Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia From the Bronze Age to the Present (6 page)

The son of the god of Heaven
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was herding his cattle near the lands of the daughter of the god of the Dnieper River, and he let his horses graze while he was sleeping. The river god’s daughter stole the horses and made him lie with her before she would give the horses back to him. Three sons were born to her.

When the three sons were grown up, their mother, following their father’s directions, presented the sons with his great bow. Whoever could draw the bow would become king. Each boy tried it, but only the youngest could pull the bow.

Three marvelous golden objects fell to earth from Heaven: a plow and yoke, a sword, and a cup. Each of the three sons attempted to pick up the golden objects. When the oldest son approached them, they blazed up with fire, so he could not take them. The same thing happened to the middle son. When the youngest son tried it, he had no difficulty taking them.

The youngest son, Scythês,
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therefore became king of his people, who called themselves Scythians after his name.

The Scythians were attacked by the Massagetae, and fleeing from them crossed the Araxes River into Cimmeria, which they made their home. Relying on their skill with horses and the bow they became a great nation.

The brothers Numitor and Amulius were descendants of Aeneas, who had led the Trojan refugees to Italy. Numitor, the rightful king, was deposed by Amulius, who forced Numitor’s daughter Rhea Silvia to become a celibate Vestal Virgin so that she would not bear any successors to Numitor. But one night the god Mars came and raped Rhea Silvia, who then gave birth to beautiful twin boys, Romulus and Remus. Amulius had Rhea Silvia imprisoned and ordered the twins to be killed.

The servant who had been told to expose them could not carry out the order and left them in their cradle beside the Tiber River, which overflowed and carried the cradle downstream to a sheltered spot. There the twins were nursed by a she-wolf and fed by a bird
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until a herdsman discovered them and took them home. He and his wife raised them as their own children.

They grew up strong and noble, skilled in hunting and herding. When they were taken to the royal court, Amulius attempted to have them killed, but they escaped, and with the oppressed shepherds and other people they finally put the unjust king to death. Numitor, the grandfather of Romulus and Remus and the rightful ruler, was restored as king.

The twins then left with their followers to found a new city. They argued about the city’s location, and the argument turned into a battle in which Romulus and his personal bodyguard of 300 mounted warriors, the Celeres, killed Remus. Romulus then founded the circular city of Rome.
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*Tumen,
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the first great ruler
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of the Hsiung-nu,
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built a strong nation in the Eastern Steppe. He had a son named Mo-tun,
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who was the crown prince. Later, *Tumen had a son by his favorite consort and wanted to get rid of Mo-tun so he could make his new son the crown prince. He made a treaty with the *Tok
^w
ar (Yüeh-chih)
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and sent Mo-tun to them as a hostage to guarantee the treaty, as was the custom. After Mo-tun arrived, *Tumen attacked the *Tok
^w
ar. The *Tok
^w
ar wanted to execute Mo-tun according to the terms of the treaty, but he stole one of their best horses and escaped back home.
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*Tumen praised his strength and made him a myriarch, the commander of ten thousand mounted warriors.
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Mo-tun then made a whistling arrow with which to train his riders to shoot. He ordered them to obey him, saying, “Whoever does not shoot what the whistling arrow shoots will be decapitated.” They went hunting, and as Mo-tun said, he cut off the head of whoever did not shoot what he shot with the whistling arrow. Then Mo-tun used the whistling arrow to shoot his best horse. Some of his men were afraid to shoot it. Mo-tun immediately decapitated them. Next he shot his favorite wife. Some of his men were terrified and did not dare to shoot her. He cut their heads off like the others. Again he went hunting, and used the whistling arrow to shoot the king’s best horse. All of his men shot it. Then Mo-tun knew they were ready. He went hunting with his father the king and shot him with the whistling arrow. His men, following the whistling arrow, shot and killed *Tumen. Mo-tun then executed all officials and family members who would not obey him, and he himself became king.
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The *Aśvin (Wu-sun) and the *Tok
^w
ar both lived between the Ch’i-lien “Heavenly” Mountains (located in what is now Central Kansu) and Tun-huang.
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The *Aśvin were a small nation. The *Tok
^w
ar attacked and killed their king and seized their land. The *Aśvin people fled to the Hsiung-nu. The newborn *Aśvin prince, the K’un-mu, was taken out into the grassland and left there.
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A wolf was seen suckling him, and a crow holding meat in its mouth hovering by his side.
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The boy was thought to be a supernatural being and brought to the Hsiung-nu king, who liked him and raised him.

