The Massagetae or Massageteans, also known as Sakā Tigraxaudā or Orthocorybantians, were an

ancient Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient h ...

Eastern Iranian The Eastern Iranian languages are a subgroup of the Iranian languages, having emerged during the Middle Iranian era (4th century BC to 9th century AD). The Avestan language is often classified as early Eastern Iranian. As opposed to the Middle-e ...

Saka The Saka, Old Chinese, old , Pinyin, mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit (Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples, Eastern Iranian peoples who lived in the Eurasian ...

people who inhabited the

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without closed forests except near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the tropical and subtropica ...

s of

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

and were part of the wider

Scythian cultures The Scythian cultures was an archaeological horizon that flourished across the Eurasian Steppe during the Iron Age, from approximately the 9th century BC to the 2nd century AD. It included the Scythian, Sauromatian and Sarma ...

. The Massagetae rose to power in the 8th to 7th centuries BCE, when they started a series of events with wide-reaching consequences by expelling the

Scythians The Scythians ( or ) or Scyths (, but note Scytho- () in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians, were an Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian peoples, Iranian Eurasian noma ...

out of Central Asia and into the Caucasian and Pontic Steppes. The Massagetae are most famous for their queen

Tomyris Tomyris (; Saka: ; ; ) also called Thomyris, Tomris, or Tomiride, was a queen of the Massagetae who ruled in the 6th century BCE. Tomyris is known only from the writings of the Greek historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus, according to whom ...

's alleged defeating and killing of

Cyrus Cyrus () is a Persian-language masculine given name. It is historically best known as the name of several List of monarchs of Iran, Persian kings, most notably including Cyrus the Great, who founded the Achaemenid Empire in 550 BC. It remains wid ...

, 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 The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian peoples, Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, i ...

. The Massagetae declined after the 3rd century BCE, after which they merged with some other tribes to form the

Alans The Alans () were an ancient and medieval Iranian peoples, Iranic Eurasian nomads, nomadic pastoral people who migrated to what is today North Caucasus – while some continued on to Europe and later North Africa. They are generally regarded ...

, a people who belonged to the larger

Sarmatian The Sarmatians (; ; Latin: ) were a large confederation of Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Iranian Eurasian nomads, equestrian nomadic peoples who dominated the Pontic–Caspian steppe, Pontic steppe from about the 5th century BCE to the 4t ...

tribal confederation, and who moved westwards into the Caucasian and European steppes, where they participated in the events of the

Migration Period The Migration Period ( 300 to 600 AD), also known as the Barbarian Invasions, was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories ...

Names

Massagetae

The name is the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

form of ''Massagétai''. The Iranologist Rüdiger Schmitt notes that although the original name of the Massagetae is unattested, it appears that the most plausible etymon is the

Iranian Iranian () may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Iran ** Iranian diaspora, Iranians living outside Iran ** Iranian architecture, architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia ** Iranian cuisine, cooking traditions and practic ...

. is the plural form, containing the East Iranian suffix , which is reflected in

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

. The singular form is and is composed of the Iranian and , meaning "fish," derived from Young Avestan (; cognate with

Vedic upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed ...

). The name literally means "concerned with fish," or "fisherman." This corresponds with the remark made by the ancient Greek historian

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

(1.216.3) that "they live on their livestock and fish." Schmitt notes that objections to this reasoning, based on the assumption that, instead of , a derivation from Iranian "fish" (compare Ossetian ()) would be expected, is "not decisive." Schmitt states that any other interpretations on the origin of the original Iranian name of the Massagetae are "linguistically unacceptable." The Iranologist

János Harmatta János Harmatta (2 October 1917 – 24 July 2004) was a Hungarian linguist. He deciphered the Parthian ostraca An ostracon (Greek language, Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase ...

has, however, criticised the proposal of 's derivation from , meaning "fish-eating (men)," as being semantically and phonologically unacceptable, and instead has suggested that the name might be derived from an early

Bactrian language Bactrian (, , meaning "Iranian") was an Eastern Iranian language formerly spoken in the Central Asian region of Bactria (present-day Afghanistan) and used as the official language of the Kushan and the Hephthalite empires. Name It was long tho ...

name , from an earlier related to the Young Avestan terms (), (), (), meaning "men," with the ending of the name being derived from the East Iranian suffix or from the collective formative syllable from which the suffix evolved. According to Harmatta's hypothesis, the Bactrian name would have corresponded to the name , meaning "men," used by the Massagetae for themselves.

