"In the second half of the sixth century BC a large scale tribal movement took place north of the Black sea. This began when the Massagetai, the largest and most powerful of the tribes of north Central Asia, undertook an aggressive expansion into the steppes of Kazakhstan. During this process they either enslaved or integrated into their horde many of the nomadic horse tribes of central Asia. We know very little about the resulting confederation except that its success was due in part to the development of a new form of elite heavy cavalry known to the Greeks as Kataphraktoi, which became what we know as Cataphracts.
However, not all of the Central Asian horse tribes accepted the domination of the Massagetai. Some of these fled westward into the territories of the Sauromatians, another powerful horse tribe. Here, they formed a system of alliances which evolved into the tribal confederation known as the Sarmatians. But rapid population growth and the consequent need for greater food supplies drove some of the Sarmatians further west across the river Don into the lands of the Scythians. As a result, the Scythians, unable to withstand the sudden influx of large numbers of Sarmatians, began to push into the Bosporus. Here they lived peacefully within the Greek city states.
The peace lasted until 309 BC, when Parysadas, the king of the Greek city states of the Bosporus, died, leaving as his heirs three sons, Satyrus, Eumelus and Prytanis.[1] Satyrus, the eldest, made an alliance with Prytanis, the youngest, in order to reaffirm his claim to the kingship. This caused Eumelus, the second son, who felt he had an equal right to the kingship, to make an alliance with Aripharnas, the king of the Sarmatians and threaten Satyrus. Satyrus immediately made an alliance with the Scythians against their old enemies the Sarmatians, now under joint command of Aripharnas and Eumelus.
Satyrus raised a Bosporan composite army of 2000 Greeks, an equal number of Thracian peltasts and 30,000 Scythian allies, of which 10,000 were mounted. The Greeks fought as mounted phalanx, and their contingent, which also included mercenaries from as far away as Sparta, Cyprus and Syracuse, carried composite bow and lance and wore bronze armour. The Thracian peltasts, light infantry intended as skirmishing troops, carried the pelte, a crescent-shaped shield of wicker covered with sheep or goat skins. Their offensive weapon was a medium length thrusting spear and they wore armour of reinforced heavy linen. The Scythain rank and file fought as horse archers, but their wealthy tribal princes and their bodyguards fought as heavy cavalry in close order wedge formation. Their job was to cut through the enemy's main battle line after it had been weakened by fire from the horse archers. They wore a corselet of bronze or iron scale armour based on the Assyrian design, with the scales overlapping in three layers so that they could not be penetrated by just a single blow from an enemy heavy sword or battle axe. Their helmets were of Attic Greek design, and their major offensive weapon was the heavy composite bow, which they loaded with heavy iron arrows having three pronged barbed arrowheads. We know little about the Sarmatian army, except that it was larger than the Bosporan, consisting of 20,000 horse and at least 22,000 foot, raised by tribal levy…"
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