[Liste I/43] Scythian wagon

It is indeed a Scythian carriage, that is to say, a nomadic dwelling, a kind of caravan before the hour. It is not a tank of war. This clarification is especially necessary because many players with figurines see Scythian tanks as a result of a mistaken translation of Scythe trolley, overhang, confused with Skythian wagon, Scythian trolley Of the ambiguity of the English term "Scythian")

The first question I asked myself to make this cart was about the type of wheels: should they be full or spokes?

Some Scythian figurines found by archaeologists have solid wheels:

Specimen found in Crimea

Other specimen

Some Scythian artefacts found by archaeologists have spoked wheels:

Famous wagon of Pazyryk (Altaï)

I opted for a form close to Scythian figurines but chose to equip them with spokes wheels. The Scythians had many civilizations whose vehicles had spoked wheels.

As a Scythian woman, I chose to use a figurine Wargame foundry of a Thracian woman, the suit sticking quite, both by the cap and the dress. And in addition I had it in my box rabiots ...

A rabiot of arcs and Scythian gorytes frames the door. A sword and a shield, also Scythian, also decorate the front of the trolley. These items are of the 1st body miniature brand.

The shield is decorated with a gold plate in relief representing the Scythe deer of Patzyryk.

Because the wagon was intended for residential use, openings were left behind at the rear of the vehicle.

[Liste I/43a] Scythians

This army has the peculiarity of constituting one of the components of my army Kushan (their cousins called ​​Yue zhi by the Chinese). I like playing the Scythians as a DBA army because of my interest in the history of this people and this civilization.

King Alteas

The famous Amazons

Nobles or Massagetae

A wagon as baggage

The light cavalry version is particularly painful to face for the opponent but lacks solidity in combat. I also have medium cavalry to play the tribe of the Messagetae and thus have more robustness. Nevertheless, I prefer them in full LH, which tells them of my other army of the steppes, Turks Tü Chüe. It is probable that I shall eventually obtain a few light infantrymen.

The Scythians (/ sit /, in ancient Greek Σκὐθαι, Skúthai) were a group of Indo-European peoples of Eurasia largely nomadic and speaking Iranian languages. Originating from Central Asia, they lived their apogee between the seventh century BC. AD and the end of antiquity, especially in the Eurasian steppes, a vast area from Ukraine to Altai, passing through Russia and Kazakhstan. The Persians designated these peoples by the name of sakas, which was translated into Saces. Numerous ancient sources testify to the Scythian peoples, the Assyrians mention the Saces as early as 640 BCE.

In the 3rd century BC. Arsace I, chief of the Parni, a Scythian tribe, conquered the Seleucid province of Parthia, and founded there the dynasty of the Arsacidae. One of his successors, Mithridates I, then conquered much of the Greco-Persian empire in the 2nd century BC. And founded the powerful empire Parthian or Empire Arsacide. In the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. AD of the Scythian tribes also created kingdoms in India, the Indo-Scythians covering the entire Indus basin and part of the upper Ganges at their peak, on the rubble of the Indo-Greeks. Many ethnic or noble groups continue to claim Scythian ancestry. At the beginning of the modern era, the Poles, Lithuanians, Ruthenians ... of the vast Polish and Lithuanian kingdom often claimed a fabulous Scythian or Sarmatian origin, as was the case with the Jats in India North.

Ateas (ca. 429 BC - 339 BC) is described by Greek and Roman sources as one of the most powerful kings of Scythians. He lost his life, and his empire, during the conflict with Philip II of Macedonia in 339 BC. His name also appears as Atheas, Ateia, Ataias and Ateus.

It remains uncertain whether or not Ateas was in connection with the royal dynasty of the Scythians. Most historians see him instead as a usurper who deposed the other Scythian kings and eliminated the traditional tripartite divisions of Scythian society around 400 BC. In the years 340 BC. BC, he had united under his control the Scythian tribes inhabiting the vast territory between the Danube and the Maeotian marshes (Palus Maeotis). Its supposed capital was discovered by Soviet archaeologists near the town of Kamianka-Dniprovska on the river Dnieper.

Plutarch tells several anecdotes about Ateas's personality and his attitude towards Greek culture: "Ateas made prisoner Isménias, an excellent flute player, and ordered him to play; And when others praised him, he exclaimed that it was more pleasant to hear a neighing horse. Ateas wrote to Philip: "You reign over the Macedonians, men who have learned how to fight; And I on the Scythians, who can fight hungry and thirsty. "

Towards the end of his life, Ateas came to challenge more and more the Greco-Macedonian sphere of influence in the Balkans. Greek sources describe his campaign against the tribe of the Histrians in Thrace. At first, Ateas had the prudent idea of ​​asking Macedonia for support. When Philip's troops arrived in Scythia, they were dismissed with contempt: the king of the Histrians was already dead, and the military actions were over. Another incident took place between Philip and Ateas during the siege of Byzantium; The Scythians refused to give provisions to the Macedonian troops under the pretext of poverty on their own lands.

