Ateas (429 BC-339 BC) was the last King of Scythia before Philip II of Macedon's conquest of his lands.
Biography[]
Ateas was said to have been a usurper who overthrew the Scythian kings and seized power for himself, and his empire grew to occupy a vast amount of territory between the Danube River in Romania and the Maeotian Swamp in Russia. Kamianka served as the capital of this barbarian empire, and Ateas decided to encroach into the Balkans. He campaigned against the Histriani in Thrace, and he allied with Macedon. However, relations broke down after the death of the Histriani king, and Macedon became hostile towards Scythia after the Scythians refused to send them supplies during their siege of Byzantium with the excuse of having barren lands. After the Scythians refused to allow the Macedonians to erect a statue of Heracles at the Danube Estuary, war broke out between Philip II of Macedon and Ateas, and Ateas was slain in battle at Dobruja in 339 BC. His kingdom was then forced to give the Macedonians 20,000 Scythian women and as many steppe mares, and the Scythian empire would not be revived until Scilurus' reign in the 2nd century BC.