Xenophon's ''Cyropaedia'' mentions a great number of singing women at the court of the Achaemenid Empire. Athenaeus of Naucratis, in his ''Deipnosophistae'', points out to the capture of Achaemenid singing girls at the court of the last Achaemenid king Darius III (336–330 BC) by Macedonian general Parmenion. Under the Parthian Empire, the ''gōsān'' (Parthian for "minstrel") had a prominent role in the society. According to Plutarch's ''Life of Crassus'' (32.3), they praised their national heroes and ridiculed their Roman rivals. Likewise, Strabo's ''Geographica'' reports that the Parthian youth were taught songs about "the deeds both of the gods and of the noblest men".