Scythia

Scythia , ancient region of Eurasia, extending from the Danube on the west to the borders of China on the east. The Scythians flourished from the 8th to the 4th cent. BC They spoke an Indo-Iranian language but had no system of writing. They were nomadic conquerors and skilled horsemen. They seem to be related to the Saka, another nomadic tribe that roamed the steppes of central Asia at about the same time. The so-called Royal Scyths established a kingdom in the E Crimea before the 9th cent. BC They seem to have maintained themselves as a ruling class while others (probably native inhabitants) worked the grain fields. The Scythians are traditionally associated with the area between the Danube and the Don, but modern excavations in the Altai Mts., particularly at the site of Pazyryk, suggest that their origins were in W Siberia before they moved E into S Russia in the early 1st millennium BC Scythian power was maintained in the 8th cent. BC in obscure warfare with the Cimmerians. The Scythians, considered barbarians by the Greeks, traded (7th cent. BC) grain and their service as mercenaries for Greek wine and luxury items. They invaded (7th cent. BC) upper Mesopotamia and Syria. They threatened Judah but never actually occupied Palestine. They also made incursions into the Balkan Peninsula, and a century later the mysterious campaign of Darius I against them (c.512 BC) may have checked their expansion, although it was no conquest. They destroyed (c.325 BC) an expedition sent against them by Alexander the Great. After 300 BC they were driven out of the Balkans by the invading Celts. In S Russia they were displaced (2d or 1st cent. BC) by the related Sarmatians, and part of their empire became Sarmatia .

Bibliography: See E. H. Minns, Scythians and Greeks (1913, repr. 1976); T. Rice, The Scythians (1957); H. W. Bailey, Indo-Scythian Studies (1985).

Scythia. Name for an ancient region north of the Black Sea that held great attraction for the early Irish imagination. A homeland without definable borders, Scythia stretched from the Danube to the Caucasus, coextensive with modern Ukraine and Crimea. Although no Celtic remains have been found on Scythian territory, Scythian motifs have been traced in La Tène art. Regardless of the tenuous links with the Celtic world, many Irish scribes, particularly the compilers of the pseudo-history Lebor Gabála [Book of Invasions], apparently assumed that Scythi was linguistically related to Scotti [Irish people]. Fénius Farsaid, fabled inventor of the Irish language, was thought to be king here. Scythia was also thought to be the homeland of the Nemedians.

Bibliography

See C. Scott Littleton , From Scythia to Camelot: A Radical Reassessment of the Legends of King Arthur … (New York, 1994).