sefi;g:v. - A Kabbalist walks into a bar, and the

SCYTHIANS SCYTHIANS
Cyaxares forty years before the eclipse of 585, the in- followed the E. coast of the Black Sea in the eighth
surrection of Nabopolassar, dated by Ptolemy's canon in century was probably the last. Down the W. coast of
625, and the united attack of Cyaxares and Nabopolassar the Caspian Sea the Scythian tribes E. of the Don
upon Assyria, and the assignment of these prophecies to followed and established themselves E. of the Kimthe
same year by an editor apparently dependent on an merians and N. of Mannzans and Medes, whence they
early biographer, it seems safer to adhere to the con- apparently extended their power over all Armenia and
struction of the history given above. [See, further, CriL Cappadocia. Their old places E. of the Azov Sea were
Bib.]
taken by a Median people, the Sauromatze or Sarmatians,
At most, little knowledge concerning the Scythians
could be derived from these biblical references. If the
possiblynot before thereturn of Median power. On
the plateau through which the Dniester (Tyias), the
identification of ASkuza is correct,
9. cuaeiform,
the Scytliians are mentioned in cunei-
Chinese classical, BouIce8. and form inscriptions, such as I R. 45 col.
Bog (Hypanis), the Dnieper (Borysthenes), and the
Inguletz (Panticapes) flow, and so far as to the Don
(Tanais), the Scoloti took possession of the land, some
227. and Knudtzon, Ass. Gebete, 2.9, settling down to agricultural pursuits, others retaining
35, in a manner that throws light upon the beginnings of their nomadic life.
Scythian rule in Asia Minor.
The arrival of Milesian colonists (Olbia founded about 650)
In a Persian cuneiform inscription at Behistim, Saka huma- created mixed Graeco-Scythian tribes such as the Kallipidae and
varka, and Saka tigrakhuda are referred to by Darius, who also Alizones. A kindred Thracian tribe, the Agathyrsi, was subspeaks
of the ' Saka at the ends of the earth ' in a hieroglyphic dued. Northwards the territory extended into Ukraine. Belist
of nations at the Suez canal. The Scythians are not men- yond their own clans in that direction lived Slavonic tribes, the
tioned by name in the Homeric poems, though they may be Neari, the Melanchlaeni, and the Anthropophagi (wrongly so
referred to as irrzqpohyoi, 12. 13 5. Strabo (7 3) quotes a direct called). U the Volga there were the Budinae (Permians '?), and
reference from Hesiod . but whether this was drawn from an across the era1 the Thyssagetae and Tyrkae Finnish peoples
otherwise unknown geiuine ris me idos or from the third ra&' whilst E. of these were the Turkish Argrmpa;i and the Tibeta;
Aoyos written about 600 B.c., as &chhoff emends the text, is Issedones, and their neighhours the Ariamasp;e, fighting with
uncertain. About 600 R.C. the name occurs in a fragment of griffins for the possession of gold.
Alcaeus, and that is probably also the date of the poem of
Aristeas of Proconnesns. Bschylus refers to the good laws of The Scythians do not seem to have been driven out
the Scythians (Straho, Z.C.), and Hecataeus of Miletus gave of their home in S. Russia, hut rather to have been
valuable information concerning them. The most important absorbed in the Sarmatian and then in the Slavonic
source is Herodotus. His fourth book is devoted to Scythia.
Much of his knowledge is derived from native Scythians in tribes.
Olbia, as well as from resident Greeks. Hippocrates also seems The eastern branch of the people was not allowed
to have visited Scythia, and, like Herodotus still confined the undisturbed possession of its lands N. of the Jaxartes.
name Scythians to the Scoloti. Pseudo-Scyl& (about 337 B.c.) Already in the time of Cyrus and Darius a part of the
and Ephorus begin to use it in a somewhat wider sense,
though familiar with the character and history of the Scoloti. Scythians had been pressed into Margiana (see 5 17).
