Presence in West Asia
Gold Scythian belt title, Mingəçevir (ancient Scythian
kingdom), Azerbaijan, 7th-4th century BC[95][96]
During the earliest phase of their presence in West Asia, the Scythians under their king Išpakaia were
allied with the Cimmerians,[43] and the two groups, in alliance with the Medes, who were an Iranic
people of West Asia to whom the Scythians and Cimmerians were distantly related, as well as
the Mannaeans, were threatening the eastern frontier of the kingdom of Urartu during the reign of its
king Argishti II, who reigned from 714 to 680 BC.[97] due to which Argishti II's successor, Rusa II, built
several fortresses in the east of Urartu's territory, including that of Teishebaini, to monitor and repel
attacks by the Cimmerians, the Mannaeans, the Medes, and the Scythians.[98]
The first mention of the Scythians in the records of the then superpower of West Asia, the Neo-Assyrian
Empire, is from between 680/679 and 678/677 BC,[19] when their king Išpakaia joined an alliance with
the Mannaeans[99] and the Cimmerians in an attack on the Neo-Assyrian Empire. During this time, the
Scythians under Išpakaia, allied to Rusa II of Urartu, were raiding far in the south till the Assyrian
province of Zamua. These allied forces were defeated by the Assyrian king Esarhaddon.[100][46]
The Mannaeans, in alliance with an eastern group of the Cimmerians who had migrated into the Iranic
plateau and with the Scythians (the latter of whom attacked the borderlands of Assyria from across the
territory of the kingdom of Ḫubuškia), were able to expand their territories at the expense of Assyria
and capture the fortresses of Šarru-iqbi and Dūr-Ellil. Negotiations between the Assyrians and the
Cimmerians appeared to have followed, according to which the Cimmerians promised not to interfere in
the relations between Assyria and Mannai, although a Babylonian diviner in Assyrian service warned
Esarhaddon not to trust either the Mannaeans or the Cimmerians and advised him to spy on both of
them.[46] In 676 BC, Esarhaddon responded by carrying out a military campaign against Mannai during
which he killed Išpakaia.[46] Išpakaia was succeeded by Bartatua, who might have been his son.[100]
In the later mid-670s BC, in alliance with the eastern Cimmerians, the Scythians were menacing the
Assyrian provinces of Parsumaš and Bīt Ḫamban, and these joint Cimmerian-Scythian forces together
were threatening communication between the Assyrian Empire and its vassal of Ḫubuškia.[101] The
Mannaeans, eastern Cimmerians and Medes soon joined a grand coalition headed by the Median
chieftain Kashtariti.[102]