Persians called Macedonia "Skudra" (Skopia)

[Cyrus]

Darius the Great in one his inscriptions in Persepolis says:"Thatiy Darayavaush xshaya: Thiya vashna Auramazdaha ima dahyava tya adam agarbayam apataram haca Parsa; adamsham patiyaxshayaiy; mana bajim abaraha; tvasham hacama athahya ava akunava datam tya mana avadish adaraiya: Mada, Uja, Parthava, Haraiva, Baxtrish, Suguda, Uvarazmish, Zraka, Harauvatish, Thatagush, Maciya, Gadara, Hidush, Saka haumavarga, Saka tigraxauda, Babirush, Athura, Arabaya, Mudraya, Armina, Katpatuka, Sparda, Yauna tyaiy drayahya uta tyaiy paradraya, >>> Skudra >> Skudra >> Skudra > Skudra > Skudra Skudra Skudra

[panos]

Hi CyrusSorry to ruin that for you, but Skudra-Skydra is a small town northwest of Thessaloniki, between Veroia and Arhidaia (you can see it in any map). Skopia (Skopje) is a very Greek word used even today meaning "guard post" - "Outpost".Respect
Panos

[Cyrus]

As you said Skydra is just a small town but Skopia is capital of Macedonia, so I think it is more possible that Skudra was the same Skopia.Meanwhile, isn't Thessaloniki in Greece?!!

[yiannis]

Back then, Skopje was nothing like a capital of anything.
Skopje was not known to the Ancient Greeks, and appears to have been founded in the 3rd century BC by the Dardanians, a people on the fringes of the Hellenic world. So it's not possible to be mentioned by Darious!Thessaloniki is indeed in Greece, same as the province of Macedonia, of which is its capital.I thought that the Persians called the macedonians as "yauna takabara" or "Greeks wearing hats"...

[agesilaos]

That is what I have read too; Skudra is normally taken to mean Thrace, although there is no reason to suppose that Darius would have differentiated the two peoples; I would suggest that the Southern urbanised Macedonians are the 'Greeks over the sea' here and their wilder cousins were subsumed in Skudra. The Persian sense of geography was vague.

[nick]

Hi Companions -I must admit, my fellow Dutchman Jona Lendering has done a fantastisch job on his website:http://www.livius.org/y/yauna/yauna.htmlThat explains a lot! Also the Persians referred to their satrapy Thrace as Skudra (conquered by Darius I the Great, abandoned shortly after Xerxes' campaigns).This is just as simple as it is:Thrace = Skudra
Macedonians = Yauna TakabaraSee also:http://www.livius.org/sao-sd/satrap/sat ... ns.htmlOne hundred thanks to Jona!Best regards -Nick

[agesilaos]

On this point of Achemenidism ; Yauna = Greeks takabara Hammond renders as 'hat-bearing' but reading modern works on the Persian army the infantry are divided into 'sparabara' and 'takabara' and here 'taka' is taken as a small shield ie a pelte so is this hat-bearing stuff really 'peltasts'? Or are the roots different and they only look the same in transliteration?

[nick]

To be honest, I wondered about the same thing. I always took takabara to denote a Persian military term. Yesterday evening I checked Briant's History of the Persian Empire. The problem with this 1000-page book is that it's rather difficult to find exactly what you want. There are dozens of references to Macedonia, but I couldn't find the precise answer I was looking for. So, for the time being, I trusted the wisdom of Jona Lendering.However, the exact meaning of takabara puzzles me too!Regards -
Nick

[Cyrus]

I think those are two different words:Takabara: Taka=Crown, Taj & Bara=Bearer, Wearer
In modern Persian, it means "Crowned".Takavara: Tak=Attack, Single & Avara = Doer, Invader
In modern Persian, it means "Commando".http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreig ... varan.html