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    Armies of the Scythians and Sarmatians 700 BC to AD 450: Weapons, Equipment and Tactics
    Armies of the Scythians and Sarmatians 700 BC to AD 450: Weapons, Equipment and Tactics
    Armies of the Scythians and Sarmatians 700 BC to AD 450: Weapons, Equipment and Tactics
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    Armies of the Scythians and Sarmatians 700 BC to AD 450: Weapons, Equipment and Tactics

    By Gabriele Esposito

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    The Scythians and Sarmatians, nomadic horse warriors, ruled the Black Sea with archery and swift cavalry.

    The Scythians were a horse nomads from the central Eurasian steppes who migrated south and west into the region around the Black Sea from the seventh century BC which they dominated until replaced and absorbed by the very similar Sarmatians from the third century BC. A harsh life spent riding, herding and hunting on the steppes made them into tough warriors, and highly skilled horsemen and archers. Their armies were highly mobile, mostly comprising swift mounted archers capable of elusive hit-and-run attacks but with the wealthier warriors constituting a core of heavier cavalry, armored and equipped for close combat. Over hundreds of years the Scythians fought, and often defeated, such notable opponents as the Assyrians, Medes, Persians, Greeks and Macedonians. Their Sarmatian successors continued the tradition, being among the Romans’ most dangerous opponents for several centuries.

    Gabriele Esposito discusses these remarkable warriors of the steppes, analysing what made them such formidable opponents to their neighbours over the centuries. He describes in detail their weapons, armor, equipment and tactics as they evolved over the centuries. The fascinating text is supported by dozens of beautiful color photographs of replica costume, arms and equipment in use.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPen and Sword
    Release dateJul 4, 2024
    ISBN9781399047371
    Armies of the Scythians and Sarmatians 700 BC to AD 450: Weapons, Equipment and Tactics
    Author

    Gabriele Esposito

    Gabriele Esposito is an Italian researcher and a long-time student of military history, whose interests and expertise range widely over various periods. He is the author of numerous books on armies and uniforms and is a regular contributor to many specialized magazines in Italy, France, Netherlands and UK. His many previous works include Armies of Early Colonial North America 1607-1713, published by Pen & Sword in 2018.

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      Book preview

      Armies of the Scythians and Sarmatians 700 BC to AD 450 - Gabriele Esposito

      Introduction

      The main aim of this book is to present a detailed analysis of the military history, organization and equipment of two ancient peoples living on the steppes of Eurasia: the Scythians and the Sarmatians. They were part of the Indo-Europeans and originated in the heart of Central Asia, from where they migrated towards the vast plains of southern Russia and Ukraine. Like all the steppe peoples of Antiquity and of the Middle Ages, the Scythians and Sarmatians were described as ‘masters of horses’ by the sedentary peoples living around them. Being nomads who were constantly on the move, the Scythians and Sarmatians spent most of their lives on horses, which were a fundamental component of their civilizations. Life was very harsh for these nomadic peoples, who did not practice agriculture but had large amounts of cattle. To find the pastures needed to feed their cattle, they moved across the wild plains of the steppe following the course of the major rivers. All the Scythian and Sarmatian men were warriors, who travelled on horseback, their families following them on carts, which acted as their ‘moving houses’. Scythian and Sarmatian society was quite simple and egalitarian, since all the free men had the right to bear arms and to fight in case of war. There was a powerful nobility made up of warlords and their personal retainers, but these did not enjoy particular privileges. The priests tasked with performing religious rites made up a separate component of Scythian and Sarmatian society, being the guardians of their people’s traditions. Both the Scythians and the Sarmatians owned slaves, who could be foreigners captured during military incursions or individuals from the local communities of southern Russia/Ukraine that had been submitted by the steppe peoples during their migrations. Slave trading always remained an important economic activity of the Scythians and Sarmatians. It should be noted, however, that these two steppe peoples were extremely advanced from a cultural point of view. First of all, their women enjoyed a series of liberties that could not be found in any other society of the ancient world: they were permitted to live and fight as men and enjoyed the same rights. Indeed, the famous myth of the Amazons originated after the Greeks met the warrior women of the Scythians.

