Why couldn't The Romans Conquer Scythia? | Who were the Scythians? 

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I remember that in Rome: Total War it was pain in the ass fighting the Scythians. They either steamrolled over my smaller armies or they run away from my bigger ones.

I think the misconception about this is that Scythians were not a monolithic people. They were diverse tribes. Greek & Roman authors often lump those various groups into this term: "Scythians" like the way they treat the Germans. Scythia isn't worth conquering. As they were Nomadic people with no uniform civilization. Even the great, Alexander gave up because it isn't worthwhile, when he encountered the Sakka, or one of the Scythian groups. Similar to Tiberius policy of withdrawal of Germania, Scythian will just cause more burden than profit that will downgrade the Roman economy.

To be fair to Rome, in the premodern era, the only ones who could conquer steppe nomads for more than a minute were steppe nomads.

Because there’s nothing to conquer.

Some factual errors here. Rome was founded in 753 B.C. according to legend. Also, the narrator continually referred to the Black Sea as the North Sea, which is confusing because the North Sea of today is not the North Sea of ancient times. Before the common era, ancient peoples equated colors with cardinal directions and "black" symbolically meant "north", so it is correct to point out that the Black Sea is an ancient way of describing a northern sea. However, the narrator does not make this clear and should have explained the historical context.

Answer: They were focused on other regions and manpower/logistics spread too long.

“Why the romans could not conquer Uranus ?”

Cool stuff. The clouds make your maps hard to follow sometimes.

Scythia was indeed a hodgepodge of many different tribes, not a uniform, united people

Rome absorbed regions which had urban centers. The Classical civilization was politically and socially an urban civilization. The Romans ruled thru essentially self-governing cities. Regions without an urban culture (or at least the beginnings of one-likecthe Celts) were usually left alone.

700.000 peoole in an army at that time? Yeah....not happening. 70.000 would already have been a stretch.

3:02 'the Scythian empire was as its peak from roughly 670 BCE to 350 BCE.' okay, nuff said already for the headline to sound weird. in 350 BCE Rome was not a superpower but a small collection of Italian tribes. it hasn't even started to take on the Carthaginians. nomadic people are notoriously difficult to 'conquer' militarily for a settled society. the steppes of the Eurasian plains don't offer much for ancient societies anyway.

11:01 Why would Rome march all the way over there to conquer? what a poorly researched clickbait video trying to cash in on anything related to the Roman Empire.

No cities, just horse riders who say bye and ride off if they have no arrows left and you are still standing, self sufficient as hunters and herders, with a retreat direction in 270° from west to east minimum, thousands of kilometers to run, in literally nothing but grasslands. Now, try to convince a roman legion, mainly footmen, with logistics depending on mules, oxen, wagons maybe or sea/river access to set march for it. They'll ask if you're drunk.

That cloud effect is truly terrible

'armed with bows on horseback' (c) - well yes, if I'd see a scythian wielding a horse with a bow sitting on top of it I'd be terrified as well

quote: The Scythians can be called Thracians engaged in animal husbandry. In search of new lands, these old Balkans go far from their native places. Some settled in Central Asia, becoming neighbors of Persians, Indians, Chinese, etc. Others remain in the Balkans, more precisely in Dobruja, where the coins of the Scythian kings Haraspos, Adraspos (with names similar to the name of Heros Ut-aspios and that of Kanas Asparuh), Kanit, etc., minted about 2200 years ago, were found.

Eastern Iranians: Scythians Western Iranians: Parthians and Persia Poor Rome😂

Scythia, actually Scythia Minor, had already been conquered by a client of Rome after the death of the mighty menace of Rome, Mithridates VII Eupator of Pontus. This client of Rome was one of Eupator's successor states, the Bosporan Kingdom, which will prove to be the longest-lasting client of Rome: 63 BCE - 527 CE. At the time of Eupator's death, Bosporans also ruled over the Chersonite Greeks, although that was not always the case.

Imagine If all Anicent Iranian Tribes Were United ☠️

Hey Knowlegia, I love your videos! Just a small complaint, the cool cloud effect is making a bit more difficult to see the map, so you can remove that if you want or not!

Another Turkic tribe with which Scythianic Alans came in contact in the 5th and 6th century was Bulgars and then Khazars who pushed the Alan state beyond the river Terek . Alania was a vassal state of Khazars for two centuries .

4000 km long, not wide, boso.😂 Plains and steppes aren't comparable units, steppe is a biogeographical unit, plain is a relief unit.

The script is written by chat GPT? Fell souless and repetitive

Finally! I've been waiting for this video since forever! 👍💖

Man I love this channel

why couldn't the romans conquer new zealand 🔥

Scythians weren't the martial nomads they're portrayed to be, Romans simply had no interest in the Scythian lands contrary to the Oghuric horsemen who erased Scythians off history and geography

Darius conquered Crimea and most of the northern shores of the Black Sea. A few years ago, a statue of Darius was found around Sochi, Russia. Achaemenians also went to Sicily and had relations with them and supported them against the Greeks

Rome was 753 BC. I enjoy your videos

Fascinating Video!! Great Job!!

