Reginald Walter Macan, Herodotus, The Seventh, Eighth, & Ninth Books with Introduction and Commentary

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Σαγάρτιοι: here introduced and described as hitherto unknown, are included in one satrapy (xiv.) with Sarangians, Thamanaians, Utians, Mykians, and the Islanders from the Persian Gulf, 3. 93, while in 1. 125 they are enumerated as one of the four ‘nomad’ clans (γένεα) of Persians. Those passages look like later information, and support the idea that this Book is of earlier composition. The Sagartians appear to be a γένος or ἔθνος of Persians, nomad and wandering over the south-Iranian region. Yet one of the rebellions quelled by Dareios was headed by a Sagartian named Sitratachmes, who set up as “the King of Sagartia,” and claimed descent from Kyaxares (Behistun Inscrip. iii. 14), which would rather suggest a Median, or perhaps a ‘Skythian’ connexion (if the last kings of Media were ‘Skyths’).

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σειρῇσι πεπλεγμένῃσι ἐξ ἱμάντων. The use of the lasso, which we are apt to associate with the N.A. Indians and the cow-boys of the West, is ascribed to the Persians in the Shahnahmeh, to the Parthians by Suidas, sub v. σειρά to the Sauromatae by Pausanias, 1. 21. 8, and is even found represented on the Assyrian monuments in the B. M. (cp. Rawhnson). The lasso was not then a peculiarity of the ‘Sagartians,’ nor is it likely that their lasso was peculiar as formed of plaited thongs. The description given by Hdt. in the present of the manner in which the lasso was used is clear enough, but it is remarkable that no instance of its employment is recorded during the campaign. The description, in fact, is not based upon memories of the actual fighting, much less upon official Persian lists.

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ἐν ἕρκεσι ἐμπαλασσόμενοι, ‘entangled in the coils.’ ἐμπ. in Thuc. 7. 84. 3 absolutely.