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Over three thousand years ago in the lands of ancient Persia, where Caspian
tigers hunted at night and Asiatic lions hunted by day, a new breed of horse
evolved. He was tall and swift, and color adorned his sides. The ancient
Greeks called him the Nisean after the town Nisa where he was bred; the
Chinese called him the Tien Ma-Heavenly Horse or Soulon-Vegetarian dragon.
He was the most valuable horse in the ancient world, and he was regarded as
the most beautiful horses alive. Some were spotted like a leopard or as
golden as a newly minted coin. Others were red and blue roan with darker
color in the roan, what Mustang people call blue and red corn.
The Assyrians hunted lions from his back while the Northern Chinese pursued
the Siberian tiger. His image was carved into cliffs from Bulgaria to China
and even one Japanese emperor had an image of himself made killing a lion
from his back. Legend has it that he danced on the mountains and was a
descendent of immortal dragons. His arrival changed history.
I. The First Horsemen
Human beings and horses have had a long and sometimes not so pleasant
association with one another. 40,000 years ago Cro-Magnons painted images of
the horses on cave walls, and archeological finds in France and the Americas
indicate that people sometimes hunted the horse in a less than humane
manner, driving them over cliffs, and in the case of the Americas, into
extinction. At Peche-Merle, Alexander Marshack who wrote the book “The Roots
of Civilization” in 1972 used infrared photography on the famous ‘two
spotted horses’ to show that the horses, spots, and hand prints were not
created at the same time. In fact, “The sequence,” he states, “suggests a
long term, periodic, and variable ritual use of the wall and horse.”
Dr. J.P.Mallory in his work on development of the Indo-European Language
noted that during the Pleistocene Age horses had been hunted extensively
throughout Europe. But after the Ice Age, horse remains became extremely
rare as the indigenous wild horse was being eaten into extinction. In Spain,
France and Germany, the remains became so rare that at one sight in Danubian
Germany, out of 5000 bones, only 17 belonged to horses. And while it looked
as if the horse in Europe and Asia would suffer the same fate as its kin in
the Americas, something remarkable happened in what is now southern Russia.
Sometime around 4000 BC, someone discovered that the horse could be ridden,
and the world has not been the same since.
Dr. David Anthony and Dorcas Brown of Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York
have been working in southern Russia and Kazakhstan looking into the origins
of horseback riding and its impact on society. Their organization, the
Institute for Ancient Equestrian Studies, located at Hartwick College, New
York, has uncovered some very interesting finds that include among others:
- The skull of a horse from Kazakhstan with bit wear on its teeth dating to
3500 BC,
- Bronze Age chariots from the Russian steppes that might actually be older
than the ones in the Near East-long thought to be their place of origin.
- Human bones with a horse skull in place of its own skull lending credence
to certain Asian Indian myths.
These first horsemen belonged to the Indo-European family and were ancestors
of the Celts, Scythians and related Indo-Iranian tribes. The lived on the
grassy steppes of Southern Russian and ranged from the Ukraine to Siberia.
At present it is believed that their horses were small, tough and shaggy
animals that were hardy enough to survive on little food and the coldest
Siberian winters. If one surviving breed today could be said to favor them,
the Mongolian pony would come closest.
But sometime around 2000 BC Indo-European horsemen in chariots driven by
well bred animals literally burst on the scene and quickly conquered those
unmounted civilizations that they came into contact with. The Hittites,
Mittani and Kassites became the chief powers in the Middle East, driving
what is described as Arabian like horses, some of them pinto colored. The
Phoenicians acquired horses at this time and may have been the dreaded
Hyksos that conquered Egypt and introduced the first horses to Africa. When
the Egyptians regained control of their lands, they were also driving
chariots and trading with the Mittani and Kassites for fresh horses.
The Luristan culture has left behind some exquisite artwork that depicts
fine-muzzled horses that could easily be mistaken for modern Arabians. It
would appear at this time that the domesticate horse came in three types,
the shaggy Tarpan like steppe pony (Mongolian), the Arabian like chariot
horse (Mittani horse), and the Celtic gaited pony. It might seem odd that
these steppe ponies weren’t quickly bred into extinction, but they had one
major advantage over the nicer looking chariot horses. The Celtic ponies
were often gaited-a valuable asset for mounted horsemen without stirrups.
The Celtics were moving out of Central Asia at this time and favored these
small horses for their gaits. They promoted the breeding of those that could
do the four beat lateral gait. Today in Spain and Iceland, the descendents
of these smooth riding animals still exist. There are even several unique
breeds in India that are also remnants of these first horses to carry
humans.
But something truly unique happened sometime after 1500 BC. It may have
occurred in the mountain valleys of Armenia or east of the Caspian Sea on
the then sweeping grasslands of the Nisa plains, it is difficult to say
after all these centuries, but a horse was bred that was bigger than the
Luristan horse to the south or the steppe pony to the north. It came in all
the colors of the Luristan horse and a new one, spots. In America, we call
this the appaloosa pattern. An added bonuses was that many of the breed were
gaited, making it the premier riding horse of Central Asia.
II. Urartu (1200-590 BC)
The first mention of a people who would become known as the Urartians was in
the 13th century BC by the Assyrians, who knew them as the Uruatri. Hebrew
tradition placed Noah’s Ark on one of their mountains-misspelled as Ararat,
and the Romans further altered the spelling when they changed the name to
Armenia.
