Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

bending the bow
time to time with the Scythians, but evidence is sparse. The armies which roamed
Asia Minor and the Near East in the seventh century certainly formed alliances
with some of the local states. The story of the offer made by the Scythian war
leader, Bartatua, to marry a daughter of the Assyrian king indicates a willingness to
consider offering mutual support, but there is a significant difference between this
kind of arrangement of equals and simply providing military service as mercenaries.
That there were bands of Scythians who were prepared to seek employment in
the courts of kings is, however, made clear in a story which Herodotus tells (Hist.
i.75) of just such a band which had taken refuge in Media where the king, Cyaxares,
‘recognizing them as suppliants . . . began treating them with kindness’. He put
them to work teaching the Scythian language to the sons of the elite and training
them in archery. They also spent time hunting, bringing home the game for the
royal court. When one day they returned empty-handed the king insulted them
and they responded by killing one of the boys in their charge and serving him up
on the king’s table. Satisfied that they had repaid the insult the Scythians rode off
to place themselves as supplicants under the protection of the king of Lydia. The
story is interesting in showing that bands of Scythians with specialist skills could
find service and protection in the courts of Near Eastern monarchs. It is quite likely
that there were many such groups enjoying a comfortable existence in the political
turmoil of the seventh century.
During the Persian wars of the early fifth century Scythian troops were used by the
Persians in their attack on the Greek homeland. When Xerxes landed on the Greek
coast in 480 bc with a force estimated to be about 200,000, only about 10,000 were
elite Persian troops. The rest were recruited from neighbouring tribes. Among the
list of participants mentioned by Herodotus were Scythians.
The Sacae [Sakā] or Scyths were clad in trousers and had on their heads tall stiff caps
rising to a point. They carried the bow of their country and the short sword as well as
the battleaxe. They were really Amyrgian Scythians but the Persians called them Sacae
since that is the name they call all Scythians.
(Hist. vii. 64)
Herodotus is telling us that they were Scythians recruited from Central Asia bordering
on the Persian Empire. He goes on to say that they and the neighbouring
Bactrians, who were also archers, were under one command. The Sacae are again
mentioned among the troops commanded by the Persian, Mardonius, at the battle of
Plataea in 479 bc.
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