The

Old Persian Old Persian is one of two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of the Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native speakers as (I ...

name () meant "

who wear

pointed hats Pointed hats have been a distinctive item of headgear of a wide range of cultures throughout history. Although often suggesting an ancient Proto-Indo-Europeans, Indo-European tradition, they were also traditionally worn by women of Sápmi, Lapland ...

", with the descriptive (), meaning "wearer of pointed hats," being composed of the terms (), "pointed," and (), "cap." This name was a reference to the

Phrygian cap The Phrygian cap ( ), also known as Thracian cap and liberty cap, is a soft Pointed hat, conical Hat, cap with the apex bent over, associated in Classical antiquity, antiquity with several peoples in Eastern Europe, Anatolia, and Asia. The Phry ...

worn by the ancient Iranian peoples, of which the wore an unusually tall and pointed form.

The name given to the / is derived from the

name , which is derived from the , which is itself the literal translation of the

name (), meaning "wearer of pointed hats.",: As for the term "Orthocorybantii", this is a translation of Iranian "wearers of pointed caps": "The (who wear pointed caps) were known to Greek authors as the , a direct translation of the Old Persian name"

Apasiacae

The proposed etymologies for the Massagataean sub-tribe of the Apasiacae, whose name is not attested in ancient Iranian records, include , meaning "Water-Sakas," and , meaning "rejoicing at water," which have so far not been conclusive.

Identification

The Iranologist

has identified the Massagetae as being the same as the people named (" Sakā who wear pointed caps") by the Persians and by Graeco-Romans. Harmatta's identification is based on the mention of the as living between the

Amu Darya The Amu Darya ( ),() also shortened to Amu and historically known as the Oxus ( ), is a major river in Central Asia, which flows through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. Rising in the Pamir Mountains, north of the Hindu Ku ...

and

Syr Darya The Syr Darya ( ),; ; ; ; ; /. historically known as the Jaxartes ( , ), is a river in Central Asia. The name, which is Persian language, Persian, literally means ''Syr Sea'' or ''Syr River''. It originates in the Tian Shan, Tian Shan Mountain ...

rivers, where

Arrian Arrian of Nicomedia (; Greek: ''Arrianos''; ; ) was a Greek historian, public servant, military commander, and philosopher of the Roman period. '' The Anabasis of Alexander'' by Arrian is considered the best source on the campaigns of ...

also located the Massagetae. The scholar Marek Jan Olbrycht has also identified the Massagetae with the .

János Harmatta has also identified the / with the , with this identification being based on the location of the former between the

and

rivers, where

also located the Dahae. The scholars A. Abetekov and H. Yusupov have also suggested that the were a constituent tribe of the Massagetae. C. J. Brunner suggested that the Daha were either neighbours of the Saka Tigraxauda or that both groups were part of the same people. The scholar Y. A. Zadneprovskiy has instead suggested that the Dahae were descendants of the Massagetae.: "The middle of the third century b.c. saw the rise to power of a group of tribes consisting of the Parni (Aparni) and the Dahae, descendants of the Massagetae of the Aral Sea region." Marek Jan Olbrycht considers the as being a separate group from the Saka, and therefore as not identical with the Massagetae/.: "Apparently the Dahai represented an entity not identical with the other better known groups of the Sakai, i.e. the Sakai (Sakā) tigrakhaudā (Massagetai, roaming in Turkmenistan), and Sakai (Sakā) Haumavargā (in Transoxania and beyond the Syr Daryā)."

Based on

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

's remark that the Massagetae lived partly on the plains, the mountains, the marshes, and the islands in the country irrigated by the Araxes river, the

Iranologist Iranian studies ( '), also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It is a part of the wider field ...

Rüdiger Schmitt has also suggestive a tentative connection with the (

Ancient Egyptian Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

), the "Saka of the Marshes, Saka of the Land," mentioned in the Suez Inscriptions of Darius the Great.