An on again and off again ally of Assyria, the Urartians were largely
forgotten by history until recent archeological finds showed that a once
thriving civilization existed from Armenia and down through Iran and Iraq. A
mountain people, they built great fortresses overlooking their fertile
valleys. Artwork from the region shows that they were a religious people who
adorned their goods with images that often included sacred trees and angel
like beings. But a silver rython, dated at 1000 BC, is of particular
interest to the study of Nisean horse.
A king had this silver-drinking vessel made for him, and he is mounted on a
special horse. Because the rython is silver, it is impossible to tell much
about the animal except that it’s head is not the slender Arab head of the
Luristan Culture but a more robust one that was characteristic of the great
warhorse. And in a short time Armenia would become famous for breeding the
legendary horses of ancient Persian. Is it possible that they originated
here?
The Urartians were not afraid of a fight and refused to yield even when the
powerful Assyrian king, Sargon, in 714 BC sacked some of their mountain
cities. Assyrian art and records show that the Assyrians liked the larger
horse that would eventually be called the Nisean. Is it possible that some
of them were captured at this time from the Urartians?
In 654 BC when Ashurbanipal captured Susa and King Teuman of the Elamites (Kassites?),
King Rusa of Urartu sent emissaries to Assyria seeking an alliance. There
was urgency in his request; one of the people the Assyrians were warring
with, the Medes, were also warring with Urartu. This alliance did not save
Urartu. In 590 BC, the Medes destroyed Urartu completely and took over the
lands that would now become famous for their fantastic horses.
III. The Medes (900-550 BC)
The Assyrians were the first people to write about the Medes, an
Indo-Iranian tribe distantly related to the Scythians. Every spring to begin
their war season, the Assyrians either stole or demanded a tribute of horses
from the Medes. The best horses were the Niseans and were the most prized
animals in Central Asia. The Assyrians were willing to do anything to keep
their supply of animals coming. Sargon held Deioces (Daiaukku), the
legendary founder of Medea, captive in Assyria in 715 BCE, a year before his
raid on Urartu. Deioces’ son, Cyaxares I (Uaksatar) had to pay an equine
tribute on his father’s behalf, although in 702 BCE, Cyaxares did attack the
Assyrian province of Harhar in hopes of weakening Assyria’s grip on Medea.
But this raid did not accomplish very much. The Assyrians continued
receiving their tribute of Median horses, which were replacing the lighter
proto-Arab of the Luristans.
One famous wall panel from Assyria records what must be history’s first
‘canned’ hunt. Captured Asiatic lions are shown being released from pens and
killed by men on horseback or in chariots. The Assyrians destroyed a lot of
animals this way, including the Middle Eastern elephant that once lived in
the marshes along the Tigris and Euphrates beside a now extinct regional
rhinoceros.
In 681 BCE Sennacherib and the Assyrian army had to fight the Medes again at
Halulina. Leading the Median horsemen was Achaemenes, legendary ancestor of
the Persian rulers who would come later. Even so, he was not successful.
Horses were an enormous part of Median life. They even played a large part
in their religion. Their chief god Ahura Mazda blessed men with good horses
and good sons`. Their sun god Mithra, similar to the Greek god Helios drove
a chariot of four white stallions, and he was referred to as being swift
horsed and the lord of broad pastures. White Nisean horses were sacrificed
to him at New Years. And like St. George, he was the protector of horsemen
and chariot drivers.
The Median/Persian war god Verethraghna sometimes appeared as a golden-eared
white horse, as did Tishtryna-the star Sirius. A bringer of life, Tishtryna
often had to battle Apaosha, the black horse of drought. One goddess,
Anahita, drove a four-horse chariot of immortal stallions that represented
wind, rain, clouds and sleet.
In 675, a Median chieftain named Phraortes (Khshathrita) formed an anti
Assyrian alliance with the Cimmerians. On Assyria’s side were one of the
many bands of Scythians that roamed through Central Asia and the Urartians,
whose land would become famous for their beautiful gaited horses. Although
he ruled for 53 years, the Assyrians eventually killed Phraortes. The
Scythian horsemen drove the Cimmerians out of Central Asia for good. (Here’s
something to think about. Many historians think the Cimmerians may be
related to the Welsh, whose name for themselves is Cymbri. The Cimmerians
kept protoArabs of the Luristan type. Could the Welsh pony be a descendent
of those early protoArabs? Just a thought)
Another group of Indo-Iranians, the Persians, made their presence known at
this time. Their leader Ariyarammes, son of Tiepes, said that Ahura Mazda
gave him Parsa, a land of good horses and good men. But the Medes quickly
incorporated the Persians into their realm of influence and made Parsa a
vassal state. The Median capital was established at Ecbatana, which stood on
the slopes of Mt. Aurvant (12,000’), a part of the Zagros Mt. Range. A
beautiful region even today, Nisean horses grazed here in the cool mountain
pastures.
The Medes never gave up their desire to be rid of the Assyrians, and
Phraortes’ son, Cyaxares II Verethragna, made his attempt upon coming to
power. Dividing his army of spearmen, bowmen, and cavalry, he laid siege to
Nineveh. But Assyria’s old ally, the Scythians, counter attacked and broke
the siege. Cyaxares II had 28 more years of tribute to hand over before
trying again.
This time he set about ridding himself of the Scythians first and planned an
elaborate banquet that included much wine. Once the Scythian leaders were
too drunk to protect themselves, he killed them. Without their leaders, the
steppe horsemen were temporarily immobilized. Cyaxares then struck at the
heart of the Assyrian Empire. Nineveh fell in 612, and in 610 he defeated
Ashur-uballit and took over the entire Mesopotamian region. Not satisfied
with this, he turned his wrath on Urartu and destroyed the kingdom utterly
in 590. The killing ended on May 28, 585 BC. A solar eclipse convinced him
that the great god Mithra was tired of the bloodshed and to appease the
god’s anger, white horses were sacrificed.
