Amyrgians

The Amyrgians were called Śaka haumavarga ("Haoma-drinking Scythians") in Old Persian, which is a reinterpretation of the personal names Amorges and (H)omarges. The Greek form of their name was Amyrgioi.[1]

According to Ctesias,[2] the Amyrgians were conquered by Cyrus the Great, who took Amorges prisoner. The wife of Amorges, Sparethra, collected an army of 300,000 men and 200,000 women, made war upon Cyrus, taking as prisoners Parmises, the brother of Amytis, and his three sons, who were subsequently released in exchange for Amorges. Cyrus's good treatment of Amorges prompted the Saka to submit to the Persians. Amorges or Thambradas went with Cyrus to Lydia. The Amyrgians fought under Cyrus in the Battle of Thymbra of 547 BC. Sparethra’s forces later helped Cyrus conquer yet another opponent: Croesus, whom Cyrus ordered to be set on fire. He eventually changed his mind, and Croesus fell in line behind Cyrus, going on to give him terrible advice that would bring about his demise.[3]

• 
  Map of the Median Empire, 600 BCE. Amyrgians populated the northern fringes of the Empire reaching from Krążania (Krořän) and India to Europe, e.g. Škudra.
• 
  Sogdians on an Achaemenid Persian relief from the Apadana of Persepolis, offering tributary gifts to the Persian king Darius I, 5th century BCE.
• 
  Iron Age gold cup from Marlik, kept at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
• 
  Golden necklace of three Swarga (Swastikas) from Marlik, kept at the National Museum, Tehran.
• 
  Amyrgian-Sogdian-Aryan chariot made during Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE).
• 
  A gold coin of Diodotus of Bactria, ca. 250 BCE.

Amyrgian language was from the Eastern Iranian group, and it was closely related to modern Pashto and Munji, with both of which it shares the distinctive feature of d > l consonant shift.[1]

Zend-Avesta, 1858 edition.

• Zend-Avesta, compiled and translated by Ignacy Pietraszewski, 1858 (Avestan, Polish, German, French, Persian)