It was where the ancient Greeks first came into contact with the nomadic Scythians, out of which developed the Greek discourse of “civilization” vs. “barbarism,” argues Neal Ascherson in his brilliant Black Sea.“In this particular encounter began the idea of ‘Europe’ with all its ...
Cyrus, king of Persia, making wars against the Scythians, had for his prize of the triumph a very fair woman called Panther, who being the wife of Abradatas, his enemy, being desired of Cyrus for his concubine, she told him that she was chaste; the king, little respecting this short ...