Episode 10: Kimmerians: To Phrygia and Beyond

We examine the Kimmerian migration to Anatolia in the aftermath of Urartian and Assyrian invasions. We then chart the emergence of conflict between the Kimmerians and the Phrygians. 

Transcript

The Kimmerians were moving again once more. Young Teushpa had heard the news from the elders. Attacks by the Assyrians and the Urartians had startled many. Time and time and time again, these peoples invaded with their armored infantry and archers, fighting for reasons few could understand. Teushpa and his tribe had journeyed for generations to escape the great evil, the unstoppable horde that tracked dust into the air and caused calamity on all those who bore witness to them. Why should the Kimmerians be punished? What had they done wrong? They simply were trying to exist, to survive.

Teushpa rolled his hand into a fist and he yelled toward the hills. For generations, his people had journeyed through the great mountains of the Caucasus. He had heard of the thousands who perished under the snows and fallen off the cliffs. But still, they traversed on. He had heard about their many conflicts in the hills that followed. Mountain kings and chiefs hated the Kimmerians and offered them no refuge, no quarter. In many cases, the Kimmerians were met by sword and arrow.

Still, they journeyed on. Teushpa remembered the legends of mothers who sacrificed themselves for their children. He had heard of fathers who died in desperate hunts to provide a morsel of food. He whispered the stories of elders who took up the bow and arrow in the defense of their people. And still, over and over and over and over again, others wished to see the Kimmerians dead. 

This time was the same. Two great battles had emerged in recent years. A mountain people, the Urartians, followed their haughty and insolent king in an attack on the Kimmerians. The Kimmerian army had been outnumbered, Teushpa had heard, but still the defenders were stalwart and darted along the hills with speed, pelting the Urartian invaders with arrows and stones. Many of the Urartian’s best soldiers and commanders had been slain, and they were pushed back to their homeland. Teushpa cheered silently as he remembered this story.

Then, a people from the rivers of the south, the Assyrians, also attempted to invade and displace the Kimmerians. It was the same story. Though outnumbered, the Kimmerians stayed strong and outmaneuvered the crafty Assyrians. Their king, a man named Sargon, perished in the fighting. Teushpa wept tears of pride at the thought.

But now, the elders were right. Too many attempts had been made by these peoples, and once more, the Kimmerians needed to make a decision. They would either flee or stay. Some had talked about great pasture land to the west, a plateau of bountiful water and grass. They would have to cross through thousands of kilometers, but the Kimmerians would perhaps find  peace. The polities of that region were weaker than either the Assyrians and Urartians for that matter. Others however disagreed. Some of the more rowdy, some of the more prideful, some of the more ambitious believed they could stay in the current lands and even prosper. Teushpa heard word that a few would stake their fortunes as mercenaries. For Teushpa and his tribe, the choice was clear. Like their ancestors long ago, Teushpa and his people would journey west, further into Anatolia, and in the hope that they would one day find peace and safety. 

Little did Teushpa know, such things would be hard to come by, and perhaps they never would. But still, they would journey on. The Kimmerians, once more, migrated.

Welcome back to the Nomads and Empires podcast, episode 10. We are officially now in the double digits, so heck yea! Last time, we covered the intricate political machinations of the ancient Near East between the years 721 to 714 BCE. We covered the timelines of great figures like Sargon II and Rusa of Urartu, and how their lives entwined with one another in a great Cold War between the Assyrian and Urartian empires. Both polities conspired against one another, sending agents and conducting acts of espionage. By 714, both empires clashed in what appeared to be a titanic war that would define the future of the Near East.

And then the Kimmerians came. The Urartians, as we may remember, hastily retaliated and launched an offensive campaign and… were completely defeated. The Urartians were pushed, Rusa fled to the city of Tushpa, and Sargon II took his opportunity. Just like that, the riders of the steppe had changed the course of history. Rusa was defeated, Rusa supposedly committed suicide, and Rusa would forever be relegated as a lower man than his counterpart Sargon. All of this came to be because of a single battle between the Urartians and the Kimmerians. 

