Scythia

Origins and formation

The Scythians, also called the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern Iranic equestrian nomadic people. They migrated during the 9th to 8th centuries BC from Central Asia to the Pontic Steppe, in what is now Ukraine and southern Russia, and remained until the 3rd century BC. In the 8th century BC they became the dominant power on the western Eurasian steppe. In the 7th century they crossed the Caucasus and raided farther west. A 6th-century queen known from one Greek historian is not that whole migration.²

Defining periods

Tomyris, also called Thomyris, Tomris, or Tomiride, was a 6th-century BC queen of the Massagetae, a nomadic people of the Eurasian steppe. She is known only from Herodotus. According to him she led her armies against an attack by Cyrus the Great and defeated and killed him in 530 BC. She is not mentioned in the few other early sources, especially Ctesias. The published Persia essay is Cyrus’s empire, and it records his death in 530 BC. This page is the other side of that battle. No Civilization VII Scythia essay exists, so none is linked.¹

Leaders

The Chinese update notes head a balance block with the ordinary name for Scythia and discuss a burial mound. They do not print Tomyris. The English notes use the same civilization name. The brackets on similar blocks name rulesets, and this block, as retrieved, does not even carry one. That silence is not a base-game assignment, so her pack stays unconfirmed. Her Chinese name in this essay is the standard reading. This essay does not copy the faith and gold figures.^{3 4}

Legacy and interpretation

The Scythians’ legacy in the lead is a steppe dominance from the 8th century BC until the 3rd. Tomyris’s legacy is one campaign in 530 BC, told by Herodotus and absent from Ctesias. The game’s civilization name gathers her under Scythia. The leads keep the Massagetae and the Pontic Scythians as related steppe peoples, not as one court. Cyrus’s death is the shared date, not a shared capital.^{1 2}

A closer look

The update’s Scythia lines change yields on a burial mound. They are balance numbers. This essay does not copy them. A mound is not 530 BC.⁴

In Civilization VI

The pack stays unconfirmed. Tomyris’s Chinese name is a standard reading. The published Persia essay is Cyrus. Keep the 9th-century migration, the 7th-century raids, and the battle of 530 BC apart. Herodotus is the only early author the biography uses for her victory. Ctesias does not mention her. The Pontic steppe is the Scythians’ later home. The Massagetae are the people she ruled. Cyrus’s death is the shared year with the Persia essay, and it is still two stories. Her other spellings in the biography are not extra queens in this same lead.^{1 2 4}