The Cimmerians were the exiled Northern Israelites aka "Bet Khumri", who were mentioned on the Black Obelisk of Shalmanaser II and appeared in in Assyrian census records in 700BC. The Greeks called them "Kimmeroi" which is where the term "Cimmerians" comes from. The Trojans were descended from a Cimmerian colony in Dardania.

The last time I flew (end of 2022), the fees were confusing when I booked. I thought I was okay until I was charged baggage fee with one checked bag when I checked in. Since September 2020, I have gone to 5 different destinations of at least 800 miles one way. Of those 5 trips, I drove 3 of those times. It was way more enjoyable to drive. With driving, I can pull over when I want to, enjoy the scenery, and accidentally discover things I couldn't on a plane. For example, I was driving through Nevada from Spokane, Washington, and stumbled on a pullout with The Pony Express information. Plus, the flying process isn't fun with lines, check-in, security, or boarding. Boarding sucks. They are so ineffective. However, I flew a lot for the military and personal reasons. So, I'm sure some of it is just burnout combined with the ineffective flying process ineffective fly

This video is very well made ! Thank you .

Bruh, I love your videos but this one was weird. "Why couldn't The Romans Conquer Scythia?" That's like asking why the 13 colonies couldn't conquer The Aztecs? This would have been a better video if you didn't try to force the romans into it. Frankly, it makes the video worse because they're irrelevant to your better question "Who were the Scythians?" The script that focuses on them was great. But forcing the romans into the video makes this feel disingenuous and thus feel like clickbait. There's just no reason for this video to include the romans. Especially your focus on comparing the state of Rome with Scythia's rise and fall. You could have spent that time showcasing the culture of the various groups and their differences. Maybe focused on tackling the usual mistake of historians to lob groups into one group when there were many. I love the romans and everything that comes with their existence, but this was a poor attempt to mix the romans with another culture for the sake of throwing the word "conquer," "romans," and "some culture" into the mix.

Scythians did not look like your pictures. They were a eurasian people, more european in some regards ( in appereance ).

Great video. So wide-ranging, an overview of pertinant facts I didn't know before. Thank you.

The Scythians were not an 'empire'.

I'm a Pars(Persian) and one of my friends is a 6 6 red-headed Scythian originally from Ossetia(Ossetians are one of the Iraninc people and the Aryan cousins of the Persians). If you visit the Perspolis(Parseh) in Shiraz and Bisotun in Kermanshah(both are very historical cities in Iran) you'll see the petroglyph of Scythians with pointy helmets. Interestingly, while on the Perspolis walls, they're seen hand in hand with their Persian cousins, on the Bisotun wall their leader is captured and captivated amongst others because they rebelled against King Dariush The Great(a lesson for some of the Kurds and Azaris who are making the same mistake thinking this time somehow it would be different). Anyways, as a Pars, I love my Scythian cousins especially those who live in Ossetia, I think about you every once in a while and I hope one day I get the chance to visit and I highly encourage you to come and visit Iran; after all, we're all Iranic people.

Empires often like to expand until they reach defensible geographic barriers such as mountains and coasts. In the case of the Roman Empire, the Carpathian mountains made it easy to defend the Balkan peninsula from the north and east, while the Eurasian steppe would have been much harder to defend.

Interestingly, the word 'Skita' in Serbian means 'to wander'

why would rome invade a nomadic tribe all the way into the black sea when they can't even sail there?

Saka is basically Old Persian for Latin Scythian

Why couldn't The Romans Conquer Scythia? Because real life is not a Paradox grand strategy game.

The basis of the Scythians was the Massaget and Sak tribes.By 3 AD, the Huns joined the Massagets and Saks and founded the Turkic tribes. their descendants today🇺🇿🇰🇬🇦🇿🇰🇿🇹🇷🇹🇲🤟🗿🐺⚔️👊

This video is terrible. The Scythians were never (or rarely) united as a single people they were scattered tribes

darius conquered crimea

6:46 753 not 723. And its Belarus, not Belaru !

Gerodot wrote that territory of Scythians had placed from the Danube to the Don river.

As an Assyrian I thought I knew all of my history but never knew about the Scythians and their contribution to our history

Heavy infantry vs light cavalry on the Pontic steppe? That’s insane.

Answer: they didn’t want to wage war against the Scythian tribes as their merchants passed there to reach northern Hindu valley to trade evading Persian territories.

The Scythians were not a unified ethnic group but rather a collection of related tribes.

The Romans repeatedly ran into the Scythian, Sarmatian, Parthian, Hun wall in the east. They couldn't handle the horse archers, it was too big for them.

0:30 No, Scythia did not include the southern shore of the Caspian Sea. Scythia was a vast region inhabited by the Scythians, a nomadic people, stretching across parts of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, primarily north of the Black Sea, and extending into parts of the Eurasian Steppe. The southern shore of the Caspian Sea, however, was typically associated with the region known as Media and later with other parts of Persia (modern-day Iran). The Scythians were more associated with the northern shores of the Caspian Sea and the steppes to the northwest of it.