Sub-tribes

The Massagetae were composed of multiple sub-tribes, including: *the () *the () *the (; , romanized: ; , romanized: )

Location

The Massagetae lived in the Caspian Steppe as well as in the lowlands of Central Asia located to the east of the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

and the south-east of the

Aral Sea The Aral Sea () was an endorheic lake lying between Kazakhstan to its north and Uzbekistan to its south, which began shrinking in the 1960s and had largely dried up into desert by the 2010s. It was in the Aktobe and Kyzylorda regions of Kazakhst ...

, more precisely across the large area stretching from the lands around the

and Zarafshan rivers up to the steppes and the deserts to the north of the Khorasan mountain corridor, that is in the region including the Kyzylkum and

Karakum Karakum may refer to: * Karakum Desert, a desert in Central Asia * Aral Karakum Desert * ''Karakum'' (film), a 1994 Turkmen film * Karakum Canal, Turkmenistan * Karakum District, Turkmenistan See also * Karakoram, a large mountain range spanning t ...

deserts and the Ustyurt Plateau, especially the area between the

Oxus The Amu Darya ( ),() also shortened to Amu and historically known as the Oxus ( ), is a major river in Central Asia, which flows through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. Rising in the Pamir Mountains, north of the Hindu Ku ...

and Iaxartes rivers and around

Chorasmia Khwarazm (; ; , ''Xwârazm'' or ''Xârazm'') or Chorasmia () is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the east by the Kyzylkum Desert, on the south by ...

. The territory of the Massagetae thus included the area corresponding to modern-day

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...

and might possibly have extended to parts of

Hyrcania Hyrcania (; ''Hyrkanía'', Old Persian: 𐎺𐎼𐎣𐎠𐎴 ''Varkâna'',Lendering (1996) Middle Persian: 𐭢𐭥𐭫𐭢𐭠𐭭 ''Gurgān'', Akkadian: ''Urqananu'') is a historical region composed of the land south-east of the Caspian Sea ...

as well.: "In section 2 the of the XPh were provisionally located among the confines of the Karakum desert. This leads us again to the problem of the , whom we located in much of the same area, namely in the steppes east of the Caspian and who are distinguished by a combination of Medic and Scythic features." One of the Massagetaean sub-groups, the Apasiacae, lived either on the east coast of the

between the

and

Tanais Tanais ( ''Tánaïs''; ) was an ancient Greek city in the Don river delta, called the Maeotian marshes in classical antiquity. It was a bishopric as Tana and remains a Latin Catholic titular see as Tanais. Location The delta reaches into the ...

/ Iaxartes rivers, or possibly along the Oxus in western

Bactria Bactria (; Bactrian language, Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient Iranian peoples, Iranian civilization in Central Asia based in the area south of the Oxus River (modern Amu Darya) and north of the mountains of the Hindu Kush, an area ...

, or between the Caspian and Aral Seas" Another Massagetaean sub-group, the Derbices, lived in the arid area to the north of the Atrek river bordered by the

to the west, by

to the south, the Oxus river in the east, and the Balkhan Mountain and the Ochus river and its estuary were in their territory. During the Achaemenid period, some Derbices had migrated to the southwest along the shore of the Caspian Sea and reached central

Tabaristan Tabaristan or Tabarestan (; ; from , ), was a mountainous region located on the Caspian coast of northern Iran. It corresponded to the present-day province of Mazandaran, which became the predominant name of the area from the 11th-century onward ...

. The Derbices shared the region between the Caspian Sea and the Oxus with the Dahae, who might however have been identical with the Massagetae, and the Derbices might have extended to the east of the Oxus, with the Greek author Ctesias even extending their range up to the borders of Bactria and India. The imprecise description of where the Massagetae lived by ancient authors has however led modern scholars to ascribe to them various locations, such as the

delta, the Iaxartes delta, between the Caspian and Aral seas or further to the north or north-east, but without basing these suggestions on any conclusive arguments.

History

Early history

The Massagetae rose to power in the 8th to 7th centuries BCE, when they migrated from the east into Central Asia, from where they expelled the

, another nomadic Iranian tribe to whom they were closely related. After this, they came to occupy large areas of the region, including the Caspian Steppe where they supplanted the Scythians. The Massagetae displacing the early Scythians and forcing them to the west across the Araxes river and into the Caucasian and Pontic steppes started a significant movement of the nomadic peoples of the

Eurasian Steppe The Eurasian Steppe, also called the Great Steppe or The Steppes, is the vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia in the temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome. It stretches through Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, Siberia, Europea ...

