arya-, meaning 'Aryan', the common self-designation of Indo-Iranian peoples. It probably came in use in the early history of the Alans for the purpose of uniting a heterogeneous group of tribes through the invocation of a common, ancestral 'Aryan' origin. Like the name of Iran (*Aryānām), the adjective *aryāna appears to be related to Airyanəm Waēǰō ('stretch of the Aryas'), the mythical homeland of the early Iranians mentioned in the Avesta. Some other ethnonyms also bear the name of the Alans: the Rhoxolāni ('Bright Alans'), an offshoot of the Alans whose name may be linked to religious practices, and the Alanorsoi ('White Alans'), perhaps a conglomerate of Alans and Aorsi. The personal names Alan and Alain (from Latin Alanus) may have been introduced by Alan settlers to Western Europe during the first millennium CE. The Alans were also known over the course of their history by another group of related names including the variations Asi, As, and Os (Romanian , Bulgarian , Hungarian , Russian , Georgian ). It is this name at the root of the modern Ossetian. History Timeline Origin The Alans were formed out of the merger of the Massagetae, a Central Asian Iranian nomadic people, with some old tribal groups. Related to the Asii who had invaded Bactria in the 2nd century BCE, the Alans were pushed west by the Kang-chü people (known to Graeco-Roman authors as the in Greek, and the in Latin), the latter of whom were living in the Syr Darya basin, from where they expanded their rule from Fergana to the Aral Sea region. Early Alans The first mentions of names that historians link with the Alani appear at almost the same time in texts from the Mediterranean, Middle East and China. In the 1st century CE, the Alans migrated westwards from Central Asia, achieving a dominant position among the Sarmatians living between the Don River and the Caspian Sea. The Alans are mentioned in the Vologases inscription which reads that Vologases I, the Parthian king between around 45 and 78 CE, in the 11th year of his reign (62 CE), battled Kuluk, king of the Alani. The 1st century CE Jewish historian Josephus supplements this inscription. Josephus reports in the Jewish Wars (book7, ch.7.4) how Alans (whom he calls a "Scythian" tribe) living near the Sea of Azov crossed the Iron Gates for plunder (72CE) and defeated the armies of Pacorus,