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When Darius I crossed into Thrace, he became the first Asian ruler to invade Europe. His army was reinforced by Ionian Greeks, now subjects of the empire, and chased the Scythians across Thrace and Moesia. It then built another bridge across the Danube, to continue the campaign into Dacia and perhaps all the way into the Ukraine.
It was there that a historical turning point happened, when a group of Scythians tried to persuade the Ionian guards to demolish the bridge, leaving Darius and his army trapped on the other side, as to protect their “freedom from slavery.”[1]
An Athenian captain in the imperial Persian army, Miltiades[2], agreed with the Scythians and tried to convince his Ionian companions to bring down the bridge, which – as Darius I was withdrawing short of cavalry and foodstuffs, with masses of barbarians in pursuit – would have certainly doomed the Persian army and its emperor. The Ionians didn’t heed the advice, and Miltiades was forced to flee; he would soon meet those Ionians again, and later the Persian army.
Having burned down Gelonos, the fortified capital of the Budini tribe[3], allied with the Scythians, Darius I returned along the same route, unable to defeat the Scythians’ already classic steppe tactics of feigned retreats across the grasslands, followed by hit-and-run attacks against the pursuing vanguard.
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