{{Short description|Ancient Iranian nomadic confederation in Central Asia}} {{Infobox country | conventional_long_name = {{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxauda}}<br/>{{transliteration|la|Massagetae|italics=no}} | native_name = | image_map = {{Continental Asia in 325 BCE|center||{{location map~ |Continental Asia |lat=44|N |long=67|E |label=|position=|label_size=|mark=Red circle 50%.svg|marksize=20}}<!--{{Annotation|163|44|20px}}{{location map~ |Continental Asia |lat=49.3078|N |long=87.5947|E |label=|position=|label_size=|mark=Basic red dot.png|marksize=5}}-->|Map of the Sakas.png|none}} | image_map_caption = {{center|Location of the Massagetae within the Saka realm (<small>{{Colorsample|rgba(255, 140, 0, 0.5)|0.6}}</small>), and contemporary polities {{c.|-325}}}} | religion = Scythian religion | demonym = {{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}}<br />{{transliteration|la|Orthocorybantes}}<br />{{transliteration|la|Massagetae}} | government_type = Monarchy | year_end = {{c.|3rd century BCE}} | year_start = {{c.|8th century BCE}} | common_languages = Saka language | title_leader = King or Queen | year_leader1 = {{circa|530 BCE}} | leader1 = Tomyris | year_leader2 = {{circa|520 BCE}} | leader2 = Skuⁿxa | era = Iron Age Scythian cultures }} {{Contain special characters|fix=Help:Multilingual_support#Avestan|characters=Avestan characters|image=AVESTAN LETTER A.svg|alt=Avestan letter A|special=Avestan characters}} {{Indo-European}} The '''Massagetae''' or '''Massageteans''', also known as '''Sakā Tigraxaudā''' or '''Orthocorybantians''', were an ancient Eastern Iranian Saka people{{sfn|Schmitt|2021}}{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}}{{sfn|Diakonoff|1985}}{{sfn|Grousset|1970|p=[https://archive.org/details/dli.pahar.3379/page/547/mode/2up 547]}}{{sfn|Gera|2018}} who inhabited the steppes of Central Asia and were part of the wider Scythian cultures.<ref>{{harvnb|Unterländer|2017}}: "During the first millennium BCE, nomadic people spread over the Eurasian Steppe from the Altai Mountains over the northern Black Sea area as far as the Carpathian Basin... Greek and Persian historians of the 1st millennium BCE chronicle the existence of the Massagetae and Sauromatians, and later, the Sarmatians and Sacae: cultures possessing artefacts similar to those found in classical Scythian monuments, such as weapons, horse harnesses and a distinctive 'Animal Style' artistic tradition. Accordingly, these groups are often assigned to the Scythian culture... "</ref> The Massagetae rose to power between the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, expelling the Scythians out of Central Asia and into the Caucasian and Pontic Steppes, an event which was to have wide-reaching consequences. The Massagetae are most famous for their queen Tomyris and her alleged defeat and killing of Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}}
The Massagetae declined after the 3rd century BCE, after which they merged with some other tribes to form the Alans, a people who belonged to the larger Sarmatian tribal confederation, and who moved westwards into the Caucasian and European steppes, where they participated in the events of the Migration Period.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}}
== Names == ===Massagetae=== The name {{transliteration|la|Massagetae}} is the Latin form of {{langx|grc|Μασσαγέται}} ''Massagétai''.{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}}
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 {{transliteration|xsc|*Masyaka-tā}}.{{sfn|Schmitt|2021}}{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}} {{transliteration|xsc|*Masyaka-tā}} is the plural form, containing the East Iranian suffix {{transliteration|xsc|*-tā}}, which is reflected in Greek {{transliteration|grc|-tai}}.{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}} The singular form is {{transliteration|xsc|*Masi̯a-ka-}} and is composed of the Iranian {{transliteration|xsc|*-ka-}} and {{transliteration|xsc|*masi̯a-}}, meaning "fish," derived from Young Avestan {{transliteration|ae|masiia-}} ({{lang|ae|{{script|Avst|𐬨𐬀𐬯𐬌𐬌𐬀}}}}; cognate with Vedic {{transliteration|sa|mátsya-}}).{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}} The name literally means "concerned with fish," or "fisherman."{{sfn|Schmitt|2021}}{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}} This corresponds with the remark made by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus (1.216.3) that "they live on their livestock and fish."{{sfn|Schmitt|2021}} Schmitt notes that objections to this reasoning, based on the assumption that, instead of {{transliteration|xsc|masi̯a-}}, a derivation from Iranian {{transliteration|xsc|*kapa-}} "fish" (compare Ossetian {{lang|os|кӕф}} ({{transliteration|os|kæf}})) would be expected, is "not decisive."{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}} Schmitt states that any other interpretations on the origin of the original Iranian name of the Massagetae are "linguistically unacceptable."{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}}