When the K’un-mu grew up, the king put him in charge of the *Aśvin people and made him a general in the army. The K’un-mu won many victories for the Hsiung-nu. At that time the *Tok
^w
ar, who had been defeated by the Hsiung-nu, had moved west and attacked the Sakas. The Sakas in turn moved away, far to the south, and the *Tok
^w
ar occupied their territory. The K’un-mu had become strong and asked the Hsiung-nu king for permission to avenge his father. He then launched a campaign to the west against the *Tok
^w
ar, crushing them in 133–132
BC
.
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The *Tok
^w
ar fled further west and south, into the territory of Bactria. The K’un-mu settled his people in the former Saka lands vacated by the defeated *Tok
^w
ar, and his army became still stronger. When the Hsiung-nu king died, the K’un-mu refused to serve his successor. The Hsiung-nu sent an army of picked warriors against the K’un-mu, but they were unable to conquer him. Then, even more than before, the Hsiung-nu considered him to be a supernatural being, and they avoided him.
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In the northern land of *Saklai
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a prince was miraculously born. Though his father was the sun god and his mother was the daughter of the River Lord, the king
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of the country took the child and cast him to the beasts. But the pigs and horses and birds of the wilderness kept him warm, so the boy did not die.

Because the king could not kill the boy, he allowed his mother to raise him. When the prince was old enough, he was ordered to serve the king as a horse herder. He was an excellent archer and was given the name *TümeN.
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The king was warned by his sons that *TümeN was too dangerous and would take over the kingdom. They plotted to kill him, but *TümeN’s mother warned him in time, and he fled southward.

Reaching a river that he could not ford, he struck the river with his bow and called out, “I am the son of the sun and the grandson of the River Lord. My enemies are upon me. How can I cross?” The alligators
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and soft-shelled turtles floated together to make a bridge. When *TümeN had crossed over they dispersed, so his enemies could not reach him.

He built Ortu, his capital, and established a new kingdom. His realm was divided into four constituent parts, with one lord (*ka) over each of the four directions.
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Persia was under the rule of Ardawân (Artabanus V), the evil last Parthian ruler. The governor of Pars, Pâbag, employed a shepherd, Sâsân, to tend his horses and cattle. Pâbag did not know the shepherd was a descendant of the great King of Kings, Darius, but one night he had a dream in which he saw the sun shining from the head of Sâsân, lighting the whole world. He then gave his own daughter to Sâsân in marriage. She bore him a son, whom they named Ardaxšêr (Ardashîr), and Pâbag raised the boy as his own child.

When Ardaxšêr was a youth, he was so wise and skilled at riding that King Ardawân heard about him and ordered him to come to court to be raised with his own sons, the princes. But Ardaxšêr was a better rider and hunter than the sons of Ardawân, and he killed an onager with a single powerful arrow shot from his bow. When the king asked who had done the marvelous deed, Ardaxšêr said, “I did it.” But the crown prince lied to his father, claiming, “No, it was me.” Ardaxšêr angrily challenged the prince. The king was displeased with Ardaxšêr because of this and sent him to the stables to tend the horses and cattle. He no longer treated Ardaxšêr as the equal of his own sons, the princes.

Ardaxšêr then met the king’s favorite maiden and had a liaison with her. Having made their plans together, they fled the court of Ardawân on horseback. The king pursued them with his army, but Ardaxšêr reached the sea before Ardawân and his army, and thus escaped.
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The king turned back, leaving Ardaxšêr free of his enemies. Ardaxšêr gathered an army of his own and killed Ardawân in battle. Ardaxšêr then married the daughter of the dead king and became ruler in his stead, founding the great Sasanid Dynasty.
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