I was actually very surprised when I read that the great Cyrus was defeated and killed by a women named Tomyris.
Here are some information about the queen of the Massagetae Tomyris:
Tomyris /ˈtoʊmɨrɪs/, from the Persian: تهم*رییش‎ Tahm-Rayi,[1] was a queen who reigned over the Massagetae, a pastoral-nomadic Iranian people[2][3][4][5] of Central Asia east of the Caspian Sea, in approximately 530 BC.
The names of Tomyris and her son, Spargapises, who was the head of her army, are of Iranian[1] origins. Since the historians who first wrote of her were Greek, the Hellenic form of her name is used most frequently.
Many Greek historians recorded that she "defeated and killed" the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great during his invasion and attempted conquest of her country. Herodotus, who lived from approximately 484 to 425 BC, is the earliest of the classical writers to give an account of her career, writing almost one hundred years later. Her history was well known and became legendary. Strabo, Polyaenus, Cassiodorus, and Jordanes (in De origine actibusque Getarum, The Origin and Deeds of the Goths) also wrote of her.[6]
According to the accounts of Greek historians, Cyrus was victorious in his initial assault on the Massagetae. His advisers suggested laying a trap for the pursuing Scythians: the Persians left behind them an apparently abandoned camp, containing a rich supply of wine. The pastoral Scythians were not used to drinking wine"their favored intoxicants were hashish and fermented mare's milk"[7]and they drank themselves into a stupor. The Persians attacked while their opponents were incapacitated, defeating the Massagetae forces, and capturing Tomyris' son, Spargapises, the general of her army. Of the one third of the Massagetae forces that fought, there were more captured than killed. According to Herodotus, Spargagises coaxed by Cyrus into removing his bonds, thus allowing him to commit suicide while in Persian captivity.[8]
Tomyris sent a message to Cyrus denouncing his treachery, and with all her forces, challenged him to a second battle. In the fight that ensued, the Massagetae got the upper hand, and the Persians were defeated with high casualties. Cyrus was killed and Tomyris had his corpse beheaded and then crucified,[9] and shoved his head into a wineskin filled with human blood. She was reportedly quoted as saying, "I warned you that I would quench your thirst for blood, and so I shall"[10][11] (Hdt 1.214)[8]
Tomyris legacy:
Eustache Deschamps added Tomyris to his poetry as one of the nine Female Worthies in the late 14th century
The name "Tomyris" also has been adopted into zoological taxonomy, for the tomyris species-group of Central Asian Lepidoptera.
In Turkic countries like Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the queen of Massagetae is sometimes claimed as "Turkic" by local pseudohistorians or Pan-Turkic nationalists, even revered as a national heroine. The given name Tomris has also become very popular in these countries in 20th and 21st century. To'marisning Aytgani (The Sayings of Tomyris) is a 1996 book of poetry by Uzbek poet Halima Xudoyberdiyeva.
Tomyris - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Here are some informations about the Massagetae:
Herodotus about the Massagetae:
[1.215] In their dress and mode of living the Massagetae resemble the Scythians. They fight both on horseback and on foot, neither method is strange to them: they use bows and lances, but their favourite weapon is the battle-axe. Their arms are all either of gold or brass. For their spear-points, and arrow-heads, and for their battle-axes, they make use of brass; for head-gear, belts, and girdles, of gold. So too with the caparison of their horses, they give them breastplates of brass, but employ gold about the reins, the bit, and the cheek-plates. They use neither iron nor silver, having none in their country; but they have brass and gold in abundance.
[1.201] When Cyrus had achieved the conquest of the Babylonians, he conceived the desire of bringing the Massagetae under his dominion. Now the Massagetae are said to be a great and warlike nation, dwelling eastward, toward the rising of the sun, beyond the river Araxes, and opposite the Issedones. By many they are regarded as a Scythian race.
[1.211] Cyrus advanced a day's journey into Massagetan territory from the Araxes... Many of the Massagetae were killed, but even more taken prisoner, including Queen Tomyris's son, who was commander of the army and whose name was Spargapises.
[1.214] Tomyris mustered all her forces and engaged Cyrus in battle. I consider this to have been the fiercest battle between non-Greeks that there has ever been.... They fought at close quarters for a long time, and neither side would give way, until eventually the Massagetae gained the upper hand. Most of the Persian army was wiped out there, and Cyrus himself died too.
What other scholars and historians wrote about the Massagetae:
Ammianus Marcellinus considered the Alans to be the former Massagetae.[14] At the close of the 4th century CE, Claudian (the court poet of Emperor Honorius and Stilicho) wrote of Alans and Massagetae in the same breath: "the Massagetes who cruelly wound their horses that they may drink their blood, the Alans who break the ice and drink the waters of Maeotis' lake" (In Rufinem).
Procopius writes in History of the Wars Book III: The Vandalic War:[15] "the Massagetae whom they now call Huns" (XI. 37.), "there was a certain man among the Massagetae, well gifted with courage and strength of body, the leader of a few men; this man had the privilege handed down from his fathers and ancestors to be the first in all the Hunnic armies to attack the enemy" (XVIII. 54.).
Evagrius Scholasticus (Ecclesiastical History. Book 3. Ch. II.): "and in Thrace, by the inroads of the Huns, formerly known by the name of Massagetae, who crossed the Ister without opposition".[16]
Teophan the Byzantine depcits the Gökturks as the former Massagetae:
He wrote: East from Tanaid live Türks, in antiquity called Massagets. Persians in their language call them Kermikhions (Byzantian Historians. SPb., 1861, 492)
Asia in 323 BC and the location of the Massagetae:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Asia_323bc.jpg
