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SCYTHIA (Gr. EKuOia)
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See also:SCYTHIA (Gr. EKuOia) , originally (e.g in See also:Herodotus iv. 1-142), the See also:country of the See also:Scythae or the country over which the See also:nomad Scythae were lords, that is, the See also:steppe from the Carpathians to the See also:Don. With the disappearance of the Scythae as an ethnic and See also:political entity, the name of Scythia gives See also:place in its See also:original seat to that of Sarmatia, and is artificially applied by geographers, on the one See also:hand, to the Dobrudzha; the lesser Scythia of See also:Strabo, where it remained in See also:official use until See also:Byzantine times; on the other, to the unknown regions of See also:northern See also:Asia, the Eastern Scythia of Strabo, the " Scythia See also:intra et extra Imaum " of See also:Ptolemy; but throughout classical literature Scythia generally meant all regions to the See also:north and north-See also:east of the See also:Black See also:Sea, and a Scythian (Scythes) any See also:barbarian coming from those parts. Herodotus (l.c.), to whom with See also:Hippocrates (De See also:acre, &c. 24, sqq.) we owe our earliest knowledge (See also:Homer, Il. xiii. 5, speaks of " See also:mare-milkers," and See also:Hesiod, ap. Strabo vii. 3 (7) mentions Scythae) of the See also:land and its inhabitants, tries to restrict this merely See also:geographical usage and to confine the word Scyth to a certain See also:race or at any See also:rate to that race and its subjects, but even he seems to slip back into the wider use. Hence there is much doubt as to his exact meaning. His See also:account of the See also:geography falls into two irreconcilable parts; one (iv. 99 sqq.), in connexion with the See also:tale of the invasion of See also:Darius, makes of Scythia a See also:kind of chessboard 4000 stades square on which the combatants can make their moves quite unhindered by the See also:great See also:rivers: the other (16-2o), founded on what he learned from Greeks of See also:Olbia and supplemented by the tales of the 7th See also:century traveller See also:Aristeas of. Proconnesus, is not very far removed from first-hand See also:information and can be made more or less to See also:tally with the See also:lie of the land. In accordance with this we can give the relative positions of the various tribes, and an excursus on the rivers (47–57) lets us define their actual seats. In western Scythia, starting from Olbia and going north-wards, we have Callippidae on the See also:lower Hypanis (See also:Bug), Alazones where the See also:Tyras (See also:Dniester) and Hypanis come near each other in their See also:middle courses, and Aroteres (" Ploughmen ") above them. These tribes raised See also:wheat, presumably in the See also:river valleys, and sold it for export; in the eastern See also:half from See also:west to east were Georgi (perhaps the same as Aroteres) between the Ingul and the Borysthenes (See also:Dnieper), nomad Scyths and Royal Scyths between the Borysthenes and the Tanais (Don). Above all these stretched a See also:row of non-Scythian tribes from west to east: on the Marls (Maros) in Transylvania the See also:Agathyrsi; See also:Neuri in See also:Podolia and See also:Kiev, See also:Androphagi and See also:Melanchlaeni in See also:Poltava, (See also:Ryazan) and See also:Tambov. On the lower Don and See also:Volga we have the Sauromatae, and on the middle course of the Volga the See also:Budini with the great wooden See also:town of Gelonus and its semi-See also:Greek inhabitants. From this region started an important See also:trade route eastward by the See also:Thyssagetae among the See also:southern Urals, the See also:Iyrcae on the Tobol and Irtysh to the Kirgiz steppe, where dwelt other Scyths, regarded as colonists of those in See also:Europe: then by the Argippaei in the See also:Altai and the See also:Issedones in the Tarym See also:basin, to the one-eyed See also:Arimaspi on the See also:borders of See also:China, who See also:stole their See also:gold from the watchful griffins, and who marched with See also:goat-footed men and See also:Hyperboreans reaching to the sea. To the See also:south of Scythia the See also:Crimean mountains were inhabited by a non-Sythic race, the See also:Tauri. (See also articles on these tribes.) See also:Ethnology.