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CAUCASUS (Mountain) RUSSIA
Caucasus, Caucasii Montes (ho Kaukasos, ta Kaukasia ore: also, ho Kaukasis, Herod.
iii. 97, Steph. B. s. v.; to Kaukasow, Arrian. Peripl.; to Kaukasion oros, Herod.
i. 104, Dion. Per. 663: Eth. Kaukasios and Kaukasites: region Kaukasia, whence
Adj. and Eth. KaukasiaWos, Steph. B. s. v.: Caucasus, Kawkas, Goffkas, Jalbus),
the great mountain chain which extends across the isthmus between the Euxine and
Caspian Seas, and now forms the boundary between Europe and Asia, but belonged
entirely to Asia in the ancient division of the continents.
This range forms the NW. margin of the great table-land of W. Asia.
It commences on the W. at the base of the tongue of low land (Peninsula of Taman),
which divides the E. part of the Sea of Azov (Palus Maeotis) from the Black Sea,
in 45° 10? N. lat., and 36° 45? E. long.; and it runs first along the NE. shore
of the Black Sea, and then across the isthmus, with a general direction from NW.
to SE., terminating on the W. coast of the Caspian, in the peninsula of Apsheron
in 40° 20? N. lat., and 50° 20? E. long. Its length is 750 miles, its breadth
from 65 to 150 miles. Its elevation varies greatly, the central portion forming
some of the loftiest mountains in the world, higher than the Alps, while its extremities
sink down into mere hills. The highest summit, M. Elburz, in 43° 20? N. lat.,
and 42° 30? E. long., attains a height of not much less than 18,000 feet; and
the next in elevation, M. Kazbek, in 42° 50? N. lat., and 44° 20? E. long. is
just 16,000 feet high. The part of the chain W. of Elburz sinks very rapidly,
and along the shore of the Euxine its height is only about 200 feet; but the E.
part of the chain preserves a much greater elevation till it approaches very near
the Caspian, where it subsides rather suddenly. Nearly all the principal summits
of the central. part, from M. Elburz eastward, are above the line of perpetual
snow, which is here from 10,000 to 11,000 feet above the sea. The central chain
is bordered by two others, running parallel to it; that on the N., called by the
inhabitants the Black Mountains, forms a sort of shoulder, by which the Caucasus
sinks down to the great plain of Sarmatia and the basin of the Caspian; while
that on the S., called in Armenian Sdorin Goffkas, i. e. the Lower Caucasus, branches
off from the central mass in 44° E. long., and running between the rivers Rion
(Phasis) and Kur (Cyrus), from WNW. to ESE., connects the main chain with the
highlands of Armenia, and with the Taurus system. The mountains are chiefly of
the secondary formation, with some primary rocks; and, though there are no active
volcanoes, the frequent earthquakes, and the naphtha springs at the E. extremity,
indicate much igneous action. The summits are flat or rounded, with an entire
absence of the sharp peaks familiar to us in the Alps. The chief rivers of the
Caucasus are on the N. side, the Terek (Alontas), and the Kuban (Hypanis or Vardanes),
both rising in M. Elburz, and falling, the former into the Caspian, the latter
into the Sea of Azov; and, on the S. side, the Rion (Phasis) falling into the
Euxine, and the Kur (Cyrus) falling into the Caspian. This brief general description
of the chain will render more intelligible the statements of the ancient writers
respecting it, (The chief modern works on the Caucasus are, Reinegg, Histor.-topograph.
Beschreibung des Kaukasus, St. Petersb. 1796, 1797, 2 vols. 8vo., aud the works
of Koch, especially his splendid Atlas, Karte des Kaukasischen Isthmuss und Armeniens,
Berlin, 1850, consisting of four large maps, repeated in four editions, one coloured
politically, another ethnographically, the third botanically, and the fourth geologically.
The Atlas to Rennell's Comparative Geography of W. Asia is also very useful.)
In the early Greek writers, the Caucasus appears as the object of a dim and uncertain knowledge, which embraced little more than its name, and that vague notion of its position which they had also of other places about the region of the Euxine, and which they traced mythically to the Argonautic expedition (Strab. xi. p. 505). In Aeschylus, it is the scene of the punishment of Prometheus, who is chained to a rock at the extremity of the range overhanging the sea, but at a considerable distance from the summit the Caucasus itself, highest of mountains (Aesch. Prom. Vinct. 719, comp. 422, 89, 1088; Prom. Sol. Fr. 179, ap. Cic. Quaest. Tusc. ii. 1. 0; comp. Hygin. Fab. 54; Apollon. Rhod. ii. 1246, et seq.; Val. Flacc. v. 155, where the Caucasus is called Promethei cubile: Strab. iv. p. 183, xi. p. 505, who expressly asserts that the Caucasus was the easternmost mountain known to the earlier Greeks; and adds that it was, in later myths, the scene of expeditions of Heracles and Dionysus.)