, following which the Scythians displaced the

Cimmerians The Cimmerians were an Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian peoples, Iranic Eurasian nomads, equestrian nomadic people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe, part of whom subsequently migrated into W ...

and the

Agathyrsi The Agathyrsi were an ancient people belonging to the Scythian cultures who lived Pryazovia before being later displaced by the Scythians into the Transylvanian Plateau, in the region that later became Dacia. The Agathyrsi are largely known fro ...

, who were also nomadic Iranian peoples closely related to the Massagetae and the Scythians, conquered their territories, and invaded

Western Asia West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenian ...

. There, their presence had an important role in the history of the ancient civilisations of

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, and

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. The had close contact with the

Median Empire Media ( Old Persian: ''Māda''; Greek: ''Mēdía''; Akkadian: '' Mādāya'') was a political entity centered in Ecbatana that existed from the 7th century BCE until the mid-6th century BCE and is believed to have dominated a significant por ...

, whose influence had stretched to the lands east of the

, before it was replaced by the Persian Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC.

Death of Cyrus

During the 6th century BCE, the Massagetae had to face the successor of the Median Empire, the newly formed

, whose founder,

Cyrus II Cyrus II of Persia ( ; 530 BC), commonly known as Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Achaemenid dynasty (i. The clan and dynasty) Hailing from Persis, he brought the Achaemenid dynasty to power by defeating the Media ...

, carried out a campaign against them in 530 BCE. According to Herodotus, Cyrus captured a Massagetaean camp by ruse, after which the Massagetae queen

led the tribe's main force against the Persians, defeated them, killed Cyrus, and placed his severed head in a sack full of blood. According to another version of the death of Cyrus recorded by

Ctesias Ctesias ( ; ; ), also known as Ctesias of Cnidus, was a Greek physician and historian from the town of Cnidus in Caria, then part of the Achaemenid Empire. Historical events Ctesias, who lived in the fifth century BC, was physician to the Acha ...

, it was the Derbices, who were the tribe against whom Cyrus died in battle: according to this version, he was mortally wounded by the Derbices and their Indian allies, after which Cyrus's ally, the king Amorges of the , intervened with his own army and helped the Persian soldiers defeat the Derbices, following which Cyrus endured for three days, during which he organised his empire and appointed Spitaces son of Sisamas as satrap over the Derbices, before finally dying. The reason why the Derbices, and not the Massagetae, are named as the people against whom Cyrus died fighting is because the Derbices were members or identical with the Massagetae. According to

, Cyrus died fighting against the

(of which the Massagetae were a group), and according to

Quintus Curtius Rufus Quintus Curtius Rufus (; ) was a Ancient Rome, Roman historian, probably of the 1st century, author of his only known and only surviving work, ''Historiae Alexandri Magni'', "Histories of Alexander the Great", or more fully ''Historiarum Alex ...

he died fighting against the Abiae. The

Babylon Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...

ian scribe

Berossus Berossus () or Berosus (; ; possibly derived from ) was an early-3rd-century BCE Hellenistic civilization, Hellenistic-era Babylonia, Babylonian writer, priest of Bel (mythology) , Bel Marduk, and Babylonian astronomy, astronomer who wrote i ...

, who lived in 3rd century BCE, instead recorded that Cyrus died in a battle against the

Dahae The Dahae, also known as the Daae, Dahas or Dahaeans (; ; , ; , ; , ; ; zh, t=大益, p=Dàyì; Persian language, Persian: ) were an Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian nomadic tribal confederation, who inhabited the steppes of Ce ...

; according to the Iranologist

Muhammad Dandamayev Muhammad Abdulkadyrovich Dandamayev (; September 2, 1928 – August 28, 2017 ), Chief Researcher at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IOM-RAS), was a historian who focused on the ancient Persian Empire, and ...

, Berossus identified the Dahae rather than the Massagetae as Cyrus's killers because they had replaced the Massagetae as the most famous nomadic tribe of Central Asia long before Berossus's time; although some scholars identified the Dahae as being identical with the Massagetae or as one of their sub-groups.

Achaemenid rule

Little more is known about the Massagetae after the war with Cyrus. During the Achaemenid period, they were pressing on Hyrcania, and by around 520 BCE and possibly earlier, they were ruled by a king named Skuⁿxa, who rebelled against the Persian Empire until one of the successors of Cyrus, the Achaemenid king

Darius I Darius I ( ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE. He ruled the empire at its territorial peak, when it included much of West A ...