This is by far your most historically inaccurate and borderline fictional video. You're portraing Scythians as an empire, which fought battles as one people and conquered lands as one people. Which could not be further from the truth, they were wiped off of history for a reason. They were a pack of nomadic tribes, nothing more. They didn't even call themselves Scythians, Greeks and Romans called them that.

I love your videos!! And the Scythians ❤

It wasn't called "Palestinian Syria" until Rome called it that in 70AD.

Improving yourself daily should be the only addiction you ever need.

The saka along with the areas around modern day Aral sea (Chorasmia/Khwarazmia) were conquered by Cyrus the great not Darius the great They revolted when Darius became king but he crushed their rebellions and reconquered them

great vid

Are these AI documentaries ?

Just remember Tomyris, the fiercest Scythian queen.

Egypt was conquered by Cambyses II not Darius the great He conquered Libya after

Who's that Pokemon!? It's Scythia!

Where dId the Cimmerians migrate once the Scythians had expelled them from their ancestral home? And why did the former allies turn on one another after they had subdued the Assyrians?

2 cool things about the Scythians: their Scythe (Grim Reaper's Fave) was used to Harvest Hemp for their Superior Bow-String. And never confirmed but obviously the very loose inspiration of the SITH in Original Star Wars (not the Diznee crap)

This looks pretty amateur-ish, entry level stuff and explanations

Should have talked about how the Crimea became Roman..no one ever does.

Did you know that Buddha was indeed a Scythian?

Why did you not pronounce the S in Belarus? I genuinely cannot understand how you even did that

Augustus : guys Enough

If the Romans conquered The Scythians, then they would eventually form a Roman “Golden Horde” during the 2nd/3rd century…

We see the origins of the scorced earth strategy used to great effect by this region with the Scythians. It's hard to conquer a people who hold no land sacred.

cool and very informative

Didn't they conquer it in the end? We see at the end of the video Crimea is under Roman control.

Wonderful and an informative work about Cythiasian empire glorious history

Question: When did the Scythians end and the Bulgars and the Khazars began?

I think about the Roman Empire like every day Think of all the pasta they could have made with that wheat🌾

The same reason why the west never conquered Russia 😂

Why didn’t the Romans just conquer everything?!?!?!

I cracked at Belaroo

New style maps aren't as clear as the old ones, knowledgia.

Roman conquered trade routes and cities not grass and trees

Julius Ceasar believed Rome would never be truly secure until they conquered Parthia, Pontic Scythia and Germany. He speculated that Germany could be taken in pincers after taking Scythia. A grand strategic vision with not enough resources.

Guess what, the Mongols did not pass on scythians. Also, romans cant even defeat Germans. Its not about focus, its also resources and strategy, rome cant face them yet until rome fell to the germans

I hope that in another video you mention the Iazyges ( sarmatian tribe who established a kingdom in what is now Hungary ) and fought against the Roman empire

Scythia's reputation and its warriors had almost nothing to do with why Rome didnt expand its boarders into the area. Rome's boarders at the time of the Imperial age was already seeing most of its emperors interest in pure conquest for the sake of holding land be diminished as her boarders were already massive and would require manpower they didnt have to keep it locked down. They also new that the Scythians didnt really have anything worth taking. Sure the Scythians had bronze and gold in their land but Rome had way way more and the empire needed iron far more than it needed bronze or a new gold source and the Scythians had no iron. Taking the territory over would also expand Romes already massive boarder even wider which would have been catastrophic and unnecessary. Next the Germanic tribes were also a much much bigger threat to Rome than the Scythians were since they revolted and launched raiding parties into Roman territory far more than the Scythians raided into them meaning there no reason to fight them. Lastly Rome also had plenty of rebellions and civil wars to fight so why add ANOTHER region that they would have to control to the already long list.

Think about rome is it could defeat a settled people, and conquer them, but they could never counquer something as decentralized and mobile as steppe nomads. Thats also why attila was so successful. Thats also why the chinese always tried stopping the people of the northern steppes from unifying. The times they DID unify, china found itself faced with an enemy who even if they did defeat, would easily be replaced by a newer, possibly stronger enemy.

Why would they care for the steppes? There was nothing there. The people of the steppes migrated to leave the steppes.

i love this channel and its content but this gotta be the most meaningless video you ever made

The reason why no Imperial Power ever Conquered the Steppe before the Russians is because the people living therein, were primarily Nomadic and did not dwell in Cities. Not in sufficiently significant numbers comparatively to actually make it Conquerable.

If there was something worth conquering they would have tried

700,000 warriors was ALOT back then!

The Mongols: hold my airag

Missed opportunity in the beginning to say: "More heads, more booty."

They shouldn't have been called the Scythians, should have been called "The Celts" if you want to be accurate.

Skitati on our langauage means wander around, nomads. Its not a nation.

Damn there's some funny word use in this video.