Some of the representations in art of Scythian life found at and at the end of the third century another part was
Kertsch (Panticapaenm), Kum Olha and Altun Olha (see 5 11) forced by the Massagetze into S. Sogdiana, and somebelong
to the fourth and third centuries. The Greek inscriptions
of Olbia containing Scythian names are not older than the second what later into Bactria. In Bactria these Scythians
century B.C. Diodorus adds little to the earlier sources ; but found only a temporary home, as they were driven from
Strabo's geography throws much light upon the Scythia of his there by the Massagetz (Yuechi); but they maintained
day. The changed conditions there inspired him with undue
scepticism as to the accuracy of Herodotus. Trogus Pompeius
themselves longer farther east.
in Justin, Ptolemy the geographer, Polyaenus, Ammianus In S. Kahulistan, Arachosia 'Drangiana and Sakestan(Ki in)
Marcellinus, and others acquaint us with some facts. For the and in KaSmir, Nepal, and Pkjab they &tahlished themserves:
history of the eastern Scythians Ktesias is not without value. Finally, they were there also submerged by new powers and
Coins give the names of Scythian kings. Of great importance absorbed in the native population.
are the Chinese writings of Sse-ma-tsien (about io0 B.c.) translated
h Brosset, /ourn. As. ii. 8 4183, and of Panku (about 80 That the Scythians spoke an Iranian language, is
A.D.), coth because of their soher descri tions of lands and already evident from Herod. 4 117, where the Sauromatae,
peoples, and because of the aid they furnd to the chronology.
a Median people, are said to speak the
Whilst, in historical times, there have been important ll.
Scythian language, though in an imcentres
of Scvthian life in Asia Minor and in Euroue. .. and
Felatiom.
ethnic
perfect manner. The Scythian words
lo.
and in Margiana, Bactria, Kophene, and
explained by Herodotus are manifestly
migrations of India, the people neither considered Iranian, and the many names of persons and places
the scythiass. itself nor was regarded by others as recorded by Greek writers and in the Olbian inscriptions
autochthonous in anv of these lands. leave no room for doubt. It is the merit particularly of
Even in the territory between the Daiube and the Don, Zeuss and Miillenhoff to have proved conclusively the
which might properly be called Scythian, because for so Iranian character of Scythian speech. That the Eastern
many centuries the seat of a Scythian civilisation, a Scythians spoke substantially the same language is
native tradition declared the Scoloti to be strangers. evident not least from the names of the qt&a kings in
Many indications point to the region N. of Jaxartes, India (see Hohann, Syn>che Akfenpersischer A4artyrev,
between the Aral Sea and Lake Balkash. in modern
Turkestan and the adjoining Khirgis steppe, as the
home of the Scythians in the days when their immediate
Iranian kinsmen, the Aryan invaders of India, were still
their neighbours S. and SE. in the old Airyanem
Vaejo. The presence of Mongolian and Tibetan
tribes on the NE. and E., and of the kindred
1398).
An occasional Scythian loan-word in a neighbouring Slavonic
or Turkish dialect cannot affect this result. The discussions of
Neumann, Cnno, Fressl, and others, who have tried to invalidate
the arguments of Zeuss, would have proved quite futile even if
their philological method had been more discriminating. Still
it should not he denied that neighhouring dialects of the Sam;
family have a tendency to shade off into each other.
Massagetz on the SE., occasioned by the expansion of
Chinese power, gradually forced a branch of the people
across the Urd, the Volga, and finally the Don. The
time of this invasion of Western Scythia cannot be
determined with certainty ; but it may have occurred as
early as in the sixteenth century B.C. (see 5 14). Another
Iranian people, the Kimmerians,l occupying the land so
far S. as to the Danube, were gradually driven into the
Crimea or, at different times and by different roads,
into Asia Minor. The Kimmerian invasion that
1 Such names of Kimmerian kings as TeuSpa, Tuktammi
(A+3aprs=A+-Saprs, Sayce) and Sandrakhtra, occurring in the
seventh century, are clearly Iranian.
For determining the ethnic relations of the Scythians
the pictorial representations on objects found at Kertsch,
Kum Olba, and elsewhere on the Kimmerian Bosphorus
are of utmost importance,
As the best of these are not later than the fourth centu B.c.,
apd were probably made for Scolotian grandees (see Xayet,
Etudes ZarcMoZogiie, 196fi), they may he taken to represent
fairly the Scythian type. The similarity to Russian mujiks in
dress, hair, beard, and general appearance, due to climatic :onditions
and the same mode of life cannot obscure the fact that
the features are essentially Iranian: If they all should prove to
be likenesses of Sarmatians, as the later ones probably are, this
would not weaken the conclusion, since the Iranian character of
the Sarmatians admits of no doubt.
Through Herodotus we know that the Scythians worshipped
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4336