grain, which was then transported through the Southern Buh and Dnipro rivers to the Greek cities to
their south such as Tyras, Niconium and Pontic Olbia, from where the cities exported it to mainland
Greece at a profit for themselves.[19]
The Scythians were less successful at conquering the Greek cities in the region of the Cimmerian
Bosporus, where, although they were initially able to take over Nymphaeum, the other cities built or
strengthened city walls, banded together into an alliance under the leadership of Panticapaeum, and
successfully defended themselves, after which they united into the Bosporan Kingdom.[19]
At the same time, the Scythians sent a diplomatic mission to Sparta in Greece proper with the goal of
establishing a military alliance against the Achaemenid Empire. Ancient Greek authors claim that the
Spartans started drinking undiluted wine, which they called the "Scythian fashion" of drinking wine
because of these contacts.[155]
After Scyles, coins minted in Pontic Olbia were minted in the name of Eminakos, who was either a
governor of the city for Scyles's brother and successor, Octamasadas, or a successor of Octamasadas.
Around the same time, there were inner conflicts within the Scythian kingdom, and a new wave of
Sauromatian immigrants arrived into Scythia around c. 400 BC, which destabilised it and ended Scythian
military activity against the Greek cities of the Pontic shore. Scythian control of the Greek cities ended
sometime between 425 and 400 BC, and the cities started reconstituting their khōrai , and Pontic Olbia
regained control over the territory it occupied during the Archaic period and expanded it, while Tyras
and Niconium also restored their hinterlands. The Scythians lost control of Nymphaeum, which became
part of the Bosporan Kingdom which itself had been expanding its territories in the Asian side of the
Cimmerian Bosporus. With the arrival of a new wave of Sauromatian immigrants, the Royal Scythians
and their allied tribes moved to the western parts of Scythia and expanded into the areas to the south of
the Danube corresponding to modern Bessarabia and Bulgaria, and they established themselves in
the Dobruja region. One of the Scythian kings who ruled during the later 5th century BC was buried in a
sumptuously furnished kurgan located at Agighiol during the early 4th century BC.[19][156]
Golden Age
The Scythian
kingdom in the Pontic steppe at its maximum extent
The Scythian kingdom of the Pontic steppe reached its peak in the 4th century BC, at the same time
when the Greek cities of the coast were prospering, and the relations between the two were mostly
peaceful; some Scythians had already started becoming sedentary farmers and building fortified and