MACRO´NES(Μάκρωνες), a powerful tribe in the east of Pontus, about the Moschici mountains. They are described as wearing garments made of hair, and as using in war wooden helmets, small shields of wicker-work, and short lances with long points. (Hdt. 2.104, 7.78; Xenoph. Anab. 4.8.3, 5.5.18, 7.8.25; comp. Hecat. Fragm. 191; Scylax, p. 33; Dionys. Perieg. 766; Apollon. 2.22; Plin. Nat. 6.4; Joseph. c. Apion. 1.22, who asserts that they observed the custom of circumcision.) Strabo (12. p. 548) remarks, in passing, that the people formerly called Macrones bore in his day the name of Sanni, though Pliny (l. c.) speaks of the Sanni and Macrones as two distinct peoples. They appear to have always been a rude and wild tribe, until civilisation and Christianity were introduced among them in the reign of Justinian. (Procop. Bell. Pers. 1.15, Bell. Goth. 4.2, de Aed. 3.6.)
[L.S]