Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "SKYTHIA Ancient country RUSSIA".
Total results on 18/7/2001: 311 for Scythia, 5 for Skythia.
(Skuthia, and Skuthike sc. ge). A name variously used by the ancients at different
periods of history. The Scythia of Herodotus comprises, to speak generally, the
southeastern parts of Europe, between the Carpathian Mountains and the river Tanais
(Don). The Greeks became acquainted with this country through their settlements
on the Euxine; and Herodotus, who had himself visited the coasts of the Euxine,
collected all the information he could obtain about the Scythians and their country,
and embodied the results in a most interesting digression, which forms the first
part of his fourth book. He describes the country as a square of 4000 stadia (400
geographical miles) each way, the western boundary being the Ister (Danube) and
the mountains of the Agathyrsi; the southern the shores of the Euxine and Palus
Maeotis, from the mouth of the Ister to that of the Tanais, this side being divided
into two equal parts, of 2000 stadia each, by the mouth of the Borysthenes (Dnieper);
the eastern boundary was the Tanais, and on the north Scythia was divided by deserts
from the Melanchlaeni, Androphagi, and Budini. It corresponded to the southern
part of Russia in Europe. The people who inhabited this region were called by
the Greeks Skuthai, a word of doubtful origin, which first occurs in Hesiod; but,
in their own language, Skolotoi, i. e. Slavonians. They were believed by Herodotus
to be of Asiatic origin; and his account of them, taken in connection with the
description given by Hippocrates of their physical peculiarities, has been regarded
as proof that they were a part of the great Mongol race, who wandered, from unknown
antiquity, over the steppes of Central Asia; yet the general drift of opinion
at the present time is toward assigning to them Aryan affinities. Herodotus says
further that they were driven out of their abodes in Asia, north of the Araxes,
by the Massagetae; and that, migrating into Europe, they drove out the Cimmerians.
If this account be true, it can hardly but have some connection with the irruption
of the Cimmerians into Asia Minor, in the reign of the Lydian king Ardys, about
B.C. 640.
The Scythians were a nomadic people, that is, shepherds or
herdsmen, who had no fixed habitations, but roamed over a vast tract of country
at their pleasure, and according to the wants of their cattle. They lived in a
kind of covered wagons, which Aeschylus describes as "lofty houses of wicker-work,
on well-wheeled chariots". They were filthy in their habits, never washing,
fought on horseback, scalped their enemies, and drank out of their skulls when
slain. They kept large troops of horses, and were most expert in cavalry exercises
and archery; and hence, as the Persian king Darius found, when he invaded their
country (B.C. 507), it was almost impossible for an invading army to act against
them. They simply retreated, wagons and all, before the enemy, harassing him with
their light cavalry, and leaving famine and exposure, in their bare steppes, to
do the rest. Like all nomadic races, they were divided into several hordes, the
chief of whom were called the Royal Scythians; and to these all the rest owned
some degree of allegiance. Their government was a sort of patriarchal monarchy
or chieftainship. An important modification of their habits had, however, taken
place, to a certain extent, before Herodotus described them. The fertility of
the plains on the north of the Euxine, and the influence of the Greek settlements
at the mouth of the Borysthenes and along the coast, had led the inhabitants of
this part of Scythia to settle down as cultivators of the soil, and had brought
them into commercial and other relations with the Greeks. Accordingly, Herodotus
mentions two classes or hordes of Scythians who had thus abandoned their nomad
life; first, on the west of the Borysthenes, two tribes of Hellenized Scythians,
called Callipidae and Alazones; then, beyond these, "the Scythians who are
ploughers (Skuthai aroteres), who do not grow their corn for food, but for sale";
these dwelt about the river Hypanis (Boug), in the region now called the Ukraine,
which is still, as it was to the Greeks, a great cornexporting country. Again,
on the east of the Borysthenes were "the Scythians who are husbandmen"
(Skuthai georgoi), i. e. who grew corn for their own consumption: these were called
Borysthenitae by the Greeks; their country extended three days' journey east of
the Borysthenes to the river Panticapes. Beyond these, to the east, dwelt "the
nomad Scythians (nomades Skuthai), who neither sow nor plough at all." Herodotus
expressly states that the tribes east of the Borysthenes were not Scythian. Of
the history of these Scythian tribes there is little to state, beyond the tradition
already mentioned, that they migrated from Asia and expelled the Cimmerians; their
invasion of Media, in the reign of Cyaxares, when they held the supremacy of Western
Asia for twenty-eight years, and the disastrous expedition of Darius into their
country. In later times they were gradually overpowered by the neighbouring people,
especially the Sarmatians, who gave their name to the whole country. Meanwhile,
the conquests of Alexander and his successors in Central Asia had made the Greeks
acquainted with tribes beyond the Oxus and the Iaxartes, who resembled the Scythians,
and belonged, in fact, to the same race, and to whom, accordingly, the same name
was applied. Hence, in writers of the time of the Roman Empire, the name of Scythia
denotes the whole of Northern Asia, from the river Rha (Volga) on the west, which
divided it from Asiatic Sarmatia, to Serica on the east, extending to India on
the south. It was divided by Mount Imaus into two parts, called respectively Scythia
intra Imaum, i. e. on the northwestern side of the range, and Scythia extra Imaum,
on its southeastern side. The later Scythians overran Parthia (B.C. 128), and
also invaded Northern India, where they maintained themselves for several centuries.
The Jats and Rajputs of modern India have by some scholars been regarded as the
descendants of these Scythian invaders.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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