You ever find yourself utterly fascinated by something but can’t really put into words exactly why? You know you like it, but aren’t sure of the reason, or how that preference even synchs with the rest of your personality. It’s one of those strange things that you know or find out about yourself that just doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense.
I have an uncle who was a guidance counselor and football coach for decades. He’s always maintained a more-than-healthy interest in the American Civil War, and spent a lot of time reading about that conflict and the wide range of personalities who fought it. He is also completely obsessed with finding and collecting a rare type of purplish glassware produced in the 19th Century. And he pursues that bizarre interest with the energy of a man possessed! Nothing in the rest of his personality seemed to indicate a predilection for these glass products from a bygone age, and yet . . .
I too have my own strangeness—well, no doubt more than my fair share if you ask friends and family. But I really like pottery and ceramics from across Northeast Asia. Korean, Japanese, even Okinawan pottery catches my eye, and I know far more about it than my thirty years as an Army officer might otherwise indicate. Thus, on the curio shelves of our home you’ll not find the usual selection of Army trinkets and awards. Rather, a respectable collection of ceramic wares acquired during our many years spent overseas. Why? I don’t know, I just like them and can recall the background story behind each and every piece without notes.
By the same token, I’ve always found myself fascinated with the nomadic peoples of history. In elementary school I was introduced to the Plains tribes of North America and visited places like the Museum of the Great Plains in Lawton, Oklahoma, absolutely losing myself in the history of the people and lifestyle presented there. There was just something . . . I don’t know . . . magical about that way of life that truly captured my imagination.
Growing older, and learning more about the world, I eventually stumbled upon hints of the many nomadic cultures of Eurasia throughout history, and my fascination grew. The great steppes of that huge landmass dwarfed the plains of North America six to eight times over, depending on how it’s calculated. And the sheer number of peoples to have lived, fought, and died across that incredible stretch of earth is almost unbelievable.
Through the years of reading history—especially military history—I learned ever more, coming into academic contact with a whole host of nomadic movers and shakers throughout the ages. The Mongols who conquered everything from China to Eastern Europe, the Huns who tormented Rome, the Xiongnu who pestered Han China, and the Cimmerians who gave the forever empire of Assyria fits each, in its turn, represented the power of steppe nomadic peoples. And each was the scariest thing the settled civilizations around them ever encountered.
Then, and I don’t remember exactly when, I tripped upon my first real mention of the Scythians . . . inaugurating an obsession that remains strong today. A wide range of Scythian tribes once roamed and ruled everything from the Danube River to the borders of Afghanistan, an incredible swath of territory. The Scythians reached the height of their power in the 4th Century BC, but were serious power players in the region from the 7th through the 3rd Centuries, raiding and trading with every significant civilization to their south throughout the course of their long existence.
Herodotus goes into great length in describing the Scythian peoples, the various tribes, the extent of their loosely-held empire, and customs which seemed incredibly alien to his Greek and Greek-speaking audience. He devoted an entire book just to this curious tribal confederation, leaving us today to assume that those people were the subject of intense interest back in his day as well. And why wouldn’t they be? To the settled Greek city states, at the time really just coming into their own golden age, the nomadic tribes to the north were a source of both endless fascination and palpable terror.
In fact, Scythian “barbarians” were considered at the time so intimidating—with their strange clothing and stranger customs—that Athens at one point hired 300 of the tribesmen to act as a police force in the preeminent city state. It remains unclear exactly who these Scythians were, or how they came to be in Athens, but their existence as the long arm of the law seems fairly secure.
So what? Why the mystique? Why the fascination with a people who raised their children on horseback and were capable of shooting birds out of the sky with their powerful, recurve bows? Honestly . . . I don’t rightly know. I just know that I can’t pass by a Scythian mention anywhere without reading, watching, or otherwise wallowing in their incredible story.
Maybe it’s the freedom that grabs me. The concept of endlessly traversing wild and untamed lands, needing little more to survive than grass for your horse and a bow with which to hunt. No fences, no boundaries of any type to pen you in. No roads or railroad tracks, limiting the direction and range of travel. No laws, really, other than those traditions passed down from father to son, mother to daughter, for hundreds of years.
Then again perhaps it’s the concept of familial groups living and traveling together across Eurasia’s vast grasslands. Each clan responsible for providing its own food, care, and security. No handouts, no charity, no United Nations, you either produced for you family and tribe, or you all died.
Given my own professional path, maybe what catches my attention is the great respect the “civilized” city-states and empires of Europe and Mesopotamia accorded the Scythians. The inability of infantry-based forces to come to grips with an army of mounted archers, capable of turning in the saddle and shooting at you even as they fled. This was, after all, a tactical problem that would remain unsolved for settled armies until the widespread use of firearms well over a millennium later. Even Darius, Great King of Kings of the Persian Empire failed in 513 BC to subjugate the wildly mobile Scythian tribes, his otherwise undefeated army retreating from what is today southern Ukraine, never to return.
The truth is, I don’t really understand myself exactly why I remain fascinated by the tribes, culture, and accomplishments of this ancient people. I just know that I am. And that the Scythians of yesterday laid a path for wave after wave of future nomadic empires and incursions, stretching from Mongolia in the east to modern-day France in the west. The precise impact of these waves of nomadic tribes, ever, it seems, pushing south and west from their beloved steppe, remains controversial and much argued still today. Yet the fact of their impact isn’t debated at all.
So, if you’re tired of reading the same old histories, with recent books and documentaries maybe adding a single new idea or recent find here or there, I’d recommend expanding your historical portfolio, so-to-speak, and branch out. Chances are you’ll find something that catches your attention and might just help you to understand the wider course of world events in a rounder, more encompassing manner.
And if your interests lie anywhere along the massive range from Ancient Assyria through to the Late Roman Empire, I’d suggest taking a peek at the Scythians and the wide range of influence those scattered yet powerful peoples had on the development of the modern world we know today. I promise you, if nothing else, it won’t be dull.
Hey, look at that! I guess I could put my obsession into words after all!
M. G. Haynes
* Picture of Scythian tribesmen courtesy of Heritage of Ancient Empires website at: www.central-asia.com