, carried out a campaign against the Sakas from 520 to 518 BCE during which he conquered the Massagetae/, captured Skuⁿxa, and replaced him with a ruler who was loyal to Achaemenid power. According to

Polyaenus Polyaenus or Polyenus ( ; see ae (æ) vs. e; , "much-praised") was a 2nd-century Roman Macedonian author and rhetorician, known best for his ''Stratagems in War'' (), which has been preserved. He was born in Bithynia, Asia Minor. The ''Suda'' c ...

, Darius fought against three armies led by three kings, respectively named Sacesphares,

Thamyris In Greek mythology, Thamyris (Ancient Greek: Θάμυρις, ''Thámuris'') was a Thrace, Thracian singer. He is notable in Greek mythology for reportedly being a lover of Hyacinth (mythology), Hyacinth and thus to have been the first male to hav ...

(whose name might be related to that of Tomyris), and Amorges or Homarges, with Polyaenus's account being based on Persian historical records. The territories of the Saka were absorbed into the Achaemenid Empire as part of

, which included much of the territory between the

and the Iaxartes rivers, and the Saka supplied the Achaemenid army with a large number of mounted bowmen. After Darius's administrative reforms of the Achaemenid Empire, the were included within the same tax district as the

Medes The Medes were an Iron Age Iranian peoples, Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media (region), Media between western Iran, western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BC, they occupied the m ...

. During the Macedonian invasion of the Achaemenid Empire, the Massagetae provided the Achaemenid army with 40,000 troops, which was a larger number than the troops furnished by all the other inhabitants of the coast of the Caspian Sea put together.

Later history

The Massagetae, along with the Sogdians and Bactrians, participated in the rebellion of

Spitamenes Spitamenes (Old Persian ''Spitamana''; Greek ''Σπιταμένης''; 370 BC – 328 BC) was a Sogdian warlordHolt, Frank L. (1989), ''Alexander the Great and Bactria: the Formation of a Greek Frontier in Central Asia'', Leiden, New York, Co ...

against

Alexander III of Macedon Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to the throne in 336 BC at the age of 20 ...

, but they later submitted to him again after Spitamenes was murdered. Among the scholars who do not identify the Massagetae with the Dahae, Rüdiger Schmitt suggests that the Massagetae were instead absorbed by the

by the later

Hellenistic period In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

has suggested that the Dahae had replaced the Massagetae as the most known people of the Central Asian steppes. Marek Jan Olbrycht suggests that the Dahae migrated to the west from the areas east of the Aral Sea and around the Iaxartes valley and expelled the Derbices from their homeland, after which the latter split, with a part of them migrating into Hyrcania and others to the lower Uzboy river. During the Hellenistic period, a section of the Massagetaean sub-tribe of the Derbices had migrated to the southwest along the coast of the Caspian Sea and reached central

, while another sub-group moved to the south-east into

Margiana Margiana ( ''Margianḗ'', Old Persian: ''Marguš'', Middle Persian: ''Marv'') is a historical region centred on the oasis of Merv and was a minor satrapy within the Achaemenid satrapy of Bactria, and a province within its successors, the Seleu ...

. Around 230 BCE, the

Parni The Parni (; , ''Parnoi''), Aparni (; Ἄπαρνοι, ''Aparnoi'') or Parnians were an East Iranian people who lived around the Ochus ( ''Okhos'') ( Tejen) River, southeast of the Caspian Sea in Central Asia. It is believed that their origina ...

an king and founder of the

Parthian Empire The Parthian Empire (), also known as the Arsacid Empire (), was a major Iranian political and cultural power centered in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe ...

Arsaces I Arsaces I (; from ; in ) was the first king of Parthia, ruling from 247 BC to 217 BC, as well as the founder and eponym of the Arsacid dynasty of Parthia. The leader of the Parni, one of the three tribes of the Dahae confederacy, Arsaces founded ...

