Scopasis ( grc, Σκώπασις ) was a 6th-century BC

Scythian The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...

king of the

Sauromatae The Sauromatian culture (russian: Савроматская культура, Savromatskaya kulʹtura) was a Iron Age culture of horse nomads in the area of the lower Volga River in southern Russia, dated to the 6th to 4th centuries BCE. The name o ...

tribe. The

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

historian

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...

mentions him in his Histories, as he and the kings Taxakis and

Idanthyrsus Idanthyrsus (Ancient Greek: , romanized: ; Latin: ) is the name of a Scythian king who lived in the 6th century BCE, when he faced an invasion of his country by the Persian Achaemenid Empire. Name and etymology The name () is the Hellenized fo ...

commanded the three divisions of the Scythian forces, when Scythia was invaded by

Darius I of Persia Darius I ( peo, 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 ; grc-gre, Δαρεῖος ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was a Persian ruler who served as the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his d ...

in between 520 and 507 BC (most likely in 513 BC). It was the contingent under the command of Scopasis that arrived at the Istros (Danube) river before Darius could reach it during his retreat. Scopasis defeated Darius' Ionian allies to destroy the bridge of boats over the river and thus ensure the destruction and defeat of the Persian forces.

References

*{{SmithDGRBM, wstitle=Scopasis Sarmatian rulers Scythian rulers 6th-century BC rulers Achaemenid Thrace