Customer Reviews

Scythians 700-300 B.C. (Men at Arms Series, 137)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Scythians 700-300 BC" by Dr. E. V. Cernenko is a fantastic introductory book on the Scythians. The Scythians lived about the same time as the ancient Greeks, migrating out of the Iran area into Eastern Europe, leaving burial mounds as far apart as Mongolia and the Ukraine. Although there are many questions about these people that may never be answered, they have left a fair amount of surviving artifacts. Most impressive are the fine detailed gold objects.

Albeit there are many unanswered questions on the Scythains, this volume provides an outline of their history, weapons, clothing, and battles. The illustrations in this book are great, truly bringing them to life. Their scale-mail armors and splendid weapons are an impressive sight.

I found this to be among the fastest reading books in the Men-at-Arms series. It left me wondering and wanting to learn more about these ancient people and their history. I would highly recommend this volume to anyone interested in ancient armies.

As with all the Osprey Men-at-Arms books, "The Scythians" focusses on the armor and weapons of these Steppe peoples. The information is accurate, being based on extensive archaeology.

Best of all are the color plates which reconstruct what these people looked like, dressed in their elaborate clothing, fine lamellar armor, and wearing the distinctive Scythian gold jewelry that has become famous. The color plates breathe life into what would otherwise be a dry archaeological review.

I own this book, and have found it useful in designing loose-fit
ting, comfortable nomadic, Scythian-style garments. If one takes the time to carefully examine the pictures, reconstuction
pictures, etc., one could use them to reconstruct either arms or
clothing, as a living history study. Keep in mind, they traded
actively with the Greeks, and from the other end of the Silk Ro-
ad, China, and artisans fashioned jewelry and armor to reflect
those tastes. Most famously, the golden helmets, greaves, and
pectoral jewelry.

Excellent layout on the compound bow a real plus, as are draw-
ings of grave goods, used by both male and female warriors. Yes, Virginia, there really were Amazons, and they kicked some
serious butt.

Excellent intro to making your own Scythian-style armaments and
clothing. Cover picture alone is worth the price of the book.

Angus McBride must be the most prolific artist working for Osprey. His illustrations cover almost every other period on every continent that you can think of. His drawings range from the sublime to the atrocious due I suspect to his prolific output.
I am not a McBride fan but rate this particular book highly because I think that his scythian drawings are truly McBride at his best, even surpassing his work on the zulus and vikings.

A generous rating for what must be one of the best MAA book ever. The text is by two very competent historians and the illustrations by A. McBride are definitely his best. It helps also that the Scythians are dressed in magnificent finery

Most are under the impression that the Scythian army consisted exclusively of lightly clad horsemen (or women) shooting arrows in the typical 'Parthian Shot', but this book reveals their true versitality in war-they used all weapons, swords, axes, spears, daggers, shields, and so on in addition to the bows that would later be characteristic of the Parthians, Turks, and Mongols. The plates are good, and depict the Scytho-Sarmatian warrior-women, the inspiration for the myth of the 'Amazons', in addition to Scythian warriors triumphing over Thracian and Macedonian foes. As always, this men-at-arms book is an excellent introduction to the weapons, tactics, and general history of its subject.

This is one of the best sources of nomadic history without spending a ton of money on Herodotus's work. They pictures, arms and armour and general detail and history was a good source for this historian. A 5/5 for me.

took a long time for package to get here and it was a cheap envelope with rips , but the book was great and here before the deadline but just took a little longer then others packages sent. great price. so I happy

Let me begin by commending the author for his detailed accounts of Scythian weaponry. For aside from this and the art-work,this book seriously fails as an academic peice of writing. To begin with the author relies on Herodotus as one of his principle sources...a writer who is renowned for being as much of a romantic as a factual historian. Secondly, the author himself incorprates such personal admiration for these people into the text, that it degrades form its legitimacy. Yet what struck me as most bizarre, is that in the scanty single page introduction, the author mentions the term 'Greek' 7 times (for one reason or another), without ever explaining the racial background, and tribal divisions of the Scythians. For anyone who has already purchased this book, i draw your attention to page 29. Recall the sentence "After driving back Darius with shame," anyone who is remotley familiar with the fundamentals of culture will attest as to just how ridicoulosly out of place such terminology is in a scholarly text.