Editing Scythians (section)

==Late period==
[[File:Simferopol, Scythian Neapolis, 2016.06.17 (04) (29608182661).jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.35|Remains of [[Scythian Neapolis]] near modern-day [[Simferopol]], Crimea. It served as the capital of the Little Scythia in the Tauric Chersonese.]]
With the Sarmatian invasion and the collapse of the Pontic Scythian kingdom, the Scythians were pushed to the fringes of the northern Pontic region where urban life was still possible, and they retreated to a series of fortified settlements along the major rivers and fled to the two regions both known as "Little Scythia,"{{sfn|Batty|2007|p=213}} which remained the only places where the Scythians could still be found in by the 2nd century BC were:<ref>{{Unbulleted list citebundle|{{harvnb|Sulimirski|1985|p=199}}|{{harvnb|Melyukova|1990|p=107}}|{{harvnb|Jacobson|1995|p=45}}|{{harvnb|Melyukova|1995|p=57}}|{{harvnb|Melyukova|1995|p=30}}|{{harvnb|Olkhovsky|1995|p=72}}|{{harvnb|Harmatta|1996|pp=181–182}}|{{harvnb|Olbrycht|2000b|p=110}}|{{harvnb|Olbrycht|2000b|p=118}}|{{harvnb|Batty|2007|p=214}}|{{harvnb|Ivantchik|2018}}|{{harvnb|Cunliffe|2019|p=144}}}}</ref>
* the first [[Scythia Minor (Crimea)|Little Scythia]], whose capital was Scythian Neapolis, was composed of the territories of the Tauric Chersonese and the lower reaches of the Borysthenēs and Hypanis rivers;
* the second [[Scythia Minor (Dobruja)|Little Scythia]] was located in the northeast of Thrace immediately to the south of the mouth of the Istros river and the west of the Black Sea, in the territory corresponding to present-day Dobruja.
[[File:2022. Неаполь Скифский DSC 2361.jpg|thumb|right|Relief of the most well-known kings of the Tauric Little Scythia, [[Skilurus]] and his son [[Palacus]].]]

By this time, although the Scythians living in the Tauric Chersonese had managed to retain some of their nomadic lifestyle, the limited area of their polity forced them to become more and more sedentary and to primarily engage in stockbreeding in far away pastures, as well as in agriculture, and they also acted as trading intermediaries between the [[Greco-Roman world|Graeco-Roman world]] and the peoples of the steppes.{{sfn|Harmatta|1996|p=182}}{{sfn|Ivantchik|2018}}

With sedentarisation, both fortified and unfortified settlements replaced the older nomadic camps in the basin of the lower Borysthenēs river, which prevented the remaining Scythians from continuing to maintain a steppe economy.{{sfn|Melyukova|1995|p=56-57}} Therefore, the number of fortified settlements in the Tauric Chersonese increased with the retreat into this territory and away from the steppe of the Scythian aristocracy, who was then rapidly embracing a Hellenistic lifestyle.{{sfn|Harmatta|1996|p=182}}{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=132}} By the 1st century BC, these Scythians living in the Tauric Chersonese had fully become sedentary farmers.{{sfn|Batty|2007|p=214}}

These later Scythians slowly intermarried with the native [[Tauri]] and the infiltrating Sarmatians,{{sfn|Sulimirski|1985|p=198}} and their culture had little to do with the earlier classical Scythian culture, instead consisting of a combination of those with the traditions of the Tauroi from the mountains of the Tauric Chersonese and of the Greeks of the coasts, and exhibiting Sarmatian and [[La Tène culture|La Tène]] Celtic influences.{{sfn|Ivantchik|2018}}

In the 1st century BC, both Little Scythias were destroyed and their territories annexed by the king [[Mithridates VI Eupator]] of the [[kingdom of Pontus]]{{sfn|Harmatta|1996|p=182}}{{sfn|Batty|2007|p=214}}{{sfn|Ivantchik|2018}} despite the Scythians' alliance with their former enemies, the Roxolani, against him.{{sfn|Olkhovsky|1995|p=73}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=121-122}}

===End===
The Scythian populations in both Little Scythias continued to exist after the end of Mithridates's empire, although they had become fully sedentary by then and were increasingly intermarrying with the native Tauri, hence why Roman sources often referred to them as "Tauro-Scythians" ({{langx|grc|Ταυροσκυθαι|translit=Tauroskuthai}}; {{langx|la|Tauroscythae}}).{{sfn|Olkhovsky|1995|p=73}}{{sfn|Batty|2007|p=214}}{{sfn|Ivantchik|2018}}

These late Scythians were slowly assimilated by the Sarmatians over the course of {{c.|50}} to {{c.|150}} AD,{{sfn|Ivantchik|2018}} although they continued to exist as an independent people throughout the 2nd century AD until around {{c.|250}} AD:{{sfn|Melyukova|1990|p=108}} in the settled regions of the lower Borysthenēs, lower Hypanis, and the Tauric Chersonese, an urbanised and Hellenised Scythian society continued to develop which also exhibited Thracian and Celtic influences.{{sfn|Melyukova|1990|p=109}}

The Scytho-Sarmatian Iranic nomads' dominance of the Pontic Steppe finally ended with the invasion of the [[Goths]] and other Germanic tribes around {{c.|200 AD}},{{sfn|Sulimirski|1985|p=199}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=129}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=131-132}} which was when the Scythian settlements in Crimea and the lower Borysthenēs were permanently destroyed.{{sfn|Melyukova|1990|p=108}}{{sfn|Olkhovsky|1995|p=73}}

The Scythians nevertheless continued to exist until the invasion of the [[Huns]] in the 4th century AD, and they finally ceased to exist as an independent group after being fully assimilated by the other populations who moved into the Pontic Steppe at the height of the Migrations Period in the 5th century AD.{{sfn|Melyukova|1990|p=108}}{{sfn|Melyukova|1995|p=30}}{{sfn|Olkhovsky|1995|p=73}}