As noted in a previous paragraph, the capital of the Medes was Ecbatana at
1800 meters on Mt. Elvand’s side. Now called Hamadan, it is 400 km southwest
of Tehran. Nisean horses were kept in the lush mountain pastures year round,
feeding on alfalfa and the rich grasses that still grow there. Horses still
grow fat in these mountain pastures.
It needs to be pointed out that while the Medes kept great herds of Nisean
horses, there were other animals in the region. The proto Arab, while
increasingly rare because of constant warfare, was still present in certain
areas. And the tough ponies of the Scythians had not lost their usefulness.
Small horses from India, perhaps distant ancestors of the curious breeds
that now inhabit the subcontinent, were known as far away as Greece. But
once more things were about to change.
IV. The Persians (550- 330 BC)
After the death of Cyaxares II, his son Astyages (Arshtivaiga- lance hurler)
came to the throne of the Medes. He ruled from 585 to 550. A series of
dreams about his daughter Mandan led him to marry her off to a minor vassal
king named Cambyses I. Mandan’s son Cyrus (soon to be the Great) escaped his
grandfather’s attempts to murder him and succeeded in uniting all the
Persian tribes in a revolt against Medean rule. From Anshan, his first
kingdom, he looted Ecbatana and made Medea a Persian satrapy. But instead of
treating the Medes as inferiors, Cyrus welcomed them as equals, and as
absolute rulers go, he was one of the best. He even made Ecbatana the seat
of his treasury.
From the start he was not content to rule Persia and Medea. Parthia and
Sogdiana were quickly incorporated into the Empire, which also included the
ancient kingdom of Urartu. Although dry now, the land was greener back them,
and irrigation projects were begun by Cyrus to make the land even greener.
To accommodate his army and merchants, he built 7 forts along the southern
banks of the Jaxartes each a day’s ride from the other to protect his newly
captured territory and the foremost breeding grounds of his imperial horses.
One of the constant enemies of Persia, which might be recognized by
Akhal-Teke fans, was the Turans. Scythian art from Siberia indicates that
Akhal-Teke horses may have been in development at this time, although the
depicted heads were not as fine as they are now.
As with the Medes, there were many different types of horses within the
Empire, but the royal Nisean was the mount of the nobility. Well-bred
Persian boys were taught to ride at six, and it was said that no nobleman
allowed himself to be seen on foot in public
Two white Nisean stallions pulled the shah’s royal chariot, while four of
the regal animals pulled the chariot of Ahura Mazda, the supreme god of
Persia and Medea. Silver coins from the days of Cyrus show him hunting lions
from horseback using a spear. It is safe to assume that courage and
manageability were more important than color on these occasions, and without
the stirrup, Cyrus also needed a smooth riding horse. The great horses of
Central Asia were legendary for their gaits as well as his looks. Elwyn
Hartley Edwards in his book The New Encyclopedia of the Horse called the
Nisean the super horse of the ancient world and it was certainly that.
Although some Scythian bands lived peacefully within the Persian Empire,
there were those who refused to give up their nomadic ways. One tribe, the
Massagatae, led by Queen Tomyris came into conflict with Cyrus in 530 BCE.
In a move reminiscent of Cyaxares II, he prepared a banquet and then allowed
the Massagatae chieftains to take it. When the leaders became drunk, he
captured them; one of the men was the son of Tomyris. Instead of
surrendering, the enraged queen extracted a terrible revenge on Cyrus.
Cambyses II was in Babylon when the news reached him that his father was
dead. Riding north, he retrieved his father’s body and placed it in an
elaborate tomb, which was guarded by the Magi. Every month the Magi
sacrificed a horse to Cyrus’s spirit. This was the highest honor for a man
who once drained a river dry for drowning one of his sacred horses.
Cambyses II upon assuming the throne of Persia married two of his sisters,
Atoms and Rushnak, and set about conquering Egypt. This he accomplished in
525 BCE when he captured Psammenitus III at Memphis. He wanted to continue
on to Carthage, but the Phoenicians would not help him. He died shortly
afterwards when he leaped into his saddle and stabbed himself with his own
sword.
The Nisean did not have any lasting effect on the horses of North Africa at
this time, although there were reports of spotted as well as painted
Arabians in antiquity. But with the conquest of Egypt, any quality horses
surviving from the days of Ramses the Great were taken back to Persia as war
prizes. Greek merchants traded in horseflesh, but any horses that they took
to Egypt would have come from one of their colonies in Spain. The Greeks
were quite clear on their preference for the superior Spanish horses-the
same horses the Phoenicians took to Spain a thousand years earlier. But this
falls under the history of the Arabian horse.
Cambyses’ death created chaos within the Persian Empire, and a number of
satrapies proclaimed their independence. Scythian nomads rode in from the
steppes and practiced the ancient art of looting and horse raiding.
(Preferring golden chestnuts and golden bays, some of their tombs contain
the remains of these stolen horses) And for a while it appeared that Persia
would collapse completely. But in a legend told by Herodotus, the son of the
governor of Parthia, a man by the name of Darius used a ruse to assume to
the throne of Persia. With several contenders beside him, he rode into the
capital of Susa. His stallion neighed first and he won the title of Great
King. What the contenders did not know was that Darius’ groom had allowed
the stallion to visit his favorite mare just inside the gates that they had
ridden through. Remembering the mare, the stallion had called to her. Darius
had a memorial to both his groom and horse carved into the cliffs to
commemorate the occasion.
