X Then Cyrus, king of the Persians, after a long 61
interval of almost exactly six hundred and thirty years
(as Pompeius Trogus relates), waged an unsuccessful
war against Tomyris, Queen of the Getae. Elated by his
victories in Asia, he strove to conquer the Getae, whose
queen, as I have said, was Tomyris. Though she could
have stopped the approach of Cyrus at the river Araxes,
yet she permitted him to cross, preferring to overcome
him in battle rather than to thwart him by advantage of 62
position. And so she did. As Cyrus approached, fortune
at first so favored the Parthians that they slew the son
of Tomyris and most of the army. But when the battle
was renewed, the Getae and their queen defeated, conquered
and overwhelmed the Parthians and took rich
plunder from them. There for the first time the race of
the Goths saw silken tents. After achieving this victory
and winning so much booty from her enemies, Queen
Tomyris crossed over into that part of Moesia which is
now called Lesser Scythia--a name borrowed from great
Scythia,--and built on the Moesian shore of Pontus the
city of Tomi, named after herself.

[Sidenote: DARIUS B.C. 521-485]

[Sidenote: DARIUS REPELLED]

Afterwards Darius, king of the Persians, the son of 63
Hystaspes, demanded in marriage the daughter of Antyrus,
king of the Goths, asking for her hand and at the