The revise the paper of the Eurasian nomad history

3 18 (4.100- 103)

em sea, the Scythians live, and also west of the Cimmerian Bos­ porus and the Maeetian lake as far as the river Tanais, which empties into a comer of that lake. Starting from the ISter, in the pans that are northward and bear inland, Scythia is bounded first by the Agathyrsi, secondly by the Neuri, then by the Man-Eaters, and fi­ nally by the Black Cloaks.

101. Scythia, then, is four-sided, with twO pans reaching to the sea; and the frontiers that run inland and those that run to the sea are exactly equal. For from the Ister to the Borysthenes is a journey of ten days, and from the Borysthenes ro the Maeetian lake is ten days again; and from the seacoast inland as far as the Black Cloaks, who live above the Scythians, is a twenty days' joumey. The day's

• journey I have figured out to be twO hundred stades. ~6 So the cross­

measurement of Scythia would be four thousand stades, and, up to the inland, it would be just the same: four thousand. That is the greatness of that land.

102. The Scythians reasoned that they were not able to resist Darius' army in a straight fight on their own, and so they sent mes­ sengers to their neighbors. Those who were kings of these neighbor­ ing states had already come together and were taking counsel, in the face of the great host that was about to attack them. The kings who assembled were the kings of the Taurians, the Agathyrsi, the Neuri, the Man-Eaters, the Black Cloaks, the Geloni, the Budini, and the Sauromatians.

103. Of these peoples, the Taurians have the following customs. They sacrifice to the Maiden 47 such shipwrecked folk and those of the Greeks whom they have taken in their pirate raids. They make the preliminary rites of the sacrifice, and then they smash the vic­ tim's head with a club. Some say that then they push the body down from a crag-for the holy place is established on a crag-and mount the head on a pole. Other informants agree about what is done with the head, but they disagree about the body, which they say is not launched from a crag hut buried in the ground. The spirit to whom the Taurians make the sacrifice they themselves say is Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon. In the case of such enemy warriors as

46. Abour 25 miles. 47· Probably sbe whom rhe Greeks call Artemis Orthia. Cf. chaprer 87.

.........

(4· 103- 8 ) 3 1 9

they capture they do as follows: each man cutS off his enemy's head and takes it home, where he sets it on top of a great pole, which projects far above the roof of his house-for the mOst part, above the chimney. They say that these heads hang aloft there as sentinels

over the house. These people live from plunder and war.

104. The Agathyrsi are the ones who live mOSt delicately of these peoples; they wear gold jewelry a lor. They enjoy all their women in common, so that they may all be brothers and so, being all kinsfolk of one another, have neither envy nor hatred against one another. In their other usages they are very close to the Thracians.

105. The Neuri follow Scythian cuStoms. One generation before the invasion of Darius it befell them to be banished from their own land by snakes. For their country brought forth many of the snakes, and, besides, Others attacked them from the desens to the north of them, until in their suffering the Neuri left their own land and settled in with the Budini. It may be that these people are wizards. For it is said by both the Scythians and the Greeks who live in Scythia that once every year everyone of the Neuri becomes a wolf for some days and again turns back into his own shape. I personally do not believe this story, but they assert it all the same and swear to

its truth. 106. The Man-Eaters have the most savage manner of life of all

men; they believe in no justice nor use any law. They are nomads, wear clothing like that of the Scythians, but have a language all their own. They are the only one of these people who eat human

flesh. 107. The Black Cloaks all wear black garments, from which they

have their name, and their customs are those of the Scythians. 108. The Budini are a great and numerous nation, with very blue

eyes and red hair. They have a city among them, built of wood, and it is called Gelonus. Each side of the wall of it is thirty stades, and the wall is high and made of wood, and of wood, toO, are the houses and the holy places. For there are holy places there belonging to the Greek gods and furnished out in Greek fashion, with images and shrines and altars made of wood; and they celebrate a festival to Dio­ nysus every third year and perform the revels. For the Geloni are anciently Greeks who moved away from their trading posts and settled among the Budini, and the language that they speak is partly

320 (4. I08- I I)

Scythian and partly Greek. The Budini and Geloni do not speak the same language at all, nor is their way of life the same.

