Massagetae
group · 3 works · 4 mentions · 5 anchored passages
the Massagetae · the Massagetes
in the texts
The Histories
A powerful eastern people beyond the Araxes whom Cyrus attacks and by whom he is ultimately defeated and killed.
These are said to be a great and powerful people dwelling towards the east and the sunrise, beyond the Araxes and opposite the Issedones;
They equip their horses similarly, protecting their chests with bronze breastplates and putting gold on reins, bits, and cheekplates.
These Massagetae are like the Scythians in their dress and way of life.
Letters
A foreign people invoked pejoratively alongside the Scythians for the coarse newcomers dominating the marketplace.
In their place has been brought in the boorishness of certain Scythians or Massagetae;
Adversus Marcionem
Central Asian tribe invoked as a byword for inhumanity.
more foul than any Scythian, more unsettled than the wagon-dweller, more inhuman than the Massagetes, more audacious than an Amazon, darker than the fog, colder than winter, more brittle than the ice, more treacherous than the Danube, more precipitous than the Caucasus.