The Scythians

In the early 7th century BC, when the Scythians appeared in the Ukrainian steppe, the more sophisticated societies around the Mediterranean took notice, as these words from the Old Testament attest: “Behold! A people comes from the north.

In the 5th century BC, Herodotus, the Greek “father of history,” visited Scythia and described its inhabitants. Apparently, they were Indo-Europeans, part of the Iranian-speaking nomads that had dominated the Eurasian steppes for millennia. Herodotus described several types of Scythians. On the right bank of the Dnieper lived the Scythian plowers, an agricultural people who were the aboriginal inhabitants of the land but who probably accepted the name of their nomadic overlords. Some scholars believe that these people were the ancestors of the Slavs. Political power rested in the hands of the nomadic Royal Scythians who considered themselves to be the “most numerous and the best,” and who forced other Scythian and non-Scythian tribes of Ukraine to pay them tribute. Their demands were backed by a large, well-armed, and well-disciplined army of horsemen. To develop warlike instincts, Scythian warriors were encouraged to drink the blood of the first enemy they killed, to make gold or silver-mounted chalices out of an enemy’s skull, and to take scalps.

Map 3 Nomadic migrations

Scythian society was very much a man’s world. Descent was traced according to the male line, property was divided among sons, and polygamy was the norm. Junior wives were sometimes killed and buried along with their deceased husbands. Judging from the sumptuous burial mounds of the Scythian kings that still dot the Ukrainian steppe, the rich graves of the tribal aristocracy, and the meager burial sites of the commoners, socioeconomic distinctions were quite pronounced among the Royal Scythians. In addition to war booty, trade with the Greek colonies on the Black Sea coast provided the Scythians with most of their wealth. To their trading partners the Scythians offered products for which Ukraine would become famous: grain, wax, honey, furs, and slaves. In return, they obtained wines, fine jewelry and other luxurious goods for which they developed a considerable appetite. This growing interest in the finer things of life was reflected in the highly original decorative style of art that they favored. Characterized by animal motifs, it skillfully rendered dynamic, flowing images of deer, lions, and horses of striking grace and beauty.

Under Scythian rule, Ukraine became an important, albeit distant, part of classical Mediterranean civilization, for through the intermediary of the Greek colonies on the Black Sea, the Scythians came into contact with Greek civilization and learned to value it. But contact with the Mediterranean world also embroiled the Scythians in its conflicts. In 513 BC, the Persian king Darius invaded Ukraine at the head of a vast army. By applying a scorched-earth strategy, however, the Scythians forced him into a humiliating retreat. In the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC, the Scythians expanded westward and overran the Thracians on the Danube. It was a victory they could have done without, for it brought them face to face with Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great. In 339 BC, the Macedonians inflicted a crushing defeat on the nomads. This marked the beginning of the end for the Scythians. About a century later, the Sarmatians, another powerful nomadic people from the east, overwhelmed and assimilated most of the Scythians, only a remnant of whom managed to find refuge in the Crimea, where their descendants continued to live until the 3rd century AD.