      The Scythians and Sarmatians were the first peoples of history, together with the Cimmerians and the Massagetae, to deploy massive cavalry armies. These were totally different from the forces of their opponents from the Mediterranean world or from Mesopotamia, which mostly consisted of infantry. Riding sturdy horses and equipped with deadly composite bows, Scythian mounted archers faced – and on most occasions defeated – all the most important armies of Antiquity: Assyrians, Medes, Persians, Greeks and Macedonians. The Sarmatians, who were the direct heirs of the Scythians, were among the fiercest enemies of the Roman Empire for several centuries. They introduced to Europe the new troop type of the heavily armoured lancer, which was soon copied by the Romans. Both the Scythians and the Sarmatians have left us many burial sites containing massive amounts of weapons; as a result, over recent decades it has been possible to reconstruct how they were equipped for war and which tactics they employed on the battlefield. Judging from surviving pieces of military equipment, they had incredible metalworking capabilities and produced some of the finest weapons ever seen during Antiquity. Reconstructing the military history and organization of the Scythians and Sarmatians, however, is much more difficult since they did not leave any written sources. Consequently, what we know about them mostly derives from the works of great Greek and Roman authors. In this work we will detail the history of the Scythians and the Sarmatians from their early arrival in Europe to their final disappearance, along with the military organization and equipment of both peoples.

      Chapter 1

      The Early History of the Scythians

      The historical origins of the Scythians are still a matter of debate among modern scholars, since we have no written primary sources produced by them detailing their early history. Two hypotheses have emerged during the past decades, which are based on different sources and evidence. The first, supported by most of the modern Russian academics, is based on what the great Greek historian Herodotus wrote about the origins of the Scythians. According to him, they were an Eastern Iranian-speaking group that settled in a geographical region known as Inner Asia, comprising the area between present-day Turkestan and Western Siberia. The second hypothesis, supported by several scholars of the Anglo-Saxon world, proposes that the Scythians emerged as a new civilization from groups belonging to a local culture that existed along the Black Sea coast (the so-called Srubna Culture). What we know for sure is that the Black Sea region, roughly corresponding to modern southern Ukraine, became the homeland of the Scythians from 700 BC. Herodotus and his modern followers thought that the Scythians migrated to the Black Sea region from Inner Asia; but according to the second hypothesis supported by the Anglo-Saxon scholars, the Scythians originated in the Black Sea region as a result of the area’s cultural evolution. Recent genetic studies have shown that the Scythians were strongly linked to the peoples of Inner Asia and had many elements in common with them. As a result, it is highly probable that Herodotus’ reconstruction of the early history of the Scythians was correct. During the early Iron Age, several peoples living in Inner Asia migrated across the steppes to reach southern Russia and Ukraine. These mass migrations of peoples remained a distinctive element of Inner Asia during most of Antiquity and had enormous consequences for the history of European civilization. Broadly speaking, the migratory movements were usually caused by the emergence of new regional powers in the steppes of Inner Asia. When a new military power emerged – this could consist of a single people or a confederation of peoples – it started to expand its own territories by attacking the other steppe peoples living on its borders. If defeated in battle, the communities attacked by the emerging power had no choice but to migrate westwards in search of new lands to live upon. Moving westwards meant abandoning the heartland of the Asian steppes to enter Europe, where other civilizations had already developed themselves in a significant way.