Hecataeus mentions the Caucasus twice, in connection with the Dandarii
and Coli, peoples who dwelt about it; and he adds that the lower parts of the
chain were called Colici Montes (Kolika ore; Fr. 161,186, ap. Steph. B. s. vv.
DaWdarioi, Koloi; comp. Plin. vi. 5.) Herodotus shows a general knowledge of the
chain, which is accurate as far as it goes: he derived it from the Persians, of
whose empire the Caucasus was the N. boundary; a boundary, indeed, never passed
by any Asiatic conqueror till the time of Zenghis Khan. (Herod. iii. 97; Heeren,
Ideen, &c. vol. i. pt. 1. p. 148). He describes it as extending along the W. side
of the Caspian Sea, and as the loftiest of mountains, and the greatest in extent,
containing in itself numerous peoples of all kinds (paWtoia, i. e. of all known
races), respecting whom, however, the Persians do not seem to have had any exact
knowledge to communicate. (Herod. i: 203, 204, followed by Aristot. Meteor. i.
13.) He knew of the great pass at the E. extremity of the chain (Pass of Derbend),
by which, he tells us, the Scythians invaded W. Asia (i. 104, iv. 12). After Herodotus
the knowledge of the Greeks respecting Caucasus seems to have gone backward. Impressed
with vague ideas of its magnitude and remoteness, they regarded its ascent as
an achievement worthy of the greatest of conquerors (Strab. xi. pp. 505, 506);
and so, when Alexander passed the Paropamisus, the honour of having scaled the
heights of Caucasus was assigned to him by the flattery rather than the ignorance
of his followers, who transferred the ancient name to the scene of his achievements.
The name is used by the geographers rather more frequently for the Indian than
the W. mountain; and the former still retains the name, as the Hindoo Koosh.
The glory of having reached, though not of actually crossing, the
real Caucasus, was reserved for Pompey, when his pursuit of Mithridates led him
into Iberia and Albania, B.C. 65. (Plut. Pomp. 34, et seq., Lucull. 14; Appian
Mithr. 103.) The knowledge obtained in this expedition enabled Strabo to give
a description of the Caucasus, to which very little was added by later writers
(ii. p. 118). His chief passages are in the 11th Book. The mountain, he says,
overhangs each of the two seas, the Pontic and the Caspian, and forms a wall across
the isthmus which separates them. It is the boundary between Alabania and Iberia
on the S. and the plains of the Sarmatians on the N. It is well wooded with all
sorts of timber, including that fit for shipbuilding. It throws out branches towards
the S., which surround Iberia, and join on to the mountains of Armenia and Colchis
(comp. pp. 500, 527), and to those called Moschici, and moreover to the chains
of Scydises and Paryadres by which it is connected with the Taurus system. The
natives, according to Eratosthenes, called the Caucasus Caspius. (Strab. xi. p.
497.)
In another passage he gives a more particular description of the inhabitants
(xi. p. 506). The loftiest parts of the chain are those on its S. side, adjacent
to Albania, Iberia, and the Colchi and Heniochi. The inhabitants, whom he calls
by the general name of Kaukasioi, and among whom he particularly mentions the
Peitheirophagi and Soanes, frequent the city of Dioscurias chiefly to obtain salt.
(Comp. pp. 498, 499.) Some of them inhabit the summits of the mountains (he must
mean the lower summits) and others the wooded valleys, and they live for the most
part on game, wild fruits, and milk. In winter the summits are inaccessible, but
in summer they mount over the snow and ice by means of broad snow-shoes furnished
with spikes (one almost wonders that the alpenstock does not appear), and they
glide down again with their burthens on a hide as a sledge. As you descend the
N. slopes, the climate, in spite of the nearer approach to the N., becomes milder,
from its proximity to the plains of the Siracae. But there are some Troglodytes,
who dwell in caves on account of the cold; and after them are the Chaeonoetae
and Polyphagi, and the villages of the Eisadicae, who are able to till the soil,
on account of not being too far N.: and thus you descend to the great plain of
Sarmatia. Elsewhere he enumerates the peoples on the N. of the Caucasus, between
the Euxine and Caspian, namely, the Sauromatae, Scythians (Aorsi and Siraci),
Achaei, Zygi, and Heniochi, the last three peoples being within the Caucasus itself
(ii. p. 129, xi. pp. 492, 495, 498, 499). In his account of certain extraordinary
customs of the Caucasians and other mountaineers (xi. 519, 520), his language
is so general, that it may apply to the tribes either of Caucasus Proper or of
the Indian Caucasus.