109. The Budini are the true natives of the country and are nomads; they are the only people in that region who eat lice. The Geloni work the soil, eat grain, and cultivate gardens; neither in shape nor in coloring are they like the Budini. It is true that by the Greeks the Budini are called Geloni, but they are wrongly so called. The whole country is full of dense thickets of every kind of tree. In the greatest thicket there is a great, large lake, and a marsh with reeds round about it. In this they capture otters and beavers and cer­ tain other square-faced animals, whose skins are used for the fringes of mantles, and the testicles of them are llseful for the cure of troubles of the womb.

110. There is this story told about the Sauromatians. The tale goes that when the Greeks fought with the Amazons and conquered them at the battle of Thermodon, they sailed away with three ships loaded with all the Amazons they could capture alive, but these women, when they were Out to sea, set upon the men and cur them down. (The Scythians call the Amazons Oiorpata, which in Greek would signify "man-slayers," for the Scythians use aiar for "man" and paw for "kill. ") But they did not know anything about boats or how to use rudders, sails, or oars; so, once they had cut down the men, they drifted with wind and wave and came at last to The Cliffs, which are at the Maeetian lake. The Cliffs were in the possession of the free Scythians. There the Amazons disembarked from their ships and made it on foot to the inhabited country. The first herd of horses they fell in with they seized, and, mounted on these. they ravaged the Scythian country.

III. The Scythians could not make sense of the business. They had no knowledge of the speech or the clothes or the nation of the Amazons but were in great wonder as to where they came from. They thought that they were men of the same age and fought against them. After the battle, the Scythians took possession of some of the dead and so came to know that they were women. So they held a debate and decided that by no means should they kill any more of the Amazons but should send the youngest of their men ro them, in numbers guessing as close as they could to the number of Amazons, and these young men were told to camp near the Amazons and do as

(4.1 I I - 14) 3 21

they did. If the Amazons should pursue them. they should not fight but run away; and when the pursuit was over, they should again ap­ proach and camp near the Amazons. The Scythians determined to do this because they wanted to breed children from these women. The young men who were sent off did what they were ordered.

112. When the Amazons saw that those who came had not done so to injure them, they let them be, and the two camps grew, every day, nearer to each other. The young men, like the Amazons, had nothing except for their arms and their horses, and they lived the same kind of life as the women, by hunting and plundering.

113. Toward noonday the Amazons used to act thus: they would scatter in ones and twos. separating out from the others to relieve themselves. The Scythians noticed this and did likewise. One of the young men approached one of the women who had separated off, and the Amazon did not reject him but let him do what he would with her. She could not speak to him-for they could not under­ stand each other-but with her hand she indicated that he should come next day to the same place and bring another man with him; she signed to him that there should be twO and that she would bring another woman. The young man went away and told his comrades. So on the next day he came to the place himself and brought an­ other along with him, and he found another Amazon there to meet him. So the other young men, when they heard this, came them­ selves and enjoyed all the rest of the Amazons.

114. After that the camps were combined, and the people lived there in common, each man having the woman with whom he had lain at the first. The men could not learn the women's language, but the women learned the speech of the men. When they came to understand one another, the men said to the Amazons, "We have parents and we have possessions. Now let us live no longer like this but go back and join the multitude of our people. But as wives we will have you and no others." But the women said, "We cannot live with your women. For we and they have not the same customs. We shoot the bow and the javelin and ride horses, but, for 'women's tasks,' we know them nor. Your women do none of these things we have spoken of. They stay in their wagons and do 'women's work' and never go hunting or anywhere else. We cannot get on with women like these. If you want to have us as your women and wartt to

32 2 k TI 4- 18 )

be thought to be honorable men, go to your parents, take the al­ lotted share of your property, and then come and let us live together on our own" The young men agreed and did this.

