2
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
same time making threats in case they did not fulfil his
wish. The Goths spurned this alliance and brought his
embassy to naught. Inflamed with anger because his
offer had been rejected, he led an army of seven hundred
thousand armed men against them and sought to avenge
his wounded feelings by inflicting a public injury. Crossing
on boats covered with boards and joined like a bridge
almost the whole way from Chalcedon to Byzantium, he
started for Thrace and Moesia. Later he built a bridge
over the Danube in like manner, but he was wearied by
two brief months of effort and lost eight thousand armed
men among the Tapae. Then, fearing the bridge over the
Danube would be seized by his foes, he marched back to
Thrace in swift retreat, believing the land of Moesia
would not be safe for even a short sojourn there.

[Sidenote: Xerxes B.C. 485-465]

After his death, his son Xerxes planned to avenge his 64
father's wrongs and so proceeded to undertake a war
against the Goths with seven hundred thousand of his
own men and three hundred thousand armed auxiliaries,
twelve hundred ships of war and three thousand transports.
But he did not venture to try them in battle, being
overawed by their unyielding animosity. So he returned
with his force just as he had come, and without righting
a single battle.

[Sidenote: Philip of Macedon B.C. 359-336]

[Sidenote: SIEGE OF ODESSUS]

Then Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, made 65
alliance with the Goths and took to wife Medopa, the
daughter of King Gudila, so that he might render the
kingdom of Macedon more secu