, sought refuge from the

Seleucid The Seleucid Empire ( ) was a Greek state in West Asia during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 312 BC by the Macedonian general Seleucus I Nicator, following the division of the Macedonian Empire founded by Alexander the Great, a ...

king

Seleucus II Callinicus Seleucus II Callinicus Pogon (; ''Callinicus'' meaning "beautifully triumphant", ''Pogon'' meaning "the Beard"; July/August 265 BC – December 225 BC), was a ruler of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, who reigned from 246 BC to 225 BC. Faced with ...

by fleeing among the Massagataean sub-tribe of the Apasiacae. Seleucus's attempted campaign to recover the eastern satrapies of his empire was initially successful. However, the outbreak of revolts in the western part of his empire prevented him from continuing his war against the Parthians, who, with the backing of the Apasiacae, were ultimately successful.

Disappearance

The dominance of the Massagetae in Central Asia ended in the 3rd century BCE, following the Macedonian conquest of Persia, which cut off the relations between the steppe nomads and the sedentary populations of the previous

. The succeeding

Seleucid Empire The Seleucid Empire ( ) was a Greek state in West Asia during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 312 BC by the Macedonian general Seleucus I Nicator, following the division of the Macedonian Empire founded by Alexander the Great ...

started attacking the Massagetae,

and

nomads who had lived to the north of its borders, which in turn led to these peoples putting westward pressure from the east on a related nomadic Iranian people, the Sarmatians. The Sarmatians, taking advantage of the decline of Scythian power in the west, crossed the Don river and invaded

Scythia Scythia (, ) or Scythica (, ) was a geographic region defined in the ancient Graeco-Roman world that encompassed the Pontic steppe. It was inhabited by Scythians, an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people. Etymology The names ...

starting in the late 4th century and the early 3rd century BCE. The Massagetae themselves merged with tribal groups in Central Asia to form the

, a people who themselves belonged to the larger

group. Related to the

Asii The Asii, Osii, Ossii, Asoi, Asioi, Asini or Aseni were an ancient Indo-European people of Central Asia, during the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE. Known only from Classical Greek and Roman sources, they were one of the peoples held to be responsibl ...

who had invaded

in the 2nd century BCE, the Alans were pushed by the Kang-chü people to the west into the Caucasian and Pontic steppes, where they came in contact and conflict with the

Parthian Parthian may refer to: Historical * Parthian people * A demonym "of Parthia", a region of north-eastern of Greater Iran * Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD) * Parthian language, a now-extinct Middle Iranian language * Parthian shot, an archery sk ...

and

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

empires. By the 2nd century CE, they had conquered the steppes of the north Caucasus and the north Black Sea area and created a powerful confederation of tribes under their rule. In 375 CE, the

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was par ...

conquered most of the Alans living to the east of the

Don river The Don () is the fifth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Central Russia to the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia, it is one of Russia's largest rivers and played an important role for traders from the Byzantine Empire. Its basin is betwee ...

, massacred a significant number of them and absorbed them into their tribal polity, while the Alans to the west of the Don remained free from Hunnish domination and participated in the movements of the

. Some free Alans fled into the mountains of the Caucasus, where they participated in the ethnogenesis of populations including the

Ossetians The Ossetians ( or ; ),Merriam-Webster (2021), s.v"Ossete" also known as Ossetes ( ), Ossets ( ), and Alans ( ), are an Iranian peoples, Iranian ethnic group who are indigenous to Ossetia, a region situated across the northern and southern side ...

and the

Kabardians The Kabardians (Kabardian language, Kabardian: Къэбэрдей адыгэхэр; Adyghe language, Adyghe: Къэбэртай адыгэхэр; ) or Kabardinians are one of the twelve major Circassians, Circassian tribes, representing one ...

, and other Alan groupings survived in

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

. Other free Alans migrated into Central and then Western Europe, from where some of them went to

Britannia The image of Britannia () is the national personification of United Kingdom, Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used by the Romans in classical antiquity, the Latin was the name variously appli ...

and

Hispania Hispania was the Ancient Rome, Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two Roman province, provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. During the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was divide ...

, and some Alans joined the Germanic

Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vand ...

into crossing the

Strait of Gibraltar The Strait of Gibraltar is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Europe from Africa. The two continents are separated by 7.7 nautical miles (14.2 kilometers, 8.9 miles) at its narrowest point. Fe ...

and creating the

Vandal Kingdom The Vandal Kingdom () or Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans () was a confederation of Vandals and Alans, which was a barbarian kingdoms, barbarian kingdom established under Gaiseric, a Vandals, Vandalic warlord. It ruled parts of North Africa and th ...

