Ariant

Ariant (Аριάνταν) is the Scythian king, who was mentioned by Herodotus almost 25 centuries ago in this context:

“In this area (near the upper Gipanis - Bug) there is a copper vessel, probably six times the size of a vessel for mixing wine, which Pausanius, son of Cleombroth, ordered to devote to the gods and put at the entrance to Pontus (Black Sea). Whoever has not seen this vessel, I will describe it to him: he freely holds 600 amphoras, and the thickness of this Scythian vessel is six fingers. According to local residents, it is made of arrowheads. One Scythian king, named Ariant, wished to know the number of Scythians. To this end, he ordered all the Scythians to bring one arrowhead to each and whoever disobeyed, threatened with death. Then the Scythians brought so many tips that the king decided to erect a monument from them: he ordered to make this copper vessel from the tips and put in Exampey. Here is the information that I received about the number of Scythians ” ^[1] .

Since the lands of Scythia close to Assyria controlled in the 7th century. BC e. royal family Ishpakaya Partatua (Bartatua. Partatua). Between the Don and the Dnieper and closer to the Caucasus, Spargapif , the founder of the family of future winners of Darius I, ruled. That Arianto allot land from the Dnieper to the Danube, while he could control Scythia as a whole. The population counting is more often referred to 650 g (there are options) BC. e. The fact that Ariant was precisely the king (Basileus - the title was later used by the emperors of Byzantium) convincingly confirms the Greek text of Herodotus:

«Βουλόμενον γaρ τoν σφέτερον βασιλέα, τῶ οὔνομα εIναι Aριάνταν, τοῦτον εἰδέναι τὸ πλῆθος τὸ Σκυθέων κελεύειν μιν πάντας Σκύθας ἄρδιν ἕκαστον μίαν ἀπὸ τοῦ ὀιστοῦ κομίσαι. ὃς δ᾽ ἄν μὴ κομίσῃ, θάνατον ἀπείλεε. 6 κομισθῆναι τε δὴ χρῆμα πολλὸν ἀρδίων καί οἱ δόξαι ἐξ αὐτέων μνημόσυνον ποιήσαντι λιπέσθαι. ἐκ τουτέων δή μιν τὸ χαλκήιον ποιῆσαι τοῦτο καὶ ἀναθεῖναι ἐς τὸν Ἐξαμπαῖον τοῦτον. "ταῦτα δὲ περὶ τοῦ πλήθεος τοῦ Σκυθέων ἤκουον”. ^[2]

During the reign of Ariant, Great Scythia tried to actively participate in the political life of Media , Assyria and neighboring countries. And the power needed great human resources. To a certain extent, the legend of Ariant's cauldron confirmed these significant resources.

According to the testimony of archaeologist A.N. Shcheglov, taking into account data on Scythian arrows, to determine the estimated dimensions of the boiler (and the number of arrows for its manufacture), it was necessary to mathematically calculate 72 possible options. For this, we compiled a special computing program. The calculations were carried out at one of the BESM-6 , which stood in the computing centers of the Academy of Sciences. It turned out that if each Scythian, carrying out the royal order, brought one arrow, then for casting the boiler it would take from 3.5 to 15.5 million tips. The boiler could hold from 12 to 20 thousand liters. Its height was to be from 4 to 9.5 meters (with one - a three-story house), and weight - from 7 to 46 tons. The adopted adjustments reduced this figure by an order of magnitude ^{[3] [4] [5]} .