DAHAE

'Dahae' or 'Dahan Scythians' were ancient Scythian tribes of Indo-European origin who spoke an Iranian language. Strabo wrote about them the following:
: ''"Most of the Scythians, beginning from the Caspian Sea, are called Dahae Scythae, and those situated more towards the east Massagetae and Sacae."''
(Strabo, 11-8-1)
Strabo's description places Dahae nomads in the area around modern Turkmenistan.
Dahae minted their own coinage during 330—1 BC [1].
Dahae, together with other Scythian tribes were known to fight on the side of Darius III of Persia during the Battle of Gaugamela. Later they joined Alexander of Macedon in his quest to India.The tribe dissolved with the fall of the Achaemenid dynasty.
A branch of Dahae called Parni led a number of expansionary campaigns which slowly wrested control from the Greco-Bactrian and Seleucid Kingdoms. Under the Arsacids the Parthians as the Parni had become known took over the entire Iranian plateau. Having established themeselves masters of the homeland of the ancient Medo-Persian Empire, the Parni acculturated away from their northern European steppe traditions to the more urbanized culture of the Medo-Persians, becoming in the process the arch-enemy of the Roman Empire.

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★ Dasa