Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

further reading
Classical Texts
In the fifth century bc a number of Greek writers were busy gathering information
about the Scythians to include in their various works. Among the earliest was Hekataios
of Miletos (c.550–467 bc), whose book, Journey around the Earth, no longer survives
but was used as a source by later writers. One of them, Hellanikos of Lesbos
(491–405 bc) devoted a section to Skythika in his book Barbarita Nomina. This, too, is no
longer extant but was used by the later writer Strabo (64 bc–ad 21) in his Geography, in
Book xi. 4 and probably in vii. 3–4. A near contemporary of Hellanikos was the writer
of the tract On Airs, Waters, and Places, which is included in the Hippocratic Corpus. It
was compiled by an unnamed author whose style suggests that he came from Knidos
(see G. E. R. Lloyd (ed.), Hippocratic Writings (Harmondsworth, 1978) ). Pseudo-Hippocrates,
as he is generally known, wrote as though he had first-hand knowledge of the
Scythians and their land, and his chapters 17–22 provide many valuable insights. The
intricacies of the transmission of these early sources and their relationships is carefully
assessed in J. R. Gardiner-Garden, Herodotos’ Contemporaries on Skythian Geography
and Ethnography (Bloomington, Ind., 1987).
The most comprehensive, though slightly later, source is Histories written by Herodotus
of Halicarnassus (c.484–c.424). In Book i. 103–6 he deals briefly with the movement
of the Scythians into Asia Minor, but it is the famous Book iv that provides
the most detailed account of Scythian culture and history, full of intriguing detail
and anecdotes. Many scholars believe Herodotus gathered his Scythian material firsthand
during time spent in the Greek city of Olbia and he may even have made trips
out onto the steppe. There are, however, those who argue that he never set foot in
Scythia and instead constructed his topos of the Scythians from second-hand scraps
moulded to give a generalized view of ‘the barbarian other’. These views have been
widely debated. Some of the relevant sources are given in the further reading for
Chapter 2 (below, pp. 363–6). Other Greek writers mention the Scythians from time
to time, among them Anacreon, Demosthenes, Aristophanes, Xenophon, and Aristotle.
Where these are referred to in this book full references will be given. Roman
writers were largely dependent on earlier Greek sources, but original observations
were recorded by the poet Ovid, who, exiled in the Black Sea town of Tomis, took a
rather dystopian view of the local people in his Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto.
General Works
Surprisingly little has been written on the Scythians for a general audience over the
last sixty years. T. Talbot Rice, The Scythians (2nd edn., London, 1958) offers a clear, if
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