Scythia & Sassanid
| The Sassanid empire installed a royal prince, this prince was called Gilanshah (King of Gils). There is scant evidence about the relationship between local Gil and Deylami chieftains and the Sassanid empire. There is some evidence to believe that members of Ispahbadh clan ruled at least parts of Gilan during the Sassanid era, Seven Parthian Clans were seven different Parthian clans who constituted the Dahae Confederation of Scythia. Strabo's description places Dahae nomads and most of the Scythians beginning from the Caspian Sea towards the east of Massagetae and Sacae, in the area around modern Turkmenistan. Dahae or Dahan minted their own coinage during 330-1 BCE and together with other Scythian tribes were known to fight on the side of Darius III of Persia diring the Battle of Gaugamela. Later they joined Alexander of Macedon in his quest to India. The Dahae tribe dissolved with the fall of the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia. At different times, the Achaemenids also ruled Egypt, although the Egyptians twice regained their independence from Persia. |  |
The Sassand Dynasty, like the Achaemenid, originated in the province of Persis (Fars). The Sassanids saw themselves as successors of the Achaemenids, after the Hellenistic and Parthian interlude, and believed that it was their destiny to restore the greatness of Persia. Darius the Great (Darius I) was the first to speak of Achaemenes beginning with the ruler Darius I and into the period in Egypt when the Achaemenid dynasty ruled as the Twenty-Seventh (525 B.C. - 404 BC) and Thirty-First Dynasties (343- 332 BC). Darius attacked the Greek mainland, which had supported rebellious Greek colonies under his aegis; but as a result of his defeat at the Battle of Marathon in 490, he was forced to retract the limits of the empire to Asia Minor. In describing the construction of his palace at Susa, Darius mentions the cedar timber, the yaka timber, among precious stones brought elsewhere, if not the environs of a ring-dating form of Ogham.
In Parthia, between 138-124 BCE, the Sakas tribes (Sai) of the Massagetae and Sacaraucae came into conflict with the Parthian Empire, winning several battles, and killing successively king Phraates II and king Artabanus I. The Parthian king Mithridates II finally retook control of Central Asia, first by defeating the Yuezhi in Sogdiana in 115 BCE, and then defeating the Scythians in Parthia and Seistan around 100 BCE. The Sakas settled in areas of southern Afghanistan, still called after them Sakastan. From there, they progressively expanded into the Indian subcontinent, where they established various kingdoms, and where they are known as "Indo-Scythians".
From 130 BCE, the Scythians and then the Yuezhi, following a long migration from the border of China, started to invade Bactria from the north.
Around 125 BCE the Greco-Bactrian king Heliocles, son of Eucratides, was probably killed during the invasion and the Greco-Bactrian kingdom proper ceased to exist. Heliocles may have been survived by his relative Eucratides II, who ruled south of the Hindu Kush, in areas untouched by the invasion. Other Indo-Greek kings like Zoilos I, Lysias and Antialcidas may possible have been relatives of either the Eucratid or the Euthydemid dynasties; they struck both Greek and bilingual coins and established a kingdom of their own. In addition to the worship of the Classical pantheon of the Greek deities found on their coins (Zeus, Herakles, Athena, Apollo, the Indo-Greeks were involved with local faiths, particularly with Buddhism, but also with Hinduism and Zoroastrianism. Strabo, affirms that the Bactrian Greeks, led by Demetrius I and Menander who is said to come from Alexandria of the Caucasus, conquered India and occupied a larger territory than the Macedonians under Alexander the Great, going beyond the Hypanis towards the Himalayas. From Alasanda the city of the Yonas came the thera (elder) Yona Mahadhammarakkhita with thirty thousand bhikkhus. The Indo-Greeks and the Sungas seem to have reconciled and exchanged diplomatic missions around 110 BCE.