The Iranologist János Harmatta has, however, criticised the proposal of {{transliteration|grc|Massagetai}}'s derivation from {{transliteration|xsc|masyaka-ta}}, 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 name {{transliteration|xbc|Maššagatā}}, from an earlier {{transliteration|xbc|Mašyagatā}} related to the Young Avestan terms {{transliteration|ae|maṣ̌a-}} ({{lang|ae|{{script|Avst|𐬨𐬀𐬴𐬀}}}}), {{transliteration|ae|maṣ̌iia-}} ({{lang|ae|{{script|Avst|𐬨𐬀𐬴𐬌𐬌𐬀}}}}), {{transliteration|ae|maṣ̌iiāka-}} ({{lang|ae|{{script|Avst|𐬨𐬀𐬴𐬌𐬌𐬁𐬐𐬀}}}}), meaning "men," with the ending of the name being derived from the East Iranian suffix {{transliteration|xsc|*-tā}} or from the collective formative syllable from which the suffix evolved. According to Harmatta's hypothesis, the Bactrian name {{transliteration|xbc|Maššagatā}} would have corresponded to the name {{transliteration|xsc|Dahā}}, meaning "men," used by the Massagetae for themselves.{{sfn|Harmatta|1999}}
[[File:Saka tribute-bearers, Apadana staircase 12.jpg|thumb|400px|A delegation of Tigraxaudā/Orthocorybantians paying tribute on the Apadana relief,<ref>{{cite book|title=Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gWAuAQAAIAAJ|year=1982|author=Verlang von D. Reimer|pages=223–225}}</ref> together with all the other peoples of the empire.{{sfn|Sandes|2014}}]]
==={{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}}=== The Old Persian name {{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}} ({{lang|peo|𐎿𐎣𐎠 𐏐 𐎫𐎡𐎥𐎼𐎧𐎢𐎭𐎠}}) meant "Saka who wear pointed hats",{{sfn|Summerer|2007|p=19-20}} with the descriptive {{transliteration|peo|tigraxaudā}} ({{lang|peo|𐎫𐎡𐎥𐎼𐎧𐎢𐎭}}), meaning "wearer of pointed hats," is composed of the terms {{transliteration|peo|tigraʰ}} ({{lang|peo|𐎫𐎡𐎥𐎼}}), "pointed," and {{transliteration|peo|xauda-}} ({{lang|peo|𐎧𐎢𐎭𐎠}}), "cap."{{sfn|Summerer|2007|p=19-20}}, and is believed to refer to the Massagetae. This name was a reference to the Phrygian cap worn by the ancient Iranian peoples, of which the {{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}} wore an unusually tall and pointed form.{{sfn|Dandamayev|1994|page=45}}{{sfn|Negmatov|1994|page=443-444}}{{sfn|Francfort|1988|pages=189-191}}{{sfn|Vogelsang|1992|page=156-157}}
===={{transliteration|la|Orthocorybantes}}==== The name {{transliteration|en|Orthocorybantians}} given to the {{transliteration|grc|Massagetai}}/{{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}} is derived from the Latin name {{transliteration|la|Orthocorybantes}}, which is derived from the {{langx|grc|Ορθοκορυβαντες|translit=Orthokorubantes}}, which is itself the literal translation of the Old Persian name {{transliteration|peo|tigraxaudā}} ({{lang|peo|𐎫𐎡𐎥𐎼𐎧𐎢𐎭}}), meaning "wearer of pointed hats.",<ref name="Diakonoff">{{harvnb|Diakonoff|1985|page=100}}: As for the term "Orthocorybantii", this is a translation of Iranian {{transliteration|peo|tigraxauda-}} "wearers of pointed caps"</ref><ref name="DandamayevOrthokorybanthioi">{{harvnb|Dandamayev|1994}}: "The {{transliteration|peo|Sakā Tigraxaudā}} (who wear pointed caps) were known to Greek authors as the {{transliteration|grc|Orthokorybantioi}}, a direct translation of the Old Persian name"</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Lendering|1996}}: "Herodotus calls the Sakâ tigrakhaudâ the {{transliteration|peo|Orthocorybantians}} ("pointed hat men")"</ref>
===Apasiacae=== The proposed etymologies for the Massagataean sub-tribe of the Apasiacae, whose name is not attested in ancient Iranian records, include {{transliteration|peo|*Āpasakā}}, meaning "Water-Sakas," and {{transliteration|xsc|*Āpašyāka}}, meaning "rejoicing at water," which have so far not been conclusive.{{sfn|Schmitt|1986}}
* The Sanskrit element āpa means “water” and saka means Scythian appears in several Indo-Iranian religious and legal contexts, including terms associated with oaths, rivers, and cosmic order. The name Āpa-Śaka has also been identified in Mahabharata descriptions of sakas. According to the Mahābhārata Bhīṣma Parva 6.10–12 (geographical descriptions of Śākadvīpa and river-defined peoples) and Mahābhārata Sabha parva 2.29–32 (Nakula's western campaign mentioning Śakas in watery or coastal regions) apa sakas are identified. Greek authors such as Strabo and Ptolemy place the Apasiacae in regions dominated by major river systems of Central Asia, which aligns geographically with Indian epic Mahabharata descriptions of Śaka groups associated with water-defined territories.