115. When they had divided up the property and taken what fell

to their shme, they came back to the Amazons, and the women said to them, "We are afraid and in dread to live with you in this place; we have robbed you of your parents, and we have done great damage to your countryside. Since you have thought fit to have us for your

women, let us together move Out of this land and cross the river

Tanais and live there." 116. The young men agreed to this too, and they crossed the

Tanais and journeyed toward the rising sun a distance of three days from the crossing of the Tana'is and then three again from the

Maeetian lake northwards. So they came to the country in which

now rhey live and setrled It. And from then on the women of the Sauromatians follow their old way of life; they go on horseback, hunting with their men and without them, and they go to the war, toO, and wear the same dress as the men do.

117· The Sauromatians use the language of the Scythians, but their usage of it is not correer and deviates from the old language

because the Amazons never learned it properly. Their arrangements about marriage are these: no maiden may marry until she has killed a man of the enemy; some of them die old women before they marry, because they cannot fulfill their law.

lIS. So the kings who were rulers over these aforesaid nations

came together, and the messengers of the Scythians arrived and in­ formed them that the Persian, having subdued all of the other conti­ nent to himself, had now built a bridge at the neck of the Bosporus

and had crossed over into this continent; and having so crossed and conquered the Thracians, he was now bridging the river Ister, since

he wanted everything on this side of the world, toO, to belong ro him: "Do not, then, sit apart and look on at us being destroyed;

let us come to a common resolve and face the invader rogether.

Won't you agree to do this? If you do nOt, we shall, under pressure,

either quit the country or remain and come to an agreement with the Persian. For what is going ro happen us, if you do not help us? In your case, roo, nothing will be easier once this occasion is over. For

the Persian is coming against you every whit as much as against us .

....

(4. [18-20) 3 2 3

Nor will he be content, once he has subjugated us, to keep his hands off you. We have strong evidence of what we are urging. For if it

were against us only that the Persian was campaigning-because he wanted to punish us for the slavery we inflicted on his people be­

fore-he would surely have avoided injuring all the other peoples and advanced solely against our territory. He would have thus proved to everybody that the Scythians and no one else were the object of his invasion. As it is, the moment he crossed to this continent, he

reduced every people that lay in his road. Not only does he hold the

Thracians in his power; he also holds your neighbors, the Getae."

119. Such was the message of the Scythians. The kings who had

come from the nations debated the matter, and their opinions were divided. The kings of the Geloni, Budini, and Sauromatians all

agreed that they would undertake to help the Scythians. But the kings of the Agathyrsi, Neuri, Man-Eaters, Black Cloaks, and Tau­

rians made the following answer to the Scythians: "If you had not been the aggressors in wronging the Persians and starting the war and had then come before us with the requests you now make, you would have been, in our view, perfectly right, and we would have

hearkened to you and made an agreement. But as it is, you invaded

their land, without us, and became masterS of the Persians for as long

a time as God gave you so to do, and they, on their side, now that the same God stirs them up, will give you as good as they got. We have never wronged these men, and we will not now be the first to

do them wrong. If the Persian comes to Our land, too, and begins the

injustice, we will surely not put up with that. But until we see that moment, we shall remain in our own country; for we ourselves do not believe that the Persians have come against us but against those who have been guilty of the wrong done."

120. This is the answer that the Scythians received; so they de­ termined that they could not wage an open stand-up fight, seeing that their allies would nOt join them, but that they would withdraw

and, Withdrawing, fill in the wells and springs as they passed and

destroy the grass from the land, dividing their own army into twO ro

do this. The one of these parts (of which Scopasis was king) had the addition of the Sauromatians. These troops the king was to with­ draw if the Persian turned in their direction, flying straight for the