The E. part of the chain, near the Caspian, and forming part of the
N. boundary of Albania, he calls the Ceraunii Mtns. (ta KerauWia ore), and in
them he places the Amazons (xi. pp. 501, 504; Plut. Pomp. 35; comp. Ceraunii M.).
Mela merely makes a passing mention of the Caucasus as one of many
names applied to the mountains of the Caucasian isthmus (i. 19); and Pliny scarcely
notices them more particularly (v. 27, vi. 4, 5, 10. s. 11, &c.): he tells us
that the Scythians called the mountains Graucasis, i. e. white with snow (vi.
17. s. 19). Seneca calls it nivosus (Herc. Oct. 1451). Its great height is often
noticed (Aristot. Meteor. i. 13; Procop. B. G. iv. 3); and it is compared, in
this respect, by Agathemerus (ii. 9) to the Rhipaean mountains, and by Arrian
(Peripl. p. 12) to the Alps. To the notices in Ptolemy and Dionysius Periegetes
a mere reference is sufficient. (Ptol. v. 9. § § 14,15, 22, 10. § 4, 12. § 4;
Dionys. Per. 663, comp. Eustath. ad loc.: see also Ovid. Met. ii. 224, vii. 798:
comp. Ceraunii M.)
In ancient times, as is still the case, the Caucasus was inhabited
by a great variety of tribes, speaking different languages (Strabo says, at least
70), but all belonging to that family of the human race, which has peopled Europe
and W. Asia, and which has obtained the name of Caucasian from the fact that in
no other part of the world are such perfect examples of it found, as among the
mountaineers of the Caucasus.
Passes of the Caucasus: There are two chief passes over the chain,
both of which were known to the ancients: the one, between the E. extremity of
its chief NE. spur and the Caspian, near Derbend, was called Albaniae and sometimes
Caspiae Pylae: the other, nearly in the centre of the range, was called Caucasiae,
or Sarmaticae Pylae (Pass of Dariel). But there is so much confusion in the names
used by the ancient writers, that it is often difficult to make out which of the
two passes they mean.
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ERMONASSA (Ancient city) TAVRIS
Hermonassa (Hermonassa Dionys. 552; Scymn. Fr. 152; Pomp. Mela, i.
19. § 5; Ptol. v. 9; Steph. B. s. v.), a place lying between Sindica and Phanagoria,
which Rennell (Compar. Geog. vol. ii. p 331) fixes at the opening of the lake
into which the Kuban river flows.
FANAGORIA (Ancient city) SKYTHIA
Phanagoria (Phanagoria, Strab. xi. p. 494; Ptol. v. 9. § 6; (he Phanagoreia,
ta Phanagoreia, Hecat. ap. Steph. B. s. v.; Strab. xi. p. 495; Scymn. Ch. 891;
Arrian, ap. Eustath. ad Dionys. Per. 306, 549; Phainagore, Dionys. Per. 552; comp.
Priscian, 565; Avien. 753; Phanagora, Steph. B. s. v. Taurike; Phanagorou polis,
Scylax, p. 31; Anonym. Peripl. P. Eux. p. 2 ; Phanagorus, Amm. Marc. xxii. 8;
Phanagouris, Procop. B. Goth. iv. 5: Eth. Phanagoreus, less correctly PhaWagoreites,
Steph. B. s. v.), a Greek city on the Asiatic side of the Cimmerian Bosporus,
founded by the Teians under Phanagorus or Phanagoras, who fled thither from the
Persians. (Eustath. ad Dionys. Per.; Scymn. Ch., Steph. B., Peripl. P. Eux. ll.
cc.) It was situated upon an island, now called Taman, formed by the main branch
of the Anticites (Kuban), which flows into the Black Sea, and a smaller branch,
which falls into the sea of Azof. The main branch of the Kuban forms a lake before
it enters the sea, called in ancient times Corocondamitis (Strab. xi. p. 494),
now the Kubanskoi Liman, on the left of which, entering from the sea, stood Phanagoria.
