Scythian

1. A member of the ancient nomadic people inhabiting Scythia.
2. The Iranian language of the Scythians.

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A people who lived in the Pontic region (north-east of the Black Sea) from the 7th to 3rd century bc, the Scythians have left little in written record but a rich archaeological heritage displays their military tradition. Grave finds of horse and rider, with a full complement of harness, weapons, and armour, enable historians to make detailed reconstructions of their equipment. They fought in the steppe nomad tradition as mounted archers, yet they were not lightly armed. Their armour, including Greek helmets and greaves, Persian-style scale corslets had a great deal of gold decoration demonstrating their wealth.

The Scythians are first recorded in the early 7th century. They attacked Assyria in the 670s bc, only being bought off by the marriage of their king, Partatua, to an Assyrian princess. A generation later, King Madyes led an expedition as far as the borders of Egypt, seemingly being able to ride unopposed through the empires of the Near East. Pharaoh Psammetichus I (663-609 bc) paid a heavy tribute to prevent invasion. In the second half of the 7th century bc, the Scythians played a senior role in partnership with the Medes, and together they overthrew the Assyrian empire with the destruction of Nineveh (612 bc). They were then driven back north of the Caucasus by their erstwhile allies. The Greek historian Herodotus, the only (and not too reliable) source for the period, blames Median treachery at a feast, but it may be that Scythian social organization was too loose to enable them to engage in empire building.

Certainly, when the Persian successors to the Medes sought to counter Scythian raids in the late 6th century bc, their military capacity had not declined. In a campaign c.514-512 bc, Darius, the most powerful of the Persian kings, led an army north of the Danube (into modern Ukraine). The Scythian nomads outshot even the Persian bowmen, and avoided a pitched battle. Suffering heavy casualties, Darius abandoned his baggage and wounded to escape back across the river, totally humiliated. Subsequently the Scythians attacked Thrace and as both allies and individual warriors became involved in the Greek wars of the 5th and 4th centuries bc. From c.350 bc, as they became a more sedentary people, they came under pressure from the Sarmatians, another group of nomads living on the east bank of the Don. In 339 bc, their king, Atheas, was killed in battle against Philip of Macedon (in modern Romania), although in 330 bc they routed Alexander ‘the Great’'s general Zopyrion near Olbia. Squeezed from both east and west, the Scythians retreated into the Crimea. Here they were defeated (c.110-106 bc) by Mithradates Eupator, King of Pontus, and absorbed into his large, if short-lived, Black Sea empire.

The glories of Scythian military culture have been uncovered by the work of Russian archaeologists in the 19th and 20th centuries. Many warrior graves have been excavated. The horse was vital to Scythian war-making and many skeletons survive. They are sturdy animals of around 14 hands, shown as stallions by surviving artistic representations. In addition harness, lavishly decorated with gold, and horse armour for head and chest (of scale on leather) have been found. The warrior's equipment was first his bow, of composite construction and only 31½ inches (80 cm) long, but enormously powerful and capable of being shot rapidly. It was carried in a combined bow and quiver known as a gorytus. In addition, a fully equipped warrior carried a lance, with side arms of a long, straight sword, and axe or mace (which indicated status). He also wore a helmet, which might be of the traditional pointed, ‘Scythian cap’ shape, in leather, covered in scales. There are also many examples of Greek helmets, some cut down to give better vision, or with added scale neck-guards. The torso was covered with scale armour, extending down to the thighs, and full suits survive which include scale-armoured chaps. The lower legs were usually protected by greaves, often of Greek manufacture, and also modified for use on horseback by having the knee-piece removed or articulated. Exquisite works of Greek manufacture, like the Sokhala comb, show exactly how the equipment was worn. Although there were many lighter-armed mounted archers in a Scythian force, this all goes to show that they possessed a significant heavy cavalry for close-order charging. Scythian nobles were equipped to the standard described in the ancient world as cataphracts, and the number and quality of their hand weapons show that they were more than capable of close fighting.

Bibliography

• Cernenko, E. V., The Scythians (London, 1983)

— John M. Bourne

The inhabitants of a country lying between the Carpathians and the River Don. Due to its geographic position the country was frequently invaded by nomadic peoples. In the 7th century B.C. it was occupied by a people of unknown origin, speaking an Indo-European language. In the second half of the 6th century B.C. these Scythians invaded Syria and Palestine and destroyed Ashkelon and Ashdod. The Scythians remained active until Roman times when the last traces of them were obliterated. In Palestine they were commemorated in the name of Scythopolis given to the city of Beth Shean (Beisan).

In Colossians 3:11 the Scythians are mentioned together with the barbarians.

Concordance
Col 3:11

The Scythians were a large confederation of Iranian-speaking (or headed by an Iranian-speaking military-political elite) tribal unions, known in classical sources since around the eighth century B.C.E. or about the time they migrated to the North Pontic steppe zone where they supplanted and apparently absorbed some of the Cimmerians who occupied the region. As with their predecessors, it is not clear from where the Scythians migrated, but their most likely homeland was Central Asia from where they moved under pressure of other nomadic peoples. Organized in supra-tribal confederations, the Scythians made raids and full-blown invasions from the northern Caucasus into Media and Assyria in northern Mesopotamia, reaching as far as Palestine and Egypt throughout the period of 670 - 610 B.C.E. After suffering major defeats towards the end of the seventh century, they transferred their locus of power to the North Pontic region. By the third century B.C.E., the Scythians came under pressure of the nomadic Sarmatians who destroyed and absorbed most of them into their loosely-organized tribal structure.

Nomadic in origins, the Scythian peoples and the "Scythian" culture also included agriculturalists and hunter-gatherers who paid tribute to their nomadic lords with grain and other goods that the nomads could not produce themselves. In turn, these items were traded with the Greek colonial cities of the northern Black Sea region for wine, precious metals, and other goods.

While Scythia proper, as it was known in Greco-Roman sources, was located to the north of the Black Sea region (from the Danube to the lower Don and Volga), "Scythic" culture occupied a much greater territory of Eurasia, stretching as far east as southwestern Siberia and eastern Kazakhstan. Elements of this culture can be summarized as follows: the use of (1) iron; (2) short swords; (3) conservative artistic motifs (especially the animal style, e.g., the stag and the animal combat); (4) nomadic lifestyle organized around a patriarchal, little centralized social structure; (5) improved compound bows; (6) bronze cauldrons; (7) making of deerstones; and, (8) complex horse harness. All of these components were shared across a huge area not only by Iranian-speakers, but also by Turkic and Mongolian nomads of steppelands of Inner Eurasia.

Bibliography

Christian, David. (1998). A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia Vol. 1: Inner Asia from Prehistory to the Mongol Empire. Oxford, UK/Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Golden, Peter B. (1990). "The Peoples of the South Russian Steppe." In The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. ed. Denis Sinor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Talbot-Rice, Tamara (1957). The Scythians [Ancient Peoples and Places, vol. 2], ed. G. Daniel. London: Thames and Hudson.

—ROMAN K. KOVALEV