Scyles

a Scythian king of the fifth century B.C.

According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Scyles was the son of the Scythian king Ariapeithes and of a Greek woman from the city of Istropolis, who taught her son to speak, read, and write Greek. In Olbia, Scyles built a great house where “he lived entirely in the Greek manner and made sacrifices to the gods according to the Greek custom.” Learning of this, the Scythians rebelled against Scyles, who fled to the king of Thrace, Sitalces. During a war between the Scythians and Thracians, Scyles was delivered into the hands of his brother Octamasades and executed.