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Map of the European Scythian campaign of Darius I Date 513
Opponents: Achaemenid Empire, Ionian allies versus the Royal Scythians and
Allies: Tauri, Agathyrsi, Neuri, Androphagi, Melanchlaeni, Budini &
Gelonians, Sauromatae, Getae,
Commanders and leaders:
Persians - Darius I, Megabazus -,Ionian allies: Miltiades the Athenian,
Strattis of Chios, Histiaeus of Miletus, Aiaces of Samos, Coes of Mytilene,
Laodamas of Phocaea, Aristagoras of Cymae, Daphnis of Abydos, Hippoclus of
Lampsacus, Herophantus of Parium, Metrodorus of Proconnesus, Aristagoras of
Cyzicus, Ariston of Byzantium, Idanthyrsus Scopasis, Unnamed others
Units involved:
Persians - Mostly infantry; 80,000 after Darius' return to Asia (Herodotus)
Unknown number of Scythian horsemen
The Scythian campaign of Darius I was a military expedition into parts of
European Scythia by Darius I, the king of the Achaemenid Empire, in 513. The
Scythians were an East Iranian-speaking people who had invaded Media, revolted
against Darius and threatened to disrupt trade between Central Asia and the
shores of the Black Sea as they lived between the Danube and Don Rivers and the
Black Sea. The campaigns took place in parts of what is now the Balkans,
Ukraine and southern Russia. The Scythians managed to avoid a direct
confrontation with the Persian army due to their mobile lifestyle and lack of
any settlement (except Gelonus), while the Persians suffered losses due to the
Scythians' scorched earth tactic. However, the Persians conquered much of their
cultivated lands and damaged their allies, forcing the Scythians to respect the
Persian force. Darius halted the advance to avoid further losses, and built a
defence line.
Darius crossed the Black Sea at the Bosphorus Straits using a bridge of boats.
Darius conquered large portions of Eastern Europe, even crossing the Danube to
wage war on the Scythians. Darius invaded Scythia with his general Megabazus,
where the Scythians evaded Darius's army, using feints and retreating eastwards
while laying waste to the countryside, by blocking wells, intercepting convoys,
destroying pastures and continuous skirmishes against Darius's army. Seeking to
fight with the Scythians, Darius's army chased the Scythian army deep into
Scythian lands, mostly in what is modern-day Ukraine, where there were no
cities to conquer and no supplies to forage. In frustration Darius sent a
letter to the Scythian ruler Idanthyrsus to fight or surrender. The ruler
replied that he would not stand and fight with Darius, unless the Persians
found and desecrated the graves of the Scythians' forefathers. Until then, they
would continue their strategy as they had no cities or cultivated lands to
lose.
Despite the evading tactics of the Scythians, Darius' campaign was so far
relatively successful. As presented by Herodotus, the tactics of the Scythians
resulted in the loss of their best lands and damage to their loyal allies. The
fact is thus that Darius held the initiative. As he moved eastwards in the
cultivated lands of the Scythians, he remained resupplied by his fleet and
lived to an extent off of the land. While moving eastwards in the European
Scythian lands, he captured Gelonos, the large fortified city of the Budini,
one of the allies of the Scythians, and burnt it.
Darius ordered a halt at the banks of Oarus, where he built "eight great
forts, some eight miles distant from each other", no doubt as a frontier
defence. As the Cambridge Ancient History: Persia, Greece and the Western
Mediterranean C. 525 to 479 B.C. states, this evidently was as far eastwards as
Darius intended to go, at least for the time being. After chasing the Scythians
for a month, Darius's army was suffering losses due to fatigue, privation and
sickness. In his Histories, Herodotus states that the ruins of the forts were
still standing in his day. Concerned about losing more of his troops, Darius
halted the march at the banks of the Volga River and headed towards Thrace. He
had failed to bring the Scythians to a direct battle, and until he did so he
did not have much reason to secure the conquered territories. The initiative
still lay with him. As the tactics of evading Darius' army and scorched earth
were continued by the Scythians, they had failed however completely, though
Darius had failed too as still he wasn't able to bring it to a direct
confrontation. He had conquered enough Scythian territory to force the
Scythians to respect the Persian forces.
Further reasons behind the invasion past the Danube. The whole area from
central Thrace to Georgia and from the Ukraine to the north-east Mediterranean
formed a compact area with mutual economic interests between Scythians,
Thracians or Ionians, and Iranians. In strategic terms, Darius must have seen
that some Scythian-type peoples extended from the Ukraine all the way to what
is modern-day Uzbekistan, forming a continuum of dangerous nomadic raiders.
Furthermore, control of the Black Sea recognized no international divisions.
The Persians and the Greeks (many of whom lived in the Persian Empire, while
another number lived in the Greek colonies in what is nowadays southern
Ukraine) had a common interest in seeking to control the source of Scythian
exports of gold, grain, hides, and furs. As the Cambridge Ancient History
further states, Ctesias, a Greek doctor at the Persian court ca. 400, wrote
that before the invasion of Darius into the European Scythian lands a satrap of
Cappadocia named Ariaramnes had crossed the Black Sea to the north, raiding the
European Scythian regions with a fleet of thirty penteconters, returning with
Scythian men and women, including the brother of a Scythian king.
While some have supposed that the reason for Darius' invasions was merely to
destroy the Scythian lands, the erection of a bridge over the Hellespont
contradicts this; his superior fleet could have easily shipped the troops over
as the Scythians had no navy at all.
Date of the invasion:
Though Herodotus does not mention the season of the year, as the Cambridge
Ancient History states, it is possible to infer it, knowing that if Darius
marched from Susa in spring 513, he would have reached Chalcedon in May, and
mustered his forces on the European side in June. Thus, he may have started to
go beyond the Danube in late August.
Aftermath:
As the Cambridge History states, Darius inflicted widespread damage on the
Scythians and their allies, weakened the prestige of the Royal Scythians
especially, and upset the balance of power among the various peoples of the
region. But because he failed to bring the Scythians to battle, he was unable
to secure any territorial gains and he did not even complete the building of
the forts at what could have been a frontier. The campaign was little more than
an expensive stalemate. As winter now had come, Darius did not return to
attack, and marched towards Thrace, towards his firmly secured territories.
Some form of Persian authority perhaps remained after Darius withdrew, for the
"Scythians across the Sea" (Old Persian cuneiform: Saka tayaiya
paradraya) are mentioned at Naqsh-e Rustam as one of the peoples the king
conquered outside of Persia. Persian rule could have never extended beyond the
Danube in any strength, however.[
Assessment:
The Scythian campaign was decisive in that the Persians abandoned the attempt
to subjugate the European Scythians. Herodotus was correct in his assessment
that the Scythians owed their escape to their mobility, their lack of inhabited
centres, and the skill of their mounted archers. He furthermore states that
their refusal to submit to Persia was due to such factors as the authoritarian
power of the kings, the widespread hatred of foreigners (IV.76.1), and the
ordinary man's belief that what brought him and his tribe honour was the
killing of enemies. The various Scythian tribes co-operated with each other,
winning support of other neighboring peoples as well. In that regard, as the
Cambridge Ancient History states, they showed more of a sense of a community
than the Greek city-states were to show through much of the subsequent
Greco-Persian Wars.
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