Achaemenid rule in Central Asia

Cyrus II was the first Persian king to try to conquer Central Asia: he took Parthia, Margiana and Bactria. In 530 BCE he marched against the Massagetae. According to Herodotus, their queen Tomyris offered the Persians to go back; Cyrus refused; in a fierce battle the Massagetae won and Cyrus II was killed. At the start of Darius I’s reign, about 522 BCE, a revolt against the Persians broke out in Margiana under Frada; it was crushed and Frada executed. This is recorded in the Behistun inscription. Darius I also campaigned against the Sakas (Behistun names Skunkha, a leader of the pointed-hat Sakas). Polyaenus tells that the Saka shepherd Shiraq led the Persians into a waterless desert and brought them to ruin. The Achaemenids divided conquered lands into satrapies; a satrap had great power. Central Asian peoples paid taxes in silver, livestock and crafts and fought in the Persian army: Herodotus wrote that Bactrians, Sakas, Sogdians and Khorezmians took part in the Greco-Persian wars. In this time cities (Afrasiyab, Qiziltepa, Yerqorgon, Uzunqir) developed, gold and silver were mined and the first coins spread. In 1877 the Oxus Treasure was found — priceless examples of goldsmiths’ art; it is now in the British Museum.