15. Darius Got Off Light Compared to This Predecessor on the Persian Throne
Darius got off relatively easy in his failed attempt to conquer his Steppe nomad neighbors. He wasted time and effort and money, and suffered some embarrassment and loss of prestige, but came out of it alive. Not so Cyrus the Great, the greatest king of ancient Persia, founder of the Persian Empire, and one of Darius’ predecessors. Cyrus experienced a fatal debacle when he took on the Massagetae, a nomadic confederation that stretched across the Central Asian Steppe from east of the Caspian Sea to the borders of China.
They were led by Tomyris (flourished 500s BC), a formidable warrior queen who defeated Cyrus and brought his brilliant career of uninterrupted conquests to a sudden halt in 530 BC. As recounted by ancient sources, the Massagetae were nomads who spoke an Iranian language and led a hardy pastoral life on the Eurasian Steppe. They tended their herds most of the time, interspersed with raids into the civilized lands that bordered the Steppe. Their raids eventually grew too bothersome for Cyrus, who had recently founded the Persian Empire, and whose realm now encompassed many of the territories subjected to Massagetae attacks.
