The Scythians (also Scyths, from Greek ), a nation of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who spoke an Indo-European language, dominated the Pontic steppe throughout Classical Antiquity. By Late Antiquity the closely-related Sarmatians came to dominate the Scyths in this area. Much of the surviving information about the Scyths comes from the Histories of Herodotus (c. 440 BC), and archaeologically from the exquisite goldwork found in Scythian burial mounds in Ukraine and Southern Russia.

Asia. A race of Scythians dwelling in the interior; unduly harsh customs; cave dwellers; making cups not like the Essendones out of the skulls of friends but of their enemies; they love war; they drink the blood of enemies from their actual wounds; their reputation increases with the number of foes slaughtered and to be devoid of experience of slaughtering is a disgrace. (Solinus; Mela).