EB team got it wrong about Saka?

**Slim_Ghost** · 10-30-2007, 15:56

I have read from many sources that Saka and Scythians are one and the same. Saka is merely a Persian word, while Scythain (Schytoi?) is Greek.

So...uh....shouldn't the Saka get access to the Scythian nobles as well?

**paullus** · 10-30-2007, 16:20

nope, untrue. they are only really connected in the sense that they are both steppe peoples. the skythians had been dwelling in what we know as the ukraine for centuries before the saka even reached central asia.

**Bonny** · 10-30-2007, 16:20

So...uh....shouldn't the Saka get access to the Scythian nobles as well?

not possible because of model sharing conflict. They have the Saka Agema
Hippies on this model.

edit: lol we responded on the exact same minute

**antiochus epiphanes** · 10-30-2007, 16:42

Originally Posted by Slim_Ghost

I have read from many sources that Saka and Scythians are one and the same. Saka is merely a Persian word, while Scythain (Schytoi?) is Greek.

So...uh....shouldn't the Saka get access to the Scythian nobles as well?

if you take that approach the scythians were around way up to the fall of rome, seeing as the term"scythians" was used to describe everyone from the steppes...

**paullus** · 10-30-2007, 17:22

and further, far into the middle ages...the Byzantines used "Skythians" too.

**cmacq** · 10-30-2007, 17:29

Its really quite simple, Sakas (east) and Scyths (west) same ethnos (Indo-Iranian), different polities.

**Geoffrey S** · 10-30-2007, 19:00

Settled people got a bit confused when it came to distinguishing steppe peoples.

**Cyclops** · 10-30-2007, 22:17

Originally Posted by paullus

and further, far into the middle ages...the Byzantines used "Skythians" too.

Yep to describe Huns, Avars and other mongoloid types I believe.

I guess their reasoning was "meh, rides a horse, has a bow, forms a horde, its a Skythian!"

**Pharnakes** · 10-31-2007, 00:04

Well, how else would you define a skythian?

**blitzkrieg80** · 10-31-2007, 01:05

Goths were called Scythians at first too

**Megas Methuselah** · 10-31-2007, 02:25

Originally Posted by Cyclops

I guess their reasoning was "meh, rides a horse, has a bow, forms a horde, its a Skythian!"

lol!

**Tellos Athenaios** · 10-31-2007, 03:01

Originally Posted by Slim_Ghost

I have read from many sources that Saka and Scythians are one and the same. Saka is merely a Persian word, while Scythain (Schytoi?) is Greek.

So...uh....shouldn't the Saka get access to the Scythian nobles as well?

Sources like Herodotos perhaps? He merely states that the Persians called just about every Nomadic (Skythian) tribe Saka (probably because they did employ Saka in their military, as a sort of crack auxilia force) - but he himself calls the *real* Saka simply Saka. And so does Strabo.

Mind you the 'Greeks' were perfectly well-aware of the numerous different nomadic tribes.