Queen
Tomyris was an actual person!
She was
a Queen of the Massagetae, an Iranian people who lived
in Central Asia east of the Caspian Sea, what is now
Eastern Iran. In 530 BC she rose to the throne upon
the death of her husband.
In 529
BC, after conquering the Babylonians, Cyrus the Great,
emperor of Persia, looked to Queen Tomyris' lands as
his next conquest. Tomyris did send a messenger to Cyrus,
requesting that he end his conquests and be content
to rule the lands he already had. He should have done
just that.
In the
end, following the capture and death of her son, Queen
Tomyris' army defeated Cyrus the Great. After the battle,
Tomyris and her soldiers searched the battlefield for
Cyrus' body. When it was found the Queen ordered him
beheaded. Legend has it that she kept the skull with
her at all times and drank wine from it until her death.
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