(Strab. xi. p. 495; respecting Phanagoria being upon an island, see Steph. B.,
Eustath., Amm. Marc., l. c.) The city became the great emporium for all the traffic
between the coast of the Palus Maeotis and the countries on the southern side
of the Caucasus, and was chosen by the kings of Bosporus as their capital in Asia,
Panticapaeum being their capital in Europe. (Strab., Steph. B., l. c.) It was
at Phanagoria that the insurrection broke out against Mithridates the Great, shortly
before his death ; and his sons, who held the citadel, were obliged to surrender
to the insurgents. (Appian, Mithr. 108; Dict. of Biogr. Vol. II. p. 1102, b.)
In the sixth century of our era, Phanagoria was taken by the neighbouring barbarians
and destroyed. (Procop. B. Goth. iv. 5.) The most remarkable building in Phanagoria
seems to have been a temple of Aphrodite, surnamed Apaturus (Apatouros), because
the goddess, when attacked by the giants in this place, is said to have summoned
Hercules to her aid, and then to have concealed him and to have handed over the
giants separately to him to be slain (dolophonein ex apates, Strab. xi. p. 495;
Steph. B. s. v. Apatouron; Bockh, Inscr. No. 2120.) We learn from an inscription
that this temple was repaired by Sauromates, one of the kings of Bosporus. The
site of Phanagoria is now only a mass of bricks and pottery; and there is no building
above ground. One cause of the disappearance of all the ancient monuments at Phanagoria
was the foundation in its neighbourhood at an early period of the Russian colony
of Tmutarakan. Dutour noticed traces of towers towards the eastern extremity of
the town, where the citadel probably stood. The town of Taman contains several
ancient remains, inscriptions, fragments of columns, &c., which have been brought
from Phanagoria. There are numerous tombs above the site of Phanagoria, but they
have not been explored like those at Panticapaeum. In one of them, however, which
was opened towards the end of last century there was found a bracelet of the purest
massive gold, representing the body of a serpent, having two heads, which were
studded with rubies so as to imitate eyes and also ornamented with rows of gems.
It weighed three-quarters of a pound. (Clarke, Travels, vol. i. p. 394, seq.;
Pallas, Reisen, vol. ii. p. 286, &c.; Dubois, Voyage autour du Caucase, vol. v.
p. 64, seq.; Ukert, vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 491.)
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KARKINA (Ancient city) SARMATIA
Carcina (Karkina, Ptol. iii. 5. § 27), Carcine (Plin. iv. 12. s. 26),
Carcinitis (Karkinitis, Herod. iv. 55, 99; Hecat. ap. Steph. B. s. v.: Eth. Karkinitai),
a city of Sarmatia Europaea (or Scythia, according to Herodotus), near the mouth
of the river Hypacyris (Herod. iv. 55), or, as later writers name the river, Carcinites
(Karkinites, Strab. vii. p. 307; Ptol. iii. 5. § § 8, 9; Plin. l. c.) This river
fell into the gulf of the same name (Karkinites kolpos, Strab. l. c.; Mela, ii.
1. § 40; Plin. 1. c.; Marcian. p. 55; Anon. Per. pp. 7, 9; formerly called Tamurakes
kolpos: Gulf of Perekop), which lies on the W. side of the isthmus of the Chersonesus
Taurica (Crimea). The river was regarded as the boundary between the Old Scythia
of Herodotus (iv. 99) and Taurica (comp. Plin. l. c., who calls the country W.
of the river Scythia Sendica). The river is generally supposed to be the small
stream of Kalantchak. The site of the city cannot be determined with any certainty.
(Eichwald, Geogr. d. Kasp. Meer. p. 305; Ukert, vol. iii. pt. ii. pp. 164, 193,
438, 458.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
KIMERIKON (Ancient city) TAVRIS
Cimmericum (Kimmerikon, Scymn. Frag. xci; Anon. Peripl. 5), a town
of the Cimmerian Bosporus situated near the mountain of the same name (Kimmerion,
Strab. vii. p. 309: Aghirmisch Daghi, or Opouk) rising in the E. portion of the
S. coast of the peninsula of Kertsch. (Koler, Meme. de l'Acad. de St. Petersburg,
vol. ix. p. 649.)
