Re: [tied] Thrace

From: george knysh
Message: 12604
Date: 2002-03-04

--- "Rex H. McTyeire" <rexbo@...> wrote:
Yes; you
mentioned "Little Scythia". Essentially it is from a
Roman
characterization of a North east inset portion of the
late province of
_Moesia Inferior_ (The north half of Dobrogea, or
Dobrogea above Tomi)
alternately expressed and depicted as "Scythia Minor"
or "Scythia
Parva"..so named because the < Getic speaking Getae >
tribes there
historically applied Scythian-like tactics in warfare
with mounted
archers.

*****GK: Here as in many other things, you simply
don't know what you're talking about. Here is the
truth of the matter concerning "Little Scythia", which
has nothing to do with your fantasies. It is from
Strabo.

"the whole of this country [GK: most of the Crimean
interior], together with about all the country outside
the isthmus as far as the Borysthenes, was called
Little Scythia. But on account of the large number of
people who left Little Scythia and crossed both the
Tyras and the Ister and took up their abode in the
land beyond, no small portion of Thrace as well came
to be called Little Scythia; the Thracians giving way
to them partly as the result of force and partly
because of the bad quality of the land, for the
greater part of the country is marshy. (7.4.5)"

The "Little Scythia" of the Crimea and Lower Dnipro
(capital: Neapolis) lasted until the late 2nd century
AD, when it was incorporated into the Bosporan
Kingdom. The "Little Scythia" in Dobrudja was the new
home of the Scythian Aukhata (Aratores) as mentioned
in an earlier post, and it lasted for less than two
centuries. It was named Scythia because it was
populated by and dominated by migrant Scythians, not
because Getans used Scythian archery tactics. Lower
Moesia wasn't founded as a Roman province until early
in the reign of Tiberius, some 100 years after the
fall of "Little Scythia" in Dobrudja.



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