Tamiris (fl. 550–530 BCE)
Tamiris (fl. 550–530 bce)
Scythian queen. Name variations: Tamyris, Tomyris. Flourished between 550 and 530 bce; warrior queen and ruler of the nomadic Massagetae tribe in Persia (now Iran), who lived beyond the lower Oxus River by the Aral Sea.
According to Herodotus, Tamiris spurned a marriage offer from Cyrus II the Great, founder of the great Persian Empire, who was after her kingdom along with her hand. In 530 bce, though nearly 70, Cyrus campaigned in the distant northeastern part of his realm against Tamiris and the nomadic Massagatae and established an outpost on the Jaxartes River called Cyropolis (Cyreschata, modern Kurkath). With her son at the helm, Tamiris sent her armies to abort his invasion. When her son was slain, she led the army in his stead. Toward the end of July 530 bce, she defeated Cyrus and he was killed in battle. On August 12, a text from Borsippa still bore the date "in the 9th year of Cyrus, of the King of the Lands," as news of the king's death had not yet reached Mesopotamia. But by August 31, the inscriptions at Babylon read, "Year of the beginning of the rule of Cambyses, of the King of the Lands." The body of the great monarch was transported about a thousand miles to be placed in his tomb at Pasargadae.