Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

the scythians as others saw them
2.9 Archers in Scythian dress, one named Kimerios, shown in action on a Greek Black-Figured vase of
c.570 bc from Chiusi, Italy.
this came to be is a matter of speculation but from the
mid sixth century detachments of mounted Scythian
archers were used to strengthen the Greek hoplite army
and it may have been that the Scythian archer police
were recruited from among the veterans of these forces.
According to the limited textual evidence available,
they were public slaves who served as watchmen and
guards whose task it was to keep the general public in
order. One account speaks of them rounding up recalcitrant
citizens and herding them in to vote using short
ropes dipped in red paint so that the unwilling could be
identified by red marks on their clothes. In the Assembly
the chairman could ask them to remove anyone
speaking for overlong; they could also make arrests. In
Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, a magistrate orders the Scythian
police force to arrest Lysistrata. That foreign slaves
could be used as a civil police force may at first sight
2.10 An archer in Scythian dress on a Greek Red-Figured plate
of c.530–490 bc from Vulci, Italy.
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