==Identification== [[File:Xerxes I tomb The three types of Sakas, circa 470 BCE.jpg|thumb|350px|Scythian-Saka warriors depicted on the tomb of Xerxes I.]]
==={{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}}=== The Iranologist János Harmatta has identified the Massagetae as being the same as the people named {{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}} ("Sakā who wear pointed caps") by the Persians and {{transliteration|la|Orthocorybantes}} by Graeco-Romans. Harmatta's identification is based on the mention of the {{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}} as living between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, where Arrian also located the Massagetae.<ref>{{harvnb|Harmatta|1999}}: However, we must not forget that the Old Persian epigraphic texts distinguish for Saka tribes or peoples: 1. {{transliteration|peo|Sakā tayaiy paradraya}} "Sakas who are living beyond the sea" (=European Scythians). 2. {{transliteration|peo|Sakā haumavargā}} "Sakas worshipping the Hauma" (in Central Asia, the {{lang|grc|Ἀμύργιοι Σάκαι}} of the Greek geographers), 3. {{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}} "Sakas who wear the pointed cap" (between the {{transliteration|peo|Araxša}} = Amu darya and the Sir-darya rivers, 4. {{transliteration|peo|Sakā tayaiy para Sugdam}} "Sakas who are living beyond Sogdiana (=beyond the Sir-darya river)"<br/>---------------------------------------------------------------------------<br/>In the quoted passage, however, Arrian says that these Scythians, living in the neighbourhood of the Sogdians between the Amu-darya and the Sir-darya rivers, were called {{transliteration|la|Massagetae}}. Consequently, the name {{lang|grc|Μασσαγέται}} may be the individual denomination, the proper name of this Iranian nomadic people.</ref>
The scholar Marek Jan Olbrycht has also identified the Massagetae with the {{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}}.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}}
==={{transliteration|xsc|Dahā}}=== János Harmatta has also identified the {{transliteration|grc|Massagetai}}/{{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}} with the {{transliteration|xsc|Dahā}}, with this identification being based on the location of the former between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, where Arrian also located the Dahae.<ref>{{harvnb|Harmatta|1999}}: In the quoted passage, however, Arrian says that these Scythians, living in the neighbourhood of the Sogdians between the Amu-darya and the Sir-darya rivers, were called {{transliteration|la|Massagetae}}. Consequently, the name {{lang|grc|Μασσαγέται}} may be the individual denomination, the proper name of this Iranian nomadic people. But a clear judgement in this matter is impeded by the fact that Arrian (III. 28, 8) describes the {{transliteration|la|Dahae}} ({{lang|grc|Δάαι}}) as living on this side of the Tanais = Sir-darya, i.e. between the Sir-darya and Amu-darya rivers. From this report it follows that the Massagetae were identical with the Dahae.</ref> The scholars A. Abetekov and H. Yusupov have also suggested that the {{transliteration|xsc|Dahā}} were a constituent tribe of the Massagetae.{{sfn|Abetekov|Yusupov|1994}} C. J. Brunner suggested that the Daha were either neighbours of the Saka Tigraxauda or that both groups were part of the same people.{{sfn|Brunner|2004}}
The scholar Y. A. Zadneprovskiy has instead suggested that the Dahae were descendants of the Massagetae.<ref name="Zadneprovskiy">{{harvnb|Zadneprovskiy|1994}}: "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."</ref>
Marek Jan Olbrycht considers the {{transliteration|peo|Dahā}} as being a separate group from the Saka, and therefore as not identical with the Massagetae/{{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}}.<ref name="Olbrycht">{{harvnb|Olbrycht|2021|p=22}}: "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)."</ref>
==={{transliteration|egy|Sꜣg pḥ Sk tꜣ}}=== Based on Strabo'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 Rüdiger Schmitt has also suggestive a tentative connection with the {{transliteration|egy|Sꜣg pḥ Sk tꜣ}} (Ancient Egyptian {{lang|egy|{{script|Egyp|{{huge|'''𓐠𓎼𓄖𓋴𓎝𓎡𓇿𓈉'''}}}}}}), the "Saka of the Marshes, Saka of the Land," mentioned in the Suez Inscriptions of Darius the Great.{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}}
