After Išpakaia had attacked the Neo-Assyrian Empire and died in battle against the Assyrian king Esarhaddon around 676 BCE, Bartatua succeeded him.
[22] Over the course of 660 to 659 BCE, Esarhaddon's son and successor to the Assyrian throne, Ashurbanipal, sent his general Nabû-šar-uṣur to carry out a military campaign against Mannai, who had previously, in alliance with Bartatua's predecessor Išpakaia, expanded their territories at the expense of Assyria.
[17] An inscription from Saqqez written in the Scythian language using the Hieroglyphic Luwian script refers to the a king named ‹See RfD› Partitava, that is Bartatua.
[27] Graeco-Roman authors confused Bartatua with his predecessors and successors, including his son Madyes, into a single figure by claiming that it was Madyes himself who led the Scythians from Central Asia into chasing the Cimmerians out of their homeland and then defeating the Medes and the legendary Egyptian king Sesostris and imposing their rule over Asia for many years before returning to Scythia.
[28][13][29] According to one theory, the legendary Armenian king Paroyr Skayordi mentioned in the history of Movses Khorenatsi is identifiable with Bartatua.