Authors: Christopher I. Beckwith
Tags: #History, #General, #Asia, #Europe, #Eastern, #Central Asia
Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia From the Bronze Age to the Present (20 page)
Trade was important for both nomadic and non-nomadic cultures, but it was critical for the nomadic states. The crucial nature of trade was not, however, because of the supposed poverty of the nomads.
70
Nomads were in general much better fed and led much easier, longer lives, than the inhabitants of the large agricultural states. There was a constant drain of people escaping from China into the realms of the Eastern Steppe, where they did not hesitate to proclaim the superiority of the nomadic life-style. Similarly, many Greeks and Romans joined the Huns and other Central Eurasian peoples, where they lived better and were treated better than they had been back home. Central Eurasian peoples knew that it was far more profitable to trade and tax than it was to raid and destroy. Historical examples of the latter activity are the exception rather than the rule and are usually a consequence of open war.
The reason trade was so important to the nomadic peoples seems rather to have been the necessity of supporting the ruler and his comitatus, the cost of which is attested by archaeological excavations and by historical descriptions of the wealth lavished on comitatus members across Central Eurasia from Antiquity onward. The ruler-comitatus relationship was the sociopolitical foundation stone of all states throughout Central Eurasia, whatever their fife-style, until well into the Middle Ages. Without it, the ruler would not have been able to maintain himself on the throne in this life and would have been defenseless against his enemies in the next life. The sumptuous burials of Central Eurasian rulers from the Scythians through the Mongols display their belief in the afterlife and desire to enjoy it the same way they had this life.
Both the Greeks, especially through the
History
of Herodotus and the accounts of Alexander’s campaigns, and the Chinese, beginning with the reports of Chang Ch’ien at the time of Emperor Wu, provide fairly accurate descriptions of Central Eurasian cities. Herodotus tells us that the main city of Scythia, Gelonus, was thirty kilometers square and the commercial center of the Scythian trade network. The city of Bactra, later Balkh, the greatest urban center of Bactriana and seat of the Achaemenid satrap,
71
was taken by Alexander in 329–327
BC
,
72
two centuries before its conquest by the Tokharians. He also took Maracanda (Samarkand, the main city of Sogdiana) in 329
BC
and established his power as far as Ferghana. Between 139 and 122
BC
Chang Ch’ien traveled across Eastern Central Asia and visited many cities, which he or his successors describe in some detail. All of the Central Asian cities depended primarily on irrigated agriculture in the valleys and alluvial fans of the Central Asian rivers, most of which begin in the mountains and end in the desert. Yet, despite their urbanity, the peoples there were just as warlike or non-warlike as the nomads—who were just as interested in trade as the urban peoples—and each of the great lords among both peoples maintained a comitatus. The ancient Chinese travelers to Sogdiana found it an intensely cultivated agricultural region with many cities and huge numbers of warriors. The Sogdians, no less than the nomadic peoples around them, needed to trade to acquire the wealth to bestow on their comitatus members; it was clearly not the reverse. They needed their warriors for their internal political purposes, just as the nomads did. In the early medieval period, the comitatus was evidently more widespread among the Sogdians and other settled Central Asians than among any other Central Eurasian people, and the Sogdians were as involved in wars within Central Eurasia and in the peripheral states as the nomadic peoples were.
73
There is no reason to think the situation was any different in Antiquity.
1
Euripides,
Heracles,
Greek edition by Gilbert Murray (
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup-Eur.+Her.+408
). My rendering is a little free, partly due to the crux in the text, for which various solutions have been proposed.
2
Sarmatian women warriors (who seem to have been the inspiration for the Amazons), like Scythian and Sarmatian male warriors, had heavy iron-armored fighting belts, as did the early Greeks themselves. See Rolle (1989). The “gold-embroidered robe” is also Central Eurasian.
3
Di Cosmo (2002a: 21–24).
4
Large areas of Siberia, deep into Mongolia, were anthropologically Europoid in High Antiquity, and only gradually became Mongolic during the first millennium
BC
, the turning point being around the fifth or fourth century
BC
(Rolle 1989: 56); Eastern Central Asia (East Turkistan) remained Europoid, and Indo-European in language, until late in the first millennium
AD
. On the early peoples of the Eastern Steppe, most of whom have not yet been identified ethnolinguistically, see Di Cosmo (2002a).
5
Di Cosmo (1999a: 919).
