Turcae
Τοῦρκοι
Turcae (Eth. Τοῦρκοι, Suid. s. v.), a Scythian people of Asiatic Sarmatia, dwelling on the Palus Maeotis, which appears to be identical with the Ἰῦρκαι of Herodotus (4.22, &c.). The various hypotheses that have been started respecting the Turcae only show that nothing certain is known respecting them. (Cf. Mannert, iv. p. 130; Heeren, Ideen, 1.2, pp. 189, 281, 307; Schaffarik, Slav. Alterth. i. p. 318, &c.) Humboldt (Central-Asien, i. p. 245, ed. Mahlmann) opposes the notion that these Turcae or Jyrcae were the ancestors of the present Turks.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.