===Sub-tribes=== The Massagetae were composed of multiple sub-tribes, including:{{sfn|Olbrycht|2021|p=21}}{{sfn|Dandamayev|1994}}{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}}{{sfn|Dandamayev|1989|page=67}} *the {{transliteration|la|Apasiacae}} ({{langx|grc|Απασιακαι|translit=Apasiakai}}) *the {{transliteration|la|Augasii}} ({{langx|grc|Αυγασιοι|translit=Augasioi}}) *the {{transliteration|la|Derbices}} ({{langx|grc|Δερβικες|translit=Derbikes}}; {{lang|grc|Δερβικκαι}}, <small>romanized:</small> {{transliteration|grc|Derbikkai}}; {{lang|grc|Δερβεκιοι}}, <small>romanized:</small> {{transliteration|grc|Derbekioi}}<ref name="smith">{{cite book |last=Smith |first=William |author-link=William Smith (lexicographer) |date=1854 |title=The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0064 |location=Bostin |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |page=[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0064%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DD%3Aentry+group%3D3%3Aentry%3Dderbiccae-geo Derbiccae] |isbn= }}</ref>) *The Sanskrit element āpa means “water” and saka means Scythian appears in several Indo-Iranian religious and legal contexts, including terms associated with oaths, rivers, and cosmic order. The name Āpa-Śaka has also been identified in Mahabharata descriptions of sakas.
==Location== [[File:Asia 323bc.jpg|thumb|400px|Asia in 323 BC, showing the Massagetae located in Central Asia.]]
The Massagetae lived in the Caspian Steppe{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}} as well as in the lowlands of Central Asia located to the east of the Caspian Sea and the south-east of the Aral Sea, more precisely across the large area stretching from the lands around the Amu Darya 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 deserts and the Ustyurt Plateau, especially the area between the Oxus and Iaxartes rivers{{sfn|Harmatta|1999}}{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}}<ref name="Vogelsang"/> and around Chorasmia.{{sfn|Francfort|1988|page=184}} The territory of the Massagetae thus included the area corresponding to modern-day Turkmenistan<ref name="Olbrycht"/> and might possibly have extended to parts of Hyrcania as well.<ref>{{harvnb|Vogelsang|1992|page=132}}: "It may thus be hypotesized that the {{transliteration|peo|Sakâ Tigraxaudâ}} inhabited an area that covered (some of) the lands among the Amu Daryâ and the Zarafshân. They may even have inhabited ancient {{transliteration|peo|Varkâna}}, since the Behistun text does not mention any campaigns in that area, in spite of the fact that {{transliteration|peo|Varkâna}} is listed as one of the rebellious lands. With hostile {{transliteration|peo|Sakâ Tigraxaudâ}} inhabiting the deserts and steppes of the lands north of the Khurâsân desert corridor, ..."</ref><ref name="Vogelsang">{{harvnb|Vogelsang|1992|page=160}}: "In section 2 the {{transliteration|peo|Dahâ}} of the XPh were provisionally located among the confines of the Karakum desert. This leads us again to the problem of the {{transliteration|peo|Sakâ Tigraxaudâ}}, 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."</ref>
One of the Massagetaean sub-groups, the Apasiacae, lived either on the east coast of the Aral Sea between the Oxus and Tanais/Iaxartes rivers, or possibly along the Oxus in western Bactria,{{sfn|Schmitt|1986}} or between the Caspian and Aral Seas"<ref>{{harvnb|Cook|1985||pa=253}}: "the Pausikai could be the same as the Apsiakai of Polybius and Strabo between the Oxus and the Jaxartes."</ref>{{sfn|Brunner|2004}}
Another Massagetaean sub-group, the Derbices, lived in the arid area to the north of the Atrek river{{sfn|Brunner|2004}} bordered by the Caspian Sea to the west, by Hyrcania to the south, the Oxus river in the east, and the Balkhan Mountain and the Ochus river and its estuary were in their territory.{{sfn|Brunner|2004}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2021|p=33-34}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2021|p=116}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2021|p=293}} During the Achaemenid period, some Derbices had migrated to the southwest along the shore of the Caspian Sea and reached central Tabaristan. The Derbices shared the region between the Caspian Sea and the Oxus with the Dahae,{{sfn|Brunner|2004}} who might however have been identical with the Massagetae,{{sfn|Harmatta|1999}} 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.{{sfn|Brunner|2004}}
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 Oxus 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.{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}}
== History == ===Early history=== The Massagetae rose to power in the 8th to 7th centuries BCE, when they migrated from the east into Central Asia,{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}} from where they expelled the Scythians, 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.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}} 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,{{sfn|Sulimirski|Taylor|1991|p=553}} following which the Scythians displaced the Cimmerians and the Agathyrsi, who were also nomadic Iranian peoples closely related to the Massagetae and the Scythians, conquered their territories,{{sfn|Sulimirski|Taylor|1991|p=553}}{{sfn|Harmatta|1996}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}}{{sfn|Sulimirski|Taylor|1991|p=560-590}}{{sfn|Batty|2007|p=202-203}}{{sfn|Sulimirski|1985}} and invaded Western Asia. There, their presence had an important role in the history of the ancient civilisations of Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Egypt, and Iran.{{sfn|Sulimirski|Taylor|1991|p=560-590}}
