The Massagetae

The Massagetae, an offshoot of the Scythians, were a nomadic people inhabiting the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea.

Herodotus says that "they had a community of wives; that they sacrificed and devoured their aged people; that they worshipped the sun, and offered horses to him; that they lived on the milk and flesh of their herds, and on fish; that they fought on horseback and on foot, with lance and bow and double-edged axe."

An unfortunate campaign against this uncivilized, well-mounted nation brought the hitherto victorious career of Cyrus the Great to a close.

He had just completed his conquest of Babylon, and was preparing to march against Egypt, when, in an engagement with the Scythians, or Massagetae, he was defeated and slain.

In a previous engagement with them he had been entirely victorious, taking prisoner their leader, a son of Tomyris, queen of the Massagetae. This had caused such vexation to the royal commander, that after Cyrus loosened his bonds he killed himself. When Tomyris heard of the death of her son, fired with revenge and grief she gathered all her remaining forces, and marched against the Persians, and, at the river Jaxartes, obtained a complete victory over them. Cyrus was taken prisoner, and the flower of his army perished, 530 B.C.

The Scythian queen, it is said, caused the great Cyrus to be put to death in the most cruel manner, and his head severed and cast into a leathern bag filled with the blood of the Persian soldiers, saying, "Now mayst thou take thy fill of blood, since in life thou couldst not get enough."

His body was afterwards conveyed to Persia, and buried at Pasargadae. There a splendid tomb of white marble marks the sepulture of this powerful king, who ruled from the Mediterranean to the Indus, or over the whole of civilized Asia.

One is reminded that human nature is the same in all ages, when we read the stories of Jael and Sisera, of Judith and Holofernes, in which conquerors were put to death by women. There are besides these, numerous similar instances in Roman history.