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

Legacy

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

authors later used the name "Massagetae" as an archaising term for the

, Turks,

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

and other related peoples who were completely unrelated to the populations the name initially designated in Antiquity. A 9th century work by

Rabanus Maurus Rabanus Maurus Magnentius ( 780 – 4 February 856), also known as Hrabanus or Rhabanus, was a Frankish Benedictine monk, theologian, poet, encyclopedist and military writer who became archbishop of Mainz in East Francia. He was the author of t ...

, ''De Universo'', states: "The Massagetae are in origin from the tribe of the Scythians, and are called Massagetae, as if heavy, that is, strong Getae." In Central Asian languages such as

Middle Persian Middle Persian, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg ( Inscriptional Pahlavi script: , Manichaean script: , Avestan script: ) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasania ...

and

Avesta The Avesta (, Book Pahlavi: (), Persian language, Persian: ()) is the text corpus of Zoroastrian literature, religious literature of Zoroastrianism. All its texts are composed in the Avestan language and written in the Avestan alphabet. Mod ...

n, the prefix ''massa'' means "great," "heavy," or "strong." Some authors, such as

Alexander Cunningham Major General Sir Alexander Cunningham (23 January 1814 – 28 November 1893) was a British Army engineer with the Bengal Sappers who later took an interest in the history and archaeology of India. In 1861, he was appointed to the newly crea ...

, James P. Mallory,

Victor H. Mair Victor Henry Mair (; born March 25, 1943) is an American Sinology, sinologist currently serving as a professor of Chinese language, Chinese at the University of Pennsylvania. Among other accomplishments, Mair has edited the standard ''Columbia His ...

, and Edgar Knobloch have proposed relating the Massagetae to the

Gutians The Guti (), also known by the derived exonyms Gutians or Guteans, were a people of the ancient Near East who both appeared and disappeared during the Bronze Age. Their homeland was known as Gutium (Sumerian language, Sumerian: , ''GutūmKI'' o ...

of 2000 BC Mesopotamia, and/or a people known in ancient China as the "Da

Yuezhi The Yuezhi were an ancient people first described in China, Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu, during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defea ...

" or "Great Yuezhi" (who founded the

Kushan Empire The Kushan Empire (– CE) was a Syncretism, syncretic empire formed by the Yuezhi in the Bactrian territories in the early 1st century. It spread to encompass much of what is now Afghanistan, Eastern Iran, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbe ...

in South Asia). Mallory and Mair suggest that ''Da Yuezhi '' may at one time have been pronounced ''d'ad-ngiwat-tieg'', connecting them to the Massagetae. These theories are not widely accepted, however. Many scholars have suggested that the Massagetae were related to the

Getae The Getae or Getai ( or , also Getans) were a large nation who inhabited the regions to either side of the Lower Danube in what is today northern Bulgaria and southern Romania, throughout much of Classical Antiquity. The main source of informa ...

of ancient Eastern Europe.

Tadeusz Sulimirski Tadeusz Józef Sulimirski (1 April 1898 – 20 June 1983) was a Polish-born British historian and archaeologist, who emigrated to the United Kingdom soon after the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Sulimirski was a pioneer and leading expert in th ...

notes that the Sacae also invaded parts of Northern India. Weer Rajendra Rishi, an Indian linguist has identified linguistic affinities between Indian and Central Asian languages, which further lends credence to the possibility of historical Sacae influence in Northern India.

Culture

Lifestyle

According to

, the Massagetae lived on the plains, the mountains, the marshes, and the islands in the country irrigated by the Araxes river. Some Massagetae were primarily fishermen, and other groups of the tribe bred sheep for their milk and wool, but also harvested root vegetables and wild fruits. None of the Massagetae, however, practised any form of agriculture, and their food consisted of meat and fish, and they primarily drank milk, but not wine. According to the Greek author Strabo, the Derbices did not consume any female animals. Gold and bronze were plentiful where the Massagetae lived, but they did not use any iron or silver because these were not available in their country. The Massagetae might possibly have practised cranial deformation.