The {{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}} had close contact with the Median Empire, whose influence had stretched to the lands east of the Caspian Sea, before it was replaced by the Persian Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC.{{sfn|Vogelsang|1992|page=160}}
=== Death of Cyrus === {{multiple image | align = right | caption_align = center | direction =horizontal | total_width=350 | image1 = Preti, Mattia - Queen Tomyris Receiving the Head of Cyrus, King of Persia - 1670-72.jpg | caption1 = Queen Tomyris of the Massagetae receiving the head of Cyrus the Great. 1670–1672 painting. | image2 = Queen Tomyris and the head of Cyrus the Great.jpg | caption2 = Queen Tomyris of the Massagetae, receiving the head of Cyrus the Great, circa 530 BCE (18th century painting). | footer= }}
During the 6th century BCE, the Massagetae had to face the successor of the Median Empire, the newly formed Persian Achaemenid Empire, whose founder, Cyrus II, carried out a campaign against them in 530 BCE.{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}} According to Herodotus, Cyrus captured a Massagetaean camp by ruse, after which the Massagetae queen Tomyris led the tribe's main force against the Persians, defeated them, killed Cyrus, and placed his severed head in a sack full of blood.<ref>{{cite book|author=Herodotus |author-link=Herodotus |title=Herodotus: The Persian Wars|volume=1 (Books I–II)|editor=G.P. Goold |publisher=Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd.|translator=A.D. Godley |place=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London|year=1975|page=[https://archive.org/details/herodotus01hero/page/268/mode/2up?view=theater 269] (Book I) |language=en |isbn=0-674-99130-3}} ({{ISBN|0-434-99117-1}} - British)</ref> According to another version of the death of Cyrus recorded by Ctesias, 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 {{transliteration|peo|Sakā haumavargā}}, 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 either part of or the same as Massagetae.{{sfn|Francfort|1988|p=171}}{{sfn|Dandamayev|1994}}{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}}{{sfn|Schmitt|1994}} According to Strabo, Cyrus died fighting against the Saka (of which the Massagetae were a group), and according to Quintus Curtius Rufus he died fighting against the Abiae.{{sfn|Abetekov|Yusupov|1994}}
The Babylonian scribe Berossus, who lived in 3rd century BCE, instead recorded that Cyrus died in a battle against the Dahae; according to the Iranologist Muhammad Dandamayev, 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;{{sfn|Dandamayev|1994}}{{sfn|Dandamayev|1989|page=67}} although some scholars identified the Dahae as being identical with the Massagetae or as one of their sub-groups.{{sfn|Harmatta|1999}}{{sfn|Abetekov|Yusupov|1994}}<ref name="Zadneprovskiy"/>
===Achaemenid rule=== [[File:Behistun relief Skunkha.jpg|thumb|100px|The {{transliteration|peo|Tigraxaudā}} king Skuⁿxa depicted in the Behistun Inscription of the Persian king Darius I]]
Little more is known about the Massagetae after the war with Cyrus. During the Achaemenid period, they were pressing on Hyrcania,{{sfn|Brunner|2004}} 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, carried out a campaign against the Sakas from 520 to 518 BCE during which he conquered the Massagetae/{{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}}, captured Skuⁿxa, and replaced him with a ruler who was loyal to Achaemenid power.{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}}{{sfn|Schmitt|1994}}{{sfn|Shahbazi|1994}} According to Polyaenus, Darius fought against three armies led by three kings, respectively named Sacesphares, Thamyris (whose name might be related to that of Tomyris), and Amorges or Homarges, with Polyaenus's account being based on Persian historical records.{{sfn|Schmitt|1994}}{{sfn|Vogelsang|1992|page=131}}{{sfn|De Jong|1997|p=[https://archive.org/details/TraditionsOfTheMagiZoroastrianismInGreekAndLatinLiterature/page/n307/mode/2up 297]}}
The territories of the Saka were absorbed into the Achaemenid Empire as part of Chorasmia, which included much of the territory between the Oxus and the Iaxartes rivers,{{sfn|Cunliffe|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=osQ9CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA235 235] }} and the Saka supplied the Achaemenid army with a large number of mounted bowmen.<ref name="D_44">{{harvnb|Dandamayev|1994|pp=44–46}}</ref> After Darius's administrative reforms of the Achaemenid Empire, the {{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}} were included within the same tax district as the Medes.{{sfn|Vogelsang|1992|page=160}}
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.{{sfn|Brunner|2004}}
===Later history=== The Massagetae, along with the Sogdians and Bactrians, participated in the rebellion of Spitamenes against Alexander III of Macedon, but they later submitted to him again after Spitamenes was murdered.{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}}
