stylistic:style_transfer, structural:scholar_edition, linguistic:voice_change
Kingship

The Scythians were monarchical, and the king of all the Scythians was the main tribal chief, who was from the dominant tribe of the Royal Scythians. Power among the Scythian kings was passed down a single dynasty, and the historian and anthropologist Anatoly Khazanov has suggested that the Scythians had been ruled by the same dynasty from the time of their stay in West Asia until the end of their kingdom in the Pontic Steppe. The Scythologist Askold Ivantchik has instead proposed that the Scythians had been ruled by at least three dynasties, including that of Bartatua, that of Spargapeithes, and that of Ariapeithes.

Although the kings' powers were limited by the popular and warrior assemblies, royal power itself was held among the Scythians to be divinely ordained: this conception of royal power, which is well documented in the ritual symbols depicted on 5th to 3rd century BC Scythian toreutics, was initially foreign to Scythian culture and originated in West Asia during the period of Scythian presence there in the 7th century BC.

The Scythian kings were later able to further increase their position through the concentration of economic power in their hands because of their dominance of the grains trade with the Greeks, which made them and the Scythian warrior-aristocracy as a whole, very wealthy.

After their death, the Scythian kings were buried along with one or some of their wives. The kings also chose servants, cupbearers, courtiers, and members of the royal entourage from the tribes under his authority, who were to be killed and buried along with him to follow and serve him in the afterlife. Warriors belonging to the entourage of Scythian rulers were also buried in smaller and less magnificent tombs surrounding the tombs of the rulers.

By the 4th century BC, the Scythian kingdom had developed into a rudimentary state after the king Ateas had united all the Scythian tribes under his personal authority.