 |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Select > Who • What • When • Where • Which |
| |
|
|
|
|
| Timeline |
|
 |
|
Item |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Scythians > 
Dating the earliest Scythians has been a problem since they did not develop their distinctive art style until the 6th century B.C. A. I. Melyukova suggested that the early Scythians were descendants of tribes of the Srubnaya culture who, between the middle of the 2nd millenium B.C. and the end of the 7th century B.C., moved in several waves from the Volga-Ural steppes into the north Black Sea area and assimilated the local Cimmerians. In history, the Scythians was first recorded in the 7th century B.C. as Assyria's ally against the Cimmerians, who had lost their homeland to the Scythians and moved south. The Scythian king, Partatua married an Assyrian princess in 674 B.C. and two nations remained allies. Scythians and Assyrians together conquered the Medes of the Caspian Sea; however the Medes was able to drive the Scythians out of western Asia and back to the Pontic Steppes by the turn of the century.
In 514 BC. a very important event took place in the steppe. Herodotus described this account in full details. Darius, the third of the Persian great Kings, decided to invade Scythia. With Darius himself in command, the Persian army of 700,000 soldiers marched across the Danube to the Russian steppes. The Scythians steadily retreated while the Persians pursuit. Darius failed the attempt to force the Scythians to confront the Persians with head-on battle. The Scythians did not abandon their tactic of withdrawal and replied to Darius when he demanded an battle action:
There is nothing new or strange in what we do. We follow our mode of life in peaceful times. We have neither towns nor cultivated lands in these parts which might induce us, through fear of their being ravaged, to be in any hurry to fight you. But if you must needs come to blows with us speedily, look about you, and behold our fathers' tombs. Attempt to meddle with them and you shall see whether or not we will fight with you."
|
| |
|
|
|
More on this Website >
• http://www.silk-road.com/artl/scythian.shtml
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Darius The Great, King of Persia
Darius I: king of ancient Persia, whose reign lasted from 522 to 486. He seized power after killing king Gaumâta, fought a civil war (described in the Behistun inscriptio... |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Herodotus, World's First Historian
The Greek researcher and storyteller Herodotus of Halicarnassus was the world's first historian. In The Histories, he describes the expansion of the Achaemenid empire und... |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
 |
|
|
|