Wikipedia
The Massagetae, or Massageteans , were an ancient Eastern Iranian nomadic confederation, who inhabited the steppes of Central Asia, north-east of the Caspian Sea (in modern Turkmenistan, western Uzbekistan, and southern Kazakhstan). The Massagetae are known primarily from the writings of Herodotus.
They are widely believed to have been related to the Getae. In Central Asian languages such as Middle Persian and Avestan, the prefix massa means "great", "heavy", or "strong". George Rawlinson in his Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy describes massagetae as great jits or jats.
Herodotus described the Massagetae as living on a sizeable portion of the great plain east of the Caspian Sea. He several times refers to them as living "beyond the River Araxes", which flows through the Caucasus and into the west Caspian. Scholars have offered various explanations for this anomaly. For example, Herodotus may have confused two or more rivers, as he had limited and frequently indirect knowledge of geography.
Usage examples of "massagetae".
He had begun to see his chance when he learned that old King Mithradates of the Parthians was too ill to proceed with a projected invasion of Syria-and too ill to prevent the barbarians called Massagetae from taking over all his lands to the north and east of Parthia itself, as well as to prevent one of his sons, Gotarzes, from usurping Babylonia.
He garrisons Bactria to keep the Massagetae at bay, as they are tribes, not a nation.
And according to my invaluable informant Antipater, ten thousand more who survived the first fight further down the Bilechas were rounded up by the Pahlavi Surenas and sent to the frontier of Bactria beyond the Caspian Sea, where they are to be used to keep the Massagetae from raiding.
Gauls, Germans, Scythians, Sarmatians, Massagetae and other peoples of the steppes and forests were barbarians.
I had one, might doubtless surpass every other country on this earth in its amenities and splendid appointments, not long ago I felt the urge to go traveling again, and I made a trip to the distant land of the Massagetae, where I had not been since the invention of gunpowder.
And indeed my estimation of the valiant Massagetae was by no means too high.
Like all countries which have ambitions of being counted among the more advanced, that of the Massagetae nowadays sends a reporter to meet each foreigner who approaches its frontier.
His somewhat darker tone warned me that my earlier utterances about the Massagetae, whom I nonetheless continued to hold in the highest esteem, had by no means been met with unreserved approbation here in this country.
I am well aware that the Massagetae are not only the oldest and most pious, most cultured, and at the same time the bravest people on earth, that their invincible armies are the largest, their fleet the greatest, their character at once the most inflexible and the most amiable, their women the most beautiful, their schools and public buildings the most exemplary in the world, but also that in all the world they possess in the highest degree that virtue which is so highly esteemed and so sorely lacking in many other great peoples: namely, although conscious of their own superiority, they are charitable toward and considerate of foreigners, not expecting each and every poor stranger -- coming from an inferior country -- to have himself attained the heights of Massagetic perfection.
Although our nation adopted the Christian religion centuries ago, and although there is no longer any trace of the former gods and cults of the Massagetae, there is still a small, all-too-ardent faction in our country bent on reintroducing the gods from the days of the Persian King Cyrus and Queen Tomyris.
But it is seldom acknowledged that he was bested in battle and executed by an amazonian queen, ruler of the Massagetae, a Scythian people.
And we were among Sarmatian tribes as far as the Caspian Sea, and after that among the Massagetae and Dahae, who understand our language.
While some habits ascribed to the Massagetae were like what Columbus observed in Veragua, their home was nowhere near eastern China.
Countess of Auvergne, who attempts to dominate him in the spirit of a heroic Amazonian woman out of history and legend, Tomyris, Queen of the Massagetae, who slew Cyrus the Great and ordered his head to be placed in a wineskin filled wit h blood.
Actually, the Massagetae drove out the Scythians from the trans-Caspian area and replaced them.