The Scythians
The Scythians or “horse lords” as they were known originated from the Eurasian steppes. They were primarily a nomadic horse tribe who ventured into Iron Age Mesopotamia to raid. According to The Bible, they were “always courageous, and their quivers are like open grave. They will eat your harvest and bread, they will eat your sons and daughters, they will eat your sheep and oxen, they will eat your grapes and figs.” They made war against Assyria, capturing its capital, Nineveh in 612BC. They reached as far as Palestine and would have invaded Egypt if the Pharaoh had not bribed them to stay away.
The Scythian’s greatest triumph was in thwarting an invasion by the Persian army of Darius I. Darius’s army was one of the largest in ancient times. But the Persian king underestimated his foe. As Darius’s army advanced across the steppes, Scythian horsemen harried it with unexpected ambushes. Worse still, the Scythians greeted the advancing army with poisoned wells and burnt fields. Finally, low on supplies and morale, it camped on the shores of the sea of Azoz, while Darius sent a message to the Scythian high king Idanthyrsus to ask why he wouldn’t engage in battle.
Idanthyrsus’s reply was to the point: “This is my way, Persian. I never fear men or fly from them. I have not done so in times past, nor do I now fly from thee. There is nothing new or strange in what I do; I only follow my common mode of life in peaceful years. Now I will tell thee why I do not at once join battle with thee. We Scythians have neither towns nor cultivated lands, which might induce us, through fear of their being taken or ravaged, to be in a hurry to fight with you.”
Accompanying the message were some unusual gifts: a mouse, a frog, a bird and five arrows. The Persian’s quickly understood: if they did not fly away like birds or hide like mice, or leap into a lake like frogs, they would die under Scythian arrows. After yet more harrying and raiding, the Persians gave up and went home. Guerilla tactics and the horseback skills of the Scythians nomadic lifestyle had defeated them.
But the Scythian use of the bow was also critical.So skilled were the Scythians with the weapon that their name was derived from Skeud, the indo-European word for ‘propel.’ Scythian burials are full of arrows, but no bows survive. But contemporary depictions show they were small, shaped like a Greek sigma and capable of firing 10-12 arrows a minute- on horseback.