And on the last episode, that’s where we left things off. In a way, the series of dominoes nestled together neatly into a single, cohesive narrative. There were several strands, sure, but they all connected together into this climactic, final set of cinematic moments. The story seemed concluded. But today, we are reminded that history presses on, and importantly, the Kimmerians are still here in the ancient Near East. Now, last time we focused a lot on external players, the Urartians and Assyrians. For a podcast focusing on the empires of the steppe, I admit that we didn’t give the Kimmerians much of the spotlight last time, so let’s change our framing a little bit today. 

Let’s now take a moment to consider where the Kimmerians were by this point in time. It’ll be a little bit of a recap, but we should orient ourselves with this perspective. Throughout the 700s BCE, we’ve heard of raiders attacking Urartian territory. We noted that the Urartians may have stumbled upon a people known as the “Ish-qi-Gu-Lu” who may very well be the Kimmerians. These particular peoples had raided Urartian territory throughout the years, though we should note that the area had been raided by many other groups so it’s not a definitive connection. We’ve gone through a whole debacle on where the Kimmerians migrated in the ensuing years, but we know that eventually they would settle in the lands of Gamir, and wherever that actually is, who’s to say? All we know is it was somewhere in the Armenian Highlands or in eastern Anatolia. 

From there, the Kimmerians began to enter the fringes of Assyrian territory. For a time, the Urartians kept the Kimmerians at bay, pushing their raids when possible. We can imagine a scene where nomadic raiders looted villages in quick attacks. Perhaps a town garrison may have attempted to fend off these invaders, but the speed and quickness of nomadic horse warriors would’ve proved quite powerful in this environment. Overtime, these raids and the subsequent devastation may have placed political pressure on Urartian leadership. In 714 BCE, the Urartians under Rusa I tried to take things into their own hands by leading a large offensive against the Kimmerians. They would be taking the fight to them. As we know, the Urartians were devastated and this set in motion the dominoes that would lead to Sargon II’s victory over Rusa I. 

And that’s the story so far, and I know we really want to move forward with the narrative, but let me pause right here. The next historical epoch of the Kimmerians is frankly even more confusing and mysterious than what we talked about before. The Kimmerians will move in a number of directions, entering further into Anatolia and even Iran. In due course, they’re going to interact with a lot of figures, including some pretty big names like Gyges of Lydia and Midas of Phrygia. In this context, the Kimmerians are players in this great narrative, where they influence the events of major characters who would be renowned in Greco-Roman traditions. I mean, we all know about King Midas. But, I caution us from reading into this narrative as a wholly historical affair. 

As always, let’s debrief and consider some of our sources for today’s episode. In the last episode, we still had a substantive number of primary sources, as Assyrian records from Sargon II and his many spies gave us valuable insight into the machinations of the region. We have some sources for this upcoming era, including Assyrian records from later rulers like Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal, yes. These Assyrian records are actually great, because they directly mention the attacks of the Kimmerians and even name a few of their leaders. However, these documents are really only framed within Kimmerian-Assyrian relations, and so the broader movements of the Kimmerians are obscured. They don’t mention anything about a Kimmerian presence in Anatolia despite a number of Greek sources asserting such. And of course, as I rallied on before, the Kimmerians didn’t leave us anything. We have no written documents or archaeological finds that we can conclusively place onto the Kimmerians. 

Now, we do have Greco-Roman sources that mention the Kimmerians in this period of time. The Roman historian Strabo talks about a Kimmerian tribe that entered the Anatolian region of Paphlagonia. Herodotus has an entire section that connects the Scythians and the Kimmerians. It is interesting to consider then that these sources are why we create connections between the Kimmerians and these famous figures. Strabo is the sole reason as to why we connect the Kimmerians to King Midas, but Strabo is hundreds of years removed from these events and there is no other archaeological or contemporaneous textual proof to confirm this connection. 

Secondary sources are great reflections of this paltry amount of sources. Both Rene Grousset and Christopher Beckwith offer us 3 total pages on the Kimmerians in their works, and their descriptions of Kimmerian movements after 714 literally only last a few sentences. Furthermore, these secondary sources never agree on the dates, and the same events are often dated to different years. I bring this all up because this is an important consideration. Given the nature of these sources, we’re going to need to be a little critical as we move beyond 714 BCE. I will detail the story following the relatively traditional narrative, but I think we should raise our eyebrows here and there when we talk about the Kimmerians being involved with events like King Midas’s suicide. 

