Darius's invasion was resisted by Idanthyrsus, Skōpasis and Taxakis, with the Scythians refusing to fight
an open battle against the well-organised Achaemenid army, and instead resorting to partisan warfare
and goading the Persian army deep into Scythian territory. The Persian army might have crossed the
Don river and reached the territory of the Sauromatians, where Darius built fortifications, but resumed
their pursuit when the Scythian forces returned. The results of this campaign were also unclear, with the
Persian inscriptions themselves referring to the Sakā tayaiy paradraya (the "Saka who dwell beyond the
(Black) Sea"), that is to the Scythians, as having been conquered by Darius, while Greek authors instead
claimed that Darius's campaign failed and from then onwards developed a tradition of idealising the
Scythians as being invincible thanks to their nomadic lifestyle.[148][43][19]
Although the Scythians and the Persians were both Iranic peoples related to each other, the Greeks
tended to perceive the Scythians as being "savage" nomads whom they associated with the Thracians,
while they saw the Persians as a "civilised" sedentary people whom they associated with the Assyrians
and Babylonians. Therefore, the ancient Greeks saw the Persian invasion of Scythia as a clash between
"savagery" represented by the Scythians and "civilisation" represented by the Persians.[141]
Early decline
Over the course of the late 6th century BC, the Scythians had progressively lost their territories in the
Kuban region to another nomadic Iranic people, the Sauromatians, beginning with the territory to the
east of the Laba river, and then the whole Kuban territory. By the end of the 6th century BC, the
Scythians had lost their territories in the Kuban Steppe and had been forced to retreat into the Pontic
Steppe, except for its westernmost part which included the Taman peninsula, where the
Scythian Sindi tribe formed a ruling class over the native Maeotians, due to which this country was
named Sindica. By the 5th century BC, Sindica was the only place in the Caucasus where the Scythian
culture survived.[89][149]
Expansion
After losing their territories in the Kuban Steppe in the late 6th century BC, the Scythians had been
forced to fully retreat into the Pontic Steppe, and the Royal Scythians' centre of power within Scythia
shifted to the south, in the region of the bend of the Dnipro, where the site of Kamianka became the
principal industrial centre of Scythia, with the sedentary population of the city being largely metal-
workers who smelted bog iron ores into iron that was made into tools, simple ornaments and weapons
for the agricultural population of the Dnipro valley and of other regions of Scythia, and the city itself was
the most prominent supplier of iron and bronze products to the nomadic Scythians; the city of Kamianka
also became the capital of the Scythian kings, whose headquarters were located in the further fortified
acropolis of the city. At the same time, a wave of Sauromatian nomads from the lower Volga steppe in
the east immigrated into Scythia over the course of 550 and 500 BC and were absorbed by the Pontic
Scythians with whom they mingled. A large number of settlements in the valleys of the steppe rivers
were destroyed as a result of these various migratory movements.[150][151][152][43][42][19]
The retreat of the Scythians from the Kuban Steppe and the arrival of the Sauromatian immigrants into
the Pontic steppe over the course of the late 6th to early 5th centuries BC caused significant material
changes in the Scythian culture soon after the Persian campaign which are not attributable to a normal
evolution of it. Some of the changes were derived from the Sauromatian culture of the Volga steppe,
while others originated among the Kuban Scythians, thus resulting in the sudden appearance within the