Once on the throne, Darius set about reconquering the lands that had been
lost after Cambyses’ death. It was even reported that some time during his
reign he made the Massagatae pay for killing Cyrus. Proclaiming to be good
at everything, he had it carved on his tomb that he was also a good
horseman.
During his reign, Nisean horses were bred from Armenia to Sogdiana, which
ended in the Davan Valley-Ferghana. He even claimed to rule the nomads
beyond the Davan Valley-although it appears that this was a shaky claim at
best. During his attempted invasion of Greece, Sogdian horsemen contributed
to the make up of his cavalry.
Finding Susa a less than desirable capital, Darius built Persepolis and left
behind one of the greatest ruins of all time. Tribute from all the regions
of the Empire made its way to Persepolis and on to the walls of his castle.
Nisean horses, finely carved in great detail, still walk proudly through the
centuries, along with Scythian horses, coarser and with less detail behind
them. Among the tribute included pasture from the Saka Tigrakhauda for
50,000 Nisean horses. Armenia and Pactyica were required to send 20,000
Nisean foals to Persepolis for the New Year’s Mithra Feast. The city of
Babylon had to provide feed for 800 stallions and 16,000 mares, in addition
to food for his Indian dogs (a type of mastiff).
Darius attempted an invasion of Asia Minor and Greece but was not
successful. Scythians living along his route practiced a scorched earth
policy that left little or no feed for his animals, and once he got them to
stop running, they stunned him with their total indifference. Unnerved by
their behavior, and perhaps remembering the fate of Cyrus the Great, he gave
up his invasion attempt but left behind a small number of ships, which were
later driven off the Greece coast by the Athenians at Marathon. Although the
story is much loved by the Greeks and marathon runners, it really was much
to do about nothing.
Darius’ successor Xerxes had better luck and even incorporated a Scythian
cavalry into his army, along with horsemen from Bactria, Sogdiana, Parthia
and Armenia. This time the drive made it into the heartland of Greece where
a combined Greek army waited for them at a place called Plataea (flat
earth). General Mardonius on a white stallion led the troops and faced the
Spartans under the leadership of Pausanius, the nephew of Leonidas who had
died trying to keep the Persians out at Thermopylae. The events of the
battle can be found in detail in Herodotus’ Histories, but everyone probably
knows already that the Greeks won. General Mardonius, described as a
splendid figure on his beautiful stallion, was killed when his horse fell
and he was pinned beneath it. Of the Persian cavalry units that fought at
Plataea (the Greeks didn’t use any), the Scythians were described as the
bravest.
The outcome of the battle was interesting. The Spartans weren’t allowed to
keep any of the treasures left behind, money and wealth were forbidden to
them, but they were allowed a share of the livestock. In fact, Pausanius and
his cousin were allowed ten of every living thing left behind, with the
prince having first pick. There is no record of what Pausanius did with the
camels, perhaps dedicated them to the temple of Apollo or something, but he
did take the ten best horses left behind, as did his cousin. And every man
after him took what was considered his share.
Although not known for importing animals the way the Athenians did, the
Spartans were dedicated racehorse breeders. The Olympic records show that
Spartans won more Olympics after this battle than they had in all the time
before it. Roman reports indicate that the imperial Persian horse, the
Nisean, was faster than anything they were importing out of Spain. Spartan
horses received a very valuable dose of Persian blood after Plataea, so much
so that a Spartan princess many years later had the honor of being the first
woman to win an Olympic race. She did it twice.
An interesting is that alfalfa, an important feed for the Nisean horse, was
introduced to Greece at this time. And it should be noted that wherever the
Nisea was taken, alfalfa followed.
V. ALEXANDER OF MACEDONIA (356-323)
Most horse lovers know the story of Alexander of Macedonia and his beloved
stallion Bucephalus, a horse so wild that only he could ride it. But while
Bucephalus started his life as racehorse of the Thessalonian breed,
Alexander turned him into a quality warhorse. The Thessalonian horses were
reputed to be the fastest horses in Greece. Xerxes during his conquest of
Greece stopped in Macedonia long enough to challenge the legendary
Macedonian mares. The Persian horses soundly defeated them. But mounted on
his fiery stallion. Alexander created the first successful Greek cavalry,
which he used to conquer the Persian Empire.
One of his most famous battles, the Battle of Issus in 333 BC, showed the
efficiency of a well-trained cavalry. General Parmenion had to face the
Persian cavalry, which was described by one author as having the fluid
nature of an avalanche, devastating everything in its path. But it was
Alexander and his Companions who took the day for the Greeks when he
attacked the Persian center where Darius was waiting. Only a screening
charge by his brother Oxathres saved the Persian king, who fled from the
battlefield and demoralized his troops. The Persian cavalry became unnerved
when they heard the announcement that the king was fleeing. In a panic, they
turned to follow. The pursuing Thessalonian cavalry cut down 10,000 of them.
Alexander’s conquest of Persia is well documented, but one has to look
closely for the excerpts that discuss the imperial Nisean. Needing
replacement and refusing to ride just any horse, Alexander went looking for
the imperial stud farms, even holding towns hostage until they handed over
the valuable horses. From Phrygia to Sogdiana, he captured horses and took
them with him. Elwin Hartley Edwards in his New Encyclopedia of the Horse
even called the famous Niseans of Ferghana, Alexander’s Niseans.
