Figure 1.--The Medes who once dominated the Persians defeated the Scynthians and drove them back into the Steppe from which they had emerged. The Persians were constantly faced with Scynthian raiders along their northern frontier. Persian expeditions including a massive one by Darius the Great failed to defeat them. The Scynthians with the mobility of a horse-based people simply withdrew into the vast Steppe. Even the mighty Persians never defeated the Scynthians. The many Scynthian tribes had no centralized structure. The Persians did succeed in dominating or influencing at least some of the Scythians tribes on their northern frontier. We know this because in Persian palaces, the Scythians are depicted along with the many subject people paying tribute. This relief from the Apadana (audience hall) in Darius' palace in Persepolis shows Scynthians paying tribute which of course includes a horse.

The Scynthians emerged from scattered pastoral steppe tribes on the Asiatic Steppe. They appeared on the European Steppe as early as (9th century BC). Little is known about them, however, until this migration westward from Central Asia to what is now southern Russia and Ukraine (8th and 7th centuries). It is at this time that they begin to come in contact with Meditrranean society and Mesopotamia. They began to play a significant role in regional affairs (7th century BC). The migration from Asia brought the Scynthians into the territory of the Cimmerians who controlled Eropean areas north of the Balkans and the the Steppe plains north of the Black Sea as well as much of the Caucasus. A 30 year war ensued. The Scythians defeated the Cimmerians, driving them out of their homelands. The Scynthians proceeded to carve out a vast empire. The founded a powerful empire centred on the horse and plundering settled people to the south. The Crimea became an important center. They were contemporary with the Greeks and both fought and traded extensively with them. They were also recruited as mersenaries by the Greeks. They attacked and shattered the Assyrian Empire which dominated Mesopotamia, eastern Anatolia, amd the Levant but had been weakened by the Cimmerians who were driven into Anatolia by the Scynthians. With Assyria destroyed, the Scynthians swept south establishing a vast empire, including not only the European Steppe homeland, but stretching from western Persia through Syria and Judaea to the borders of Egypt (7th century BC). The Scynthians at the peak of their power not only reached as far as Palestine, but threatened Egypt. The Egyptian pharoah bribed them to turn back. Their conquests in the Middle East (Anatolia and the Levant), however, were short-lived. The Medes, who at the time ruled the Persians, attacked them and drove them north out of the Middle East. This left the Scynthians in a reduced, but still large empire stretching from the Persian border north through the Kuban and into southern Russia and the Ukraine. The Kuban is a geographic region of Southern Russia centered on the Kuban River, on the Black Sea between the Don Steppe, the Volga Delta and the Caucasus. The Persians eventually conquered the Medes, their former masters and formed the vast Persian Empire. Persian King Darius the Great attempted to end the Scynthians raids. Darius led a major expedition against them, but the highly mobile Scynthians just withdrew deep into the vast Steppe (6th century BC). The Persians never managed to conquer the Scynthians, but Scynthian tribes along the northern border paid tribute to the Persians. Alexander after his victories over Persians also attacked the Scynthians (4th century BC). They proved a more difficult target, because there horse-based culture was so mobile and did not have built up centers that could be easily assaulted. Alexander declined to pusue them north into the Steppe and decided to instead drive east toward India, a more lucrative target. The Scythian Empire endured for several more centures. A related people, the Sarmatians, began to compete with the Scynthians (4th century BC) and eventually dsplced them (2nd century BC).

Sources

Herodtus, The History of Herodotus (440 BC).

Created: 12:00 AM 10/4/2016
Last updated: 12:00 AM 10/4/2016