Royal artefacts, Alma ata museum

These innocuous incidents with Ateas gave Philip a reason for the invasion of this first domain. The final drop that caused the vase to overflow came when the Scythians refused Philip the right to consecrate a statue of Hercules in the estuary of the Danube. In 339 BC, AD, the two armies clashed on the plains of Dobruja. Ateas, then 90 years old, was killed in action and his army routed. It seems that Philip was so wounded and his horse died in battle.

Peace was re-established at the cost of 20,000 Scythian women and as many horses given to the Macedonians. As a result of this defeat, the Empire of Ateas collapsed completely. The Scythians lost their dominant position in the steppes of the Bridge during two centuries, until the reign of Scilurus in the 2nd century BC. AD

[List II/46] Early Kûchana (Kushan indians) कुषाण circa 100AD

The Kushan, Kushan, Kushan, Kushan or Kusana are Indo-European, a fraction of the Yue Shi, which created an empire centered around Pakistan, Afghanistan and northern India. It prospered between the 1st century and the 3rd century of the Christian era.

The name of Kushan is derived from the Chinese Guishuang, which described one of the five tribes of the Yue Shi, an unstructured confederation of Indo-European peoples, who probably spoke versions of the Tokharian language

 The most famous Kushan ruler was Kanishka I, who reigned from about AD 127 to 150 and promoted the expansion of Buddhism and, consequently, Greco-Buddhist art. The Taliban destroyed its statue, a unique piece of the Kabul Museum in Afghanistan in 2000.

Quote from Gérard Fussman:
"Kanishka is the sovereign we know best, and the Indian Buddhist sources, transmitted by Chinese or Tibetan translations, have preserved their memory and made him a protector of Buddhism, not exclusively. Bactrian inscriptions in the Greek alphabet from the great dynastic sanctuaries of Surkh Kotal and Rabatak - both located in northern Afghanistan - give us an idea of ​​his beliefs, his family and his activity, and he presents himself as a divine race , Invested with royalty by the goddess Nana and the gods of Mazdean Iran.

In the year I of his accession he instituted a new era and ordered to replace the Greek by the Bactrian in the official documents. Protectors of the dynasty and his ancestors, he erected at the top of hills a series of gigantic temples: Surkh Kotal in Afghanistan and Māt in India, near Mathurā, are two examples And there must have been many more. 

The Rabatak inscription confirms what the analysis of monetary findings indicated: the Kanishka Empire extended over Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, the eastern part of Afghanistan, Pakistan, all of North India up to In Bengal and the Narmada. It is not known where his capital was. It seems that there was none: the capital followed the king in his displacements. But it is clear that Bactria, now largely Afghan, played an important role. The dynasty originated there. She talked about it and spread the language. It covered it with gigantic buildings and adopted as an official art an iranized variant of Greek art (...).

(...) Kanishka reigned from 98 to 101-or, if other chronologies were chosen, from 148 to 151. It seems that one does not possess the money of his son Vajheshka (102-106) Use of its name in dating formulas. On the other hand the mints in the name of Huvishka (106-138) and Vāsudeva (142-176) are abundant. It is possible, in fact, that there were two Huvishka and several Vāsudeva, and a Kanishka II had to be placed around 119 AD during the reign of Huvishka: there are suspicions of coups d'etat or civil wars, Does not subsist. The Kushan power crumbles under Vāsudeva, which loses control of gangetic and central India. The hundreds of thousands of bronze coins struck in his name are mostly local or posthumous strikes. As early as 226 according to A.D.H. Bivar, about 368 for R. Göbl, the Sassanids of Iran make the last kushan sovereigns their vassals. But very late, sometimes until the arrival of the Muslims, in the high valleys overlooking the Indian plains - Kabul, Swat, Kashmir, Gilgit, Himachal Pradesh region - wrenches will continue to adorn themselves with the kushan title of shahi, As a nomad costume the nomadic outfit and even to strike rare golden coins extending the imperial coinage."

King Kanishka

The figurines that I use to represent my Kouchanes elephants are Vendel miniature resin figurines (big 28mm). These pachyderms were attributed to Scythian horsemen as a crew. The army has an elephant in DBA version and three elephants in DBA big battle version.

The Kushan infantry consists of Indian combatants in difficult terrain. These troops are characterized by the wearing of colored turbans. The boudhic pattern of the wheel decorates a large number of shields.

 

The Kushan army originally included many Scythian light horsemen (the Yue zhi, the founders of the Kushan dynasty, being themselves a component of the Scythian people). The 12 light horsemen's plates of my Scythian army are all Naturally aligned when I play my Kouchanes. The figurines are posted in the article "Royal Scythes" but I also place them here for more readability.