Tapuri

Tapuri or Tapyri (Ancient Greek: Τάπουροι or Τάπυροι or Τάπυρροι)[1][2] were a tribe in the Medes south of the Caspian Sea mentioned by Ptolemy and Arrian.[3] Ctesias refers to the land of Tapuri between the two lands of Cadusii and Hyrcania.[4]

Location of Tapuri, between Amardus and Hyrcania
Map of Greco-Bactrian Kingdom with Tapuria clearly lying on the south shores of the Caspian sea

The name and probable habitations of the Tapuri appear, at different periods of history, to have been extended along a wide space of country from Armenia to the eastern side of the Oxus. Strabo places them alongside the Caspian Gates and Rhagae, in Parthia[5] or between the Derbices and Hyrcani[6] or in company with the Amardi and other people along the southern shores of the Caspian;[7] in which last view Curtius, Dionysius, and Pliny may be considered to coincide. Ptolemy in one place reckons them among the tribes of Media,[8] and in another ascribes them to Margiana.[9] Their name is written with some differences in different authors; thus Τάπουροι and Τάπυροι occur in Strabo; Tapuri in Pliny and Curtius; Τάπυρροι in Steph. B. sub voce There can be no doubt that the present district of Tabaristan derives its name from them. Aelian gives a peculiar description of the Tapuri who dwelt in Media.

Ptolemy refers to two different tribe with similar names. The first tribe, called Tapuri, lived in the Medes south of the Caspian Sea. The second tribe, called the Tapurei, lived in the land of the Scythians.[10] According to the Encyclopaedia Iranica, the origin of the Tapurei reached the mountains of the land of Hyrcania.[11]

Some of the Tapur migrated from Parthyene to central parts of southern territories of Caspian Sea during kingdom of Phraates I[12][13] when Parthian Empire became strong during Phraates I, he attacked to Amard (another Scythian tribe) and defeated them. Then he forced them to leave southern fringes of Caspian Sea and replaced them with Tapur people. After this event, ancient Tapuria was established.[14] These Tapuri clan furnished 1,000 cavalry for the battle of Gaugamela as Achaemenid Empire Army.[15]

According to Arrian, a group of Tapurs lived among the Hyrcanians and Amards during the Achaemenid and Alexander periods. Alexander obeyed the Tapurs and went to battle with Amard and defeated them. Alexander then annexed the land of Amard to the land of Tapur. Satrap Tapur was under Autophradates's rule.[16]

