They blinded their slaves, and were noted for their
use of the bow. Driven by the love of change, they
moved southwards toward the Black Sea, where so
many great rivers pour their waters across the fertile
plain. The legend of a golden plough and yoke that
fell from heaven indicates that, at an early period,
they had passed from a simple nomadic stage of
civilization to the practice of agriculture. Moving
still further South, they drove the Cimmerians
before them into Asia Minor, in hot haste maintaining
the pursuit ; but, mistaking their way, as Herodotus
thinks, they came out far to the East. They next
overran the Ass5nian Empire ; checked the advance
of Media for a generation ; and poured along the
sea-board of Palestine, till they reached Eg57pt. There

6t



64 THE SCYTHIAN INVASION

they were met with peaceful weapons,^ and persuaded
to turn their horses' heads to the North. On their
homeward way they spoiled the Temple of Venus at
Ascalon, indulging in excesses the physical, and prob-
ably quite natural, results of which are attributed by
the historian to the vengeance of thegods. Thewholein-
cident remains obscure at several points, but it is certain
that about this time (circa 626 B.C.) Palestine suffered
heavily from such a robber raid. Zephaniah sketches
their advance in lively terms. Ezekiel borrows from it
the colours in which he pourtrays his vision of the last
Judgment. Bethshan, north of Gilboa, and in the very
heart of Palestine, was known to the Greeks as Scjrtho-
poUs. And here, from Jeremiah, we learn how great
was the panic they inspired and the devastation they
wrought throughout Syria.
