Cimmerians

Cimmerians, ancient nomads of the Crimea and Asia Minor. First mentioned in Homer's Odyssey, they lived from about 1200 B.C. to 700 B.C., in an area of the Caucasus Mountains, near the Black Sea in what is now the southern USSR. The Cimmerians were warriors who rode horses and used bows and arrows. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, they were driven into Asia Minor by the Scythians. About 700 B.C. the Cimmerians battled the Assyrians, and plundered and destroyed the Phrygian dynasty.