EBII AAR: The Secret History of the Saka

[strelyat]

NOTE: This is my first AAR. I'm trying to write it in the style of an ancient epic. The name is based off of the The Secret History of the Mongols. This is the first chapter, or "book". Hope you enjoy it.

When man learned to tame the wild steppe horses
The whole land was beholden to his might
When man learned to hunt with his trusty bow
Great empires fell from the arrow’s strike.
By the charge of the Eternal Sky Lord,
Bring me the words to recite the great tale
Of how the Saka conquered the great steppes,
Subjected the decadent Yavanas,
And came to rule over all of the land.

Book I: The Struggle for Unity
From the seat of his horse, Azes gazed on
At the great army assembled by him
In the name of the Saka Rrudi
His own father, Sapalbizes the Great.
By the work of his own hands, he had brought
The feuding Saka tribes into one horde
He had decreed that the tribes were destined
To bring their authority over
All the nomads in the great endless steppes
Their armies marched from Chighu’s sweet comfort
To unite the tribes in their new homeland
Many tribesman submitted to his rule
But countless still scorned the Great Rrudi.
When winter fell over the land, Azes
Took his men and had them plunder the herds
Of enemy tribes plotting against them.
They moved swift over the frozen rivers
And seized the livestock of their deadly foes
Bearing the animals victorious
Back to the snow-swept plains of their Chighu.
The chieftain of the enemy Kangju,
Kharda the Ruthless, plotted revenge for
The foul theft of their horse, goats, and cows.
In one of their camps, known simply as Chach,
They found a Saka, known as Miyika,
Branded him a spy of the enemy,
And slew him for his evil treachery
Though there was no evidence to prove so.
Kharda, allied with Homartes of Chach,
Formed a great horde with which they would attack
The camp of fine Raudäka Aryandes.
At the break of dawn, the Kangju did strike,
The hooves of horses thundered over snow.
The Saka mustered their best fighting men
And routed the army of the Kangju!

Still those foul men were not satisfied yet,
So they gathered in the mountain passes,
And waited for brave Oxyboakes
Tall and proud, he was a true Saka man
Renowned for his fearlessness in battle.
Yet again, the Kangju were defeated,
Struck down by the folly of arrogance,
Oxyboakes, joining with his prince,
Laid siege to Chach in vengeance for their dead.
In the north, opportunistic Saka
Renounced their ties to great Sapalbizes.
Even joined with the army of Azes,
The rebellious horde was still larger.
But the loyal Saka trusted their king,
So Sapalbizes triumphed once again.
Jikhona, the traitor’s organizer,
Was put to death for his most evil deeds.
Tribal unity was restored once more
Artisans worked without fear of murder,
Forging great beauty out of their metals,
And the numbers of their herds swelled greatly.
Another people, the Sugda, allied
With the Saka, bringing their best fighters
Into their overlord’s fierce armies.
They took Antiocheia Eschate,
One of the cities the Yavanas built,
Merging into the steppe federation.
In the Saka domain, alien ways
Were blended with the nomad’s traditions
And a new way of life began to form.
At the same time, Homartes met the fate
Of his old ally Kharda in battle
The Saka slew him in the camp of Chach
And the Kangju were finally conquered.
The allied Sugda prepared for winter
On the path of the Râh-e Abrisham
When a Yavanas army from the south
Captured their camp and made slaves out of them.
The sons of the Rrudi promised their men,
“As long as Druvaspa grants our steeds speed
To chase after the cowardly slavers
And bring sweet freedom back to our tribesmen,
The Yavanas shall live in fear of us!”