river Tana'is along the Maeetian lake. However, if the Persian moved

(4, [20- 2 3)3 2 4

away, they were to follow him and attack, This was the one division of the royal forces, and this was the road they were told to take; but the twO other parts of the royal armies, the big one, under the leadership of Idanthyrsus, and the third, under King Taxakis, were to unite and, with the addition of the Geloni and Budini, should withdraw also, but just one day's march ahead of the approaching Persians, and, as they withdrew, carry Ollt the plans that had been laid, They were to withdraw, first, straight into the territories of those people who had refused to make an alliance with them, so that they would force these people, too, into the war. If they would not enter the war against the Persians voluntarily, said the Scythians, let them do so against their will. After this maneuver, they were to turn back into their country and attack if, on deliberation, this seemed to

be a good plan, ) 2 J. Having laid these plans, the Scyth ians went out to face

Darius' army, and they sent out the best of their cavalry as advance units. All their wagons, in which their women and children lived, and all of their flocks, except such as they needed for their own food, of these they kept none back but sent them of( with the wagons, telling the people to drive always northward,

[22. So the wagons and the gear went of( first. The advance guard of cavalry discovered the Persians some three days' journey from the Ister, and, having found them, they kept camping just a day's march ahead, cleaning the land of every plant that grew' on it. The Persians, as soon as they saw the Scythian cavalry appearing before them, advanced along the track as the Scythians continu­ ously retreated. Then the Persians directed their assault on one of the Scythian divisions and pursued it to the east and straight for the river Tana'is. When their opponents crossed the Tana'is, the Persians crossed after them and pursued them on, until they went clean through the country of the Sauromatians and came into that of the Budini,

[23. All the time the Persians went through the Scythian and Sauromatian country, they were unable to damage anything, for the land was all dry and barren. But when they came into the land of the Budini, they came upon the wooden fortified town, which the Budini had left and which was totally empty of everything. This they burned. Having done so, on they went, ever forward along the

(4. 123- 2 5) 32 5

track, until in their course they came to the desert. Now, this desert is quite without inhabitants. It lies above the country of the Budini and is about seven days' journey in length. Above this desert is where the Thyssagerae live, and there are four great rivers that flow from their country through the country of the Maeetians and empty

into what is called the Maeetian lake. The names of the four rivers are Lycus, Oarus, Tana'is, and Syrgis,

124. When Darius came to the desert, he stopped the advance and established his army on the river Oarus, Having done so, he set about building eight great forts, separated from one another by a dis­ tance of about sixty furlongs, The ruins of them were still there in my time. While he was busy at this the Scythians whom he was pur­ suing wheeled northward and turned back into Scythia. Indeed, they entirely vanished; and when Darius could find no trace of them, he gave over the forts, half built, and himself wheeled to the west, under the belief that these were all the Scythiam there were and that they had fled westward.

125. But when, with all the speed his army could make, he got into Scythia, he met with both divisions of the Scythians and pur­ sued them; but again they kept just one day's march ahead of him. Darius would not give over the pursuit, and the Scythians, accord­ ing to their plan, retreated into the territory of those who had re­ fused them their alliance-and first into the country of the Black Cloaks. As both armies, both the Scythians and the Persians, in­ vaded these peoples, they disturbed the inhabitants very much; and then the Scythians led the way into the land of the Man-Eaters. And when these, too, were disturbed, the Scythians still withdrew into the country of the Neuri, and, having caused the same distur­ bance there, they withdrew further, to the country of the Agathyrsi, The Agathyrsi, seeing their neighbors all fleeing before the Scythi­ am and in utter confusion, sent a herald to the Scythians, before they came into their country, and forbade them to set foot in it, say­ ing that, if they tried to invade, they must first fight to a finish with the Agathyrsi themselves, The Agathyrsi, having sent of( this mes­ sage, went out to their frontiers, intending to bar any invaders from crossing. But the Black Cloaks and the Man-Eaters and the Neuri, when both the Scythians and the Persians got into their land, put up no fight at all, and, quite forgetting their threats, they in their con­

3 26 (4. 12 5- 28 )

fusion fled ever to the north and the desert. The Scythians made no further arrempt to invade the Agathyrsi, once these people had warned them off, but led the Persians from the land of the Neuri into

their own counny. 126. As this was proving a long and endless marrer, Darius sent a

horseman to the Scythian king, Idanthyrsus, and said: "You are a snange fellow. Why do you keep on flying from me when you might make a choice of courses) If you think yourself strong enough to op­

pose my power, stop this wandering to and fro and stand and fight. If

your mind tells you that you are the weaker, then, likewise, stop running away, give gifts-namely earth and water-to one who is

your master, and come to words with me."