This may not be entirely wishful thinking. In 329 BC, Alexander founded
Alexandria Eskhata (modern Khojend, Tajikistan) at the mouth of the Ferghana
Valley to protect his empire from marauding Scythians. He is closer to
Kokand (75 miles away), where the Chinese obtained their horses, than he was
to Samarkand, the capital of Sogdiana. But in 328 BC he was staying in
Samarkand and during a drunken rage murdered General Cleitus, a man he owed
his life to. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on your perspective, his
troops prevent him from taking his own life.
In 329, he married the Sogdian princess, Rushnak (Roxane), at a place called
Balkh in what is now Afghanistan. In fact, his princess, renowned for her
beauty, had been captured at Uoteppa, only forty miles the future site of
Alexandria Eskhata. But from there he takes a side trip to Nisa (now in
Turkmenistan). Why would Alexander, a passionate horseman, go to the place
where the great Persian warhorse was bred? Could it be he needed remounts
for his upcoming campaign against the fortress Massaga? Or his winter
campaign in Swat Valley? His ego demanded he ride only the best? How about
all of the above?
But what about the Sogdian fortresses in the valley? Once Sogdiana became a
reliable ally, there was no need to enter the valley and reinforce them with
Greek troops. Messengers from those outposts routinely reported the news
whereabouts of the wandering nomads to Alexander’s generals.
When he died in 323 BC, his kingdom was divided among his generals. Egypt
went to Ptolemy, the Middle East to Seleucus, and Antigonus claimed Greece.
Farther east was the Greek kingdom of Bactria with its capital at Balkh,
technically a part of the Seleucid Empire but quasi-independent since it was
not as powerful as the other three. The last Greek king, Meander, died in
145 BC, and by 130 BC, the Yeuh-chih
(A Tocharian and Scythian alliance) had taken control of the region. (Much
of this information will be useful in understanding Part II)
A word about Bucephalus, Ox-head. Much has been made over why he was called
that. This is a theory based on some historical facts. In 480 BC when Xerxes
attempted to conquer Greece, he stopped by Thessalonia to see the famous
racing mares of that region. Those much celebrated mares lost to his horses.
Thessalonia and Macedonia did not resist Xerxes’ attempt to conquer the
region and even helped him on several occasions. Xerxes’ Nisean horses had
several interesting traits that they passed on to their descendents. One of
them was a bony knob on their foreheads often referred to as horns. It was
well within Xerxes’ nature, flushed with success over defeating this famous
breed of racehorses, to leave behind a stallion or two of the Nisean breed
to ‘improve’ the defeated line. The Spartans would do this exact thing after
the Battle of Plataea with great success at the Olympics for at least a
hundred years.
So was Bucephalus called Ox-head because he was stubborn or because he was a
handsome ram headed horse with ‘horns’ like an ox? If he was a descendent of
the Thessalonian mares covered by the Persian stallions, it is every bit
conceivable that Alexander’s favorite stallion was indeed ox headed like the
Carthusian, Lusitano, and Spanish Mustang.
VI. The Parthinians
- No horsemen have ever inspired the imagination quite like the Scythians
have with their free nomadic life style and almost mythical female warriors.
And there were several dozens of these IndoIranian horse tribes roaming the
steppes between the Balkans and China, but one set itself a part from the
others sometime before 250 BC. The Parni, a part of the Dahi or Dahae tribe,
which lived along the Ochus River (Tejend or lower Oxus) migrated into the
Persian province of Parthava and stayed.
From the time of Cyrus the Great, various Scythian tribes played active
roles within the empire, helping in the campaigns, providing grazing land
for the imperial Niseans or paying tribute to the Great King from their own
herds of tough little horses. The Dahae were no different and even joined
Xerxes on his Greek campaign. Herodotus states a Dahae cavalryman named
Arsaces died in Greece.
- When Alexander the Great came along, the Dahae sided with Darius and even
opposed Alexander at Gaugamela. Their dislike for the Greek king did not end
easily. When Darius contemplated surrendering and was killed by the
Bactrian, Bessus, the Dahae joined Bessus to continue the struggle. By the
time Alexander had the Persian Empire conquered, the Dahae were fighting
beside Spitamenes, Alexander’s deadliest rival.
During his conquest of Persia the ancient city of Samarkand was besieged by
the Sogdians in revolt for religious insults inflicted on them by the Greek
cavalry commander, Stasanor, Alexander decided he was going to lift the
siege personally. The Scythians loyal to Spitamenes immediately attacked his
rear. This forced Alexander to return north to deal with the Scythians, but
not before dispatching an army of Greek mercenaries to lift the siege. They
were never heard from again.
With a minor victory over the Scythians, if that was really what it was,
Alexander and his elite cavalry, now mounted on imperial Niseans, crossed
290 kilometers of desert in three days to lift the siege, but Spitamenes,
mounted similarly, disappeared. To bring a close to the war, Alexander did
something the Assyrians had done earlier to defeat the Arabs; he captured
and fortified all the oases. Without water, the last defenders of Old Persia
could not go on. In December of 328 BC, Coenus, one of Alexander’s generals,
defeated Spitamenes in battle. When the Sogdians and Dahae heard that
Alexander’s main army was en route, they killed him and sent his head to
Alexander.
The ultimate irony here is that Seleucus, the Macedonian general who founded
the Seleucid empire, married Apama, Spitamenes’ daughter, and had a son by
her named Antiochus. Antiochus founded a number of cities under his name
Antioch.
After Alexander’s death, his generals divided his empire among themselves.
