Western Scythians and the Scythia in geographic and rhetoric spaces from the 1st to the 7th c. AD. / ЗАПАДНЫЕ СКИФЫ И СКИФИЯ В ГЕОГРАФИЧЕСКОМ И РИТОРИЧЕСКОМ ПРОСТРАНСТВАХ I–VII ВВ. Н. Э. (original) (raw)

This article deals with the evolution of the terms Scythia and Scythians in the geographical and rhetorical milieu. The article consists of two chapters: (1) Scythia and Sarmatia in imperial Latin and Greek literature of the 1st – 2nd centuries and (2) Scythians in late classic Greek literature of the 3rd – 7th centuries. The syntactical relations between toponyms and ethnonyms in the main geographical texts of the 1st chapter are illustrated with special schemes called syntaxogramms: Strabo (fig. 2–3), Pomponius Mela (fig. 4), Plinius the Elder (fig. 5) and Ptolemy. This method of graphical representation of the geographical text allows us to see more precisely the spatial limits of possible location on the map of each people described in this text. In the 2nd chapter there are investigated different peoples named Scythians – classical Scythians, Goths, Huns, Avars and Turcs. The contextual and quantitative (table 1) analysis of the Greek terms Scythia and Scythians shows that this term was changing the denotated objects many times during the period of Late Antiquity. This allows us to propose the following scheme of the development of the term's meaning: from the time of Dexippos the word Scythians was used to denote the Goths and other barbarians from the northern Pontic region. This model was changed by with Priscus when the new barbarians – i. e. the Huns – not only had come to Scythia but also made there a new empire. Priscus had designated the Huns with the name Scythians, but after the death of Attila and the destruction of Hunnic empire this name slowly disappears from the historical discourse. The new revival of the term Scythians takes place in the works of the historians dealing with the Avars and Turks.