KIMERIOS VOSPOROS (Ancient country) SKYTHIA
Bosporus Cimmerius (Bosporos Kimmerios, Herod. iv. 12,100; Kimmerikos,
Strab.; Polyb.: Strait of Yeni Kale), the narrow passage connecting the Palus
Maeotis with the Euxine. The Cimmerians, to whom it owes its name (Strab. vii.
p. 309, xi. p. 494), are described in the Odyssey (xi. 14) as dwelling beyond
the ocean-stream, immersed in darkness, and unblest by the rays of Helios. This
people, belonging partly to legend, and partly to history, seem to have been the
chief occupants of the Tauric Chersonese (Crimea), and of the territory between
that peninsula and the river Tyras (Dniester), when the Greeks settled on these
coasts in the 7th century B.C. (Grote, Hist. of Greece, vol. iii. p. 313.)
The length of the strait was estimated at 60 stadia (Polyb. iv. 39),
and its breadth varied from 30 (Polyb. l. c.) to 70 stadia. (Strab. p. 310.) An
inscription discovered on a marble column states that in the year 1068, Prince
Gleb measured the sea on the ice, and that the distance from Tmsutaracan (Taman)
to Kertsch was 9,384 fathoms. (Jones, Travels, vol. ii. p. 197.) The greater part
of the channel is lined with sand-banks, and is shallow, as it was in the days
of Polybius, and as it may always be expected to remain, from the crookedness
of the passage, which prevents the fair rush of the stream from the N., and favours
the accumulation of deposit. But the soundings deepen as the passage opens into
the Euxine. (Journ. Geog. Soc. vol. i p. 106.)
The political limits of the Cimmerian Bosporus varied considerably.
In its palmiest days the territory extended as far N. as the Tanais (Strab. p.
495), while to the W. it was bounded on the inland side by the mountains of Theodosia.
This fertile but narrow region was the granary of Greece, especially of Athens,
which drew annually from it a supply of 400,000 medimni of corn.
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KIPI (Ancient city) SKYTHIA
Cepi Milesiorum (Kepos, Kepoi, Strab. xi. p. 494; Anon. Peripl.; Pomp.
Mela, i. 19. § 15; Diod. xx. 24; Procop. Bell. Goth. iv. 5; Cepi, Cepos, Peut.
Tab.; Ceppos, Geog. Raven.), a town of the Cimmerian Bosporus founded by the Milesians
(Scymn.; Plin. vi. 6), and situated to N. of the Asiatic coast. Dr. Clarke (Trav.
vol. ii. p. 77) identifies Sienna with this place, and the remarkable Milesian
sepulchres found there in such abundance confirm this position. Near to this spot
stood a monument raised by Comosarya, a Queen of the Bosporus, who as it appears
from the inscription which has been preserved, was wife of Parysades, and dedicated
it to the Syro-Chaldaic deities Anerges and Astara. (Koler, Mem. sur le Monument
de la Reine Comosarye. St. Petersburg, 1805.)
MAEOTIS LAKE (Gulf) SKYTHIA
Maeotis Palus the large body of water to the NE. of the Euxine now
called the Sea of Azov, or the Azak-deniz-i of the Turks. This sea was usually
called Palus Maeotis (he Maiotis limne, Aesch. Prom. 427), but sometimes Maeotica
or Maeotia Palus (Plin. ii. 67; Lucan ii.641), Maeotius or Maeotis Lacus (Plin.
iv. 24, vi. 6), Maeotium or Maeoticum aequor (Avien. v. 32; Val. Flac. iv. 720),
Cimmeriae Paludes (Claud. in Eutrop. i. 249), Cimmericum or Bosporicum Mare (Gell.
xvii. 8), Scythicae Undae, Paludes (Ovid. Her. vi. 107, Trist. iii. 4. 49). The
genitive in Latin followed the Greek form Maeotidis, but was sometimes Maeotis
(Ennius, ap. Cic. Tusc. v. 17). The accusative has the two forms Maiotin Maeotim
(Plin. x. 10), and Maiotida Maeotida (Pomp. Mela, i. 3. § 1, ii. 1. § 1). Pliny
(vi. 7) has preserved the Scythian name Temerinda, which he translates by Mater
Maris.
The Maeotic gulf, with a surface of rather more than 13,000 square
miles, was supposed by the ancients to be of far larger dimensions than it really
is. Thus Herodotus (iv. 86) believed it to be not much less in extent than the
Euxine, while Scylax (p. 30, ed. Hudson) calculated it at half the size of that
sea. Strabo (ii. p. 125, comp. vii. pp. 307-312, xi. p. 493; Arrian. Perip. p.
