Soon after, the Assyrians were again compelled to concentrate their attention on the Median provinces which were subjected to them. The situation of Assyria was further complicated by the incursion into Assyrian possessions by Cimmerian and Scythian tribes. At the end of the eighth century the Cimmerians appeared to the northwest of Urartu. Later they invaded Asia Minor, where they devastated the Phrygian kingdom, but they then suffered defeat from the Scythians led by their king Madyas. The permanent center of the Cimmerians was situated in eastern Cappadocia, that of the Scythians in western Azerbaijan (Sakasena of the classic sources).