Clothing

Like all ancient Iranian peoples, the Massagetae/ wore knee-length tunics which were either straight and closed (following Median fashion) or open with lapels, both styles being fastened by a belt at the waist (following typically Scythic fashion). Underneath, they wore narrow

trousers Trousers (British English), slacks, or pants ( American, Canadian and Australian English) are an item of clothing worn from the waist to anywhere between the knees and the ankles, covering both legs separately (rather than with cloth extending ...

and

moccasin A moccasin is a shoe, made of deerskin or other soft leather, consisting of a sole (made with leather that has not been "worked") and sides made of one piece of leather, stitched together at the top, and sometimes with a vamp (additional pane ...

s. Over these, they sometimes wore a cloak with long and narrow sleeves, and the pointed cap, although their tribe wore a distinctive form of this headdress which had a sharp point, and from which the names given to them by the Persians ( ) and the Greeks ( ), both meaning "wearer of pointed caps," were derived. The use of the Median closed tunic among the was the result of extensive contact between the and the Medes during the period of the Median Empire. The fishermen wore seal skins, while the sheep-breeders wore clothing made of wool. The Massagetae wore golden headdresses, belts, shoulder straps, and used golden harnesses and bronze armour for their horses.

Warfare

The Massagetae fought both on foot and on horseback, and their weapons consisted of bows and arrows, spears, and battle-axes, and their horse armour, spearheads, and arrowheads were golden. The Massagetae especially used spears whose blades were made of copper or iron, due to which the Greek called them the (), meaning "spear-bearers."

Language

The name of the Massagetaean prince, recorded in the Greek form () and reflecting the Scythian form , is of

Scythian language The Scythian languages are a group of Eastern Iranic languages of the classical and late antique period (the Middle Iranic period), spoken in a vast region of Eurasia by the populations belonging to the Scythian cultures and their desce ...

origin, and his name and the name of the

king Spargapeithes and the Scythian king Spargapeithes () are variants of the same name. The name of the king Skuⁿxa might be related to the Ossetian term meaning "distinguishing oneself," and attested as () in the Digor dialect, and as ) in the

Iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

dialect.

Religion

Herodotus mentioned that the Massagetae worshipped only the sun god, to whom they sacrificed horses. This is seen to indicate the cult of the Iranian sun god

Mithra Mithra ( ; ) is an ancient Iranian deity ('' yazata'') of covenants, light, oaths, justice, the Sun, contracts, and friendship. In addition to being the divinity of contracts, Mithra is also a judicial figure, an all-seeing protector of Truth ( ...

, who was associated with the worship of fire and horses. When Cyrus attacked the Massagetae, their queen Tomyris swore by the Sun to kill him if he did not return to his kingdom. However,

recorded that the Derbices, who were either identical with the Massagetae or one of their sub-tribes, worshipped "Mother Earth," interpreted as the Earth and Water goddess

Api An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

Marriage customs

The Massagetae contracted monogamous marriages, although the wives could have sexual relations with other men. When a Massagetaean man wanted to have sexual relations with a woman, he would hang his

gorytos A gorytos (, ) is a type of leather bow-case for a short composite bow used by the Scythians in classical antiquity. They are a combination of bow case and quiver in one, and are worn on the archer's left hip with the opening tilted rearward. M ...

outside of her tent, inside of which the couple would proceed to have intercourse.

Edvard Westermarck Edvard Alexander Westermarck (20 November 1862 in Helsinki – 3 September 1939 in Tenala) was a Finnish philosopher and sociologist. Among other subjects, he studied exogamy and the incest taboo. Biography Westermarck was born in 1862 in a w ...

, however, in ''

The History of Human Marriage ''The History of Human Marriage'' is an 1891 book by the Finnish philosopher and anthropologist Edvard Westermarck that, in the three-volume 1922 edition, 'attempt(s) a grand synthesis ... an overview of the entire world history of the institutio ...

'', suggested that Herodotus and Strabo, on whose writings this understanding of Massagetaean marriage customs is based, might have been mistaken, and that the relevant custom was instead one, said to be common in Central Asia, by which brothers shared a single wife.Westermarck, Edvard, ''The History of Human Marriage'', Vol. 1, Ch. 3, pp.106-07 (London, 1921).
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Funeral customs

According to Herodotus, members of the Massagetae were sacrificed and cooked and eaten with the meat of sacrificial animals. Members of the Massagetae who died of illness were buried or left as food for wild animals.

Footnotes

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{refend Massagetae Nomadic groups in Eurasia Tribes described primarily by Herodotus