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 HyrcaniaMap of Greco-Bactrian Kingdom with Tapuria clearly lying on the south shores of the Caspian Sea
History
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]
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]
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)
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)
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)
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)
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