—Herodotus expressly divides the Scythians into the Agriculturists, Callipidae, Alazones, Aroteres and Georgi in the western See also:part of the country, and the Nomads with the Royal Scyths to the east.. The latter claimed dominion over all the See also:rest. The question arises whether we have to do with the various tribes of one race in different stages of See also:civilization, or with a mixed See also:population called by foreigners after the ruling tribe. The latter seems by far the more probable. The See also:affinities of this tribe have been sought in various directions, and the See also:evidence suggests that it was itself of mixed See also:blood. We know that in the and century A.D., when the See also:steppes were dominated by the See also:Sarmatae (q.v.), the See also:majority of the barbarian names in the See also:inscriptions of Olbia, Tanais, and Panticapaeum were Iranian, and can infer that the Sarmatae spoke an Iranian See also:language. See also:Pliny speaks of their descent from the Medes. Now the Sarmatae are represented as half-See also:caste Scyths speaking a corrupt variety of Scythian. Presumably, therefore, the Scyths also spoke an Iranian See also:dialect. But of the Scythic words preserved by Herodotus some are Iranian, others, especially the names of deities, have found no satisfactory explanation in any Indo-See also:European language. Indeed they rather suggest a Ugrian origin. Nevertheless, the See also:general See also:opinion has been that the Scyths were Iranian. The See also:present writer believes that they were a See also:horde which came down from upper Asia, conquered an Iranian-speaking See also:people, and in See also:time adopted the speech of its subjects. The settled Scythians would be the remains of this Iranian population, or the different tribes of them may have been connected with their neighbours beyond Scythian dominion—Thracian See also:Getae and Arimaspi, See also:Slavonic Neuri, Finnish Androphagi and such like. The Cimmerians who preceded the Scvthians used Iranian proper names, and probably represented this Iranian See also:element in greater purity. Herodotus gives three legends of the origin of the Scyths (iv. 5-12); these, though they contradict each other, can be reconciled with the view stated above. Two of them seem to be the same See also:story; one is very strongly Hellenized, the other, in more or less native shape, is shortly this. The tribe is autochthonous, claiming descent from a son of the river Borysthenes Targitaos, who lived a thousand years before. Of his three sons the youngest Colaxais is preferred by an See also:ordeal of picking up certain See also:objects which See also:fell from See also:heaven,—a plough, a yoke, an See also:axe and a See also:cup,—and becomes the ancestor of the ruling See also:clan of Paralatae; from the other sons, Lipoxais and Harpoxais, are descended See also:minor clans, and the name of the whole people is Scoloti, not Scythae, which is used by the Greeks alone. In this story the names make sense in Iranian, the tribes are not again mentioned except when this passage is copied, the objects are hardly such as would be held sacred by nomads, the See also:form of ordeal is to be paralleled in Iranian legends, and the people say themselves that they are not really Scythae. Surely this is the See also:national See also:legend of the agricultural Scythians about Olbia, and the name Scoloti, by which careful See also:modern writers designate the Royal Scyths, is the true designation of the subject race. The royal See also:line of these is quite distinct from the true Royal Scyths, who, like most nomad conquerors, allowed their subjects to preserve their own organizations. The third account fails chiefly in being too plausible, but there seems no See also:reason to reject it as an artificial See also:combination of unconnected facts. According to it the Scyths dwell in Asia, and were forced by the See also:Massagetae over the Araxes (Volga ?) into the land of the Cimmerians. Aristeas says that the first impulse came from the Arimaspi, who displaced the Issedones, who in turn fell upon the Scyths. This comes to much the same thing, as the Massagetae seem to have contained an element which had come in from the land of the Issedones. The Scyths having fallen upon them from the north-east, the Cimmerians appear to have given way in two directions, towards the south-west, where the tombs of their See also:kings were shown on the Tyras (Dniester) and one See also:body joined with the Treres of See also:Thrace in invading Asia Minor by the See also:Hellespont; and towards the south-east where another body threatened the Assyrians, who called them Gimirrai (See also:Hebrew See also:Gomer; Gen. xi.). They were followed by the Scyths (Ashguzai, Heb. Ashkenaz) whom the Assyrians welcomed as See also:allies and used against the Cimmerians, against the Medes and even against See also:Egypt. Hence the references to the Scyths in the Hebrew prophets (Jer. iv. 3, vi. 7). This is all put in the latter half of the 7th century B.C. Herodotus says that the Scyths ruled See also:Media for twenty-eight years, and were then massacred or expelled. The See also:Assyrian evidence is in the See also:main a See also:confirmation of Herodotus, though most writers think that the Scythians who troubled Asia were Sacae from the east of the See also:Caspian (H. Winckler, Altorientalische Forschungen, p. 484 sqq.). If the Scyths came out of upper Asia, the Scythian colonists beyond the Iyrcae might be a See also:division which had remained nearer the homeland, but in dealing with nomads we can suppose such a return as that of the Calmucks (Kalmuks) in the 18th century. The See also:physical features of the Scyths are not described by Herodotus, but Hippocrates (l.c.) draws a picture of them which makes them very similar to the See also:Mongols as they appeared to the Franciscan missionaries in