[strelyat]

Book II: The Unjust Fate of Men
An army was assembled to march south,
Led by the prince Aryandes and his kin
He was soon joined by Zeionises’ men
And Oxyboakes’ skilled warriors.
When they learned where the Yavanas were camped,
They set up an ambush in the bare hills
Above the old rod to Marakanda
The army of the Yavanas marched on
Ignorant of the Saka watching them.
The battle trumpet signaled the attack,
The drums of war rolled deep like thunder’s march
The Saka rode down the grassy steppe hills
Their arrows pierced the air like birds in flight
The Yavanas walked their last on that day.
Further to the west, Sapalbizes marched
Into the lands of the Alantae tribes
Their chieftain, Asparung, learned of the horde
Massing on the edges of his clan’s land
He rode out swiftly to greet them in war
And routed the armies of the Rrudi.
Great Sapalbizes promised to return
When he could muster more Saka horsemen.
Runners brought him news of the siege upon
The haughty Baktrans of Marakanda.
He smiled and said, “Their cruelty shall be
The cause of their most desired demise.
Their people will rise up in revolt soon
This I know in the bottom of my bones.”

Seeking to strengthen the federation,
He sent out an emissary, Shafar,
To the land of the bold Mazakata
And offer them an esteemed place in the
Growing domain of the Saka Rauka.
Some of them accepted in great wisdom,
Yet others still refused the Rrudi’s reign.
The allied tribes laid siege to Bukharak
And urged the rebel leader, Urgaspa
To capitulate to the Sakas’ rule.
Poor fool, he refused to acknowledge them
Claiming that the gods were on his men’s side.
His head was soon rotting upon a pike.
This was to be the last great victory
Rrudi Sapalbizes lived to witness.
Three days after, he lay dead in his tent
The knife in his chest was of Baktran make!
The Yavanas had a great commander,
Apollodotos Agathekleious,
A veteran warrior and survivor
Of countless battles against many foes.
With Antigenes Antimachou, they
Marched to Marakanda and struck the horde.
The Saka retreated, but not for long
For Apollodotos came upon them,
Outwitted Raudäka Aryandes, who
Had just be declared Rrudi Aryandes,
And killed many of the Saka’s best men
Forcing them to flee into their own lands.
Apollodotos almost followed them
But was ordered by his king to return.
The poor warlord Aryandes was left
With a scattered camp of exhausted men.
They had been dazzled by the great city,
Tasted fine wines plundered from its vineyards,
And now they were back upon the fierce steppe,
Their beloved chieftain dead, and their new king
Beaten back by the Yavanas’ power.

[strelyat]

Book III: Shadow of the Father
The finest of Sapalbizes’ livestock
Was sacrificed during his burial
So he may enjoy them in the next world.
He wore armor made of glittering gold
Studded with gems from his recent conquests.
He was buried beneath the windswept plains
That his ancestors’ horses first grazed on.
A great stone was placed on top of his grave
To mark his eternal rest for all time.
Rrudi Aryandes was left with his father’s
Great war saddle to fill as the ruler.
He held influence over the new tribes
Incorporated into their domain,
But not over much else beyond his lands.
Worse yet, he was not a good warrior.
He struggled with tactics in the battle
And failed to inspire the men he led.
At first, his reign was blessed with one triumph:
He sent Shafar to the Pahlavân land
And won the allegiance of some tribesmen
But the war with the Yavanas worsened.
Apollodotos and the confident
Antigenes attacked Saka armies
Led by the noble but young Chastana.
When they tried to flee from the Baktrans’ might
They were pursued until they met in war
And defeat always followed afterwards.
Aryandes sacrificed to the war god
But the swords of his men killed few Baktrans.
He sought the advice of wizened elders
But Saka tribesmen continued to die.
The settled south and the steppe north
Differed more than the Saka ever thought.
Ssandramata, goddess of the earth
And fertility must have liked the south
For the farmlands were green with many crops
An emerald oasis in the dry
Barren mountains that protected Baktra.