Among the scholars who do not identify the Massagetae with the Dahae, Rüdiger Schmitt suggests that the Massagetae were instead absorbed by the Dahae by the later Hellenistic period.{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}} Muhammad Dandamayev has suggested that the Dahae had replaced the Massagetae as the most known people of the Central Asian steppes.{{sfn|Dandamayev|1994}}{{sfn|Dandamayev|1989|page=67}} 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.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2021|p=32-34}}
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 Tabaristan, while another sub-group moved to the south-east into Margiana.{{sfn|Brunner|2004}}
Around 230 BCE, the Parnian king and founder of the Parthian Empire, Arsaces I, sought refuge from the Seleucid king Seleucus II Callinicus by fleeing among the Massagataean sub-tribe of the Apasiacae.{{sfn|Schmitt|1986}} 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.{{sfn|Koshelenko|Pilipko|1994}}
===Disappearance=== {{main|Alans}} 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 Persian Achaemenid Empire. The succeeding Seleucid Empire started attacking the Massagetae, Saka and Dahae 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 starting in the late 4th century and the early 3rd century BCE.{{sfn|Melyukova|1990}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}}
The Massagetae themselves merged with tribal groups in Central Asia to form the Alans, a people who themselves belonged to the larger Sarmatian group. Related to the Asii who had invaded Bactria 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 and Roman 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.{{sfn|Melyukova|1990}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}}
In 375 CE, the Huns conquered most of the Alans living to the east of the Don river, 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 Migration Period. Some free Alans fled into the mountains of the Caucasus, where they participated in the ethnogenesis of populations including the Ossetians and the Kabardians, and other Alan groupings survived in Crimea. Other free Alans migrated into Central and then Western Europe, from where some of them went to Britannia and Hispania, and some Alans joined the Germanic Vandals into crossing the Strait of Gibraltar and creating the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}}{{sfn|Melyukova|1990}}
===Legacy=== Byzantine authors later used the name "Massagetae" as an archaising term for the Huns, Turks, Tatars and other related peoples who were completely unrelated to the populations the name initially designated in Antiquity.{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}}
A 9th century work by Rabanus Maurus, ''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."<ref>{{cite book |title=De universo |last=Maurus |first=Rabanus |author-link=Rabanus Maurus |editor-last=Migne |editor-first=Jacques Paul |year=1864|location=Paris |quote=The Massagetae are in origin from the tribe of the Scythians, and are called Massagetae, as if heavy, that is, strong Getae.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=History and study of the Jats: with reference to Sikhs, Scythians, Alans, Sarmatians, Goths, and Jutes |page=8 |last=Dhillon |first=Balbir Singh |publisher=Beta Publishers |location=Canada |year=1994 |edition=illustrated |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U9KpAAAACAAJ |isbn=1-895603-02-1}}</ref> In Central Asian languages such as Middle Persian and Avestan, the prefix ''massa'' means "great," "heavy," or "strong."<ref name="Rishi (1982)">{{cite book |title= India & Russia: linguistic & cultural affinity |page=95 | last=Rishi |first=Weer Rajendra |author-link=Weer Rajendra Rishi |publisher=Roma |year=1982 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vns_AAAAMAAJ&q=Getae}}</ref>
Some authors, such as Alexander Cunningham, James P. Mallory, Victor H. Mair, and Edgar Knobloch have proposed relating the Massagetae to the Gutians of 2000 BC Mesopotamia, and/or a people known in ancient China as the "Da Yuezhi" or "Great Yuezhi" (who founded the Kushan Empire 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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mallory |first1=J. P. |last2=Mair |first2=Victor H. |year=2000 |title=The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West |location=London |publisher=Thames & Hudson |pages=98–99 |isbn=0-500-05101-1 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=John F. Haskins |title=Pazyrik – The Valley of the Frozen Tombs |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GLj7DAAAQBAJ&pg=PT10 |year=2016 |publisher=Read Books |isbn=978-1-4733-5279-7 |page=10}}</ref><ref>THE STRONGEST TRIBE, Yu. A. Zuev, page 33: "Massagets of the earliest ancient authors... are the Yuezhis of the Chinese sources"</ref> These theories are not widely accepted, however.
