A History of Russia

The First Known Peoples. Historical accounts are more precise from the Iron Age on. Names have been given to the peoples inhabiting the regions

north of the Black Sea, and we encounter successively Cimmerians, Scythians (who are sometimes considered as ancestors of the Germanic and
Slavic races), Sarmatians (who are difficult to distinguish from their predecessors, the Scythians), and Alans, who were living at the beginning of
the Christian era. Although these peoples seem to have supplemented their means of life by plowing the earth and cultivating the land, almost
all were nomads occupied with hunting, fishing, and warring. All of them were cruel "barbarians" in the eyes of the Greeks and Romans. Their
customs were primitive, their lives unstable. Asiatic influences on them proved stronger than is generally surmised, despite the infiltration of
Greek ideas through Greek settlements on the northern shore of the Black Sea.