Despite their setbacks, the Saka fought hard
They trained their boys in their nomadic camps
So when they were older, they could ride south
And avenge the cruel deaths of their fathers.
In the royal camp, Aryandes plotted
To launch a great, victorious campaign
But Apollodotos never fought
When the sun, Urmaysde, shone so brightly
He fought in the dead of the bitter night
Taking advantage of the horde’s blindness
When the sun sunk below the mountains.
Yet not all of the Yavanas were pleased
With the man who called himself their chieftain
Part of the Baktran army revolted
And set siege to their kingdom’s capital
But when word came that Apollodotos
Would take his army south and slaughter them
They fled for the distant hills and caverns
Taking their food and water by sword-point
From the poor and desperate farming men.
A scout force of the Baktran king found them,
Lured them out of their hiding and into
A carefully orchestrated ambush.
Soundly defeated, the rebel Baktrans
Fled north to the Saka federation.
They were warmly received by the nomads
Yet the Saka could not help but laugh when
The Yavanas swore to serve the Rrudi
They were pledging their lives to a duffer.

[strelyat]

Book IV: A Turn of Fate
Apollodotos was disgusted by
The poor treatment of his fellow soldiers
At the hands of the cruel Baktran ruler.
He begged the king to pardon the traitors,
But he refused to forgive the rebels.
“They are cowards, the whole lot of those pigs
Let them live alongside the barbaroi!”
Now, among the Yavanas of Baktra,
There were those from the land of Makedon,
Those who hailed from the faraway Hellas,
And the children of settlers and natives.
Those Baktrans are called Heterogenes
And Apollodotos was one of them.
He knew that most of the rebel Baktrans
Were either native or not of pure blood.
Indeed, he was looked down upon those
Who could claim pure Yavanas ancestry.
He was furious that the king could call
His very own countrymen barbaroi.
Apollodotos suddenly recalled
The words of the Makedon king known as
Megas Alexandros to the Baktrans,
The ruler that conquered the Chorsari:
“Every bad Yavanas is barbaroi;
Every good barbaroi is Yavanas.”
He went to the tent of Antigenes
And told him his dangerous intentions.
In the morning, they told their soldiers that
They would no longer serve their brutal king.
Instead of protecting Marakanda
From the reach of marauding Saka hordes
They marched on the city and laid a siege.
When it fell to the might of their swordsmen
They proclaimed allegiance to Aryandes.

Rebellious Baktrans plundered the farms
Of noblemen that supported the king.
The city of Baktra itself soon fell
To the Yavanas serving the Rrudi.
Soon, taxes on caravans filled coffers
Of the Saka with fine gold and silver.
The riches of the east flowed through their lands.
At the orders of Rrudi Aryandes
The emissary Shafar traveled west
Across the kingdoms of the Yavanas
To a nation set high in the mountains
Called by its hardy people Hayasdan.
An alliance was promptly formed
Between the wise Arkah and the Rrudi.
The latter, proud of his recent conquests
(Which were all earned by the blood of Baktrans)
Sought to subdue the tough Huwarazmish
But was pushed back in the western deserts.
Never did the head of the royal camp
Consider that he was no soldier king.
When Apollodotos, now bearing the
Banner of the Saka horde, assaulted
Oskobara, the last Baktran foothold,
Took the city and killed the evil king,
Aryandes claimed the hard work was all his.
He sneered at the foreign deities that
His new general thanked for his success
Saying, “Who is this most strange Artemis
Or Anahita, or Athena, or
Any other god you sacrifice to?”
From that day to the end of his days,
His wife would not carry another child.

[strelyat]