Seleucus claimed the lands that had once been the Persian Empire. But in
247, a Parni Scythian named Arsaces overthrew Andragoras, the Seleucid
governor of Parthia. The main breeding grounds for the Nisean horse were
under his control. Crowned king at Asaak, the capital city of Astauene, he
quickly had to resist attempts by Antiochus III to recapture lost territory.
Being a son of Scythia, Arsaces was a superb horseman and he was about to
revolutionize the way the great horses of Nisa were used. Instead of pulling
chariots or acting as a simple cavalry, Arsaces developed the concept of
heavy cavalry. Chain mail covered the great horses and riders, which
required a new manner of tactics. Great horses became the ancient world’s
equivalent to tanks. Impregnable rings of metal protected man and horse.
Steadily picking off one Seleucid territory after another, he conquered not
only Parthia and Astauene but Hyrcania, and Heart. And upon the death of
Diodotus I, he formed an alliance with his successor, Diodotus II of
Bactria.
Seleucus II refused to accept the changes that were occurring within his
empire and in 228 BC, he marched east to reclaim lost land. Arsaces was not
strong enough yet to fight the angry Greek and prudently retreated back into
his Scythian homeland. However by 223 BC with Seleucus III Soter on the
throne, Arsaces was back reinforcing his position, strengthening his army,
building forts and establishing new cities, the foremost being Apaortenon.
In 130 BC, Antiochus VII invaded Parthia in an attempt to reclaim lost
Seleucid territory. Phraates II caught the Seleucid king by surprise near
Ecbatana, where he had wintered his troops. Although supported by John
Hyrcanus, the leader of the Jews, along with 31,000 infantry, 7200 horse and
10 elephants, Antiochus was no match for the Parthian leader who had 14,800
horse, 1800 infantry and 20 elephants at his disposal from Indian allies.
Also in Phraates II’s army were Tocharian mercenaries who would eventually
create the Kushan Empire in Bactria. The slaughter was terrible and the
Seleucids never did try to reclaim anymore lost territory. The *Tocharians,
who had never really participated in the battle at Ecbatana, ravaged
Parthian territory on their way back to Taxila. They would eventually lead
four Scythian tribes into battle against the Parthians which would result in
the death of Phraates II.
The greatest Parthian king was Mithradates II who ruled from 123 BC to 88BC.
It was during his reign that Parthia came into contact with the Romans and
the Chinese. Emperor Han Wu Ti’s quest for Heavenly Horses is one of the
most famous stories from ancient China. Acquiring them from a fort at Kokand
in modern Uzbekistan put the Chinese into contact with the Sogdians, allies
of Parthia and ancient history’s most important middlemen. This opened up
the Silk Road, a caravan route that carried silks and other goods to the
West; horses and alfalfa among other items to the East.
The relations between Parthia, Sogdiana and China were usually quite good in
spite of the initial contact, which resulted in a loss of goods and life.
This could not be said for the Romans, who saw themselves as heir to
Alexander’s once great empire. In 96 BC the Romans were challenging the
Seleucids for control of the Middle East, when they came into contact with
the Parthians. In 92 BC, the Romans and Parthians signed their first peace
treaty-the first of many that were meaningless.
In 53 BC during the reign of King Orodes II, Marcus Licinius Crassus decided
it was time to add Parthia to the Roman Empire. He had seen Pompey and
Julius Casear climb to great power on their conquests, which made his defeat
of Spartacus during the Gladiator Revolt seem simple at best. Facing him was
Surena, a student of Roman tactics who was about to teach the proud Romans a
valuable lesson.
Marcus Crassus was a vain man with an over inflated opinion of his own
military skills. Marching through the mountains of Armenia, certainly a much
larger country at that time than it is now, he believed he was following a
safer route, although it took him directly across the Mesopotamian desert.
In his service was a man named Ariamnes with a 6,000-horse force who assured
him that this was the best way to enter Parthia. What Crassus didn’t know
was that Ariamnes was in the service of Parthia.
In northern Mesopotamia, Crassus found himself facing a Parthian force of
10,00 horse archers and 1,000 cataphracts. Circling his troops, he hoped
that the Parthian archers would run out of arrows before he ran out of
soldiers. It was a foolish plan and doomed from the start. The Parthians had
brought up 1,000 Arabian camels carrying more than enough arrows to finish
off the Romans. After brutally hammering them, the light horse archers
withdrew. Surena and his cavalry then emerged to a sound of trumpets from
the woods where they had been watching the light cavalry attack. Thinking
the tide of battle was turning in his favor, Crassus sent his son Publius
with six thousand troops to meet Surena. Relying on an old Scythian trick,
Surena led the Romans farther and farther away from their support. At the
right moment, he wheeled his armored horsemen and attacked. The slaughter
was savage.
Retreating to the city of Carrhae, Crassus stayed two days and tried to
organize his troops for a westerly retreat. Unaware that Surena had spies
everywhere, the Roman general led his troops into the open under the cover
of darkness. Out of 44,000 Roman soldiers, 10,000 survived and were
eventually resettled in Sogdiana. Crassus’ head and eagles were presented to
Orodes II as a war trophy.
VII. The Romans
Julius Caesar was planning a campaign to punish the Parthians for Crassus’
defeat when he was assassinated in 44 BC. His protégé Marc Antony would make
the attempt in 36 BC. Ironically in the 1960s, the Appaloosa Horse Club ran
an advertisement showing Marc Antony on a spotted horse courting Cleopatra.
It is possible that this might not have been wishful thinking after all.