References
  1. Tapuri. Tapuri were a Persian tribe. The mountains inland from the coast of Hyrcania are called the “Tapurian mountains” by Arrian, after the people there, settled in the mountains between the Derbices and the Hyrcanii (Str., 11.9.1, 11.11.8). They are spread toward the Caspian Gates and Rhaga in Media (Ptol., 6.2.6).These western Tapuri could have resulted from a tribal division north of the Sarnius/Atrak river—another, perhaps ancestral, group, the Tapurei, is located by Ptolemy (6.14.12) in Scythia. The remainder moved south and east into Margiana (“between the Hyrcani and the Arii,” Str., 11.8.8; Ptol., 6.10.2) along the Ochus/Arius (mod. Tejen/Hari-rud) river into Aria (cf. Polyb., 10.49). The Tapuri on the Caspian could, alternatively, represent a later westward migration along the main east-west highway from Margiana. These Tapuri furnished 1,000 cavalry for the battle of Gaugamela (Curt., 3.2.7), apparently aligned with the Hyrcanii (the “Topeiri,” Arr., An. 3.8.4). Alexander later subdued them (Arr., An. 3.23.1-2; Polyb., 5.44.5; Curt., 6.4.24-25). A separate satrap administered them at the time of Alexander’s arrival, and this official was assigned the Caspian Mardi as well (Arr., An. 3.22.7, 24.3; 4.18.2)., IRANICAONlINE IRAN v. PEOPLES OF IRAN (2) Pre-Islamic
  2. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Tapuri
  3. "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, illustrated by numerous engravings on wood. William Smith, LLD. London. Walton and Maberly, Upper Gower Street and Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row; John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1854. ,TAPU´RI". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
  4. Of the lands which lie on the sea and of the others which border on these, Ninus subdued Egypt and Phoenicia, then Coele-Syria, Cilicia, Pamphylia, and Lycia, and also Caria, Phrygia, and Lydia; moreover, he brought under his sway the Troad, Phrygia on the Hellespont, Propontis, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and all the barbarian nations who inhabit the shores of the Pontus as far as the Tanais; he also made himself lord of the lands of the Cadusii, Tapyri, Hyrcanii, Drangi, of the Derbici, Carmanii, Choromnaei, and of the Borcanii, and Parthyaei; and he invaded both Persis and Susiana and Caspiana, as it is called, which is entered by exceedingly narrow passes, known for that reason as the Caspian Gates. 4 Many other lesser nations he also brought under his rule, about whom it would be a long task to speak. But since Bactriana was difficult to invade and contained multitudes of warlike men, after much toil and labour in vain he deferred to a later time the war against the Bactriani, and leading his forces back into Assyria selected a place excellently situated for the founding of a great city.. Diodorus Siculus, Library 1-7 (2.2.3)
  5. Parts of the Parthian country are Comisene and Chorene, and, one may almost say, the whole region that extends as far as the Caspian Gates and Rhagae and the Tapyri, which formerly belonged to Media. strabo (11.9.1)
  6. The Tapyri are said to live between the Derbices and the Hyrcanians. strabo (11.9.1)
  7. This fortress is distant from the Araxes, which forms the boundary between Armenia and Atropatenê, two thousand four hundred stadia, according to Dellius, the friend of Antony, who wrote an account of Antony's expedition against the Parthians, on which he accompanied Antony and was himself a commander. All regions of this country are fertile except the part towards the north, which is mountainous and rugged and cold, the abode of the mountaineers called Cadusii, Amardi, Tapyri, Cyrtii and other such peoples, who are migrants and predatory; for the Zagrus and Niphates mountains keep these tribes scattered; and the Cyrtii in Persis, and the Mardi (for the Amardi are also thus called), and those in Armenia who to this day are called by the same name, are of the same character. strabo (11.13.3)
  8. the caspi dwell in the western part near armenia, below whom is margaiana extending cadusi, the geli, and dribyces, next to whom, extending into the interior, are the amariacae and mardi. the carduchi inhabit the regions which are near the land of the cadusi, the marundae to lake margiana then the margasi who are below the geli, after these is propatena extending amariaca, and then the sagarti toward the east of the zagros mountains, after which is the choromithrena region which extends even to parthia, on the north of which is helymais, from which to the source of the charindas river are the regions the tapuri inhabit,. Ptolemy (6.2.6)
  9. and to the eastward are the Galactophagi ; and eastward from Tapuris mountains and the scymbi scythae are the Tapurei. ptolemy (6.14.12)
  10. "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, illustrated by numerous engravings on wood. William Smith, LLD. London. Walton and Maberly, Upper Gower Street and Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row; John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1854. ,TAPU´RI". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
  11. Tapuri. The mountains inland from the coast of Hyrcania are called the “Tapurian mountains” by Arrian, after the people there, settled in the mountains between the Derbices and the Hyrcanii (Str., 11.9.1, 11.11.8). They are spread toward the Caspian Gates and Rhaga in Media (Ptol., 6.2.6).These western Tapuri could have resulted from a tribal division north of the Sarnius/Atrak river—another, perhaps ancestral, group, the Tapurei, is located by Ptolemy (6.14.12) in Scythia. The remainder moved south and east into Margiana (“between the Hyrcani and the Arii,” Str., 11.8.8; Ptol., 6.10.2) along the Ochus/Arius (mod. Tejen/Hari-rud) river into Aria (cf. Polyb., 10.49). The Tapuri on the Caspian could, alternatively, represent a later westward migration along the main east-west highway from Margiana. These Tapuri furnished 1,000 cavalry for the battle of Gaugamela (Curt., 3.2.7), apparently aligned with the Hyrcanii (the “Topeiri,” Arr., An. 3.8.4). Alexander later subdued them (Arr., An. 3.23.1-2; Polyb., 5.44.5; Curt., 6.4.24-25). A separate satrap administered them at the time of Alexander’s arrival, and this official was assigned the Caspian Mardi as well (Arr., An. 3.22.7, 24.3; 4.18.2)., IRANICAONlINE IRAN v. PEOPLES OF IRAN (2) Pre-Islamic
  12. Ehsan, Yarshater (1968). The Cambridge History of Iran:Seleucid Parthian. p. 766. ISBN 0521246938.
  13. An Universal History, from the Earliest Account of Time, Volume 5 (T. Osborne, 1747) sig=ACfU3U2mQ08SnGDyoNeY3viLsBvL8I3WGQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwibyYa30N7jAhVpsVQKHcX3DO0Q6AEwC3oECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=Ambantae&f=false page 58-59.
  14. Rawlinson 1875, p. 36
  15. These Tapuri furnished 1000 cavalry for the battle of Gaugamela , , “IRAN v. PEOPLES OF IRAN (2) Pre-Islamic,” Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition
  16. Alexsander dimissed Mardians and appointed as their satrap Autophradates also made satrap of the Tapurians. anabasis of alexsander. arrian (24.2.5)

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Tapuri". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.


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