Histories

​Thus, then, did this man fare because of foreign customs and Greek associations. But many years later, Scyles, the son of Ariapeithes, suffered a fate very similar to his. For to Ariapeithes, the king of the Scythians, was born Scyles, among other children; and he was born of a woman from Istria and by no means a native of the country. This mother taught him the Greek language and letters.

​But some time afterwards, Ariapeithes met his end by treachery at the hands of Spargapeithes, the king of the Agathyrsoi, and Scyles took over the kingdom and also the wife of his father, whose name was Opoia; now this Opoia was a native woman, from whom a son, Oricos, had been born to Ariapeithes.

​Now Scyles, though ruling over the Scythians, was by no means pleased with the Scythian lifestyle, but was turned much more towards Greek ways because of the education in which he had been brought up, and he used to do as follows: whenever he led the Scythian army to the city of the Borysthenites (and these Borysthenites say that they themselves are Milesians), as soon as Scyles came among them, he would leave his army in the suburb, ​and he himself, whenever he entered within the wall and shut the gates, would put off his Scythian dress and take Greek clothing, and wearing this he would walk about the market-place with neither bodyguards following him nor anyone else; and they would guard the gates, lest any of the Scythians should see him wearing this dress; and in other respects he adopted the Greek way of life and offered sacrifices to the gods according to the customs of the Greeks.

​And when he had spent a month or more than this, he would depart, putting on his Scythian dress. This he did many times, and he even built a house in Borysthenes and married a local wife to place in it.