the 13th century. He says they are quite unlike any other race of men, and very like each other. The main point seems to be a tendency to slackness, fatness and excess of humours. The men are said to be in See also:appearance very like eunuchs, and both sexes have a tendency to sexual indifference amounting in the men to See also:impotence. When a See also:man finds himself in this See also:condition he assumes the See also:women's See also:dress and habits. Herodotus mentions the existence of this class, called Enarees, and says that they suffer from a sacred disease owing to the wrath of the goddess of See also:Ascalon whose See also:shrine they had plundered. Reinegg describes a similar See also:state of things in the Nogai in the 18th century. The whole account suggests a Tatar See also:dan in the last See also:stage of degeneracy. Hippocrates says that this only applies to the ruling class, not to the slaves, but gives as the reason the want of exercise among the former. The skulls dug up in Scythic See also:graves throw no See also:light on the question, some being See also:round and some See also:long. The representations of nomads on objects of Greek See also:art show people with full beards and shaggy See also:hair, such as cannot be reconciled with Hippocrates; but the only reliefs which seem to be accurate belong to a See also:late date when the ruling clan was Sarmatian rather than Scythic. Customs.—Herodotus gives a See also:good survey of the customs of the Scyths: it seems mostly to apply to the ruling race. Again the closest See also:analogy is the state of the Mongols in the 13th century; but too much See also:weight must not be put on this, as the natural conditions of steppe-ranging nomads dictated the greater part of them. Still the See also:correspondence of See also:religion and of funeral See also:rites is very See also:close. The Scyths lived upon the produce of their herds of See also:cattle and horses, their main See also:food being the flesh of the latter, either cooked in a cauldron or made into a kind of See also:haggis, and the See also:milk of mares from which they made See also:cheese and kumiss (a fermented drink resembling buttermilk). This necessitated their constantly moving in See also:search of fresh pasture, spending the See also:spring and autumn upon the open steppe, the See also:winter and summer by the rivers for the See also:sake of moisture and shelter. The men journeyed on horseback, the women in wagons with See also:felt tilts. These were See also:drawn by their cattle, and were the homes of each See also:family. Hence the Greek names, Abii, Hippemolgi, Hamaxobii. The women were kept in subjection, and were far from enjoying the See also:liberty granted them among the Sarmatae, among whom they rode on horseback and engaged in See also:war. See also:Polygamy was practised, the son inheriting his See also:father's wives. Both men and women avoided washing, but there was something of the nature of a vapour See also:bath, with which Herodotus has confused a.See also:custom of using the See also:smoke of See also:hemp as a narcotic. The women daubed themselves with a kind of cosmetic See also:paste. The dress of the men is well shown upon the Kul Oba and Chertomlyk vases, and upon other Greek See also:works of art made for Scythic use. It must not be confused with the fanciful barbarian costumes that are so See also:common upon the See also:Attic pots. They wore coats confined by belts, See also:trousers tucked into soft boots, and hoods or tall pointed caps. The women had flowing See also:robes, tall pointed caps, and veils descending over most of the figure. Both sexes wore many stamped gold plates sewn upon their clothes in lines or seines. Their horses had severe bits, and were adorned with See also:nose pieces, cheek pieces and See also:saddle cloths. True stirrups were unknown. In war the nation was divided. into three sub-kingdoms, and these into companies, each with its See also:commander. The companies had yearly feasts, at which the commander honoured warriors who had slain one or more of the enemy. As evidence of such prowess, and as a token of his right to a See also:share of any spoil, the See also:warrior was accustomed to See also:scalp his enemy and adorn his bridle with the See also:trophy. In the See also:case of a See also:special enemy or an adversary overcome in a private dispute before the See also: Religion.