ABASGI. - Aborigines of the western Caucasus, living in the region between the Singames and the Pityus: semi-dependent on Rome since the time of Hadrian. Under Theodosius the Ala prima Abasgorum had its quarters in the great oasis of the Thebaid. Procopius attests that down to his own time these barbarians worshipped the woods, believing that the trees were divinities. Following the custom of the peoples of the Caucasus, they traded with Byzantium and the empire by selling handsome children already made into eunuchs. Justinian forbade this inhuman practice, making use of a palace eunuch, Euphrates, himself an Abasgian, and at the same time provided for the evangelization of that people by sending missionaries, and later even installing a bishop among them. St. Maximus the Confessor distinguished himself in this work and, after him, St. Stephen the Younger. During Heraclius' Persian expedition, the A. abandoned the emperor but always remained attached to the Catholic faith.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: Procopio di Cesarea, La Guerra Gotica, book IV, ed. Comparetti, III, in Fonti per la St. d'Italia, n. 25, Rome 1898, pp. 18-21, 24, 57 ff., 63; Theophanes, Chronographia, ed. Clausen, in Corpus Scriptorum Hist. Byz. I, Bonn 1839, pp. 476-78; Anastasius Presbyter, Epist. ad Theod. Gungr.: PG 90, 173 ff.

Mario Scaduto

@incollection{ec1_abasgi, author = {Scaduto, Mario}, title = {Abasgi}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {9}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/abasgi} }

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