Many scholars have suggested that the Massagetae were related to the Getae of ancient Eastern Europe.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Geats of Beowulf: a study in the geographical mythology of the Middle Ages |year=1967 |page=68 |last=Leake |first=Jane Acomb |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |isbn=978-0-598-17720-9 |edition=illustrated |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QT_XAAAAMAAJ&q=MAssagetae}}</ref>
Tadeusz Sulimirski notes that the Sacae also invaded parts of Northern India.<ref name="Sulimirski 1970 113–114">{{cite book |title=The Sarmatians |volume=73 of Ancient peoples and places |pages=113–114 |last=Sulimirski |first=Tadeusz |author-link=Tadeusz Sulimirski |publisher=Praeger |location=New York |year=1970 |isbn=978-90-800572-7-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gdjhuAAACAAJ |quote=The evidence of both the ancient authors and the archaeological remains point to a massive migration of Sacian (Sakas)/Massagetan tribes from the Syr Daria Delta (Central Asia) by the middle of the second century B.C. Some of the Syr Darian tribes; they also invaded North India.}}</ref> Weer Rajendra Rishi, an Indian linguist<ref>[http://rishi.anantdutta.in/obituary.html Indian Institute of Romani Studies] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130108051317/http://rishi.anantdutta.in/obituary.html |date=2013-01-08 }}</ref> has identified linguistic affinities between Indian and Central Asian languages, which further lends credence to the possibility of historical Sacae influence in Northern India.<ref name="Rishi (1982)" /><ref name="Sulimirski 1970 113–114" />
==Culture== ===Lifestyle=== According to Strabo, the Massagetae lived on the plains, the mountains, the marshes, and the islands in the country irrigated by the Araxes river.{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}}
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.{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}} 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.{{sfn|Gera|2018}} According to the Greek author Strabo, the Derbices did not consume any female animals.{{sfn|Brunner|2004}}
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.{{sfn|Gera|2018}}
The Massagetae might possibly have practised cranial deformation.{{sfn|Brunner|2004}}
===Clothing=== thumb|250px|{{center|Drawing of Saka soldiers serving in Achaemenid army based on Herodotus' description.<br/>Tigraxaudā/Orthocorybantian soldier on the right wears a pointed hat.}} Like all ancient Iranian peoples, the Massagetae/{{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}} 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 and moccasins. 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 ({{lang|peo|𐎫𐎡𐎥𐎼𐎧𐎢𐎭}} {{transliteration|peo|Tigraxaudā}}) and the Greeks ({{lang|grc|Ορθοκορυβαντες}} {{transliteration|grc|Orthokorubantes}}), both meaning "wearer of pointed caps," were derived. The use of the Median closed tunic among the {{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}} was the result of extensive contact between the {{transliteration|peo|Tigraxaudā}} and the Medes during the period of the Median Empire.{{sfn|Francfort|1988|pages=189-191}}{{sfn|Dandamayev|1994|page=45}}{{sfn|Negmatov|1994|p=435}}<ref name="Diakonoff"/>{{sfn|Vogelsang|1992|page=156-157, 160}}
The fishermen wore seal skins, while the sheep-breeders wore clothing made of wool.{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}}
The Massagetae wore golden headdresses, belts, shoulder straps, and used golden harnesses and bronze armour for their horses.{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}}
===Warfare=== The Massagetae fought both on foot and on horseback, and their weapons consisted of bows and arrows, spears, and battle-axes. Their horse armour, spearheads, and arrowheads were made of bronze.{{sfn|Schmitt|2018b}}{{sfn|Gera|2018}}
The Massagetae especially used spears whose blades were made of copper or iron, due to which the Greek called them the {{transliteration|grc|aikhmophoroi}} ({{lang|grc|αιχμοφοροι}}), meaning "spear-bearers." {{sfn|Litvinsky|2000}}
