List of ancient Colchian tribes
The following is a list of ancient Colchian tribes.
Background
This is a list of the ancient Colchian tribes. They spoke the Kartvelian languages, probably the forerunners of the Zan dialects, a language family indigenous to the Caucasus, which was originally spoken by tribes living in area northeast of Asia minor and Caucasus region. Modern theories suggest that the main Colchian tribes are direct ancestors of the Laz-Mingrelians, and played a significant role in ethnogenesis of the Georgian and Abkhazian peoples. Colchis was inhabited by a number of related, but still pretty different tribes whose settlements lay chiefly along the shore of the Black Sea.List of ancient Colchian tribes
| Name | Location | Sources |
| Byzeres | south of the Coruh River and Pontic Mountains. | mentioned in Urartean sources as uiterukhi or uitirukhi. |
| Drilae | southern shores of the Black Sea. | attested in Xenophon's book Anabasis |
| Machelones | south of the Rioni river. | Pliny, Lucian, Ptolemy, Arrian. |
| Macrones | near Moschici Mountains | Herodotus, Xenophon, Strabo, Stephanus of Byzantium, Pliny, Procopius. |
| Marres | southeast periphery of the Black Sea | Herodotus |
| Mossynoeci | west of Trebizond | mentioned in Apollonius of Rhodes's Argonautica, Xenophon's Anabasis, Herodotus. |
| Phasians | eastern part of Pontus | Xenophon, Hippocrates. |
| Sanni | near Trebizond | Strabo, Pliny, Arrian, Theodoret of Cyrrus. |
| Tubal/Tabal/Tibareni | Black Sea coast of Anatolia | Herodotus, Xenophon, Strabo and other classical authors. |
| Zydretae | southern side of the Coruh river | Arrian. |
| Heniochi | northwest shores of Colchis | Aristotle, Artemidorus Ephesius, Ovid, Pliny, Arrian, Strabo and others. |
| Lazi | Phasis river basin | Scylax, Procopius, Agathias, Pliny. |
| Moschi | Cappadocia | Hecataeus of Miletus, Herodotus, Strabo, Stephanus of Byzantium. |
| Apsilae | modern Abkhazia | Pliny, Arrian. |
| Abasci | western Abkhazia | Pliny, Strabo, Arrian. |
| Coraxi | northwest shores of Colchis | Strabo. |
| Sanigs | western Abkhazia | Pliny, Arrian, Memnon of Heraclea. |
| Tzanni | modern day Rize and Artvin provinces | Arrian, Procopius. |
| Chalybes/Chaldoi | Chaldia | Homer, Strabo, Xenophon. |