IAZYGES (i-ahz'ii-gas), Sarmatian tribe on the Maeotis, allies of Mithridates the Great (q.v.). Moving westward across Scythia, they were on the lower Danube by the time of Ovid, and about A.D. 50 occupied the plains east of the Theiss. Here, under the general name of Sarmatae, they were a perpetual trouble to Dacia (q.v.) the Roman province. They were divided into free men and serfs, the latter of whom were probably an older settled population enslaved by nomad masters. They rose against them in A.D. 344, but were repressed. Nothing is heard of Iazyges or Sarmatae after the Hunnish invasions.