Bartatua

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Bartatua
King of the Scythians
Reignc. 679-c. 658/9 BCE
Predecessor
Išpakaia (?)
ReligionScythian religion

Bartatua or Protothyes was a

Western Asia
in the 7th century BCE.

Name

The

Latin: Protothyes) are derived from a Scythian language name whose original form was either *Pr̥ϑutavah, meaning "with far-reaching strength,"[4] or *Pṛtatavah, meaning "mighty in battle."[5][6][7][8]

Historical background

In the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, a significant movement of the nomads of the Eurasian steppe brought the Scythians into Southwest Asia. This movement started when another nomadic Iranic tribe closely related to the Scythians, either the Massagetae[9] or the Issedones,[10] migrated westwards, forcing the Early Scythians of the to the west across the Araxes river,[11] following which the Scythians moved into the Caspian Steppe from where they displaced the Cimmerians.[11]

Under Scythian pressure, the Cimmerians migrated to the south along the coast of the Black Sea and reached Anatolia, and the Scythians in turn later expanded to the south, following the coast of the Caspian Sea and arrived in the steppes in the Northern Caucasus, from where they expanded into the region of present-day Azerbaijan, where they settled and turned eastern Transcaucasia into their centre of operations in Western Asia until the early 6th century BCE,[12][13][14][15] with this presence in Western Asia being an extension of the Scythian kingdom of the steppes.[16] During this period, the Scythian kings' headquarters were located in the steppes to the north of Caucasus, and contact with the civilisation of Western Asia would have an important influence on the formation of Scythian culture.[9]

Life and reign

Bartatua was the successor of the previous Scythian king,

Išpakaia, and might have been his son. After Išpakaia had attacked the Neo-Assyrian Empire and died in battle against the Assyrian king Esarhaddon around 676 BCE, Bartatua succeeded him.[17]

In the later mid-670s BCE, in alliance with an eastern group of the Cimmerians who had migrated into the

Šamaš.[17] Whether this marriage did happen is not recorded in the Assyrian texts, but the close alliance between the Scythians and Assyria under the reigns of Bartatua and his son and successor Madyes suggests that the Assyrian priests did approve of this marriage between a daughter of an Assyrian king and a nomadic lord, which had never happened before in Assyrian history; the Scythians were thus brought into a marital alliance with Assyria, and Šērūʾa-ēṭirat was likely the mother of Bartatua's son Madyes.[21][22][20][23][24]

Bartatua's marriage to Šērūʾa-ēṭirat required that he would pledge allegiance to Assyria as a vassal, and in accordance to Assyrian law, the territories ruled by him would be his fief granted by the Assyrian king, which made the Scythian presence in Western Asia a nominal extension of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.[17] Under this arrangement, the power of the Scythians in Western Asia heavily depended on their cooperation with the Assyrian Empire;[25] henceforth, the Scythians remained allies of the Assyrian Empire.[17] Around this time, the Urartian king Rusa II might also have enlisted Scythian troops to guard his western borderlands.[22]

Over the course of 660 to 659 BCE, Esarhaddon's son and successor to the Assyrian throne,

Mannai, who had previously, in alliance with Bartatua's predecessor Išpakaia, expanded their territories at the expense of Assyria. After trying in vain to stop the Assyrian advance, the Mannaean king Aḫsēri was overthrown by a popular rebellion and was killed along with most of his dynasty by the revolting populace, after which his surviving son Ualli requested help from Assyria, which was provided through the intermediary of Ashurbanipal's relative, the Scythian king, after which the Scythians extended their hegemony to Mannai itself.[26]

The marital alliance between the Scythian king and the Assyrian ruling dynasty, as well as the proximity of the Scythians with the Assyrian-influenced Mannai and Urartu placed the Scythians under the strong influence of Assyrian culture.[14]

Bartatua was succeeded by his son, Madyes, who would bring Scythian power in Western Asia to its peak.[17]

Saqqez inscription

An inscription from Saqqez written in the Scythian language using the Hieroglyphic Luwian script refers to the a king named Partitava, that is Bartatua.[27]