Book V: The Growth of an Empire
Apollodotos and Antigenes
Joined with Raudäka Oxyboakes
And went on campaign against the hordes of
Pidan the Slothful and Vanaspara
Both kings of the Haomavarga tribe
And vanquished them on the great battlefield.
They soon set siege to the tribe’s camp, Oyrta,
Kept at bay only by a wooden wall.
In the western deserts, Aryandes, his
Brother Zeionises, and Chastana,
A confident young man seeking to prove
His worth not only in eagle hunting,
But in commanding a great Saka horde,
Assembled a mighty army with which
They would march of the city of Khiva
Belonging to the Huwarazmish tribe
The locals prayed to their favorite god,
Known in their tongue as Ahura Mazda,
To banish the mighty nomadic force.
But the Saka host triumphed in the end,
Just as Oxyboakes took Oyrta.
Still the Saka were not content with their
New conquests, for Apollodotos soon
Brought his great army to Orthospana
And took it from the Uparisena.
The nomads’ herds swelled larger than ever,
For now they had far more lands to graze in.
The elite flaunted their newfound riches
Filling their simple food with rare spices
Looted from distant eastern settlements,
And sharing war stories of distant lands,
Of Haoma drinkers and Yavanas.
Oxyboakes continued to fight,
Now against the eastern Yuezhi nomads,
Winning countless battles against that tribe.
But the Saka were not the only ones
Whose herds grazed upon the mighty steppe lands.
The Pahlavâns watched the expansion of their
Deadly northern neighbors with great concern.
When a Saka tribe strayed into their realm,
They attacked them and killed their warriors.

At this time, Aryandes had marched northwards
To conquer the tribe of the Alantae.
Their chieftain, Tsaegaer, defeated him,
Pushing him back to the western deserts.
The news of the attack came days later
As the Rrudi brought his army along
The ancient caravan routes of traders.
“This grave offense shall not be forgotten,”
The warlord proclaimed to his warriors,
“If they want to wage war, they shall have it.”
He planned to lead the invasion army,
But an unexpected illness struck him,
So young Chastana commanded his horde,
While Aryandes brooded alone, stuck in
Khiva, the town of the western wastelands.
Chastana was twice the warlord he was,
And defeated a Pahlavân army
Led by swift Varâzdad ê Dahâën.
While the Rrudi recovered, his brother
Zeionises marched on the Alantae,
Even besieging Gava-Alanna.
When he became well, he rushed north to fight,
But an Alantae war band beat him first.
Ashamed by his countless defeats, he went
Back to Khiva, never again planning
To lead a horde onto the battlefield.
That would be the work of his brothers, his
Yavanas generals, and his children.

[strelyat]

NOTE: This may be one of my last posts for a while. Hopefully, I'll find the time this fall to continue.

Book VI: A Son of Convenience
After a season of siege, the Saka
Launched their attack upon Orthospana.
The Uparisena leader, known as
Yazdâbân, sallied forth from the city
But the forces of Apollodotos
Swarmed his army and crushed it utterly.
The Saka horsemen sacked Orthospana,
Focusing their destruction on the shrine
Of Dionysos, who was worshipped much
Throughout Baktra and neighboring kingdoms.
The gold and silver of the temple was
Carried north by victorious nomads
And the wealth found its way to tax coffers.
Now the Saka could afford a full war
Against the kingdom of the Pahlavâns.
A nomad horde soon surrounded the town
Of Antiocheia Margiane.
The ranks of this army was bolstered by
Veterans who had fought in the mountains
And eastern deserts against the Yuezhi.
They were proud of their recent victory
Against the chieftain called Hippostratos.
His rotting body now dangled from the
Wooden palisades of Yuezhi Sulek.
Chastana was sent to the settlement
But a Pahlavân force intercepted
His army and routed the Saka horde.
The commanders of the enemy host,
Were confident Hârâsp ê Dahâën
And the veteran warrior Dârmân
Also from the Dahae federation.
They marched to their kingdom’s besieged city
And drove the Saka army from that place.
Fortunately, Zeionises managed
To defeat the headstrong Alantae tribes
And slay their chieftain, Asparung, with aid
From Alantae who pledged fealty to the
Growing nomadic confederation.
Now Zeionises could march south to fight
The Pahlavâns in their own grazing lands.