Marc Antony wanted to avenge Crassus’s defeat and with Parthia in a turmoil
following Orodes II’s assassination by his son Phraates, he thought it would
be easy to carve off a large chunk of Alexander’s old kingdom. And he had
Artavasdes of Armenia helping him, or so he thought.
Artavasdes was the son of Tigran the Great, who early in his reign had ceded
70 valleys to the Parthians. Valleys used for the breeding of Nisean horses
as they had been during the time of Cyrus the Great. But the Armenian king
was not in an enviable position trapped between the Romans and Parthians,
who were not adverse to marching through his kingdom as Marc Antony did in
36 BC.
Wanting to get off to a good start, Marc Antony pillaged Media Atropatene
with sixteen legions. In his army were 100,000 soldiers and 10,000 horse.
Most of these horses were of the famous Iberian breed whose ancestors had
been exported to Spain by the Phoenicians. Looking remarkably like modern
Arabians, these horses were hardy but not as swift as the Parthian horses.
In his army were also 30,000 shock troops made up of various Roman allies.
Deciding it was time to go after Phraata, the capital of Media, Antony
separated himself from his supply train. This was a serious mistake because
while he was building a ramp to capture the city, the Parthians attacked and
destroyed his supplies and over 10,000 men, including a siege weapon.
Going after the Parthians, Marc Antony was further frustrated when they
refused to attack him. Whenever he sent his cavalry after them, they simply
outran his horses and disappeared. Technically Antony won, but 80 dead
Parthian and 30 prisoners did not compensate for the 10,000 who had died
with the baggage train. Returning to Phraata, he found that his ramp was
abandoned. In retaliation he killed every tenth man left behind at Phraata.
With his troops on the verge of mutiny and the Parthians refusing to fight
him outright, Antony accepted Phraates’ offer to go home unmolested. The
Parthians did not exactly keep their promise but Antony took his anger out
of Artavesdes’ kingdom. Ravaging it mercilessly, he took the king captive
and dragged him back to Egypt along with endless war prizes taken from
Armenia. Believing that the Armenian king had betrayed him, Antony had him
executed in front of Cleopatra.
Among Antony’s spoils were Nisean horses, perhaps even leopards as supposed
by the Appaloosa Horse Club in the late sixties. This would be Rome’s first
good look at the Nisean horse, which the author Strabo described as the most
elegant riding horse that he had ever seen. But Marc Antony was rapidly
becoming a person non grata to the Romans because of his obsession with
Cleopatra. When Augustus Caesar finally defeated Antony and Cleopatra, he
took possession of all valuables in the ill-fated queen’s kingdom. Whatever
valuable horses remained in Egypt were taken to estate in Italy, where they
began to slowly influence the imperial horses of Rome.
What Not To Do With A Horse In Full Chain Mail.
One if the most interesting women of antiquity was Zenobia, Queen of
Palmyra, who ruled from 266 to 273 AD. A courageous woman with as much
energy as she had ambition, she very nearly tore a large chunk of the Roman
Empire away for herself. Unfortunately for her, her opponent in was Emperor
Aurelian, one of Rome’s greatest military emperors.
Marching on Palmyra in the Syrian desert and facing the hardships of
constant attacks by robbers and the weariness of siege warfare, he wrote her
a letter saying, “Aurelian, Emperor of Rome and Restorer of the Orient to
Zenobia and those waging war on her side. You should have done what I
commanded you in my former letter. I promise you life if you surrender. You,
O Zenobia, can live with your family in the place, which I will assign you
upon the advice of the venerable senate. You must deliver to the treasury of
Rome your jewels, your silver, your gold, your robes of silk, your horses
and your camels. The Palmyrenes, however, shall preserve their local
rights.”
By 273 AD, fine horses resembling the modern Arabian had been introduced by
the Romans into the Middle East. These horses whose ancestors had originally
been the chariot horses of the Hittites and Mittani and imported from Spain
made up Zenobia’s light horse cavalry. Also within her service were noblemen
on great horses weighed down with chain mail. Zenobia had incorporated the
cataphract into her army. Although invented by the Parthians, those Scythian
warriors were no longer in power. The Sassanids, who also utilized the
cataphract but to better ends then Zenobia, had taken their kingdom away
from them.
In 272 AD as he advanced on Antioch, Aurelian noticed that the Palmyrene
army that blocked his way was made up of imperial horses in chain mail.
Horse and rider were covered in glittering links of metal. Leaving his
infantry at rest, Aurelian ordered his cavalry to make an orderly retreat of
enough time to wear out the imperial horses and their riders. Once they were
certain the great horses were too tired to be of any use, the Roman cavalry
attacked. It was a route with the Palmyrenes retreating within the walled
city of Antioch. But the inhabitants of the city wanted to hand them over to
the Romans, so under the cover of darkness the Syrian army fled back to
Zenobia with news of their defeat.
Zenobia in grand style decided to lead her troops personally. Wearing a
chain mail tunic with a purple scarf draped over her shoulders, secured by a
large brooch that gleamed in the brilliant sunlight, she looked every bit
the warrior queen with a Persian helmet covering her black hair. At Emses
(modern Homs) she decided to face Aurelian. Her army was made up of 70,000
warriors, consisting chiefly of her elite cataphract (noblemen mounted on
Nisean horses wearing chain mail), Arab mounted archers (horse and camel),
and Lebanese-Syrian foot soldiers.
Aurelian opted to let the heat help with the cataphract and tried to lead
them on an exhausting exercise again. But this time the Palmyrene cavalry
easily defeated the Roman cavalry, but they were defeated by the Roman foot
soldiers.