Alright, with that out of the way, let’s move on.

In the wake of the year 714 BCE, the Kimmerians found themselves in a rather advantageous position. Having likely spent generations moving through the Caucasus and Armenia, the Kimmerians were finally given the opportunity to operate in a wide array of areas. We can guess that in the ensuing years, the Kimmerians would’ve continued their raids into Urartu and  nearby areas. It seems that the Kimmerians did not embark on wars of conquest. We don’t have any reports of territory being taken by the Kimmerians, and the Urartians were able to survive in some form. Tushpa was not despoiled and the Urartian people were not annexed into some sort of steppe empire. 

In 708 BCE, Assyrian intelligence reports tell us that the Urartians were mobilizing their forces, and Assyrian officers wondered if the Urartians were planning to march against Assyria. Instead, the Urartians once more took to the field to attack the Kimmerians. In the spring of 707 BCE, the Urartians once more repeated their efforts in 714 by invading Kimmerian territory. Like the last time, the Urartians were utterly defeated and pushed back, but it appears Urartu did manage to succeed in some sort of operational victory. The Kimmerians would not launch any raids into Urartian territory in the years that followed. Again, we are forced to wonder if the Kimmerians were really as powerful as we may believe. This lack of concentrated aggression points to me that the Kimmerians may simply have wanted to maintain the possessions they had or lacked the capacity to further any conquests.

It seems then that this battle may have influenced Assyrian decision making. Sargon II, our lovely friend from last episode, decided to push out the Kimmerians once and for all. He apparently did not gain any lessons from the failures of the Urartians and I can imagine a bit of hubris in this situation. In 705 BCE, Sargon launched an offensive in Tabal to displace a group of raiders. We’re not exactly sure who these were, but a lot of secondary sources believe them to be the Kimmerians. If this is the case, then Sargon II was slain by Kimmerian riders. And so, the great reign of Sargon II was put to an end by the very same peoples who had devastated Rusa I a decade prior.

After this, the Kimmerians sort of disappear for a bit. In most secondary sources, we’re told that the Kimmerians suddenly show up on the fringes of Phrygia after 714. Christopher Beckwith says as follows: “The Kimmerians… entered the ancient Near East in the late eighth century BC, where they defeated Urartu in 714 BC. They then attacked the Phrygians to the west and destroyed their kingdom.” While we could make this immediate jump in our own narrative, I think we can take some time to pontificate more deeply about this Kimmerian movement. 

We need to reframe the Assyrian and Urartian invasions from the Kimmerian angle. From this vantage point, the Kimmerians had faced multiple invasions after generations of migration. It may be that Urartian and Assyrian incursions into Kimmerian land had caused enough shock or fear to push the Kimmerians outward. Although the Kimmerians had beaten back these invaders, the amount of offensives on Kimmerian soil probably meant that their homeland was easy to navigate and easy to operate in. I can imagine many Kimmerian groups wanting to leave for areas that may be more defensible. If we assume the Urartian and Assyrian military offenses as drivers of migration, then we also need to consider the Urartian and Assyrian polities as blockers of potential migratory routes. You see, I think we can infer why the Kimmerians moved to Anatolia. 

There was no reason for the Kimmerians to migrate north. That meant heading back to the Caucasus, and if we assume the Scythians were still on the way, then that meant sure death. The Urartians blocked the Kimmerians from any eastward movement, and there were other powerful states like the Elamites to consider as well. To the south, the Assyrians blocked any opportunity for access to the fertile lands in Mesopotamia. Again, the Urartians and Assyrians had operational capacity to launch invasions inside of Kimmerian territory, and although the Kimmerians could beat back these invaders, we’ve seen nothing so far that implies a willingness or ability for the Kimmerians to launch their own invasions. A small raid here and there pales in comparison to the amount of logistics needed in conducting a full-scale military offensive. With this being the case, I think by process of elimination, the Kimmerians were forced to move westward, which meant that they would migrate onward to Phrygia. Anatolia was a more decentralized and weaker region, and an area that the Kimmerians could better exploit.

