The Scythians of the Black Sea Steppe

The Scythians of the Black Sea steppe, often called Pontic Scythians, were an Iranian-speaking people whose political power centred on the grasslands north of the Black Sea. Their kingdom took shape in the first millennium BCE, especially from the seventh to the third centuries BCE, across a region extending broadly from the Danube to the Don. The history of Scythian communities in Crimea and nearby territories continued after the kingdom’s collapse, into the first centuries CE.

The name needs a geographical distinction. Ancient writers sometimes used Scythian broadly for peoples of the Eurasian steppe, but modern scholarship generally reserves it for the people who dominated the Pontic steppe. The Saka of Central Asia were related eastern Iranian-speaking groups, not simply another name for the Pontic Scythians. The Indo-Scythian kingdoms that later arose in South Asia belong to a separate regional history, as does the archaeological evidence from the Altai, including the Pazyryk burials.

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From Central Asia to the Black Sea region

The Scythians’ earlier origins are not fully established. Archaeological similarities in weapons, burial customs and animal-decorated art connect early Scythian culture with steppe societies of Central Asia and southern Siberia. During the ninth and eighth centuries BCE, groups moved west toward the Caucasus and the Pontic-Caspian steppe. The reasons for these movements are uncertain; pressure from other peoples and the search for pasture have both been proposed.

By about 750 BCE, Scythian groups were established in the Ciscaucasian steppe, north of the Caucasus Mountains, particularly around the Kuban valley. There they encountered and drew goods from local farming and craft-producing communities, including Maeotian and Koban groups. Tribute and exchange supplied the mobile Scythians with agricultural produce, pottery, bronze vessels and horse equipment. These contacts also shaped Scythian material culture: local craft traditions did not simply disappear, but interacted with those of the newcomers.

The Scythians and Cimmerians were related steppe peoples, but they were distinct political groups in the accounts of their time. The Cimmerians had already moved south into West Asia before the main Scythian campaigns there. Scythian expansion into their former steppe territories followed, but the evidence does not establish that Scythian attacks caused the Cimmerians’ initial departure. By the seventh century BCE, Scythian power had grown in the Caucasus region, while the Pontic steppe was becoming a further focus of their expansion.

Scythian campaigns in West Asia

From about 700 BCE, Scythian forces crossed the Caucasus into a West Asian political world dominated by large kingdoms and smaller states. Their movements took place amid conflicts involving the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Urartu, Mannai and the Medes. The Scythians could raid, serve as mercenaries or make alliances; their choices shifted with political circumstances. Their mobile forces and mounted archery made them useful to rulers as well as formidable opponents.

Assyrian records name Išpakāya, a Scythian ruler killed in fighting during Esarhaddon’s reign, and Bartatua, who sought a royal daughter in marriage. An oracle query asks whether Bartatua would honour an alliance if Esarhaddon agreed. The document records the proposal, but does not confirm the marriage or identify the princess. It places Scythian leaders within the diplomacy of the Assyrian court.

Scythian forces later gained control over Mannai and exerted authority over other West Asian kingdoms. Around 635 BCE, Madyes’s forces helped defeat the Cimmerians in Anatolia, in cooperation with the Lydians. At its height, Scythian influence reached across parts of Transcaucasia and the Iranian plateau and into Anatolia. These were not necessarily territories governed in the same way: local kingdoms continued to exist, sometimes under Scythian overlordship or in shifting alliances.

As Assyrian power declined in the late seventh century BCE, Scythian alliances and opportunities changed. Herodotus later told how the Median ruler Cyaxares killed Scythian leaders at a feast, ending their dominance over the Medes. He also described Scythians reaching the Levant and being persuaded by Egypt’s Psamtik I to withdraw with gifts. These Greek narratives preserve a memory of far-reaching campaigns, although their exact chronology is disputed.

In the early sixth century BCE, pressure from the rising Median Empire helped draw most Scythians back north from West Asia. Some groups remained in eastern Transcaucasia and were eventually absorbed into the societies and states of the region. For the main Scythian polity, the retreat marked a shift toward the Pontic steppe, where access to pasture, farming communities and Greek coastal settlements offered new sources of resources and influence.

Building a Pontic kingdom

After their return north, Scythian groups moved in greater numbers onto the Black Sea steppe. They established themselves as a ruling elite over a population that included settled farmers and other local communities. Some inhabitants adopted Scythian customs or were described by outsiders as Scythians because they lived under Scythian rule. The kingdom was therefore not a single, uniform population. Nomadic pastoralists, settled agriculturalists and coastal Greek communities lived within the same political and economic sphere.

Scythian power rested in part on mobility. Horse herds supported travel, trade and warfare, while mounted archers could attack at a distance and avoid being drawn into a fixed battle. Scythian bows were composite weapons made from materials including wood, horn and sinew. This military advantage helped rulers control territory and demand goods from less mobile neighbours. Local leaders and communities could retain some internal authority, but the extent of their independence varied over time.