—The religion of the Scyths was nature See also:worship. Herodotus (iv. 59) gives a See also:list of their gods, with the Greek deities corresponding, but we cannot tell what aspect of the Greek deity is in question. He says they chiefly reverence Tabiti (See also:Hestia), next Papaeus and his wife Apia (See also:Zeus and Ge), then Oitosyros (See also:Apollo) and Argimpasa (See also:Aphrodite Urania). These are common to all the Scythians, but Thamimasadas (See also:Poseidon) is See also:peculiar to the Royal Scyths.' They set up no images or altars or temples See also:save to See also:Ares only. To Ares they make a heap of faggots three stades square, with three sides steep and one inclined, and bring to it a See also:hundred and fifty fresh loads of faggots every See also:year. Upon the See also:top is set up a See also:sword which is the See also:image of Ares; to this they See also:sacrifice captives, pouring their blood over it. The account of the cult of Ares, for whom no Scythian name is given, appears to be an addition, and the mention of such masses of faggots suggests the wooded See also:district of the agricultural Scythians, not the treeless steppe of the Royal tribe. The Scythian See also:pantheon is not distinctive, and can be paralleled among the See also:Tatars and among the Iranians. The Scyths had a method of See also:divination with sticks, and the Enarees, who claimed to be soothsayers by See also: But if a majority of diviners decide against the accusers, the latter are set upon a See also:wagon-load of brushwood and burned to See also:death. The See also:burial rites are the most fully described. Private persons were merely carried about among their See also:friends, who held wakes in their See also:honour, and then buried See also:forty days after death. But the funerals of the kings were much more elaborate. They exhibit the extreme development of the principle of surrounding the dead man with everything in which he found See also:pleasure during his See also:life. The tombs of the kings were in the land of Gerrhus near the great See also:bend of the Dnieper where the See also:chief tumuli have been excavated. The body was embalmed and filled with aromatic herbs, and then brought to this region, passing through the lands of various tribes. The Royal Scyths who followed the body were accustomed to cut about their faces and arms, and each tribe that the cortege met upon its way had to join it and conform to this expression of grief. Arrived at the place of burial, the body was set in a square See also:pit with spears marking out its sides and a roof of See also:matting. Then one of the king's concubines and his cup-See also:bearer, See also:cook, See also:groom, messenger and horses were strangled and laid by him, and round about offerings of all his goods and cups of gold—no See also:silver or See also:bronze. After this they raised a great See also:mound, striving to make it as high as possible. A year later they strangled fifty youths of the dead man's servants (all Scyths See also:born) and fifty of the best horses, stuffed them and mounted them in a circle about the See also:tomb. Tombs.—The description is generally See also:borne out by the evidence of the tombs opened in the Scythic See also:area. None agrees in every point, but almost every detail finds a close parallel in some tomb or other. The chief divergence is in the presence of silver and See also:copper objects, but the great quantity of gold is the most striking fact, and to say that there was nothing but gold seems merely an exaggeration. Tombs to which the name Scythic is generally applied form a well-defined class. They are preceded over the whole area by a much simpler form of burial marked by the practice of staining the bones with red ochre, and the presence of one or two See also:rude pots and nothing more: yet that some were tombs of great chiefs is shown by the great See also:size of the barrows heaped over them. They have been referred to the Cimmerians, but for this there is no clear evidence. The Scythic tombs can be roughly dated by the objects of Greek art that they contain. They seem to begin about the 6th century B.C., and to continue till the 2nd century A.D.; that is, they See also:cover the See also:period of the Scythic domination according to the account accepted above, and that of the Sarmatian, and so suggest that, as far as the archaeological evidence goes, there was little more than a See also:change of name and perhaps the substitution of one ruling clan for another—not a real change of population. The finest of the class were opened about the bend of the Dnieper, where we should put the land Gerrhus. Others are found to the south-west of the central area, and in the governments of Kiev and Poltava we have many tombs with Scythic characteristics, but a difference (e.g. the fewness of the horses) which makes us think of the settled tribes under Scythic domination. Others occur in the See also:flat northern half of the See also:Crimea, and even close to See also:Kerch, where the famous Kul Oba seems to have held a Scythic chieftain who had adopted a See also:veneer of Greek tastes, but remained a barbarian at See also:heart. East of the Maeotis, especially along the river See also:Kuban, are many See also:groups of barrows showing the same culture as those of Gerrhus but in a purer form. Farther to the north and east the See also:series seems to extend into See also:Siberia, but in this region excavations have been few. Unfortunately very few of these barrows have come down to us unplundered, and we cannot find one See also:complete example and take it as a type. Soon after
' The names are read in various ways; it is impossible to establish the correct forms.