6
Di Cosmo details the wars against the Ti, who were divided into White Ti (Pai Ti) in the west and Red Ti (Ch’ih Ti) in the east, and comments, “The most vicious wars against the Ti were those waged by the state of Chin, bent on a campaign of annihilation that eventually paid off in 594 and 593 B.C., with the destruction of several Ch’ih Ti groups. This attack probably took place in conjunction with an internal crisis of the Ti, as there is evidence of famine and political dissent among them” (Di Cosmo 1999a: 947–951; Romanization changed to the modified Wade-Giles system used in this book and Di Cosmo’s 2002a book). He also notes an invasion of the White Ti in 530
BC
recorded in the
Ch’un-ch’iu
(Di Cosmo 2002a: 97 et seq.); other sources claim that the Ti were subjugated by Chin in 541
BC
. However, they continued to exist and periodically regained independence, struggling with the Chinese down to the mid-third century
BC
(Di Cosmo 1999a: 948, 951).
7
Di Cosmo (2002a: 21–24).
8
See the excellent treatment by Drews (2004).
9
Arguments to the contrary are highly doubtful. However, more archaeological work is needed to settle the problem of the periodization of the development of mounted warfare in Central Eurasia.
10
The earliest apparent historical reference to Iranians “occurs in the ninth century when in 835
BC
the Assyrian king Shalmaneser received tribute from the twenty-seven tribes of the
Par
š
uwa
š
,
which is generally thought to indicate the Persians”
(EIEC
311). The earliest
potential
references to Indo-Iranians are in Shang Chinese accounts of wars with the Ch’iang people and in references to the Chou Chinese and their Chiang allies. Although the name Ch’iang/Chiang could be a transcription of a Tokharian word (see
appendix B
), it could also be a blanket category label for foreigners skilled with war chariots. The dates and the connection with chariots both suggest they were Indo-Europeans, perhaps of Group B—which would rule out Iranians.
11
On the Cimmerians according to Herodotus, see endnote
50
.
12
Rolle (1989: 12–13).
13
Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *skud-o ‘shooter, archer’ (Szemerényi 1980:17, 21). See
appendix B
.
14
In Herodotus, Mαδv (r. 645–615?), son of
(Bartatua, r. 675–645?).
15
Godley (1972: 198–199); cf. Rawlinson (1992: 58–59, 295).
16
Melyukova (1990: 100). One Scythian alliance with the Assyrians is known in some detail; see Rolle (1989: 71–72).
17
Szemerényi (1980: 6).
18
Van de Mieroop (2004: 254–257).
19
Unlike the Medes, who apparently did not develop a writing system for their own language or maintain archives in any other language, the Persians used Imperial Aramaic, a Semitic literary language, and Elamite, another local Near Eastern language. Under Darius, they also developed an alphabetic cuneiform writing system for their own language, Old Persian, and used it for monumental inscriptions. This Western Iranian language is quite different from the putatively earliest Iranian language, Avestan, which is not actually localizable in place or time but is strikingly similar to Vedic Sanskrit. See
appendix A
.
20
Rolle (1989: 96).
21
Strabo (Jones 1924: 242–243) goes on at some length about the productivity of the land cultivated by the Scythian farmers (the Georgi) and the fabulous amounts of grain shipped to Greece during the great famine (ca. 360
BC
). He also mentions the Greek importation of salted fish from Maeotis (the Sea of Azov).
22
Rolle (1989: 52–53).
23
Taylor (2003) remarks about one tumulus within Scythia, “The recent re-excavation and analysis demonstrates the existence of complex rituals around the edge of the mound, with a further grave (1/84) and concentrations of horse bones that should perhaps be seen in connection with a final rite of closure (or incorporation), as Herodotus so clearly described.”
24
Or nations; for the terminology see note 46 in the prologue.
25
Godley 1972: 202–205; cf. Rawlinson (1992: 296–297).
26
The received text has
Coloxaïs;
see
appendix B
.
27
Godley has “flask” here; I have substituted the usual translation ‘cup’.
28
See the discussion of this myth in the prologue.
29
This passage has generated much confusion about the name and identity of the Scythians; see
appendix B
.
30
Legrand, citing Benveniste, says, “Ces objets sont les symboles des trois classes des sociétés iraniennes; la coupe, de celle des prêtres; la sagaris,—une sorte de hache (…),—de celle des guerriers; la charrue et la joug réunis (le joug servant à atteler la charrue), de celle des agriculteurs” (Legrand 1949: 50). Rolle (1989: 123) says, based on “written sources,” that the Scythians had three kings who ruled simultaneously, one of them being a primus inter pares. However, the historical accounts of Scythian rulers, who present them very clearly as sole monarchs, do not support this.
31
Godley (1972: 216–219); cf. Rawlinson (1992: 302).
