Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

bending the bow
Finally, among weapons of aggression, must also be
listed whips. As has been mentioned earlier (pp. 115–17),
Herodotus tells the rather enigmatic story of the return
of a band of Scythian warriors to their home after 28
years in Asia Minor. In their absence the womenfolk
had married their slaves and the children of these
matches were now determined to prevent the warriors’
return.
Many battles were fought but with no advantage to
the Scythians until finally one of them addressed the
remainder, ‘What are we doing? We are fighting our
slaves, diminishing our own number when we fall and
that of those who are our property when we kill them.
Take my advice—lay spear and bow aside and let each
man fetch his horsewhip and confront them.’
(Hist. iv. 3)
It turned out to be an effective strategy. Herodotus’
interpretation of the story was that the sight of the whip
reminded the slaves of their servile status. It may be that
tradition simply recorded the use of whips on this occasion
and Herodotus felt the need to offer some explanation
of why they were successful. No explanation is
really necessary: the whip, in skilled hands, is a lethal
weapon and was widely used for hunting and fighting in
the Pontic region until comparatively recent times. The
German traveller, J. G. Kohl, visiting the region in the
early nineteenth century, writes that when people have
run out of bullets and arrows and have broken their
lances they resort to the whip (nagaicas): ‘it is not actions
with pistol or sabre that determine the victor but whip
combat’. Remains of whips are found in a number of
elite burials and one of the reclining warriors depicted
9.19 The bronze head and pommel of a mace accompanying the
burial at Solokha. The projecting lobes on the heavy bronze head
would have made it a formidable weapon.
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