions. John the Dwarf and Bishoi also fled Scetis as a result of this raid. The Mazices raided again in 410 and 434.[5] About 445, the Mazices harried some Blemmyes retreating from a raid on an Egyptian oasis. In 491, they raided Cyrenaica again.[4]
During the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justin I (518–527), the Mazices plundered Egypt in conjunction with the Blemmyes.[4] In the 580s, several monasteries in the Wadi El Natrun were razed by Mazices. Some 3,500 monks were dispersed into the Levant.[6]
^ abSalem Chaker (1986), "Amaziɣ (le/un Berbère)", Encyclopédie berbère, 4, pp. 562–568, retrieved 25 January 2020.
^Anthony Leahy (2001), "Libya", in Donald B. Redford (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt (Oxford University Press), retrieved 25 January 2020.
^Paolo Asso (2010), A Commentary on Lucan, "De bello civili" IV: Introduction, Edition, and Translation (De Gruyter), pp. 258–259.
^ abcOric Bates, The Eastern Libyans: An Essay (Macmillan, 1914), pp. 237–238.
^Tim Vivian, "The Coptic Orthodox Church", in Gawdat Gabra (ed.), Coptic Monasteries:Egypt’s Monastic Art And Architecture (American University in Cairo Press, 2002), pp. 14–15.
^William Dalrymple (2005), From the Holy Mountain (Harper Perennial), pp. 413–414.
Pseudo-Hippolytus placed the Mazices on the same level as the Mauri, Gaetuli and Afri. In the last decade of the 4th century, the Mazices and Austurians began...
led to conflicts with the Muslim government. Scetis was attacked by the Mazices who "came sweeping off the Libyan desert" in 407-408 AD and was decimated...
ordained a priest. At about age 75, about the year 405 AD, word came that the Mazices, a group of Berbers, planned to attack the monastery. The brothers wanted...
abbot of the monastery he founded around the Tree of Obedience. When the Mazices invaded Scetes in 395, John fled the Nitrian Desert and went to live on...
be related to early Libyco-Berber tribes, which had been referred to as Mazices in some sources. According to Ibn Khaldun, the name Mazîgh is derived from...
Testaments, the old ascetic reverted to Orthodoxy. In 407/408 AD, as the Mazices invaded the wilderness of Scetes, Bishoy left and dwelt in the mountain...
Hecataeus of Miletus and Maxyes by Herodotus, while the tribe was called Mazices and Mazax in Latin sources. The Meshwesh are known from ancient Egyptian...
Anthony until his death. When Scetis was destroyed in 395 by the Berbers (Mazices), John the Dwarf relocated to Mount Colzim and lived only a day's journey...
forced to leave due to raids on the monasteries and hermitages there by the Mazices (tribesmen from Libya). He relocated to Troe (near Memphis), and also spent...
Longinus flee fame to Enaton. 407-408 1st destruction of Scetis by the Mazices. This marks the shifting of the center of Christian monasticism from Egypt...
and where several monasteries in the Wadi El Natrun had been razed by Mazices where 3,500 monks who had lived there had now been dispersed into the Levant...
this term was widely used in Roman times also: the Roman-era tribal name Mazices and other variants are clearly related. Although ancient Berber culture...
Isauri Phryges Persae The peoples that are in Mauretania: Quinquegentiani Mazices Barbares Bacuates Celtiberi ?Astures/?Turdetani Ausetani Carpetani Cantabri...
the Greeks and Romans, thus as Maxyes at the founding of Carthage, as Mazices in the Roman period at different places in the Mauretanian north coast;...
suffered much for the true Faith." After the first attack of Scetis by the Mazices barbarians from 407 to 408 AD which led to the diaspora of the monks, the...
called Kherba are also in the commune. In Antiquity it was occupied by the Mazices tribes of the region Which played a part in the constitution of the pre-Roman...
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