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When therefore the children sprung from these slaves and the Scythian
women grew to manhood, and understood the circumstances of their
birth, they resolved to oppose the army which was returning from
Media. And, first of all, they cut off a tract of country from the
rest of Scythia by digging a broad dyke from the Tauric mountains to
the vast lake of the Maeotis. Afterwards, when the Scythians tried
to force an entrance, they marched out and engaged them. Many battles
were fought, and the Scythians gained no advantage, until at last one
of them thus addressed the remainder: "What are we doing,
Scythians? We are fighting our slaves, diminishing our own number
when we fall, and the number of those that belong to us when they fall
by our hands. Take my advice - lay spear and bow aside, and let each
man fetch his horsewhip, and go boldly up to them. So long as they
see us with arms in our hands, they imagine themselves our equals in
birth and bravery; but let them behold us with no other weapon but the
whip, and they will feel that they are our slaves, and flee before us."
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