Scythia (Scythian: ; Old Persian: ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) or Scythica (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ), also known as Pontic Scythia, was a kingdom created by the Scythians during the 6th to 3rd centuries BC in the Pontic–Caspian steppe. The Pontic Scythian kingdom was formed as a result of the migration of the Scythians, an ancient Iranic people, from Central Asia into the Caucasian Steppe during the 9th to 8th centuries BC, after which the Scythians conquered the Pontic Steppe during the 8th to 7th centuries BC, with their Pontic possessions being an extension of their kingdom of the steppes. After a period of successful expansion into West Asia during the 7th to 6th centuries BC, the Scythians were expelled from this region by the Medes, after which they retreated into the Pontic Steppe and consolidated into the Pontic Scythian kingdom during the 6th century BC. The Pontic Scythian kingdom established complex contacts with the various populations of western Eurasia such as the Greeks and the Thracians, and it lasted until the 3rd century BC, when a related Iranic people, the Sarmatians, conquered much of the Pontic Steppe. After this, the final Scythian polities became restricted to Crimea and Dobruja, where they would be eventually assimilated by the Roman Empire, Sarmatians, Goths, Huns, and Early Slavs over the course of the 1st to 6th centuries AD, after which the Scythians disappear from history. History Background Origins of the Scythians The Scythians originated in Central Asia possibly around the 9th century BC, and they arrived in the Caucasian Steppe in the 8th and 7th centuries BC as part of a significant movement of the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian Steppe. This movement started when another nomadic Iranian tribe closely related to the Scythians, either the Massagetae or the Issedones, migrated westwards, forcing the Early Scythians to the west across the Araxes river, following which the Scythians moved into the Caspian Steppe, where they conquered the territory of the Cimmerians, who were also a nomadic Iranian people closely related to the Scythians, and assimilated most of them while displacing the rest, before settling in the area between the Araxes, the Caucasus Mountains and the Lake Maeotis. During this early migratory period, some groups of Scythians settled in Ciscaucasia and the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains to the east of the Kuban river, where they settled among the native populations of