Iran: Notable Groups and Civilizations

Scythians (All Other Facts) 

• Eastern Iranic People who migrated during the 9th to 8th centuries BCE from Central Asia to the Pontic Steppe in modern-day Ukraine and Southern Russia, where they remained until the 3rd century BCE

• Group of nomadic warriors, they lived in tents and shifted from pasture to pasture with their herds of animals

  • Were prevalent in the Middle East and Caucasus Mountains, they came from the steppes of Central Asia around the Volga River but eventually poured into Western Asia

  • They threatened the frontiers of Assyria and the region around and beyond the Black Sea that began to disrupt the people of Europe and the existing order within the Middle East by 715 BCE

  • Eventually, by 700 BCE, they formed large permanent communities in the western steppe lands in which such settlements were rich but hierarchical

  • Invaded Iran from the Caucasus Mountains, having exercised their military and political influence there ever since their invasion in the 600’s BCE

  • Entered Syria, crossed the country, and reached the Egyptian border with little to no resistance from the Assyrian armies there

    • Swept through Syria crushing all opposition

    • Made successful raids into Assyria and Palestine

    • Defeated the Assyrians despite King Ashurbanipal’s alliance-making with their chief Madyes

  • Took a bribe from King Psamtek of Egypt, who had met them in Palestine and paid them a hefty sum with the promise that they would not invade and thus that he had them save Egypt from being ruled by the namesake groups

• Forced other groups to move on from their lands including the Cimmerians (of Southern Russia) and King Midas and the Phrygians (in Anatolia)

• Were known to be fearsome and fierce mounted warriors who fought on horseback with powerful bows, which were made of both wood and bone rather than single pieces of wood, thus giving them greater strength and accuracy as they used their bows and arrows from the saddle and moved swiftly from one place to another

• Were no respecters of property, living in tents themselves and moved into settled territory wherever they could find it, plundering villages and terrorizing the local inhabitants

• Reared cattle, sheep, and horses, and did farming and hunting

Scythians (Culture) 

• Portrayed by the Greeks as violent and bloodthirsty

• Their philosopher Anacharsis was counted as one of the “Seven Wise Men of the Greek World”

  • He invented the bellows and potter’s wheel

    • However, he was immediately executed upon return home for participating in Greek culture

• They loved gold

• They smoked marijuana

• They built a city made entirely out of wood called “Gelonus”

• Characterized by a style of art in which animals were heavily used that spread to other parts of the ancient world, especially marked on their tattoos

  • Were considerable craftsmen, with vigorous and individual styles of pattern and design, often based on animal motifs

Scythians (Military History) 

• 612 BCE - participated in the destruction of Nineveh of Assyria

• 531 BCE - Massagetae kill King Cyrus the Great of Persia in battle

• 513 BCE - Darius I of Persia fails to invade their homeland

• 339 BCE - Their King Ataias is killed in the Battle of Dobrudja with Philip II of Macedon

• 329 BCE - ATG defeats their army west of the Caspian Sea

• 88 BCE - Overran the Greek kingdoms of Bactria

  • They were pushed west by the relentless pressure of other nomadic tribes from central Asia

• 88 BCE - Defeated King Mithridates II and the Parthians

• They joined the Yuezhi nomads and re-established themselves in Bactrian territory on the west bank of the Oxus

  • They remained there for 40 years, until they were pushed south by further Yuezhi pressure into Parthia

• Defeated Phraates II and Artabanus I of Parthia

  • Eventually overran all the Indus Valley by 88 BCE

Scythians (Subgroups)

• Greek term used to refer to Indo-Europeans who remained in central Asia

  • Sometimes are referred to as Cimmerians, Ashkuza, Saka, and Massagetae - groups which they were in numbers, part of, or associated with

• Massagetae

  • Dwelt near the Caspian Sea

  • Worshipped the sun

  • Lived mostly on milk

  • Cannibalized their dead

Cimmerians (All Facts) 

• Subgroup of Scythians 

• Warlike nomads from southern Russia

• Crossed the Caucuses Mountains where they entered Western Asia

• Harassed

  • Phrygia in Anatolia, where they ransacked King Midas and his kingdom around 705 BCE

  • Kingdom of Lydia, where they captured the city of Sardis and killed their iconic king Gyges around 652 BCE

• Made alliances with the Manneans and the Medes (in Iran)

• Defeated the Urartian forces prior to the Assyrians completely overtaking the Urartians

• Swept through the western shores of Anatolia from their home near the Black Sea, having captured and razed Ephesus by 640 BCE

Sarmatians (All Facts)

• Subgroup of Scythians

• Comprised of three smaller subtribes called the Roxolani, Alani, and Iazyges

  • The Iazyges came from the lower Danube region 

• Settled in southern areas of Russia and regions near the Danube River

• Believed to have sprung from a union of Scythians and Amazon women

• Ruled by women (“no girl can marry until she has killed a man in battle’”)

Roxolani (All Facts)

• Subgroup of Sarmatians 

• Revolted in Moesia against Emperor Hadrian of the Roman Empire, in which they were defeated by him and his forces in 118

Iazyges (All Facts)

• Subgroup of Sarmatians 

• They occupied the land between the Danube and Theiss Rivers and mostly came from the lower Danube region

• They invaded Dacia only to be driven out by Domitian and his Roman forces in 92

• Were attacked by Decebalus and the Dacians in 105

• Along with the Germanic Marcomanni and Quadi tribes, they fought against Rome in the Marcomannic Wars

Alani / Alans (All Facts) 

• Subgroup of Sarmatians 

• Were an Iranic nomadic pastoral people who migrated to what is today North Caucasus and southeastern Russia 

• Were defeated by Arrian and his Roman forces in 134

• They threatened King Eupator and his Bosporus Kingdom, who turned to Rome for protection in fear of them  

• In 375, those living between the Don and Volga Rivers were the first to confront the Hun invasion of Europe, with many having defected to the Hun side