Here, we should transition into a slight sidebar. This movement of horse nomads into Anatolia is a remarkably common development that will occur over and over again, and so once more the Kimmerians may represent the first recorded instance of this phenomenon. Anatolia is actually an amazing place for steppe nomads. Much of the country is mountainous, but it is also varied and diverse. The coastlines are fertile, contain natural harbors, and have become sites of major urban settlements.

The center of this region is an elevated, grassy plain, standing at around 600-1,200 meters above sea level. From a climate perspective, this plain is typically semi-arid and cold, harsher than the Mediterranean coastlines. Temperatures in this region can vary from -2 degrees celsius in winter to over 20 degrees in the summer. As such, vegetation in this region can be more sparse. Some trees do grow, such as oaks in Cappadocia, but otherwise much of the area is dominated by grasses. Such grasses were fully conducive for the steppe way of life. With ample grassland, rolling hills, and an array of water sources, the area was essentially perfect for wandering nomads that were seeking fertile pastureland.

As steppe riders moved from say the Caucasus or Iran, they would’ve seen the areas of central Anatolia as being particularly conducive for their way of life. Groups like the Seljuk and Turkmen would thrive in these grasslands. Slowly, these groups would have brought families and animal herds. With these rich pasturelands, steppe nomads would be able to use the area as a base of operations for raids throughout other parts of Anatolia and beyond. The eventual erosure of the Byzantine Empire would come from gradual Turkic penetrations that centered in the Anatolian steppe, for instance. Indeed, the position of nomadic pastoralists in central Anatolia would last well into the Ottoman era. 

When we recontextualize this back into the era of the ancient Near East, we realize something rather key. The lands of Phrygia are located in the western end of Anatolia and exist as part of this Central Anatolian steppe. And so, in the wake of these Assyrian and Urartian invasions, we can logically assume that Kimmerian leaders believed a better course of action, one with precedence before, would be to migrate. This migration would take over 1,000 kilometers, but it also represented greater opportunities for safety, stability, and growth. So the Kimmerians may have initiated this movement in the aftermath of the Assyrian invasion in 705 BCE, and by the 690s, the Kimmerians were entrenched in the central Anatolian steppe putting them into direct conflict with the Phyrgians. 

We should, however, note that not all Kimmerians joined in this journey. Some Kimmerians likely stayed behind in Gamir. Various records speak of Kimmerian mercenaries who wandered around Armenia and Iran, and we can imagine these remnant Kimmerians as heralding from those Kimmerians who chose to stay. Others probably became coopted into local populations. In many ways, this echoed the original migration of the Kimmerians, with some choosing to continue to safer and more fertile lands, while others chose to stay behind. 

Through this movement into Anatolia, the Kimmerians would play a direct role in changing the course of history, but before we dive into this, let’s quickly discuss the Phyrgians. As we talked about in episode 9, the Phrygians were one of the major powers of the ancient Near East. Alongside Assyria and Urartu, Phrygia engaged in the great power competition that had been boiling over the region throughout the 700s BCE. Where Assyria was centered in Mesopotamia and Urartu nestled along the Armenian Highlands, Phrygia was placed within central Anatolia. Though Phrygia takes a mythological nature in ancient sources, we actually know fairly little about this polity. 

Much of our archaeological assessments come from key settlements, chief among these being the capital city of Gordion. The Phrygians come from relatively unknown backgrounds, but by the ninth century BCE, we start to see the emergence of urbanization and political centralization. Around this time, we also start to see the expansion of the Phrygians into other parts of Anatolia. A Phrygian site at Daskyleion points to a Phrygian presence in western Anatolia for instance. Greek sources like Herodotus assert that Phrygia developed into a monarchy, though scholars like Professor Lynn Roller caution us from assuming that such leaders held complete central authority over the polity. The Phrygians may have been more decentralized in organization than you would expect from a traditional monarchy.  

Important to our story is the emergence of a leader named Midas. Midas is a modern rendition of his name, but it probably sounded more like Mita. Under Midas, the Phrygians evidently developed an international reputation. Assyrian, Greek, and Roman sources all emphasize the power of Midas and later Hellenistic sources underline Midas with near-mythological connotations. According to the various sources that we have, Midas’s rule lasted from 733 to 677 BCE. If this seems like an absurdly long period of time, that’s because it probably is. The sources are not consistent with his reign and it’s possible that multiple Midas’s ruled in this time. I’m going to describe the narrative as a single person for simplicity, but we should keep in mind that this almost certainly was not the case. 

