Spargapises (Saka: ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ; ) was the son of queen Tomyris of the Massagetai. Name () is a Hellenisation of the Saka name , and is composed of the terms , meaning “scion” and “descendant,” and , meaning “decoration” and “adornment.” The name of and those of the Agathyrsian and Scythian kings both named are variants of the same name, and both forms, and , are cognates of the Avestan name (). Life Background was the son of the king of the Massagetai and of his queen, Tomyris. After the death of the king, the widowed Tomyris succeeded him as the ruler of the tribe, and, once he had become old enough, became the leader of the army of the Massagetai. War against Persia When the founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, II, asked for the hand of Tomyris with the intent of acquiring her kingdom through the marriage, she understood 's aims and rejected his proposal. On the advice of the Lydian , Kūruš responded to Tomyris's rejection by deciding to invade the Massagetai. Death 's initial assault against the Massagetai was routed by them, after which he set up a fancy banquet with large amounts of wine in the tents of his camp as an ambush and withdrew. The Massagetai, led by , who primarily used fermented mare's milk and cannabis as intoxicants like all Iron Age steppe nomads, and therefore were not used to drinking wine, became drunk and were easily defeated and slaughtered by , thus destroying a third of the Massagetai army. had been captured by , and, once he had become sober and understood his situation, he asked to free him, and after acquiesced to his pleas, he killed himself. Aftermath After Tomyris found out about the death of , she sent an angry message in which she called the wine, which had caused the destruction of her army and her son, a drug which made those who consumed it so mad that they spoke evil words, and demanded him to leave his land or else she would, swearing upon the Sun, "give him more blood than he could drink." Tomyris herself led the Massagetai army into war, and, during the next battle opposing the Massagetai to the forces of , Tomyris defeated the Persians and destroyed most of their army. himself was killed in the battle, and Tomyris found