Cimmerians

Cimmerians, in the poetry of Homer, a mythical people who lived in north-western Europe, on the shores of the ocean, where perpetual darkness reigned. The name is also used to designate a historical people who settled along the northern shore of the Black Sea and presumably made several inroads into Asia Minor (the accounts are confused). The Cimmerians, driven from their homes, probably in the 8th century bc by the Scythians, overran Asia Minor; they plundered Sardis and destroyed Magnesia. After their defeat by the empire of Lydia about the 7th century bc, the Cimmerians disappeared.