      Scythian heavy cavalryman. (Photo and copyright by Scythian State)

      Around 800 BC, the Scythians were attacked in their homeland of Inner Asia by another steppe people of nomads, the Massagetae. The latter came to control a sizeable portion of the territory located east of the Caspian Sea and were much more numerous than the Scythians. After conquering the Scythian homeland in Inner Asia, they became an important military power and started to represent a menace for the advanced civilizations of ancient Iran. After Cyrus the Great formed the Achaemenid Empire by uniting the Persians and the Medes who both lived in Iran, the Massagetae became the main enemies of the Achaemenid monarch. Initially, Cyrus tried to avoid a direct confrontation with them, knowing their great combat capabilities; he offered a peace treaty to them and proposed to marry the queen of the Massagetae. Cyrus’ offers, however, were turned down by the Massagetae, who started to attack the north-eastern territories of the Achaemenid Empire. Cyrus the Great responded by launching an invasion of Massagetae lands around 530 BC, advancing towards the Jaxartes River at the head of a large army. The Massagetae employed elusive military tactics, exactly like the Scythians and the other steppe peoples of the time; so it was very difficult for the Persians of Cyrus to intercept them and force them to give battle. Hoping to trick his enemies, Cyrus left behind a small portion of his invading army in an isolated position, whereupon the Massagetae, seeing an opportunity to obtain a decisive victory, attacked the Persian contingent. Before these could be destroyed, however, Cyrus arrived on the battlefield at the head of the rest of his army and soundly defeated the Massagetae. The Massagetae did not surrender after this setback, continuing to provoke the Persian invading force. After assembling another massive army, they challenged Cyrus the Great on the open field. During the ensuing battle, which was one of the largest ever fought on the Eurasian steppes, the Persians were defeated due to the numerical superiority of their enemy. According to Herodotus’ description of this clash, Cyrus was killed in combat by the Massagetae, although the veracity of this is uncertain. What is known for sure is that the Massagetae obtained a great military success that secured their independence from the Achaemenid Empire for decades to come. The great military resources of the Massagetae, meanwhile, overwhelmed the Scythians, who were forced to abandon Inner Asia due to their foe’s expansionist pressure. The Scythians crossed much of southern Russia before entering Ukraine, a region of Europe where there were all the necessary conditions for creating a new homeland. Southern Ukraine had vast plains with abundant pasture for the horses and was rich in water, making it would a perfect choice for a nomadic people like the Scythians who considered horses their most important properties.

      Scythian helmet. (Photo and copyright by Scythian State)

      When the Scythians arrived in southern Ukraine, however, the region was already inhabited by another steppe people: the Cimmerians. These originated in Inner Asia, just like the Scythians, and had migrated to the Pontic Steppe of southern Ukraine long before the Scythians; they are mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey, meaning they already had contact with the Greek world from the ninth century BC onwards. The Ukrainian homeland of the Cimmerians extended from the high mountains of the Caucasus to the coastline of Crimea. According to Herodotus, the Cimmerians had submitted the original local inhabitants of southern Ukraine and absorbed them into their own people, but within Cimmerian society there was a clear division between the so-called ‘royal race’ descended from the original Cimmerians and the inferior ‘common race’ descended from the native inhabitants of pre-Cimmerian southern Ukraine. When the Scythians invaded the Pontic Steppe, numerous great battles took place between the newcomers and the Cimmerians, but due to the lack of written sources we know practically nothing of this conflict, which probably lasted for several decades. What we know for sure, however, is that the Scythians prevailed and expelled the Cimmerians from southern Ukraine. Most of the ancient wars fought among nomadic peoples of the steppes were won by the migrating tribes and not by those defending their home territories, mostly due to the fact that the migrating communities were more numerous than the settled ones and needed to conquer a new homeland to survive. After having been defeated by the Scythians, the Cimmerians moved southwards across the Caucasus. They tried to stop in modern Georgia, in a region that was known as Colchis during Antiquity, but here they were attacked again by the Scythians, who were pursuing them with the objective of obtaining complete control over the Caucasus. The Cimmerians were forced to move again and eventually settled in the region of Transcaucasia, roughly corresponding to modern Azerbaijan and north-eastern Turkey. Transcaucasia, in its western portion, was dominated by the Kingdom of Urartu, which was centred around Lake Van and was inhabited by a confederation of Armenian mountain tribes

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