Darius I's Scythian Campaign North of the Black Sea
- Date
- c. 513 BCE
- Category
- Military & conflict
- Region
- Europe (Thrace, Danube basin, and the steppe north of the Black Sea)
- Era
- Classical Antiquity
- Significance
Around 513 BCE the Achaemenid king Darius I led a large army from Persia across the Bosphorus on a pontoon bridge of boats, marched through Thrace, and crossed the Danube over a second bridge built by his Ionian Greek vassals to invade the European Scythians living north of the Black Sea.
The nomadic Scythians, led by Idanthyrsus, refused open battle and waged a scorched-earth war of attrition, retreating eastward while filling wells, burning pasture, and harassing the Persian columns. Unable to force a decisive engagement or secure territory, Darius retreated back across the Danube, narrowly recrossing before the bridge could be destroyed. Although the expedition failed against the Scythians themselves, it left Persia in control of Thrace under the general Megabazus and brought Macedonia into vassalage, extending Achaemenid power into Europe and helping set the stage for the later Greco-Persian Wars. The campaign is known chiefly from the detailed narrative of the Greek historian Herodotus.
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Empires active in c. 513 BCE
- Achaemenid Empire550 BCE – 330 BCE
- Roman Kingdom753 BCE – 509 BCE
- Scythians800 BCE – 300 BCE
- Carthaginian Empire650 BCE – 146 BCE
- Zhou Dynasty1046 BCE – 256 BCE
- Kingdom of Kush1070 BCE – 350 CE
Related military & conflict events
- Death of Cyrus the Great in Battle Against the Massagetaec. 530 BCE
- Battles of Thermopylae and Salamis480 BCE
- Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the start of the Exile587/586 BCE
- Battle of MarathonSeptember 490 BCE
- Alexander the Great invades the Persian Empire334 BCE
- Battle of Gaugamela destroys the Achaemenid Empire1 October 331 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
The Scythians: Nomad Warriors of the Steppe
Lucid popular history of the first great steppe nomads.
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