And so, let’s move on. Under Midas, the Phrygians joined in the ancient Near Eastern Cold War, and we have a number of Phrygian artifacts found in Syria, Cyprus, and even Greece, hinting at the many international relations Phrygia appears to have fostered. In the last episode, we talked about Phrygia’s own involvement in anti-Assyrian plots throughout Anatolia and the Armenian Highlands. It really does seem like under Midas, the Phrygians reached an unprecedented apogee. 

And then it came tumbling down. 

The Kimmerians defeated Rusa, killed Sargon II, and retreated to the west, finding refuge in central Anatolia. There, they came into conflict with Midas. This is how many of our secondary sources frame the series of events. When considering this a little more closely, the Kimmerians probably initiated conflict through the occasional raid. Kimmerian riders may have looted Phrygian villages on the frontiers and over time, Kimmerian bands would have encroached further into the rich grasslands of King Midas. We can imagine conflict emerging similarly to what happened in Urartu. Kimmerian raids would’ve led to Phrygian reprisals and this would’ve resulted in outright conflict.

In an interesting twist, some secondary sources assert that the Urartians under King Rusa II, grandson of Rusa I, allied with the Kimmerians in an offensive invasion against Midas. This alliance is debated, though if true, it would lay the foundation for further cooperation between the Urartians and Kimmerians in the years to come. It is puzzling to consider this alliance given the recent history of conflict between the two, but when we take a step back, we should remember that alliances could be fluid. Yesterday’s enemies could be today’s friends, particularly if that group offered you substantial political advantages. The Urartians probably saw the Kimmerians as a powerful pawn, and weakening Phrygia likely played well into Urartian geopolitical strategy. Should this alliance be true, then the Urartians were well rewarded. According to legendary sources, the Kimmerians were able to penetrate deep into Phrygian territory, and in response, King Midas is said to have drank bull’s blood as a form of suicide. 

This event is key to our narrative, but I want to take a quick sidebar. I want to emphasize that the secondary literature offers two conflicting dates about these events. Some sources, such as the Cambridge Ancient History place these events in the 690s, while other works place these events in the mid-670s. The tension between these two dates appears to come from two differing narratives espoused by Roman authors. Meanwhile, scholars like Lynn Roller believe this to have occurred at an even later period, sometime in the 640s. As we established earlier, it is very likely that the Kimmerian raids happened during the reigns of other king Midas’s, rather than the legendary figure so often cited in Greek and Roman literature. As such, we should also be wary about these dates as absolute truths. 

We once more see this division in the aftermath of this Kimmerian invasion. Some sources, such as Christopher Beckwith’s Empires of the Silk Road, claim that the Kimmerians absolutely devastated the Phrygians and completely destroyed their kingdom. Professor Roller meanwhile explains that the archaeological record finds no evidence for this complete devastation in Phrygia. The ruins of Gordion indicate no major physical marks that can be traced to this Kimmerian offensive. The answer probably lies somewhere in the middle of these poles. 

The Kimmerians likely did devastate much of the Phrygian countryside. Villages would have been despoiled, towns would have been looted, and many settlements would have been taken as nomadic pastureland. However, it seems unlikely to me that the Kimmerians had developed the siege tactics needed to destroy major Phrygian settlements. We have no indication from either secondary or primary sources of the Kimmerians developing such weaponry or mechanisms, and we also don’t have any evidence of Mongol-esque tactics, that of coopting local peoples with technological skills. I think the Kimmerians were content to devastate the countryside and to take what they could. The devastation would’ve been plenty, but any impact on the main cities seems limited. 

In the course of this conflict, the Kimmerians were able to fully cement themselves in the region. Having now established a base in the central Anatolian plain, the Kimmerians seem to have spent the next few years stabilizing the situation after their long migration and subsequent conflicts with the Phrygians. If we place this conflict in the 690s, then the next major event pertaining to the Kimmerians would be in around 679 BCE. The 680s probably saw the Kimmerians further establish the central Anatolian plain as their pasturelands, and we can assume that the Kimmerians would have conducted raids throughout other parts of Anatolia. 

