Scythia Minor (Crimea)

The Scythians were an ancient Iranian nomadic people who originated in Central Asia in the 9th century BCE, from where they migrated into Western Asia in the 7th century BCE before settling in the Pontic steppe in the 6th century BCE. During the height of this Pontic Scythian kingdom, in the 4th century BCE, Crimea and the Dobrugea region started being called "Little Scythia" (Ancient Greek: Μικρα Σκυθια, romanized: Mikra Skuthia; Latin: Scythia Minor).[2][3]

In the 3rd century BCE, the expansion in the northern Pontic region of the Sarmatians, who were another nomadic Iranian people related to the Scythians, as well as of the Thracian Getae, the Germanic Bastarnae and Sciri, and of the Celts, the Scythian kingdom disappeared from the Pontic Steppe and the Sarmatians replaced the Scythians as the dominant power of the Pontic steppe, due to which the appellation of "Scythia" for the region became replaced by that of "Sarmatia Europea" (European Sarmatia).[4][3][2]

The Scythians fled to the Scythia Minor in Crimea, where they were able to securely establish themselves against the Sarmatian invasion despite tensions with the Greeks, and to the Scythia Minor in Dobrugea, as well as in nearby regions, where they became limited in enclaves. By then, these Scythians were no longer nomadic: they had become sedentary farmers and were Hellenised, and the only places where the Scythians could still be found by the 2nd century BCE were in the Scythia Minors of Crimea and Dobrugea, as well as in the lower reaches of the Dnipro river.[4][3][2]

From the early 3rd century BCE, the Scythia Minor of Crimea started expanding against the Greek cities of western Crimea which had been so far been controlled by the city of Chersonesus, who had lost all its possessions not in its immediate vicinity by the middle of the century, with Kalos Limēn and Kerkinitis passing under Scythian control. Although the Crimean Scythians had been able to preserve some of their nomadic lifestyle, they were by then becoming more and more sedentary, especially in the lower Dnipro area, and were intermarrying with the Tauri of the Crimean mountains.[3]

In the middle of the 2nd century BCE, the Crimean Scythians founded a new kingdom with Scythian Neapolis as its capital, and whose rulers titled themselves King of Scythia. The Late Scythian culture of this Crimean Scythian kingdom was not a continuation of the Scythian culture of the 4th century BCE, and the kingdom itself was significantly Hellenised and more closely resembled the Hellenistic kingdoms ruled by Barbarian dynasties than to the previous nomadic kingdom of the 4th century BCE Scythians.[3]

The Crimean Scythian kingdom had close relations with the Bosporan kingdom, and matrimonial ties linked their respective royal houses, with the Bosporan queen Kamasarye, who was the widow of Paerisades III, taking one Argotos from Scythian Neapolis as her second husband.[3]

Scythian king Skilurus, relief from Scythian Neapolis, Crimea, 2nd century BCE

The Crimean Scythian king Skilurus from the 2nd century BCE ruled over central and western Crimea save for Chersonesus as well as over a significant section of the north-west of the Pontic region, including Pontic Olbia, where he issued his coins. Skilurus continued Scythian hostility against Chersonesus, but he kept good ties with the Bosporan kingdom, with a daughter of his marrying a member of its royal dynasty who was named Hērakleidēs.[3]

The Crimean Scythians continued participating in the political conflicts on the Bosporan kingdom until Diophantus, the general of the Pontic king Mithridates VI Eupator, allied with their enemy, Chersonesus, defeated their king, Palacus, the son of Skilurus, some time around 110 to 108 BCE. Dipphantus captured all their fortresses including their capital of Scythian Neapolis, thus ending the kingdom of the Crimean Scythians and annexing its territory to the Kingdom of Pontus. The Crimean Scythians nevertheless continued to exist even after the destruction of their kingdom.[2][3]

Following Mithridates's defeat by the Roman Republic, the Crimean Scythians were able to regain some of their strength, and besieged Chesronesus, who asked help from Rome. The Roman legate of Moesia, Tiberius Plautius Silvanus Aelianus campaigned against the Scythians, defeated them, and installed Roman garrisons in Crimea, including in Chersonesus By this time, the Crimean Scythians were called "Tauro-Scythians" because of the significant mingling between the Crimean Scythians and the Tauri which had been under way since the 3rd century BCE.[3]

By 50 to 150 CE, most of the Scythians had been assimilated by the Sarmatians.[3] The remaining Scythians of Crimea, who had mixed with the Tauri and the Sarmatians, were conquered in the 3rd century AD by the Goths and other Germanic tribes who were then migrating from the north into the Pontic steppe, and who destroyed Scythian Neapolis.[5]