Zenobia escaped back to Palmyra, refused to surrender and under the cover of
darkness tried to escape to the Sassanid Persia. Arabian horsemen under
orders for Aurelian captured her before she could reach safety.
Rumors abound of what happened to the Syrian queen after her capture, but
the one that is most believable is that she married a Roman nobleman and
spent the remainder of her life in Tivoli, living off her notoriety as the
warrior queen.
Politics and the continuous wars in the East, particularly with the rising
Sassanid power after their defeat of the Parthians resulted in some soul
searching and a change of military tactics. The man most responsible for the
revision of the Roman military, in addition to creating a new capitol was
Constantine the Great. Aside from his importance in ending Christian
persecution, he made the cataphract a powerful force within the Roman army.
Mounted on Persian warhorses, the Roman cataphract was prepared to face the
Sassanids in their disputes over eastern lands, in particular Armenia, one
of the world’s first Christian countries, not a welcomed event to the
Sassanids. Armenia, long a supplier -willing or otherwise-of Nisean horses
to the Romans was losing the breed and its grazing lands to outsider
invaders, Roman and Persian.
To counter this loss, the Romans started raising their own imperial horses.
One emperor, Theodosius I (378-395), was a great horse lover and admirer of
the Persian breed, which was still as the Roman author Strabo had said
centuries earlier, “the most elegant riding horse in the empire.” A Roman
horse from Constantinople was worth five pounds of gold, while a good
British horse was worth maybe half a pound of silver. Theodosius, a Roman
from Spain, passed laws to protect horses, setting weight limits and such,
but one of his most interesting laws regarded the horses of the imperial
cataphract. No horse was trained before it was six years of age, and after
its usefulness in the military was up, it was retired to royal pastures for
the rest of its life.
Emperor Justinian (483-567), who might well be called the last true emperor
of a unified Roman Empire created an imperial stud in Bythnia, which would
ultimately become the target of every invading Turkish and Arab army, but it
would be from this stud that the stallions that would lead to the creation
of the Andalusian and Barb breeds would come from. His wars against the
Vandals in North Africa (533) would result in the largest Roman cavalry ever
taking on the city of Carthage. Nisean stallions, protoArabs and even
Mongolian ponies would be utilized. The fighting would destroy the Vandal
culture once and for all, a culture that had brought countless Iberian
horses to Africa, many of them gaited.
The Berbers, who had been allies of the Vandals and had sheltered them and
their animals, would also try to take on the might of Constantinople, but
they would defeated as well. The Vandals, a people who had liked fine
horses, had imported many excellent animals from Spain and had captured
enough imperial horses that they left their images in the mosaics of their
villas. Men on great leopard stallions still prance over the abandoned site,
while women on gaited ponies enjoy the hunt. Their fine horses and later
Byzantine horses bred freely with the Berber animals. It is a myth that the
Barb is a pure breed from the dawn of time. The first horses in N. Africa
came from the Middle East and resembled the Arabian. After Carthaginian and
Phoenician colonies were set up in Spain, Iberian horses were added to the
breeding stock.
During the reign of Emperor Justinian, a civil war broke out among the
Visigoths in Spain as to who would be the ruler. Athanagild (554-567), one
of the contenders, asked the Byzantines for assistance and they gave it.
General Lucius, well versed in Germanic customs, arrived at Seville with a
veteran cavalry (cataphract) that quickly turned the tide of war in
Athanagild’s favor. Athanagild was crowned king and asked the Byzantines to
leave but they refused. Seville would stay in Roman hands for nearly a
hundred years at which time it would be regarded as the most enlightened
city in Western Europe, rivaling Constantinople in learning and style.
The history of the Andalusian horse that most people are familiar with was
fabricated by the Elizabethans to protect their own heads from a very
anti-Spanish Elizabeth I. Spanish historians when permitted to tell their own
history without interference say that the Andalsuian was the crossing of
these battle stallions with native Iberian horses. That Seville, the center
of Spanish horsemanship, carries on the traditions first introduced by the
Byzantine horsemen who occupied the city before the Visigoths and Berbers.
In fact, it was a Spanish cataphract that saved Charles Martel at Tours and
gave him the idea for the Order of the Knight.
His grandson, Charlemagne, tried to take the throne of Constantinople by
marrying widowed Empress Irene, a beautiful but unpleasant woman, who almost
lost the imperial stud in Bythnia to marauding Arabs. She saved the stud at
the last minute and send Charlemagne a pipe organ and some horses. These
created quite a sensation in the royal court in Aachen and with the pope in
Rome who had to have apipe organ of his own. These imperial horses played a
role in the development of the Limousine and Norman warhorse.
The Limousine, now extinct because of the French Revolution, was a handsome
animal that closely resembled the Andalusian. In fact, Andalusians had been
used to refine the breed during the reign of the Sun King. Peasants,
destroying everything imperial during the reign of terror in the late 1700s,
broke up the stud and sent the horses to work on farms.
When Napoleon came to power, he tried to revive the French imperial horse
with Andalusians and in doing so almost destroyed that breed when he almost
stripped Spain of the breed. A famous painting by Jacques Louis David shows
Napoleon on a handsome overo stallion. Flaebehoppen, the ancestress of the
Knapstrub, was a leopard Andalusian mare left behind by his troops in
Denmark. Within a hundred years leopards would be missing entirely in this
magnificent Spanish breed. The Lusitano fared somewhat better and is the
purer of the two Spanish breeds. The Andalusian within the past 150 years
has been crossed with several other breeds, and as recently as 1983,
Thoroughbreds were being crossed with them to produce a more ‘sellable’
horse.
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