32
The sole English term ‘slave’ for what was a complex hierarchy—most of the members of which would not be considered slaves by English speakers—is loaded with early modern connotations. See Beckwith (1984a).
33
Godley (1972: 241–242); cf. Rawlinson (1992: 314–315).
34
Strabo (Jones 1924: 222–223, 242–243) remarks somewhat later that the tents “on the wagons in which they spend their lives” were made of felt. They had huge numbers of them; a Scythian who had only one was considered poor; a rich man might have eighty wagons. They were mostly pulled by oxen and moved at the slow speed of these grazing animals. For further discussion and pictures showing archaeologically recovered clay models (apparently toys) of these tent-wagons, see Rolle (1989: 114–115). Strabo also emphasizes that the nomads lived on the milk, meat, and cheese from their herds, “from time to time moving to other places that have grass.” He explicitly notes that although they were warriors, the nomads were basically peaceful and only went to war when absolutely necessary. See the epilogue.
35
Godley (1972: 308–309); cf. Rawlinson (1992: 339). For Godley’s “ruddy” (referring to the Budini’s hair) I have substituted “red-haired"; for his “native to the soil” I have substituted “native to the country.”
36
Rolle (1989: 119).
37
Taylor (2003); cf. Rolle (1989: 117–122) on this and other Scythian urban sites.
38
The Persians referred to all Northern Iranian peoples, including the Scythians, as
Saka
(q.v.
appendix B
). Modern scholars have mostly used the name Saka to refer to Iranians of the Eastern Steppe and Tarim Basin. I have usually followed this practice.
39
Rolle (1989: 7).
40
The dates and locations of the campaign(s) are disputed. According to Melyukova (1990: 101), the Persians crossed the Don and entered the territory of the Sarmatians, but this would seem to be unlikely on the basis of the account by Herodotus.
41
It is now well known that the Scythians and other Central Eurasian steppe peoples wore armor in battle. It is attested both literarily and archaeologically. See Rolle (1989) for discussion and numerous pictures of Scythian armor.
42
Godley (1972: 326–328); cf. Rawlinson (1992: 346–347).
43
Godley (1972: 310–311); Herodotus explains that “in Scythian a man is
oior
and to kill is
pata.”
Scythian
oior
(the Greek transcription perhaps representing a Scythian [wior]) is an obvious cognate of Avestan
vîra
‘man; human’, Sanskrit vîrá- ‘hero; man; husband’, Latin
vir
‘man’, Old English
wer
‘man, husband’, Gothic
waír
‘man’, etc., all from Proto-Indo-European *wîror *wî-ro- ‘man’
(EIEC
366).
44
Di Cosmo (2002a: 57, 65, 71).
45
Di Cosmo (2002a: 36).
46
Di Cosmo (2002a: 39).
47
Di Cosmo (2002a: 39, 163–166).
48
See the extensive discussion in Di Cosmo (2002a: 134–138). Other than the adoption of trousers, however, the perennial Chinese weakness with respect to horses and cavalry indicates that the king did not revolutionize China’s military in the long run.
49
This is one of the earliest datable uses of Hu, a term for foreigners of the north and west that seems originally to have been an ethnonym but became quasi-generic quite early.
50
Di Cosmo (1999a: 961).
51
Di Cosmo (2002a: 174–176, 186–187).
52
Yü (1990: 120). The overthrow of T’ou-man (*TumeN) took place only six years after his defeat by Meng T’ien. The actual history of Mo-tun’s rise to power seems unlikely to have resembled the fascinating but largely legendary story related in the prologue, though his comitatus—his highly trained, personally loyal bodyguard—was certainly involved, as noted by Di Cosmo (2002a: 186).
53
Although some tantalizing arguments have been made on the basis of archaeological artifacts, they do not solve the severe chronological and other problems.
54
On the debate over the origins of the Hsiung-nu and their putative historical connection with the Huns, see endnote
51
.
55
Pulleyblank (1991: 346, 227) reconstructs
Middle Chinese *Χuawŋnͻ. Baxter (1992: 798, 779) has *Χ
j
owŋnu (based on homophones he cites), but Pulleyblank’s reconstruction better reflects the “spellings” in the
Ch’ieh-yün.
As for Modern Standard Chinese (Mandarin), the name is spelled
xi
ô
ngnú
in the pinyin romanization system, but actually it is pronounced [c
j
unu].
56
The transcription of the name Hsiung-nu is early and was certainly done via an Old Chinese frontier dialect, so that the original *s- initial was probably transcribed before the change of Old Chinese *s- to *?-. For details, see endnote
52
.