Apollodotos continued to win
Countless battles into the former realms
Of the once mighty Chorsari empire
This time assaulting the Haravautish,
Victoriously slaying Dorushâb,
Their king, while his army fled from battle.
Their new ruler, Tirâvand, fortified
Alexandropolis against the horde
Looming closer on the horizon line.
From the governor’s palace of Khiva,
Aryandes was pleased at his expanding
Kingdom, but feared the influence of the
Popular victor Apollodotos.
He filled his quarters with loyal soldiers,
Oversaw the administration of
His expanding empire, to ensure that
No disloyal wrench would try to rebel.
The former Khivan satrapal palace
Was outfitted with new stone taken
From the buildings of conquered regions, so
All in Khiva could know who was Rrudi.
When he received word that the Baktran had
Taken Alexandropolis and killed
The notorious Yavanas warlord
Nessos Apamenes Syriakos,
He thought, “It is better to have this man
Close to my side at all times than far off
Plotting some nefarious stratagem
Against my rule. Should he try to kill me
Then I may learn of his scheme beforehand
If his manservants are available
A couple of coins can buy any man.”
He declared that he now regarded the
Baktran as his very own son, and found
A noble Saka family loyal
To his rule willing to give their fair daughter,
Pishpasia, to Apollodotos.
Should he try to betray the King of Kings
The Saka Rauka would hunt that swine down.
The Baktran was honored by the offer.
With great felicity, the Yavanas
And the fair Saka maiden were married.

[strelyat]

Book VII: The Intoxication of Victory
The Pahlavân assaulted the Saka
In the deep of the night, and forced the horde
To retreat, lest they be slaughtered like pigs.
But before they could return to their foes’
Grazing lands, the rivers flooded over
Turning the most reliable fords to
Impassable mud pits. So the army
Camped in the farm fields outside of Khiva
Preparing themselves for future battles.
The retreat proved to be a sage choice soon,
For when Chastana returned to the land
Of Pahlavâ, he defeated Shahzadag,
A fierce but noble nomad general.
His camp was seized, and his gold and silver
Enrichened the coffers of the Rrudi
Along with the profit made by selling
The gray lead from Alexandropolis.
Antigenes soon joined with Chastana
And their combined horde soon came to vanquish
Varâzdad ê Dahâën in the land
Where his family’s many horses grazed.
After his marriage, Apollodotos
Led his army once more on a campaign,
Besieged Antiocheia Margiane,
And waited for starvation to set in.

But not all was well within the Rrudi’s realm.
Kharaostes, a noble by merit,
Renounced his part in the Saka domain
And massacred a nearby army post.
Aryandes, who had always been fond
Of the rebel, overlooked these actions
Despite the dire threat they posed to his reign.
He instead focused on subjugating
The rebellious Yavanas brigades
That populated Baktran countryside.
The worst of these cutthroats, thieves, and killers,
Ktesikles Philadelphos, was slain
His dead body paraded by Saka
Horsemen as a warning to the Baktrans.
Such bitter events was sweetened by news
Of great victories over Pahlavâ.
Oxyboakes attacked Hârâsp and
Dârmân, before joining with the Baktran
Against Antiocheia Margiane.
The inhabitants, accepting defeat,
Threw the gates of the city open, and
Watched the Saka slaughter their fighting men.
Antigenes surrounded Nisaya,
The last major bastion of Pahlavâ.
Total control of the eternal steppe
Seemed to be just within the Rrudi’s grasp.

[strelyat]

Book VIII: The Final Struggle of a Legend
Despite the Saka’s expanding kingdom,
Discontent filled the far-off provinces
And it was soon after the capture of
Alexandropolis that the conquered
Rioted against their new overlords.
It was soon subdued, and the Rrudi chose
Oxyboakes the Yancai to watch
Over the city of the Yavanas.
Further north, the great Saka horde attacked
The armies of Pahlavâ, commanded
By Shardar Phrâpâtes ê Dahâën,
Varâzdad, Shahzadag, and the mighty
Tirdâd ê Arshkânig, with his tribesman
Arshán é Arshkânig, all defeated,
And their camps raided by their enemies.
The treacherous Kharaostes tried to
Aid his fellow Dahae, but his rebels
Were slaughtered by loyal Saka horsemen.
Zeionises, helped by Chastana and
Antigenes, attacked the forces of
Arshkân and vanquished his Pahlavân host.
Further good fortune prevailed as robbers
Around Bukharak, who had raided farms,
Were put down by Oxyboakes’ men.
After seasons of campaigning struggle,
Apollodotos and Antigenes,
With Zeionises and Chastana, came
Before the walls of Nisaya, the last
Great Pahlavân stronghold left in the land.
The siege on the settlement was long and
Grueling; close to a year did the Saka
Wait outside the walls, starving the city.
Many times did the defenders sally
Forth, but they could never defeat the horde.
Likewise, the attacking army could not
Force their victims to capitulation
Until the start of the following year.
But before the Saka could celebrate
Their subjugation of the eastern steppes,
The remaining Pahlavâns vowed to fight
Against the kingdom that had deprived them
Of their cherished land, women, and freedom.

