Page:Bury J B The Cambridge Medieval History Vol 2 1913.djvu/456

428 the Asiatic background remained in equilibrium and no new horde broke into the Pontus steppe. The wildness of the Scythians gradually decreased and numerous Greek colonies covered the coasts of the Pontus and the Maeotis (the Sea of Azov), becoming flourishing emporia, especially for an enormous export of grain to Greece. This probably caused the Scythians to transplant wholesale agricultural peoples under their subjection. Herodotus includes various peoples, nomads, and husbandmen, evidently not of the same origin, under the name Scythian; the latter sowed grain "not for food, but for sale," and there can be no doubt that among them were Slav nations also.

Into this motley of peoples the Hellenic colonies brought the most promising seeds of culture, and seemed likely to send out a stream of civilisation to the west of Europe, as well as one to the north-east. But the Asiatic nomads were on the move, and the still wild Sarmatae were pushed on from the east, crossed the Don, drove out and in part subjugated the Scythians, and had conquered even the western part of the Pontus steppe before the end of the second century B.C. Amid these storms the Hellenic colonies, and with them the seeds of civilisation, perished. During the second or third century A.D. the Sarmatian hordes were driven out by the German Goths and Heruli. The Gothic dominion lasted over two centuries, and is the only non-nomadic episode in the history of the steppe. The Goths were the most magnificent German people, and their influence on the Slavs must have been enormous. But about 375 the Goths were forced to make way for the Huns; and the steppe remained in nomad hands for fourteen centuries continuously. In succession came Huns, Bulgars, Avars, Chazars, Magyars, Patzinaks, Cumans, Mongols. Like the buran, the furious tempest of the steppe, each of these hordes drove its predecessor in wild flight into the civilised lands of Europe, extirpated the Slavonic peasantry which had settled in the grass steppe, and passed over the tree steppe plundering and murdering so that the Slavs were forced to leave this zone too and to withdraw into the marshes of Polesie. Regular commerce was impossible, for on the banks of the rivers, especially in the dangerous rapids of the Dnieper over which the boats had to be carried on land, the nomad lurked in the tall grass and killed the crews and took their wares. Nevertheless, as the Southerner and the Oriental eagerly sought the raw products of the north — wax, honey, and especially strong slaves and pretty female slaves as well as costly furs — reckless Scandinavian pirate merchants found a rich market for these wares, which they had to take to the Euphrates and elsewhere by the roundabout way of the Dwina to the Volga and the Caspian or by Ladoga and the Volkhov, while the Dnieper route stood open only at times and was always extremely dangerous. The greatness of this plunder-commerce is shewn by the finding of Oriental coins in Russia — 11,077 pieces in one place — Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland, and