20, ed. Hudson; Agathem. i. 3, ii. 14) estimated the circumference at somewhat
more than 9000 stadia, but Polybius (iv. 39) reduces it to 8000 stadia. According
to Pliny (iv. 24) its circuit was reckoned at 1406 M. P., or, according to some,
1125 M.P. Strabo (vii. p. 310) reckons it in length 2200 stadia between the Cimmerian
Bosporus and the mouth of the Tanais, and therefore came nearest amongst the ancients
in the length; but he seems to have supposed it to carry its width on towards
the Tanais (comp. Rennell, Compar. Geog. vol. ii. p. 331). The length according
to Pliny (l. c.) is 385 M. P., which agrees with the estimate of Ptolemy (v. 9.
§ § 1-7). Polybius (l. c.) confidently anticipated an entire and speedy choking
of the waters of the Maeotis; and ever since his time the theory that the Sea
of Azov has contracted its boundaries has met with considerable support, though
on this point there is a material discordance among the various authorities; the
latest statement, and approximation to the amount of its cubic contents will be
found in Admiral Smyth's work (The Mediterranean, p. 148). The ancients appear
to have been correct in their assertion about the absence of salt in its waters,
as, although in SW. winds,when the water is highest, it becomes brackish, yet
at other times it is drinkable, though of a disagreeable flavour (Jones, Trav.
vol. ii. p. 143; Journ Geog. Soc. vol. i. p. 106).
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MIRMIKION (Ancient city) TAVRIS
Myrmecium (Murmekion, Strab. xi. p. 494; Pomp. Mela, ii. 1. § 3; Plin.
iv. 26; Anon. Peripl. p. 4; Steph. B.; Jornand. Get. 5), a Milesian colony on
the Cimmerian Bosporus, 20 stadia N. of Panticapaeum. (Strab. vii. p. 310.) Near
the town was a promontory of the same name. (Ptol. iii. 6. § 4; Leo Diac. ix.
6.) It is the modern Yenikale or Jenikale, where many ancient remains have been
found. (Clarke, Trav. vol. ii. pp. 98, 102; Dubois de Montpereux, Voyage au Caucase,
vol. v. p. 231.)
NIKONION (Ancient city) SARMATIA
Niconium (Nikonion, Scylax, p. 29), a city of European Sarmatia, which
Strabo (vii. p. 306) places at 180 stadia from the mouth of the Tyras, while the
anonymous Coast-describer (p. 9) fixes it at 300 stadia from the Isiacorum Portus,
and 30 stadia from the Tyras on the coast. Stephanus of Byzantium (s. v.) states
that it was at the mouth of the Ister, but for Istrou, Turou should probably be
read. Ptolemy (iii. 10. § 16) has removed it from the coast, and placed it too
far to the N. Its position must be looked for near Ovidiopol.
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NYMFEON (Ancient city) TAVRIS
Nymphaea, Nymphaeum. (Numphaia, Scylax, p. 29; Numphaion, Strab. vii.
p. 309; Appian, B. Mithr. 108; Ptol. iii. 6. § 3; Anon. Peripl. p. 5; Plin. iv.
26; Craterus, ap. Harpocrat. s. v.; Nymphae, Geog. Rav. v. 2), a Milesian colony
of the Tauric Chersonese, with a good harbour. (Strab. l. c.) The ruins of this
town are to be found on the S. point of the gulf now called the Lake of Tchourbache.
(Dubois de Montperreux, Voyage Autour du Caucase, vol. v. pp. 246--251; Marigny
Taitbout, Portulan de la Mer Noire, p. 74.) Pallas (Reise in d. Sudl. Statthalt.
Russland's, vol. ii. p. 341) fixes it between the Paulofka Battery and Kamyschburnu.
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PANTICAPAION (Ancient city) TAVRIS
Panticapaeum (Pantikapaion, Pantikapaion, Scylax, Strab. et alii;
Pantikapaia, Ptol. iii. 6. § 4: Eth. Pantikapaieus, Pantikapiates, Steph. B. s.
v. for the latter we should probably read Pantikapaites, as Pantikapaitai occurs
on coins Eckhel, vol. ii. p. 3;, also Pantikapeus, as if from a form Pantikape,,
Steph. B.; Panticapenses, Plin. vi. 7: Kertch), an important Greek city, situated
in the Tauric Chersonesus on the western side of the Cimmerian Bosporus, and not
far from the entrance to the Lacus Maeotis. (Strab. vii. p. 309; Appian, Mithr.
