Greek Crimea

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(Redirected from
Greeks in pre-Roman Crimea
)
This article concerns Greek settlements on the Crimean Peninsula in antiquity. For medieval Greek settlements, see
Byzantine Crimea
.

Greek colonies along the north coast of the Black Sea in the 5th century B.C.

Greek Crimea concerns the

Roman Crimea during the Roman Empire
.

Names

Taurica (Crimea), Bosporan Kingdom

Taurica, Tauric Chersonese, and Tauris were names by which the

Greeks named the region after its inhabitants, the Tauri: Ταυρικὴ Χερσόνησος (Taurikē Khersonesos) or Χερσόνησος Ταυρική (Khersonesos Taurikē), "Tauric peninsula" ("khersonesos" literally means "peninsula"). Chersonesus Taurica is the Latin
version of the Greek name.

Greek colonies

Further information: Pontic Greeks
Hellenistic bowls known as the Gnathia style as well as relief wares—Megarian bowls. The city minted silver coins from the 5th century BC and gold and bronze coins from the 4th century BC.[3] At its greatest extent it occupied 100 hectares (250 acres).[4]

Greek Coin from Cherronesos in Crimea depicting beardless Heracles wearing the royal diadem . r., in exergue, ΧΕΡ ΔΙΟΤΙΜΟΥ Chersonesus in Crimea. 2nd century BC.

Other Milesian colonies on the Crimean side of the Cimmerian Bosporus included Theodosia,

Panticapaeum. It was founded in the mid-6th century BC as an independent polis, which soon became one of the richest in the region. In the 5th century BC, the town specialized in winemaking and minted its own coinage. It was surrounded by towered walls, measuring some 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) thick.[7]

Ancient Greek: Νύμφαιον) was founded by colonists from Miletus’ rival Samos between 580 and 560 BC. It was situated of about 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) south of Panticapaeum. There is no archaeological evidence for the presence of Scythians in the area before the city's founding.[8] The town issued its own coins and generally prospered in the period of classical antiquity from its control of the cereal trade. Athens chose Nymphaion as its principal military base in the region ca. 444 BC and Gylon, the grandfather of Demosthenes
, suffered banishment from Athens on charges that he had betrayed Nymphaeum during the Peloponnesian War. It was annexed to the Bosporan Kingdom by the end of the century.

Chersonesos in southwestern Crimea (outside modern Sevastopol). It was a site with good deep-water harbors located at the edge of the territory of the indigenous Taurians.[9] During much of the Classical Period, Chersonesus was a democracy ruled by a group of elected archons and a council called the Demiurgi. As time passed the government grew more oligarchic, with power concentrated in the hands of the archons. Up to the middle of the 4th century BC, Chersonesos remained a small city. It then expanded to lands in northwest Crimea, incorporating the colony of Kerkinitida and constructing numerous fortifications.[10] In 2013, Chersonesus was listed as a World Heritage Site
.

Kerkinitida is the earliest colony in northwestern Taurica, located near present-day Yevpatoria. It was founded around the turn of the 6th-5th centuries BC, possibly by Dorians of Heraclea Pontica, or by another unknown Ionian city-state. Until the middle of 4th century BC the city was a small independent city–state, before being incorporated into the city-state of Chersonesos. In the 2nd century BC Kerkinitida was captured by the Scythians, but later retaken in the second campaign of Diophantus. According to archeological finds, the city lasted until around the turn of the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.[10]

In 2016, archaeologists discovered parts of an ancient Greek fortress near the village of Gornostaevka.[11]

In 2018, archaeologists discovered a previously unknown ancient Greek settlement of the 4th-3rd centuries BC near the town of Baherove. According to the researchers, the settlement was called Manitra. On the territory of the settlement the remains of a rectangular tower were discovered and near the settlement an unplundered necropolis.[12]

In mythology

Orestes and Pylades brought before Iphigenia by Joseph Strutt.

According to

histories
, Book IV, 99–100 and 103.

See also

References

  1. ^ Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond (1959). A history of Greece to 322 B.C. Clarendon Press. p. 109. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
  2. ^ a b Twardecki, Alfred. "The Bosporan Kingdom". Polish Archaeological Mission “Tyritake”. Archived from the original on 8 April 2014. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  3. ISBN 0 900652 46 2
  4. ^ "Panticapaeum". Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. Retrieved 18 February 2013.
  5. ^ "Feodosiya". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  6. ^ The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites (eds. Richard Stillwell, William L. MacDonald, Marian Holland McAllister).
  7. ^ "The official website of the Hermitage Museum archaeological expedition in Myrmekion" (in Russian). Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  8. ^ Zin'ko, Viktor N. (2006). "The Chora of Nymphaion (6th Century BC-6th Century AD)". In Bilde, Pia Guldager; Stolba, Vladimir F. (eds.). Surveying the Greek Chora. The Black Sea Region in a Comparative Perspective. Black Sea Studies. Vol. 4. Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press. pp. 289–308.
  9. ^ "University of Texas at Austin Institute of Classical Archaeology Chersonesos project". Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  10. ^ a b "History and the monetary business of the antique cities of Tauria". Odesa Numismatics Museum.
  11. ^ Russia: 2,000-yo Ancient Greek fortress discovered in Crimea
  12. ^ "Russian archaeologists said they discovered an ancient Greek settlement in Crimea". Archived from the original on 16 November 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2018.

Bibliography

  • Shevchenko, Tetiana (2023). Greek Religion in Tauric Chersonesos. Oxford: Archaeopress.
    ISBN 9781803275628
    .

External links
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