Editing Saka (section)

== Historiography ==
[[File:Assimilation of Baltic and Aryan Peoples by Uralic Speakers in the Middle and Upper Volga Basin (Shaded Relief BG).png|thumb|Distribution of Iranic peoples in Central Asia during the Iron Age. Saka included.]]
[[File:Coin of Azes II.jpg|thumb|Silver coin of the [[Indo-Scythians|Indo-Scythian]] King [[Azes II]] (ruled c. 35–12 BC). Note the royal [[tamga]] on the coin.]]
[[Persians]] referred to all northern nomads as Sakas. [[Herodotus]] (IV.64) describes them as Scythians, although they figure under a different name:

{{Blockquote|The Sacae, or Scyths, were clad in trousers, and had on their heads tall stiff caps rising to a point. They bore the bow of their country and the dagger; besides which they carried the battle-axe, or ''[[sagaris]]''. They were in truth Amyrgian (Western) Scythians, but the Persians called them Sacae, since that is the name which they gave to all Scythians.}}

=== Strabo ===
In the 1st century BC, the Greek-Roman geographer Strabo gave an extensive description of the peoples of the eastern steppe, whom he located in Central Asia beyond Bactria and Sogdiana.<ref name="Strabo, Geography, 11.8.1">{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Strab.+11.8.1 |title=Strabo, Geography, 11.8.1 |publisher=Perseus.tufts.edu |access-date=13 September 2012}}</ref>

Strabo went on to list the names of the various tribes he believed to be "Scythian",<ref name="Strabo, Geography, 11.8.1" /> and in so doing almost certainly conflated them with unrelated tribes of eastern Central Asia. These tribes included the Saka.
{{Blockquote|Now the greater part of the Scythians, beginning at the Caspian Sea, are called [[Däae]], but those who are situated more to the east than these are named [[Massagetae]] and Sacae, whereas all the rest are given the general name of Scythians, though each people is given a separate name of its own. They are all for the most part nomads. But the best known of the nomads are those who [[Kushan Empire|took away Bactriana]] from the [[Greco-Bactrian Kingdom|Greeks]], I mean the [[Asii]], [[Pasiani]], [[Bactria#Daxia, Tukhara and Tokharistan|Tochari]], and [[sacaraucae|Sacarauli]], who originally came from the [[Dayuan|country on the other side]] of the [[Syr Darya|Iaxartes River]] that adjoins that of the Sacae and the Sogdiani and was occupied by the Sacae. And as for the Däae, some of them are called [[Aparni]], some [[Xanthii]], and some [[Pissuri]]. Now of these the Aparni are situated closest to [[Hyrcania]] and the part of the sea that borders on it, but the remainder extend even as far as the country that stretches parallel to [[Aria (satrapy)|Aria]].

Between them and Hyrcania and [[Parthia]] and extending as far as the Arians is a [[Karakum Desert|great waterless desert]], which they traversed by long marches and then overran Hyrcania, [[Nisa, Turkmenistan|Nesaea]], and the plains of the Parthians. And these people agreed to [[tribute|pay tribute]], and the tribute was to allow the invaders at certain appointed times to overrun the country and carry off booty. But when the invaders overran their country more than the agreement allowed, war ensued, and in turn their quarrels were composed and new wars were begun. Such is the life of the other nomads also, who are always attacking their neighbors and then in turn settling their differences.}}
::(Strabo, ''Geography'', 11.8.1; transl. 1903 by H. C. Hamilton & W. Falconer.)<ref name="Strabo, Geography, 11.8.1" />

=== Indian sources ===
{{Main|Indo-Scythians}}

The Sakas receive numerous mentions in Indian texts, including the [[Purāṇas]], the ''[[Manusmriti|Manusmṛiti]]'', the ''[[Rāmāyaṇa]]'', the ''[[Mahābhārata]]'', and the ''[[Mahābhāṣya]]'' of [[Patanjali]].