Inscription of Saqqez
Line Phonetic transliteration Scythian transliteration English translation
1 pa-tì-na-sa-nà tà-pá wá-s₆-na-m₅ XL was-was-ki XXX ár-s-tí-m₅ ś₃-kar-kar (HA) har-s₆-ta₅ LUGAL patinasana tapa. vasnam: 40 vasaka 30 arzatam šikar. UTA harsta XŠAYAI. Delivered dish. Value: 40 calves 30 silver šiqlu. And it was presented to the king.
2 Par-tì-ta₅-wa₅ ki-ś₃-a₄-á KUR-u-pa-ti QU-wa-a₅ Partitava xšaya DAHYUupati xva- King Partitavas, the masters of the land pro-
3 i₅-pa-ś₂-a-m₂ ipašyam -perty

Legacy

Graeco-Roman authors confused Bartatua with his predecessors and successors, including his son Madyes, into a single figure by claiming that it was Madyes himself who led the Scythians from Central Asia into chasing the Cimmerians out of their homeland and then defeating the Medes and the legendary Egyptian king Sesostris and imposing their rule over Asia for many years before returning to Scythia. Later Graeco-Roman authors named this Scythian king as Idanthyrsos or Tanausis, although this Idanthyrsos is a legendary figure separate from the later historical Scythian king Idanthyrsus, from whom the Graeco-Romans derived merely his name.[28][13][29]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-813-51304-1
    .
  2. ^ a b Ivantchik 1999, pp. 508–509: "Though Madyes himself is not mentioned in Akkadian texts, his father, the Scythian king Par-ta-tu-a, whose identification with Προτοθύης of Herodotus is certain.
  3. ^ "Barta-tua [1] (RN)". Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus. University of Pennsylvania. Archived from the original on 2022-09-20. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
  4. ^ a b c Schmitt 2000.
  5. ^ Harmatta 1999, p. 123.
  6. ^ Bukharin 2011, p. 63.
  7. ^ Kullanda & Raevskiy 2004, p. 94.
  8. ^ Melikov 2016, p. 78-80.
  9. ^ a b Olbrycht 2000b.
  10. ^ Olbrycht 2000a.
  11. ^ a b Sulimirski & Taylor 1991, p. 553.
  12. ^ Ivantchik 1993, p. 127-154.
  13. ^ a b Diakonoff 1985, p. 97.
  14. ^ a b Sulimirski & Taylor 1991, p. 560-590.
  15. JSTOR 123971
    . Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  16. ^ a b Ivantchik 2018.
  17. ^ a b c d e Sulimirski & Taylor 1991, p. 564-565.
  18. ^ Ivantchik 1993, p. 57-94.
  19. ^ Sulimirski & Taylor 1991, p. 564.
  20. ^ a b Diakonoff 1985, p. 89-109.
  21. ^ Sulimirski & Taylor 1991, p. 566-567.
  22. ^ a b Barnett 1991, pp. 356–365.
  23. ^ Ivantchik 2018: "In approximately 672 BCE the Scythian king Partatua (Protothýēs of Hdt., 1.103) asked for the hand of the daughter of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon, promising to conclude a treaty of alliance with Assyria. It is probable that this marriage took place and the alliance also came into being (SAA IV, no. 20; Ivantchik, 1993, pp. 93-94; 205-9)."
  24. ^ Bukharin 2011: "С одной стороны, Мадий, вероятно, полуассириец, даже будучи «этническим» полускифом (его предшественник и, вероятно, отец, ‒ царь скифов Прототий, женой которого была дочь ассирийского царя Ассархаддона)" [On the one hand, Madyes is probably a half-Assyrian, even being an “ethnic” half-Scythian (his predecessor and, probably, father, is the Scythian king Protothyes, whose wife was the daughter of the Assyrian king Essarhaddon)]
  25. ^ Sulimirski & Taylor 1991, p. 567.
  26. ^ Diakonoff 1985, p. 110-119.
  27. ^ Harmatta 1999, p. 124.
  28. ^ Spalinger 1978, p. 54.
  29. ^ Ivantchik 1999.

Sources

Bartatua
Bartatua's dynasty
 Died: c. 658/9 BCE
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Išpakaia
 King of the Scythians
c. 679–c. 658/9 BCE 		Succeeded by
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