12 7. To this the Scythian king, Idanrhyrsus, answered: "Persian,

maners are thus with me. I have never fled from a man in fear in

days past nor now. I am nor fleeing from you. What I am doing now is no differenr from what I am wonr to do in peacetime. I will also tell you why I do nOt instantly fight you. We have neither cities nor

sown land among us for which we might fear-that they be captured or destroyed-and so might be quicker to join in battle against you to save them. But if you needs must come to a fight with us quickly,

there are our fathers' graves. Find them and try to ruin them, and you will discover whether we will fight you or not-for the graves.

Before that, we will nor fight, unless some argumenr of our own

takes possession of us That is all I have to say to you about a fight. But for my masters, I count them to be Zeus, who is my ancestor, and Hestia, queen of the Scythians. These only. To you, instead of gifts

of earth and water, I will send such gifts as are fit to come your way. In answer to your claim to be my master, you will be sorry you said

it." That is the speech Darius got from the Scythians. 128. So the herald went away to tell Darius this. But the Scyth­

ian kings, when they heard the very name of slavery, were filled

with futy. They sent the division that was stationed with the Sau­ romatians, the one commanded by Scopasis, to the Ionians, bidding

them come to have conference with them. (These were the Ionians who had built the bridge over the lster and were guarding it.) The

rest of the Scythians decided no longer to lead the Persians round and about but to arrack them when they were gathering provisions. So they waited till Darius' men were out gathering provisions and

(4· 128- 32) 32 7

then carried their plans inro effect. The Scythian cavalry always routed the Persian cavalry, and the Persians would then fly for refuge to the infanrry, and the infantry would help them. The Scythians,

having driven the enemy cavalry back into the foot, wheeled round

in retreat; for they were afraid of the foot. This kind of arrack the Scythians made, by night as well as day.

12 9. There was one thing that helped the Persians and hindered the Scythlans when the Scythians arracked Darius' army. This is a

wonderful thing I will tell you; it was JUSt the voice of the asses and

the appearance of the mules. For the land of Scythia produces nei­

ther ass nor mule, as I have said before; there is not in the whole counny of Scythia an ass or a mule at all, because of the cold. So the asses, when they brayed, drove the Scythian horses wild. And often, in the midst of their charge against the Persians, when they came

within earshot of the asses' bray, the Scythian horses wheeled round in confusion, their ears pricked upright in bewilderment, for they

had never before heard that noise or seen the form of the animals. 130. This was one small gain that the Persians made in the fight­

ing. But the Scythians, once they saw that the Persians were thor­ oughly frightened, laid the following plan, so that their enemies

might stay on for longer in Scythia and. so staying, be in sheer dis­

ness by lack of everything needful. They would, from time to time,

leave behind some of their own flocks, along with their shepherds, while they themselves went off somewhere else. The Persians would come llpon these and take the flocks and be very elated by the suc­ cess that they had.

13 1 . As this SOrt of thing happened very often, Darius was finally in cruel straits, and the Scythian kings, understanding that, senr

him a herald with gifts for Darius: a bird and a mouse and a frog and

five arrows. The Persians asked the bearer what was the meaning of these gifts. But the man said that he had no instructions given him save to give his gifts and get back home again with all good speed; the Persians, he said, if they were clever, would know the meaning of the gifts.