they were heaped up, before the beams supporting the central chamber had rotted, thieves made a practice of See also:driving a mine into the mound straight to where the valuables were deposited, and it is only by the collapse of this mine and the crushing of the robber after he had thrown everything into confusion that the treasures of the Chertomlyk See also:barrow, on the whole the most typical, were pre-served to us. This was 6a ft. high and 'too ft. round; about it was a See also: They were supplied with simpler weapons and adornments, but even so their clothes had hundreds of stamped gold plates and strips of various shapes sewn on to them. By every skeleton were drinking vessels. See also:Store of See also:wine was contained in six amphorae, and in two bronze cauldrons were mutton-bones. The most wonderful See also:object of all was a great two-handled See also:vase See also:standing 3 ft. high and made to hold kumiss. The greater part of its body is covered by a See also:pattern of See also:acanthus leaves, but on the See also:shoulder is a See also:frieze showing nomads breaking in See also:wild mares, our chief authority for Scythian See also:costume. To the west of the main shaft were three square pits with horses and their See also:harness, and by 1 them two pits with men's skeletons. In the heap itself was found an immense quantity of pieces of harness and what may be remains of a funeral See also:car. The Greek work would seem to date the burial as of the 3rd century B.c. At See also:Alexandropol in the same district was an even more elaborate tomb, but its contents were in even greater confusion. Another tomb in this region, Melgunov's barrow, found as long ago as 176o, contained a See also:dagger-sheath and See also:pommel of Assyrian work and Greek things of the 6th century. In the Kul Oba tomb mentioned above the chamber was of stone and the contents, with one or two exceptions, of purely Greek workmanship, but the ideas underlying are the same—the king has his wife, his servant and his See also:horse, his amphorae with wine, his cauldron with mutton-bones, his drinking vessels and his weapons, the latter being almost the only objects of barbarian See also:style. One of the cups has a frieze with reliefs of natives supplementing that on the Chertomlyk vase. East of the Maeotis on the Kuban we have many barrows; the most interesting are the groups called the Seven See also:Brothers, and those of Karagodeuashkh, Kostromskaya, Ul and Kelermes, the latter remarkable for objects of Assyrian style, the others for the enormous slaughter of horses; on the Ul were four hundred in one See also:grave. Art.—Certain of the objects which occur in these Scythic graves are of special forms typical for the Scythic area. Most interesting of these is the dagger or sword, always very short, save in the latest graves, and distinguished by a heart-shaped guard marking the juncture of hilt and blade; its sheath is also characteristic, having a triangular See also:projection on one side and usually a See also:separate See also:chape: these peculiar forms were necessitated by a special way of See also:hanging the dagger from two straps that it might not interfere with a rider's movements. Just the same form of short sword was used in See also:Persia and is shown on the sculptures at See also:Persepolis. Another special type is the bow-case, made to take a short curved bow and to accommodate arrows as well. Further, there is the peculiar cauldron on one conical See also:foot, round which the See also:fire was built, the cylindrical hone pierced for suspension, and the cup with a rounded bottom. Assyrian and afterwards Greek craftsmen working for Scythic employers were compelled to decorate these outlandish forms, which they did according to their own See also:fashion: but there was also a native style with conventionalized beast decoration, which was almost always employed for the adornment of bits and horses' See also:gear, and very often for weapons. This style and the types of dagger, cauldron, See also:bit and two-looped socketed axehead run right across from See also:Hungary to the upper See also:Yenisei, where a special Bronze See also:Age culture seems to have See also:developed them. But even here it seems impossible to deny some See also:influence coming from the See also:Aegean area, and Scythic beasts are very like certain products of Mycenaean and See also:early Ionic art. Again, the Scythic style is interesting as being one element in the art of the barbarians who conquered the See also:Roman See also:Empire and the zoomorphic decoration of the early middle ages. - The dominance from the Yenisei to the Carpathians of a distinct style of art which, whatever its original elements may have been, seems to have taken shape as far east as the Yenisei basin is an additional See also:argument in favour of a certain See also:movement of population from the far north-east towards the south See also:Russian steppes. It would correspond in time with the movement of the Scyths of which Herodotus speaks, and it may be inferred that immigrants coming from those regions were rather allied to the Tatar family of nations than to the Iranian. Similar movements from the same regions appear also to have penetrated See also:Iran itself; hence the resemblancebetween the dress and daggers of certain classes of warriors on the sculptures of Persepolis and those shown on the Kul Oba vase. An Iranian origin would not account for the presence of analogous types on the Yenisei. See also:History.