Conclusions

So we come to the end of our journey from Scythia to Camelot. The first Northeast Iranians to make this fateful trek, the Iazyges (ca. 175), managed to preserve their epic traditions more or less intact—albeit most likely colored by the name of their first Roman commander, Lucius Artorius Castus, and by the legends of the indigenous Celtic communities in Britain. But after 469 there was a "real" Arthur in the person of the shadowy figure of Riothamus, whose military adventures in Gaul are attested in contemporary accounts. Therefore, save for a few important aspects (e.g., the death scene), the memory of the Batrazprototype was submerged beneath this historical overlay.