Massagetae

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The Massagetae were an Iranian people<ref name="Antony Karasulas"> Karasulas, Antony. Mounted Archers Of The Steppe 600 Bc-ad 1300 (Elite),Osprey Publishing , 2004, pg 7[1] </ref> <ref name="rome's enemies"> Wilcox, Peter. Rome's Enemies: Parthians and Sassanids, Osprey Publishing , 1986, pg 9, [2] </ref><ref name="cambridge"> Gershevitch, Ilya. The Cambridge History of Iran, 1985, Volume two, Cambridge University Press, 1985, pg 48 [3] </ref><ref name="Grousset"> Grousset, René. The Empire of the Steppes, 1989, Rutgers University Press, pg 547 [4]</ref> of antiquity known primarily from the writings of Herodotus. Their name was probably akin to Getae and Thyssagetae.

1 Customs
2 History
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Customs

According to Herodotus, the Massagetae lived on their herds and fishing, milk being their chief drink. They employed gold and brass in decorating their war equipment, having neither iron nor silver in their country. They fought both on horseback and on foot, neither method being strange to them: they used bows and lances. Their spears were made of brass.

They were similar to the Scythians in their dress and mode of living. Each man had one woman, yet their wives were held in common, this custom differentiating the Massagetae from the Scythians. Queen Tomyris succeeded her dead husband, the former king of the Massagetae. The Massagetae worshipped only one god, the sun, and sacrificed a horse in its honour.

[edit] History

Cyrus the Great of Persia met his death in a battle with the Massagetae living beyond Araxes river. They were a people from the southern deserts of Khwarezm in today's Bukhara, Uzbekistan. The queen of the Massagetae, Tomyris, prevailed, although Cyrus had defeated Tomyris's son Spargapises.

Ammianus Marcellinus considered the Alans to be the former Massagetae.<ref>"iuxtaque Massagetae Halani et Sargetae", "per Albanos et Massagetas, quos Alanos nunc appellamus", "Halanos pervenit, veteres Massagetas"</ref>. At the close of the fourth century CE, Claudian (the court poet of Emperor Honorius and Stilicho) wrote of Alans and Massagetae in the same breath: "the Massagetes who cruelly wound their horses that they may drink their blood, the Alans who break the ice and drink the waters of Maeotis' lake." (In Rufinem)