The kingdom’s growth was also tied to exchange. Rivers such as the Dnipro and the Buh connected the steppe interior with the Black Sea coast, carrying goods between farming districts and Greek cities. Farmers in the forest-steppe produced grain and other supplies, some of which reached the coast through tribute or trade. Scythian elites could act as intermediaries, while Greek merchants exchanged wine, pottery, metal goods and luxury objects for grain, livestock products, fish, furs and enslaved people. Greek settlements were trading partners and, at times, targets of pressure and attack.

Greek communities first established trading posts on the northern Black Sea coast in the seventh century BCE. From about 600 BCE, more permanent settlements with surrounding farmland developed. Pontic Olbia, near the Dnipro estuary, became an important centre of exchange with the steppe. The Bosporan kingdom, formed around the Cimmerian Bosporus and centred on Pantikapaion, later became another major commercial partner. Contact brought Greek goods and artistic influences into Scythian elite culture, while Scythian weapons and archery also influenced the Greek cities.

The Persian expedition

Around 513 BCE, Darius I of Persia crossed into Europe and advanced against the Scythians beyond the Danube. In Herodotus’s account, Scythian forces withdrew with their herds, denied the invaders supplies and avoided the decisive battle Darius wanted. His army eventually retreated. Control of open pasture and movement helped the Scythians resist an army whose supply needs grew as it advanced.

Consolidation, conflict and exchange

In the early fifth century BCE, the Scythian kingdom became more politically consolidated. The need to manage relations with neighbouring powers and defend its territory encouraged stronger royal authority. Scythian rulers also tightened their control over western areas and the agricultural communities there. In some districts, fortified settlements were destroyed or abandoned, and local farmers faced heavier demands. The expanding kingdom could thus promote commerce while also imposing its power on the people who produced much of the food being traded.

Relations with Greek cities changed with the balance of power. Early exchanges were often peaceful, but Scythian rulers later tried to control some coastal communities and their surrounding farmland. Greek cities responded with defensive works, and fighting damaged agricultural districts. In the mid-fifth century BCE, King Scyles exercised influence over several cities in the northwest, including Olbia, and maintained a residence there. His Greek connections, including a Greek mother, illustrate how closely royal families could engage with the coastal world. Around 440 BCE, his half-brother Octamasadas overthrew and executed him.

Conflict did not end trade. The Scythian elite continued to seek Greek wine, fine vessels and crafted goods, while Greek communities relied on the surrounding region for supplies. Trade in grain became especially important as demand from mainland Greece grew. The Bosporan kingdom increasingly served as a route for grain exports, and Scythian producers and rulers benefited from connections with its Greek-speaking cities. The profits and imported luxuries were concentrated among the elite; evidence from burials suggests that ordinary people did not share equally in this wealth.

By the fourth century BCE, some Scythians were settling more permanently, especially where fertile land and trade routes made farming practical. New settlements developed, and Kamianka, near the Dnipro, became an important political, commercial and craft centre. It included a fortified high area associated with the ruling elite and a much larger outer settlement where farming and metalworking took place. Scythian life remained varied: many people continued pastoral mobility even as others cultivated crops or worked in settled communities.

King Ateas, who ruled from the 360s until 339 BCE, pursued an active policy south of the Danube. He came into conflict with Philip II of Macedon after their interests in the region diverged. Ateas was killed in battle in 339 BCE, and the Scythians lost territory south of the river. The defeat did not immediately break the kingdom. Kamianka continued to prosper, and the Scythian political order survived for decades.

Later military setbacks added pressure. In 331 or 330 BCE, Zopyrion, a general serving Alexander the Great, campaigned against the Scythians and besieged Olbia. His force was defeated and he was killed. During the early third century BCE, Scythian power faced further challenges, including economic strain, competition for pasture and the arrival of Sarmatian groups from the east. These pressures weakened the kingdom and contributed to its collapse. Kamianka was abandoned, and the Sarmatians became the dominant power across much of the Pontic steppe.

Scythian communities after the kingdom

The end of the Pontic kingdom did not mean the immediate disappearance of all Scythian communities. People retreated to smaller territories, including parts of Crimea and the lower Dnipro, and another group survived in Dobruja, south of the Danube. These later territories were sometimes called Little Scythia. Their histories were separate from one another and from the earlier steppe kingdom.

In Crimea, Scythians became increasingly settled. Fortified and unfortified settlements replaced older mobile camps, and people combined farming, livestock raising and trade. Scythian Neapolis became a political centre. The society of this period differed from the earlier nomadic kingdom: it developed through contact and intermarriage with Greek communities, the local Tauri and Sarmatian groups. Its material culture reflected these mixed influences rather than simply preserving the older Scythian way of life.

In the late second century BCE, Mithridates VI of Pontus intervened in Crimea. His general Diophantus defeated Scythian forces while supporting Chersonesus, a Greek city threatened by its neighbours. A Chersonesus decree records his campaigns and honours. Scythian communities continued afterward, but their settlements faced further upheaval, including third-century CE attacks and the changing power of neighbouring peoples.

For the wider setting, see Scythian historical context.