Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

the scythians as others saw them
king Rusa I, who later, perhaps as a consequence of a defeat at their hands, committed
suicide. Thereafter there is silence for about thirty years. It may be that during
this time the Kimmerians made some accommodation with the Urartians, perhaps
serving as mercenaries. In any event Kimmerians are later reported to be supporting
Rusa II (r. 680–639) on the frontier at Shupria near the headwaters of the Tigris. This
may have been the same band that, in 677, had rampaged across Phrygia destroying
the capital city of Gordium. The Assyrian texts record that the Kimmerians were led
at this time by a king named Dugdamme.
The Greek sources now take up the story as the force moved westwards towards
the Mediterranean. Their first target was the kingdom of Lydia, where they launched
an attack on the capital, Sardis. The first onslaught was beaten off by the Lydian king,
Gyges, but in 652 Sardis was taken and Gyges was killed. They then turned their
attention to the rich coastal region, destroying the Greek city of Magnesia and raiding
other Greek cities along the coast. In one of these raids the Kimmerians attempted to
burn down the famous temple of Artemis at Ephesus.
According to the Greek texts these raids were under the command of king Lygdamis,
who must be the Dugdamme of the Assyrian texts, the Λ being a Greek scribal
error for the Δ. Dugdamme then led his forces into Cilicia threatening Assyrian interests,
but there, to the relief of the Assyrians, he died painfully of natural causes said
to be gangrene of the genitals. Thereafter nothing more is heard of Kimmerians in
Asia Minor.
While the Kimmerians were active in territories to the north and west of Assyria,
the Scythians based themselves on the north-eastern frontier in the lands of the Mannaeans
and Medes, favouring the highly fertile pasturelands around Lake Urmia—
land ideal for maintaining the large herds of horses on which they were entirely
dependent. Little is known of their activities at this time but one incident is revealing.
Sometime in the 670s the Scythian king Bartatua asked the Assyrian king Esarhaddon
to send him one of his daughters to be his wife. Rather than being an act of
arrogant bravado on the part of the Scythians it is more likely to reflect the careful
diplomacy of the period.
Throughout the middle decades of the seventh century, while Assyria was still
strong, it is likely that the Scythians maintained peaceful relations with their horseriding
neighbours, the Medes and Mannaeans, and with the Assyrians, but the situation
was inherently unstable. With the founding of the Neo-Babylonian dynasty in
626 and the rapid rise of Babylonian power, the Assyrian empire began to fragment.
This provided the opportunity for the Scythians, sometimes working in concert with
the Medes, to raid widely throughout the old Assyrian domain, feeding off the carcass
of the decaying empire.
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