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OLBIA

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 64 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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OLBIA , the See also:

chief See also:Greek See also:settlement in the See also:north-See also:west of the Euxine. It was generally known to the Greeks of Hellas as Borysthenes, though its actual site was on the right See also:bank of the Hypanis (See also:Bug) 4 M. above its junction with the See also:estuary of the Borysthenes See also:river (See also:Dnieper). See also:Eusebius says that it was founded from See also:Miletus c. 65o B.C., a statement which is See also:borne out by the See also:discovery of Milesian pottery of the 7th See also:century. It first appears as enjoying friendly relations with its neighbours the Scythians and See also:standing at the See also:head of See also:trade routes leading far to the north-See also:east (See also:Herodotus iv.). Its wares also penetrated northward. It exchanged the manufactures of See also:Ionia and, from the 5th century, of See also:Attica for the slaves, hides and See also:corn of See also:Scythia. Changes of the native See also:population (see SCYTHIA) interrupted this See also:commerce, and the See also:city was hard put to it to defend itself against the surrounding barbarians. We know of these difficulties and of the democratic constitution of the city from a See also:decree in See also:honour of See also:Protogenes in the 3rd century B.C. (C.I.G. ii. 2058, Inscr. Or.

Septent. See also:

Pont. Euxin. i. 16). In the following century it See also:fell under the See also:suzerainty of Scilurus, whose name appears on its coins, and when his See also:power was broken by See also:Mithradates VI. the See also:Great, of See also:Pontus, it submitted to the latter. About 50 B.C. it was entirely destroyed by the See also:Getae and See also:lay See also:waste for many years. Ultimately at the wish of, and, to See also:judge by the coins, under the See also:protection of the natives themselves, it was restored, but Dio See also:Chrysostom (Or. See also:xxxvi.), who visited it about A.D. 83, gives a curious picture of its poor See also:state. During the 2nd century A.D. it prospered better with See also:Roman support and was quite flourishing from the See also:time of Septimius See also:Severus, when it was incorporated in See also:Lower See also:Moesia, to 248, when its coins came to an end, probably owing to its See also:sack by the Goths. It was once more restored in some sort and lingered on to an unknown date. Excavations have shown the position of the old Greek walls and of those which enclosed the narrower site of the Roman city, an interesting Hellenistic See also:house, and cemeteries of various See also:dates. The See also:principal cult was that of See also:Achilles Pontarches, to whom the archons made dedications.

It has another centre at Leuce (Phidonisi) and at various points in the north Euxine. Secondary was that of See also:

Apollo Prostates, the See also:patron of the strategi; but the See also:worship of most of the Hellenic deities is testified to in the See also:inscriptions. The coinage begins with large See also:round See also:copper pieces comparable only to the Roman aes See also:grave and smaller pieces in the shape of dolphins; these both go back into the 6th century B.C. Later the city adopted See also:silver and See also:gold coins of the Aeginetic See also:standard. See E. H. Minns, Scythians and Greeks (See also:Cambridge, 1909) ; V. V. Latyshev, Olbia (St See also:Petersburg, 1887, in See also:Russian). For inscriptions, Boeckh, C.I.G. vol. ii.; V. V. Latyshev, Inscr.

Orae Septent. Ponti Euxini, vols. i. and iv. For excavations, Reports of B. V. Pharmakovsky in Compte rendu de la See also:

Comm. See also:imp. archeolog. (St Petersburg, 1901 sqq.), and Bulletin of the same, Nos. 8, 13, &c., summarized in Archaologischer Anzeiger (1903 sqq.). (E. H.

End of Article: OLBIA

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