===Language=== The name of the Massagetaean prince, recorded in the Greek form {{transliteration|grc|Spargapisēs}} ({{lang|grc|Σπαργαπισης}}) and reflecting the Scythian form {{transliteration|xsc|*Spargapis}}, is of Scythian language origin, and his name and the name of the Agathyrsi king Spargapeithes and the Scythian king Spargapeithes ({{langx|xsc|*Spargapaiϑah}}) are variants of the same name.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hinz |first=Walther |date=1975 |title=Altiranisches Sprachgut der Nebenüberlieferungen |url=https://archive.org/details/AltiranischesSprachgutDerNebenberlieferungen |location=Wiesbaden, Germany |publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag |page=[https://archive.org/details/AltiranischesSprachgutDerNebenberlieferungen/page/n111/mode/2up 226] |isbn=978-3-447-01703-9 }}</ref>{{sfn|Kullanda|2014}}{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}}
The name of the {{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}} king Skuⁿxa might be related to the Ossetian term meaning "distinguishing oneself," and attested as {{transliteration|os|skₒyxyn}} ({{lang|os|{{script|Cyrl|схоыхын}}}}) in the Digor dialect, and as {{transliteration|os|æsk'wænxun}} {{lang|os|({{script|Cyrl|ӕскъуӕнхун}}}}) in the Iron dialect.<ref>{{harvnb|Schmitt|2018a}}: "OPers. {{transliteration|peo|Skunxa-}} (the leader of the Sakas, who rebelled against Darius I), perhaps related to Oss. {{transliteration|os|skₒyxyn}}/{{transliteration|os|æsk'wænxun}} "to distinguish oneself"."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Schmitt|2018c}}: {{lang|de|"3. altpers. Skunxa- (der Anführer der Saken, die sich gegen Dareios I. erhoben), vielleicht zu verbinden mit osset. digoron skₒyxyn, iron æsk'wænxun "sich auszeichnen usw."."}} [3. OPers. Skunxa- (the leader of the Sakas, who rebelled against Darius I), perhaps related to Osset. Digor {{transliteration|os|skₒyxyn, Iron æsk'wænxun}} "to distinguish oneself, etc.".]</ref>
===Religion=== {{main|Scythian 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, who was associated with the worship of fire and horses.{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}}{{sfn|Abetekov|Yusupov|1994}} When Cyrus attacked the Massagetae, their queen Tomyris swore by the Sun to kill him if he did not return to his kingdom.{{sfn|Gera|2018}}
However, Strabo 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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Safaee |first=Yazdan |editor-last1=Niknami |editor-first1=Kamal-Aldin |editor-last2=Hozhabri |editor-first2=Ali |date=2020 |title=Archaeology of Iran in the Historical Period | chapter=Scythian and Zoroastrian Earth Goddesses: A Comparative Study on Api and Ārmaiti |series=University of Tehran Science and Humanities Series |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/40206238 |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-41776-5_6 |location= |publisher=Springer International Publishing |pages=65–75 |isbn=978-3-030-41776-5 |s2cid=219515548 }}</ref>
===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 outside of her tent, inside of which the couple would proceed to have intercourse.{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}}{{sfn|Gera|2018}} Edvard Westermarck, however, in ''The History of Human Marriage'', 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.<ref name=Westermarck>[https://archive.org/details/historyofhumanma01west/page/106/mode/1up?view=theater Westermarck, Edvard, ''The History of Human Marriage'', Vol. 1, Ch. 3, pp.106-07 (London, 1921).]</ref>
===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.{{sfn|Schmitt|2018a}}
== See also == * Zarinaea, queen of a Saka tribe which also had contact with the Medes * Mount Imeon * Indo-Scythians * Getae * Thyssagetae
== Footnotes == <references />
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Category:Massagetae Category:Nomadic groups in Eurasia Category:Tribes described primarily by Herodotus