—To sum up the history of Scythia, the See also:oldest in-habitants of whom we hear in Scythia were the See also:Cimmerii; the nature of the country makes it probable that some of them were nomads, while others no doubt tilled some land in the river valleys and in the Crimea, where they See also:left their name to ferries, earthworks and the Cimmerian See also:Bosporus. They were probably of Iranian race: among the Persians Herodotus describes a similar mixture of nomadic and settled tribes. In the 7th century B.C. these Cimmerians were attacked and partly driven out by a horde of newcomers from upper Asia called Scythae; these imposed their name and their yoke upon all that were left in the Euxine steppes, but probably their coming did not really change the basis of the population, which remained Iranian. The newcomers adopted the language of the conquered, but brought with them new customs and a new See also:artistic See also:taste probably largely borrowed from the See also:metal-working tribes of Siberia. About the same time similar peoples harassed the northern frontier of Iran, where they were called See also:Saka (Sacae), and in later times Saka and Scyths, whether they were originally the same or not, were regarded as synonymous. It is difficult always to See also:judge whether given information applies to the Sacae or the Scyths. About 512 B.C. Darius, having conquered Thrace, made an invasion of Scythia, which, according to the account of Herodotus, he crossed as far as the Oarus, a river identified with the Volga, burned the town of Gelonus and returned in sixty days. In this march he was much harassed by the nomads, with whom he could not come to close quarters, but no mention is made of his having any difficulty with the rivers (he gets his See also:water from See also:wells), and no reason for his proceedings is advanced except a See also:desire to avenge legendary attacks of Scyths upon Asia. After losing many men the Great King comes back to the place where he crossed the See also:Danube, finds the See also:Ionians still guarding the See also:bridge in spite of the attempts of the Scyths to make them See also:desert, and safely re-enters his own dominions. See also:Ctesias says that the whole See also:campaign only took fifteen days and that Darius did not get beyond the Tyras (Dniester). This is also the view of the reasonable Strabo; but it does not account for the See also:genesis of the other story. It seems best to believe that Darius made an incursion in See also:order to secure the frontier of the Danube, suffered serious reverses and retired with loss, and that this offered too good a See also:chance to be missed for a moral tale about the discomfiture of the Great King by a few poor savages. The Greeks had been trading with the Scyths ever since their coming, and at Olbia there were other tales of their history. We can make a list of Scythian kings—Spargapeithes, Lycus, Gnurus, Saulius (whose See also:brother, the famous See also:Anacharsis (q.v.), travelled over all the See also:world in search of See also:wisdom, was reckoned a See also:sage among the Greeks and was slain among his own people because they did not like his See also:foreign ways), and Idanthyrsus, the See also:head king at the time of Darius, probably the father of Ariapeithes. This latter had three wives, a Greek woman from Istrus, Opoea a Scythian, and a Thracian daughter to the great chief Teres. Scyles, his son by the Greek See also:mother, affected Greek ways, had a See also:house in Olbia, and even took part in Bacchic rites. When this came to the knowledge of his subjects he was murdered, and Octamasadas, his son by the third wife, reigned in his See also:stead. Herodotus adduces this to show how much the Scyths hated foreign customs but with the things found in the graves it rather proves how strong was the attraction exercised upon the nomads by the higher culture of their neighbours. Octamasadas died shortly before the time of Herodotus. We cannot place Ariantas, who made a kind of See also:census of the nation by exacting an arrow-head from each warrior and See also:cast a great cauldron out of the bronze, nor Taxacis and Scopasis, the under-kings in the time of Idanthyrsus. After the See also:retreat of Darius the Scythians made a See also:raid as far as See also:Abydos, and even sent envoys to King Cleomenes III. of See also:Sparta to arrange that they should attack the See also:Persian Empire from the Phasis while the Spartans should march up from See also:Ephesus. The chief result of the See also:embassy was that Cleomenes took to the Scythian See also:habit of drinking his wine neat and went mad therefrom (Herodotus vi. 84). Hence-forward the Scyths appear as a declining See also:power: by the middle of the 4th century their eastern neighbours the Sarmatae have crossed the Tanais (Don) and the pressure of the Scyths is felt on the Danube. Here See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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