Within weeks, the watchmen in Baktra saw
An army form on the horizon, so
Vast, it seemed to eclipse the setting
Sun, for the great force from the western lands
Was the vengeance of Pahlavâ’s people.
Thus, now the stone walls of Baktra contained
The hungry multitude, which decided
That it was the nomads of the north that
Had made settled folk like themselves suffer
For the foul cause of the barbaroi king.
Yavanas rose up against the Saka,
Assassinated their governor, and
And declared their city independent.
The Pahlavâ had no qualms against the
Baktrans, so they lifted the siege and marched
Against Saka forces in the country.
Defeat after defeat was wrought upon
An army grown exhausted from distant
Conquests, which had thinned their once mighty ranks.
Apollodotos did not follow his
Countrymen’s example of rebellion,
Nor did he lose all hope of victory
Like his Saka subordinates; no, he
Wrote a letter in the dark of the night
Illuminated by his oil lamp,
To his beloved wife Pishpasia,
Saying, “Dearest one, I know that you are
Bearing our child, who I hope shall be a
Hardy, valiant warrior one day
For I will soon go to Elysium
In the name of the Saka, whom the gods
Have destined to rule over the whole world
Just as in my father’s generation,
Where Megas Alexandros conquered
The unstoppable Chorsari army.”
As dawn broke, he put on his breastplate, took
His sharpened sword with his new helmet, and
Gave orders to prepare for the battle.
The Pahlavân host had already come
And the mighty din of rattling arms
Seemed to shake the grounds of the whole steppe lands.
Drummers battered war drums as the horsemen
Galloped at full speed towards their final fight.
Apollodotos led the Saka charge
His horse flying like the very wind, and
His spear ready to pierce Pahlavân hearts.
The two lines collided with vicious hate,
The cry of dying men and horses mixed.
Parry to the left, block to the right, and
A stab to the front; ah! this is true war.
An enemy spear gave him his mortal
Wound, but Apollodotos would fight till
The last drop of his blood had been shed there,
Upon the ancient sacred battlefield.

[V.T. Marvin]

I like it very much - quite unique approach and a good read! :2thumbsup:

The only suggestion, if I may, would be to include a picture now and then just to make the read a bit more pleasing to the eye, or a minimap screenshot to help keeping track with the evolving campaign. :2cents:

[strelyat]

I have attempted to take screenshots from the game, but for some reason my computer won't cooperate. I used the map from EBI here, but I think it communicates the general idea.
Red is Saka Rauka
Blue-green is rebellious Baktran province
Purple is Pahlavân armies
17145
Click for a larger image

[V.T. Marvin]

Wow! The vengeance of the Pahlavs is far more horrible than I though, truly terrifying! :scared:

Screenshots can be usually made quite easily actually by pressing "PrtSc" key which produces a screenshot saved in the "tgas" subfolder of your M2TW folder. For conversion from the .tga format to more flexible .jpg or similar one can use free graphic programs like GIMP. :2thumbsup:

[strelyat]

Note: The issue I have with screenshots on my computer is that whenever I screenshot the game in progress, when I try to bring up the .jpg later, the game window is black. I'll keep working on fixing this, and if not, I'll try to maintain an updated map by other means.

