An Amazon gets her man on the Don frontier by Gerry Embleton 2002
"Like most nomads in contact with cattle and wild horses, the Sarmatians employed the lasso, and Sarmatian women were said to have been especially adept in its use. Pomponius Mela (1.21.5) states that Sarmatians tossed the lasso over an enemy's neck to pull him from his horse. Pausanias (1.21.7) describes another technique: 'They throw ropes around any enemies they meet, and then wheel their horses to trip them in the tangle of the rope.' The most famous use of the lasso occurred during the Alan incursion into Parthia in c.AD 73, when the Armenian king Tiridates was caught by a lasso, but managed to cut it with his sword before it tightened around his neck (Josephus, Bell. Jud. 7.7.4).
For several centuries the Don River marked the boundary between Scythian and Sarmatian territories. During the 4th century BC the Sarmatians began to infiltrate across the river, and it is from this period that Greek historians began spinning tales of Amazons, based on the fact that Sarmatian women apparently took part in warfare. Sarmatian girls were supposedly forbidden to marry until they had killed an enemy (Hippocrates, Peri Aeron 17) - or, perhaps more realistically, 'encountered an enemy in combat' (Pomponius Mela, 3.4)."
-The Sarmatians 600 BC-AD 450. R. Brzezinski & M. Mielczarek & G. Embleton. Osprey Publishing.
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| An Amazon gets her man on the Don frontier by Gerry Embleton 2002. |
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Quote:
The Sarmatians 600 BC-AD 450. R. Brzezinski & M. Mielczarek & G. Embleton. Osprey Publishing.
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