Editing Scythians (section)

====The Persian invasion====
{{main|Scythian campaign of Darius I}}
[[File:DariusScythes fr.svg|thumb|Map of the [[Scythian campaign of Darius I]].]]
[[File:Achaemenid soldiers against Scythians.jpg|thumb|Persian soldiers (left) fighting against Scythians. [[Cylinder seal]] impression.{{sfn|Hartley|Yazicioğlu|Smith|2012|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=UstGrkGNNQcC&pg=PA83 83]}}]]
In the late 6th century BC, the Achaemenid Persian Empire started expanding into Europe, beginning with the Persian annexation of all of Thrace,{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=42}} after which the Achaemenid king of kings [[Darius the Great|Darius I]] crossed the Istros river in 513 BC<ref>{{Unbulleted list citebundle|{{harvnb|Grousset|1970|p=9}}|{{harvnb|Sulimirski|1985|p=190}}|{{harvnb|Batty|2007|p=208}}|{{harvnb|Cunliffe|2019|p=42}}}}</ref> and attacked the Scythian kingdom with an army of 700,000 to 800,000 soldiers,<ref>{{Unbulleted list citebundle|{{harvnb|Melyukova|1990|p=101}}|{{harvnb|Melyukova|1995|p=29}}|{{harvnb|Harmatta|1996|p=181}}|{{harvnb|Olbrycht|2000b|p=132}}|{{harvnb|Parzinger|2004|p=22}}|{{harvnb|Ivantchik|2018}}|{{harvnb|Cunliffe|2019|p=42}}}}</ref> possibly with the goal of annexing it.{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=42}}

The results of this campaign are unclear, with Darius I himself claiming that he had conquered the {{translit|peo|Sakā tayaiy paradraya}} ({{lit|the Saka who dwell beyond the (Black) Sea}}{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=42}}), that is the Pontic Scythians,{{sfn|Ivantchik|2018}} while the ancient Greek literary tradition, following the account of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, claimed that the Persian campaign had been defeated by the Scythians, due to which the Greeks started perceiving the Scythians as being invincible thanks to their nomadic lifestyle:{{sfn|Melyukova|1990|p=100}}{{sfn|Melyukova|1990|p=101}}{{sfn|Ivantchik|2018}} Herodotus's narrative is itself considered dubious by modern historians,{{sfn|Melyukova|1990|p=100}} and his account of the failure of Darius appears to have been extremely exaggerated.{{sfn|Fol|Hammond|1988|p=234}} Some form of Achaemenid authority might have been established in Pontic Scythia as a result of this campaign without it having been annexed.{{sfn|Young|1988b|p=67}}