Spargapises (

Saka The Saka ( Old Persian: ; Kharoṣṭhī: ; Ancient Egyptian: , ; , old , mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit ( Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples who hist ...

: ;

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

: ;

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

: ; ) was the son of queen

Tomyris Tomyris (; grc, Τόμυρις, Tómuris; Latin: ) also called Thomyris, Tomris, or Tomiride, reigned over the Massagetae, an Iranian Saka people of Central Asia. Tomyris led her armies to defend against an attack by Cyrus the Great of ...

of the Massagetai.

Name

() is a Hellenisation of the

name , and is composed of the terms , meaning “scion” and “descendant,” and , meaning “decoration” and “adornment.” The name of and those of the

Agathyrsi The Agathyrsi ( Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were a people belonging to the Scythian cultures. The Agathyrsi were a people of mixed Iranian Scythic and Geto-Thracian origin whose bulk were Thracian while their aristocracy was closely related to ...

an and

Scythian The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...

kings both named are variants of the same name, and both forms, and , are cognates of the Avestan name ().

Life

Background

was the son of the king of the Massagetai and of his queen,

. After the death of the king, the widowed Tomyris succeeded him as the ruler of the tribe, and, once he had become old enough, became the leader of the army of the Massagetai.

War against Persia

When the founder of the

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Achaemenid Empire, II, asked for the hand of Tomyris with the intent of acquiring her kingdom through the marriage, she understood 's aims and rejected his proposal. On the advice of the Lydian , Kūruš responded to Tomyris's rejection by deciding to invade the Massagetai.

Death

's initial assault against the Massagetai was routed by them, after which he set up a fancy banquet with large amounts of

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

in the tents of his camp as an ambush and withdrew. The Massagetai, led by , who primarily used fermented mare's milk and

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: '' Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternative ...

as intoxicants like all Iron Age steppe nomads, and therefore were not used to drinking wine, became drunk and were easily defeated and slaughtered by , thus destroying a third of the Massagetai army. had been captured by , and, once he had become sober and understood his situation, he asked to free him, and after acquiesced to his pleas, he killed himself.

Aftermath

After Tomyris found out about the death of , she sent an angry message in which she called the wine, which had caused the destruction of her army and her son, a drug which made those who consumed it so mad that they spoke evil words, and demanded him to leave his land or else she would, swearing upon the Sun, "give him more blood than he could drink." Tomyris herself led the Massagetai army into war, and, during the next battle opposing the Massagetai to the forces of , Tomyris defeated the Persians and destroyed most of their army. himself was killed in the battle, and Tomyris found his corpse, severed his head and shoved it in a bag filled with blood while telling , "Drink your fill of blood!"

Notes

Sources

* * * * * * * {{refend 530 BC deaths Year of birth unknown 6th-century BC Iranian people Massagetae