Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

bending the bow
It remains a possibility that the Greeks at this time were also employing Scythian
mercenaries likely to have been recruited from the north Pontic region. The evidence
is slight. The orator Andocides describes how, after the battle of Salamis in 490 bc,
the Athenians fortified the Piraeus and built the North Wall. They also ‘equipped
300 cavalry and bought 300 Scythians’. Aeschines, describing the same events, adds
that the Scythians were archers. Thereafter, Scythian archers were regularly used to
police Athens (above, pp. 52–4) .
In the fourth century the Bosporan kingdom, in origin a Greek inspired construct,
regularly depended on armies recruited from the local nomadic tribes. As we have
seen, in the dispute that arose following the death of Paerisades in 310 bc Scythians
and Sarmatians constituted a major part of the opposing armies. This was the time
when Sarmatians were beginning to move against the Scythians, so by employing
natural opponents the contestants for the kingdom were manipulating regional
antagonisms for their own benefit. It is, however, unclear from the description of the
event whether the tribal fighters were hired mercenaries or were allied troops, but by
now the distinction was, anyway, fast disappearing.
Celebrating Victory
At the end of a military engagement there would be celebrations closely bound up
with religious observances. The description which Herodotus gives of Scythian practices
following the battle is intended to shock his readers and to emphasize the difference
between the barbarians and the civilized Greek (Hist. iv. 64–6).
First, the Scythian must drink the blood of the first man he kills. Behind this lies
the belief that blood represents the essence of the person and by drinking it the victor
gains power over the dispatched enemy. The drinking of the blood of the two men
mixed with wine to seal the bond of blood brother (above, pp. 217–18) embodies the
same notion, that blood is potent. The next imperative was to cut off the heads of the
slain enemies. At one level this is a simple form of accountancy since the number of
heads brought in by the triumphant warrior enabled the king to calculate what portion
of the spoils of war was due to him. Heads of enemies were also a sign of prowess
and as such needed to be displayed. But rather than carrying around a clutch of bulky
heads it was easier simply to retain the scalp. Here Herodotus evidently relishes the
detail:
In order to strip the skull of its covering he makes a cut around the head above the ears
and, holding on to the scalp, he shakes the skull out. Then he scrapes the scalp clean
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