132. When the Persians heard that, they debated with one an­

other. It was the opinion of Darius that the Scythians were in fact surrendering to him-themselves and the earth and water. He formed his conjecture this way: that the mouse is a creature of the

328 k I 34-37) 3 2 9

(4. 1 3 2 -34)

earth and eats the same fruit of the earth as man; that the frog lives in water; that the bird is the likest to a horse; and that the surrender of the arrows was the surrender of the people's own valor. Such was the opinion delivered by Darius. But a rival to it was the opinion of Gobryas, who was one of the Seven who had killed the Magi, and his interpretation of the gifts was as follows: "If you do not become birds and flyaway into the sky or become mice and burrow into the earth or become frogs and leap into the lakes, there will be no home­ coming for you, for we will shoot you down with our arrows."

133. Such were the guesses of the Persians about the gifts. The

single detachment of Scythians-which had formerly been told to keep guard along the Maeetian lake but now to advance to the Ister and speak with the lonians-when they came to the bridge said: "You men of Ionia: we come bringing you freedom if you will give ear to us. We understand that Darius instructed you to wait sixty days only in your guarding of this bridge. Ifhe failed to arrive within that time, you should take yourselves off home again. If now you do as follows, you will be out of blame from him and out of our blame, too. Stay here for the prescribed days and thereafter get you gone." The lonians undertook to do this, and the Scythians hastily departed.

134. After the gifts had gone to Darius, the Scythians who were left behind those who had gone to talk to the lonians ranged them­ selves, horse and foot, to attack the Persians. As the Scythians stood there in their ranks, a hare ran between the twO sides, and every Scythian who saw it pursued the hare. As the Scythians were wildly excited and shouting, Darius asked the meaning of this tumult among his enemies. When he learned that they were pursuing a hare, he spoke with his usual confidants and said: "These people de­ spise us utterly. I think now that Gobryas' Judgment of what the gifts meant was right. Since I toO now see the matter thus, we will need a very good plan to get safely back home out of this place." Gobryas said to him: "My lord, from what I had heard, I had a fair knowledge of how difficult these people would be to deal with; but since I have come here, I have completed my education in them, when I see them making such a mockery of us as this. My judgment is that at nightfall we should light our watchfires, as we do at other times, and deceive and leave in the lurch all of our soldiers who are least able to bear fatigue; we should also picket all our asses here, when we go

_J_

away, before the Scythians make for the Ister to break our bridge down or before the lonians decide on some measure that will be able to destroy us."

135. Such was the counsel ofGobryas. Afterwards, night fell and Darius followed his adviser's judgment. Those of his men who were worn out with toil and whose loss would matter least he left there in the camp. He left the asses, too, and the weakest of the soldiers, for the following reasons: the asses in order that they might bray, and the men because of their want of strength. The pretext he gave the latter was that, with the sound part of his army, he was going to set upon the Scythians, while those he left would protect his camp at the same time. Such was the message Darius left to those he aban­ doned, and he lit his fires and made off with all haste to the Ister. The asses, because they were deserted by the bulk of the army, brayed a great deal more than usual. The Scythians heard the noise and as­ sumed that the Persians were in their usual encampment.

136. When day dawned, those who were left behind realized that they had been betrayed by Darius. So they reached out their hands to the Scythians in surrender and told them their circumstances. When their enemies heard, they quickly gathered their army into one mass, the two divisions of the Scythians and the one that had with it the Sauromatians, the Budini, and the Geloni, and pursued the Persians straight for the Ister. Now inasmuch as the Persians were for the most part on foot and, moreover, did not know the roads, because they were not regularly cut roads, while the Scythians were on horseback and knew every short way, the two armies missed each other, and the Scythians got to the bridge long before the Per­ sians. When they realized that the Persians had not yet got there, the Scythians spoke to the lonians, who were in the ships: "You men of Ionia: your days have gone through the required number and be­ yond, and you do wrong to remain here. You stayed here before out of fear; now break up this bridge and get you gone with speed, free and glad to be so, with gratitude in your heans to both the gods and the Scythians. As to him who was formerly your master, we will soon put him in such a position that he will not lead his host against anyone else, ever."

137. In the face of this, the lonians debated what they should do. Miltiades was an Athenian general and prince of the people of