107.) Scylax says (p. 30, Huds.) that Panticapaeum was 30 stadia from the Maeotis,
which is too short a distance;. but Arrian (Peripl. § 29, p. 20, Huds.) more correctly
makes the distance 60 stadia from Panticapaeum to the mouth of the Tanais, the
Maeotis being regarded by this writer as a continuation of the Tanais, and the
Bosporus as the mouth of the latter. According to Steph. B. (s. v.) Panticapaeum
derived its name from a. river Panticapes; but this is a mistake of the learned
Byzantine, who appears to have recollected the river of. this name mentioned by
Herodotus, and therefore connected it with the city Panticapaeum, which, however,
does not stand upon any river. Amimianus also erroneously places it on the Hypanis
(xxii. 8. § 26). According to a tradition preserved by Stephanus (s. v.) it was
founded by a son. of Aeetes, who received the district as a present from the Scythian
king Agaetes; but we know from history that it was a Milesian colony, and apparently
one of the earliest on this coast. (Strab. vii. p. 309; Plin. iv. 12. s. 26.)
Ammianus (l. c.) calls it the mother of all the Milesian towns on the Bosporus;
but. the date of its foundation cannot be determined. Bockh (Inscr. vol. ii. p.
91) places it about Ol. 59. 4 (B.C. 541), and it must certainly have been. earlier
than O1. 75.1 (B.C. 480), which is the date assigned to it by Niebuhr. (Kleine
Schrift. vol. i. p. 373.) The Greeks connected the name Panticapaeum with the
god Pan, whose figure, or that of a Satyr, frequently appears on the coins of
the city; but this name, as well as that of the river Panticapes, probably belonged
to the Scythian language, and was, as in similar cases, adopted by the Greeks
with an Hellenic termination.
Panticapaeum was the capital of the kings of Bosporus (Strab. xi.
p. 495; Diod. xx. 24), of whom a brief account is given elsewhere. [Vol. I. p.
422.] Accordingly Panticapaeum was frequently called Bosporus, though the latter
name was also given to the whole kingdom. Hence, when Demosthenes says that Theudosia
was reckoned by many as good a harbour as Bosporus, he evidently means by the
latter the capital and not the kingdom (in Lept. p. 467); and accordingly Pliny
expressly says (iv. 12. s. 24) that Panticapaeum was called Bosporus by some.
Eutropius (vii. 9) erroneously makes Panticapaeuni and Bosporus two different
cities. Under the Byzantines Bosporus became the ordinary name of the city (Procop.
de Aedif. iii. 7, B. Pers. i. 12. B. Goth. iv. 5); and among the inhabitants of
the Crimea Kertch is still called Bospor. The old name, however, continued in
use for a long time; for in the Italian charts of the middle ages we find the
town called Pandico or Pondico, as well as Bospro or Vospro.
The walls of the city were repaired by Justinian. (Procop. de Aedif.
iii. 7.)
The site of Panticapaeum is well described by Strabo. Panticapaeum,
he says, is a hill, 20 stadia in circumference, covered with buildings on every
side: towards the east it has a harbour and docks for 30 ships ; it has also a
citadel (vii. p. 390). The hill is now called the Arm-chair of Mithridates. The
modern town of Kertch stands at the foot of the hill, a great part of it upon
alluvial soil, the site of which was probably covered by the sea in ancient times
Hence the bay on the northern side of the city appears to have advanced originally
much further into the land; and there was probably at one time a second port on
the southern side, of which there now remains only a small lake, separated from
the sea by a bar of sand. Foundations of ancient buildings and heaps of brick
and pottery are still scattered over the hill of Mithridates; but the most remarkable
ancient remains are the numerous tumuli round Kertch, in which many valuable works
of art have been discovered, and of which a full account is given in the works
mentioned below. The most extraordinary of these tumuli are those of the kings
situated at the mountain called Altun-Obo, or the golden mountain, by the Tartars.
One of the tumuli is in the form of a cone, 100 feet high and 450 feet in diameter,
and cased on its exterior with large blocks of stone, cubes of 3 or 4 feet, placed
without cement or mortar. This remarkable monument has been at all times the subject
of mysterious legends, but the entrance to it was not discovered till 1832. This
entrance led to a gallery, constructed of layers of worked stone without cement,
60 feet long and 10 feet high, at the end of which was a vaulted chamber, 35 feet
high and 20 feet in diameter, the floor of which was 10 feet below the floor of
the entrance. This chamber, however, was empty, though on the ground was a large
square stone, on which a sarcophagus might have rested. This tumulus stands at
a spot where two branches of a long rampart meet, which extends N. to the Sea.
