Scythians - First Century AD

[Flavivs Aetivs]

My question is, where there any engagements between Rome and the Scythians specifically in the first century AD and if so could you point me to any articles that I could read.

In the first century AD I can just remember the Iazyges, migrating to the Danube between Dacia and Pannonia with permission of the romans. They were also involved in the replacement of Vennius, the king of the Marcomanns around 50 AD. These times there was more trouble with the Roxolani at the lower Danube. And during Claudius reign the romans replaced the ruler of the Bosporanian Kingdom and had some fights against the tribes over there. Later during Domitians campaign at the Danube you should also find some involvement of these tribes.

But I have no clue, if the romans called these guys Scythians or Sarmatians. However, I always understood, that the Sarmatians are just a group of Scythians, like the Suebi are a group of german tribes.

Scythian was a superculture, so was Sarmatian and to a lesser extent Alan. The Scythian Superculture was replaced by the Sarmatian superculture in the 4th century BC. The steppes can then be defined into 4 distinct periods: The Sauromatian, Early Sarmatian, Middle Sarmatian, and Late Sarmatian, based on cultural trends, the latter being defined by Alanic cultural dominance of the steppes until the beginning of the Hunnic period in the 3rd century.

The term "Scythian" continued to be used, but in a classicizing context. There were no "Scythians" around, and the Romans used this term to refer to everything from Iazyges (A Sarmatian group) to the Goths to the Cumans in the 10th century. They would later use the term Hun in a similar way, calling most of the Turkish peoples in the medieval period "Huns".