Book IX: The One Steppe
The full Saka army was full of grief
At the demise of Apollodotos.
Yet this sorrow son gave way to sacred
Vengeance. Not long after the burial,
Powered by rage and hatred, the Saka
Struck down the filthy Shardar Shahbarzin
ê Sakâën, who had deserted to
The enemy and had looted the arms
Of Apollodotos after his death.
Soon after was Shahzadag Râbarzin
Hellen, Vahrâm Hellen, Vâraz Hellen,
And other part-Yavanas Pahlavâns
Who possessed the worst traits of both peoples
All slain by Oxyboakes, the strong
Chastana, and Antigenes,
Who had been close to Apollodotos
And was therefore the most vengeful of all,
Dragging the flayed corpses of these men from
A rope tied to his powerful steppe horse.

When Zeionises arrived to support
The war effort, the early success of
Pahlavâ disappeared as their mortal
Foe strove to eliminate them under the
Banner of honoring a great fighter.
Also at this time, Baktra was taken
Once again, and all of its men
Were put to the sword for their foul actions.
The war was not without its brutal costs,
So Shafar journeyed to the south to urge
The Seleukids to lend military
Against the cruel Pahlavân host.
So he went back north with a Yavanas
Force to assist the worn Saka army.
The nomads waged countless battles against
One another, far too many to be
Recorded here, so let it be known for
All of time that Oxyboakes and
Zeionises crushed the last Pahlavân
Host at last many years after the start
Of the war, uniting the eastern steppes.
Aryandes, wanting to pacify the
Conquered tribe, accepted a young noble
Called Kharapallana as a member
Of the Saka Rauka court in Khiva.
Swelled with the pride of victory, they soon
Turned their eyes to the wealthy kingdom of
Taksashila, beyond the high mountains.

[strelyat]

Book X: The Distant Kingdom
Before marching into the fertile lands
Of Taksashila, protected by the
Eastern mountains, Antigenes marched on
Uparisena, whose people controlled
The passes that led to Taksashila
And whose merchants profited greatly from
Their active trade with the distant kingdom.
The city’s ruler, Bardân, urged his men
To sally forth beyond their walls and crush
The nomadic horde, but it would be his
Host to taste most bitter defeat; and so
The mountain passes were open to
The Saka. Aryandes elected to
Send his envoy Shafar to the kingdom.
With words sweetened with honey and money,
The peasants of Taksashila rose up
And joined the army of Antigenes
That would soon set siege to the capital.
Yet when the Arkah of Hayasdan came
To learn of this treachery, he sent at
Once a petition to the Rrudi, for
Hayasdan and Taksashila were firm
Allies, bonded by years of fruitful trade.
In return, Aryandes rejected him.
Reading the steppe king’s haughty letter, the
The Arkah exclaimed, “Never have the gods
Created such a miserable man
Who would sooner poison friendship in search
Of even greater riches than to stand
By an honorable commitment? I
Predict nothing but ruin to this fool;
Whether his descendants will be wiser
I cannot yet tell; but I think the men
Of his family are similarly
Aligned in their thought-and if so, I see
Chaos and rebellion awaiting.”

As the Arkah mused to himself, the host
Of Taksashila routed the nomads
And slaughtered the traitors to their kingdom.
And yet the rebellion spread even
More, as discontent peasants formed militias
Against their cruel and hateful sovereign.
Unfazed by defeat, Antigenes, with
The aid of Zeionises, returned to
The capital and renewed the siege. While
The Saka fought in these unfriendly lands,
Their men became familiar with a
Strange tradition, far removed from the kind
They had learned as children upon the steppe.
The natives called this religion Dharma
And they put great reverence in places
That they called stupas. The first Saka who
Adopted this tradition were called traitors in
The service of the enemy raja,
Not for any nefarious reason,
But because they refused to fight under
The influence of the mysterious
Dharma; but the many who continued
To fight while visiting stupas were not
Persecuted, for they were doing what
They were asked of by their commanders, and
They better understood the people than
Those who stuck to the old ways of the steppe.