Agari

A´GARI (Ἄγαροι), a Scythian people of Sarmatia Europaea, on the N. shore of the Palus Maeotis (Sea of Azov), about a promontory Agarum and a river Agarus, probably not far E. of the Isthmus. They were skilful in medicine, and are said to have cured wounds with serpents' venom! Some of them always attended on Mithridates the Great, as physicians. (Appian. Mithr. 88; Ptol. iii, 5.13.) A fungus called Agaricum (prob. German tinder), much used in ancient medicine, was said to grow in their country (Plin. Nat. 25.9. s. 57; Dioscor. 3.1; Galen, de fac. simp. med. p. 150). Diodorus (Diod. 20.24), mentions Agarus, a king of the Scythians, near the Cimmerian Bosporus, B.C. 240. (Böckh, Corpus Inscr. vol. 2. p. 82; Ukert, vol. iii. pt. 2, pp. 250, 433.)