It seems then that by the end of the 680s, the Kimmerians may have once more found their confidence. In 679 BCE, the Kimmerians invaded the northwestern end of Assyria, the lands of Cilicia in modern-day southeastern Anatolia. Here, we get something truly astounding when it comes to the history of these peoples. For once, we are given a name. Assyrian documents from this era describe to us the literal name of a Kimmerian chieftain who led this invasion. These Kimmerians were led by a man named Teushpa.

However, this was not the only key fact about this event. The Assyrians, led by Esarhaddon, grandson of Sargon II, attempted to find other allies who could match the nomadic warfare espoused by the Kimmerians. It appears that Esarhaddon attempted to recruit nomadic horse archers as allies to match the Kimmerians. These were none other than the Scythians. Herodotus told us that the Scythians chased the Kimmerians, and here we find one of the earliest instances in which the Scythians are named and are in direct conflict with the Kimmerians. If we follow Herodotus, then after generations of riding, the Scythians had finally arrived and could finally finish off the Kimmerians. Although the dates are fuzzy, we are even told that a Scythian chief named Bartatua attempted to secure a marriage alliance with Esarhaddon, a demonstration of political changes taking place in this time. Needless to say, the usage of nomadic mercenaries to fight other nomads is a trend that we will see throughout history on all ends of the steppe. But, I won’t belabor the point.

And so, in 679 BCE, the Kimmerians invaded Assyria, and once more, the Kimmerians were defeated. In his own annals, Esarhaddon describes the situation as such: “And Teushpa, the [Kimmerian],  barbarian whose home was afar off, I cut down with the sword in the land of Ubushna, together with all his troops.”

We don’t have any further details than that. Just like the battle of 714 between the Urartians and the Kimmerians, we don’t have much about the tactics used or the order of battle. There are no heroic feats described. We are left with this single sentence and other small details, but I do think there’s a lot to unpack here. 

In the wake of this battle, the Kimmerians retreated once more back into central Anatolia. It’s difficult to say if this defeat represented something larger, heralding a chink in the armor. You see, after this event, the Kimmerians would somewhat disappear for a time in the historical record, and their next major event would be a near-cataclysmic one. Between the 660s and 650s BCE, the Kimmerians would be completely defeated by the Lydians under King Gyges, an event that would be renowned throughout the ancient Near East. A few decades after that, the Kimmerians would completely disappear, never again becoming a power worth even naming. In their wake, the Scythians would emerge as the dominant steppe power to influence the sedentary world. 

But, that’s getting ahead of ourselves. We’ll save the discussion on Lydia and the downfall of the Kimmerians for the next episode. Instead, let’s first consider what we’ve discussed thus far. In the aftermath of repeated invasions by the Urartians and the Assyrians, the Kimmerians journeyed over a thousand kilometers to the west to settle on the central Anatolian plain. As such, the Kimmerians laid the groundwork for a trend that would continue on for two thousand years. Nomadic groups like the Seljuks and Pechenegs would find refuge and shelter along this central plateau, using it as a stable pastureland and as a base of operations for further incursions throughout Anatolia. 

However, this was not the only major trend we noticed. I only briefly touched on this, because next episode we’ll really dive into this change, but we finally saw the emergence of the Scythians, and more specifically, the usage of the Scythians as mercenaries. In both ends of Eurasia, from China to the Middle East, we will see the usage of some steppe groups to counter other steppe groups, and I wonder if this is the first recorded instance in which this happened. If so, then this would be one of the most important political developments to occur, as in doing such, the Assyrians would set the stage for policies used by groups like the Byzantine Empire and the Abbasid Caliphate. The best way to defeat a steppe nomad was, evidently, another steppe nomad. But, for now, that’s it. We’ll continue tracking these developments and the movements of the Kimmerians in the next episode. Next time, the Kimmerians face defeat at the hands of King Gyges of Lydia and later on, by the Scythians. Farewell and see you all next time on the windy plains of central Anatolia.

Music:
Short Story - Feras Charestan (Epidemic Sound)
Outro - Personal work