Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

further reading
Archaeology’, World Archaeology, 4 (1972), 129–38; A. I. Ivantchik, ‘The Scythians Rule
over Asia: The Classical Tradition and the Historical Reality’, in G. R. Tsetskhladze
(ed.), Ancient Greeks West and East (Leiden, 1999), 497–520; and A. I. Ivantchik, ‘Reconstructing
Cimmerian and Early Scythian History: The Written Sources’, in J. Aruz et
al. (eds.), The Golden Deer of Eurasia: Perspectives on the Steppe Nomads of the Ancient World
(New York, 2006), 146–53.
The interpretation of the available data is a very complex issue. Those who want
to explore the many debates and uncertainties cannot do better than to consult A. I.
Ivantchik, ‘The Current State of the Cimmerian Problem’, in Ancient Civilizations from
Scythia to Siberia, 7 (2001), 307–40. This carefully argued paper has full references to
the copious literature.
The Greek colonization of the Black Sea has generated a massive literature. The
classic introductory work on Greek colonization, though now a little out of date, is
J. Boardman, The Greeks Overseas: Their Early Colonies and Trade (new and enlarged edn.,
London, 1980); chapter 6 deals with the Black Sea. For a more recent assessment see
G. R. Tsetskhladze, ‘Greek Penetration of the Black Sea’, in G. R. Tsetskhladze and F.
de Angelis (eds.), The Archaeology of Greek Colonization: Essays dedicated to Sir John Boardman
(Oxford, 1994), 111–35. The various Black Sea colonies are individually discussed
in D. V. Grammenos and E. K. Petropoulos, Ancient Greek Colonies in the Black Sea, 2 vols.
(Thessaloniki, 2003). A useful and well-illustrated discussion of Greek settlements
in the Crimea is offered in T. L. Samoilova (ed.), Ancient Greek Sites in the Crimea (Kiev,
2004). The Greek city of Olbia is given detailed treatment in the various contributions
published in D. Braund and S. D. Kryzhitskiy (eds.), Classical Olbia and the Scythian
World: From the Sixth Century BC to the Second Century AD (Oxford, 2007) and in S. D.
Kryzhitskiy, ‘Olbia and the Scythians in the Fifth Century BC: The Scythian “Protectorate”
’, in D. Braund (ed.), Scythians and Greeks: Cultural Interactions in Scythia, Athens and
the Early Roman Empire (Sixth Century BC–First Century AD (Exeter, 2005), 123–30.
Confrontation between Persians and Scythians (and Sakā) should best be viewed
in the context of Persian expansionism. Three books help to provide the essential
background: J. M. Cook, The Persian Empire (London, 1983); P. Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander:
A History of the Persian Empire (Winona Lake, Ind., 2002); and L. Allen, The Persian
Empire: A History (London, 2005). A very useful reference source is A. Kuhrt, The Persian
Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period (London, 2013). The narrative
of the campaign mounted by Darius against the European Scythians in given with
all its vivid colour by Herodotus in Book iv of his Histories. As always there has been
an ongoing debate about the reliability of the early accounts, especially that of Herodotus.
Broadly there are two schools: those who consider his work to be a literary
source fashioned by the topoi of the time and with little or no basis in fact and those
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