Fatei

Before the advent of the Bosporus Kingdom, this tribe was never previously mentioned.

According to reports of ancient historians, the Fatey lived in the neighborhood of the Meots , and in villages built on stilts - along the banks of the river. Fat - probably one of the tributaries of the Kuban. They also mention the fortified city of Gargaz ^[1] , possibly belonging to them.

At least several generations of Bosporus kings considered them to be their subjects, while the Fatey and their aristocracy took part (and even military) in the dynastic conflicts of the Bosporus ^[1] .

In particular, Diodorus of Sicily (who lived in the 1st century BC.) Spoke in detail about the battle near the Fata River ^[2] , which took place during the struggle for power between the sons of Tsar Perisad I , during which the Fatey king Arifarn put up to help one of the king’s sons - Eumeloux , an army of up to 20 thousand infantry and 22 thousand cavalry.

The further history of the Fatei is not known. According to the historian Alexander Travnikov, the castle of Arifarn, king of the Fatey, was located in the modern city of Krasnodar, in its historical center, namely in the City Garden Park (formerly Maxim Gorky Park). On the territory of the park, in its relief, the features of an ancient fortification structure have been preserved. During the field season of 2010-2011, the West Caucasian archaeological expedition in the area of ​​Sedina and Postovaya streets found a fragment of the outer ramparts 4 meters wide and 3 meters deep. An opened and examined shaft and moat fragment is approximately 40 meters long. Research is ongoing. According to the same A.I. Travnikova, the city of Gargaz was in the area of ​​modern art. Elizabethan or Maryanskaya. However, strong evidence has not yet been found of such a localization of the castle of Arifarn and Gargazy.

In addition to this, many other hypotheses are put forward on the localization of Fatey, but all of them also do not withstand serious criticism. Many settlements of the Crimea and the Krasnodar Territory claim the role of the heirs of Gargazy and the fortress of Arifarna.

In Soviet times, the Meotean ethnicity of the Fateys was considered established ^[3] , based on the material artifacts remaining since then, namely on stone inscriptions - the titles of the Bosporan king Perisad I (348-309 BC), where it was repeatedly (in At times) the Meotian tribes were subject to it, including the Sinds , Phateas, and Doges . Although in some years the Fatey were not mentioned, which indicated that the king of the Bosporus king over this Meot tribe was not stable ^[4] .

Other opinion

Recently, quite often, individual Scythologists and Sarmatologists have proposed accepting the revision of the text of Diodorus of Sicily , which would allow us to assume that Arifarn was not a Phasean king, but the king of the Syrac ^[5] .

These scientists also suggest that the residence of Tsar Arifarn was in the Red Battery settlement , and that the remnants of the city of Gargazy is the Seven-Brothers Settlement ^[5] .

However, this opinion is poorly justified and does not find weighty confirmation, and the Seven-Brothers Mound continues to be considered a Sindi mound ^[6] , as was previously established by N.V. Anfimov , during excavations and studies over more than 15 years. Nevertheless, the corresponding corrections can be seen in the English translation.