of Azof, and SE. to the Bosporus just above Nymphaeum. It was probably the ancient
boundary of the territory of Panticapaeum and of the kingdom of the Bosporus,
before the conquest of Nymphaeum and Theudosia. Within the rampart, 150 paces
to the E., there is another monument of the same kind, but unfinished. It consists
of a circular esplanade, 500 paces round and 166 in diameter, with an exterior
covering of Cyclopean masonry, built of worked stones, 3 feet long and high, of
which there are only five layers. But the greatest discovery has been at the hill,
called by the Tartars Kul-Obo, or the hill of cinders, which is situated outside
of the ancient rampart, and 4 miles from Kertch. Here is a tumulus 165 feet in
diameter; and as some soldiers were carrying away from it in 1830 the stones with
which it was covered, they accidentally opened a passage into the interior. A
vestibule, 6 feet square, led into a tomb 15 feet long and 14 broad, which contained
bones of a king and queen, golden and silver vases, and other ornaments. Below
this tomb was another, still richer; and from the two no less than 120 pounds'
weight of gold ornaments are said to have been extracted. From the forms of the
letters found here, as well as from other circumstances, it is supposed that the
tomb was erected not later than the fourth century B.C. (Dubois, Voyage autour
du Caucase, vol. v. p. 113, seq.; Seymour, Russia on the Black Sea, &c. p. 255,
seq.; Neumann, Die Hellenes in Skythenlande, vol. i. p. 478, seq.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
SARMATIA (Ancient country) RUSSIA
SKYTHIA (Ancient country) RUSSIA
TANAIS (Ancient city) RUSSIA
Tanais (Tanais, Ptol. iii. 5. § 26, viii. 18. § 5), a town of Asiatic
Sarmatia, lying on the more southern mouth and between both mouths of the river
of the same name. It may also be described as situated at the northernmost point
of the Palus Maeotis, and not far from the sea. It was a flourishing colony of
the Milesians, enjoying an extensive commerce, and being the principal market
of the surrounding tribes, both of Europe and Asia, who here bartered slaves and
skins for the wine, apparel, and other articles of more civilised nations. (Strab.
xi. p. 493.) The inhabitants soon reduced a considerable part of the neighbouring
coasts to subjection, but were in turn themselves subdued by the kings of the
Bosporus (Id. vii. p. 310, xi. p. 495). An attempt to regain their independence
only ended in the destruction of their city by Polemon I. (Id. p. 493), a little
before the time when Strabo wrote. Pliny (vi. 7. s. 7) speaks of Tanais as no
longer existing in his time; but it appears to have been subsequently restored
(Ptol. ll. cc.; Steph. B. p. 633), though it never recovered its former prosperity.
Clarke (i. p. 415) could discover no trace of it, nor even a probable site; but
its ruins are said to exist near the modern Nedrigoska (cf. Grafe, Mem. de l'Ac.
des Sc. a St. Petersb. vi. Ser. vi. p. 24; Stempowsky, Nouv. Jour. Asiat. i. p.
55; Bockh. Inscr. ii. p. 1008).
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
TAVRIS (Peninsula) SKYTHIA
Taurica Chersonesus (e Taurike Chersonesos, Ptol. iii. Arg. 2, &c.),
a peninsula stretching into the Pontus Euxinus from Sarmatia, or the country of
the nomad Scythians, with which it is connected by a narrow isthmus, anciently
called Taphrus, or Taphrae, now the isthmus of Perecop. The peninsula also bore
the name of Chersonesus Scythica, and was sometimes styled simply Taurica. (Plin.
iv. 12. s. 26; Scylax, i. p. 29, Huds.) It is now called the Crimea, from the
once famous city of Eski.-Krim; but since its incorporation with the Russian empire,
the name of Taurica has also been again applied to it.
The isthmus which connects the peninsula with Sarmatia is so slender,
being in some parts scarcely 40 stadia or 5 miles across (Strab. vii. p. 308;
Clarke, Trav. ii. p. 314, 4th ed. 1816), as to. make it probable that in a very
remote period Taurica was an island. (Plin. l. c.; cf. Pallas, Voyages, &c., ii.
p. 2, Fr. Transl. 4to.) The ancients compared it with the Peloponnesus, both as
to size and. shape (Strab. vii. p. 310; cf. Herod. iv. 99); and this comparison
is sufficiently happy, except that Taurica throws out another smaller peninsula
on its E. side, the Bosporan peninsula, or peninsula of Kertsch, which helps to
form the S. boundary or coast, of the Palus Maeotis. The Chersonese is about 200
miles across in a direct line from Cape Tarchan, its extreme W. point, to the
Straits of Kertsch, and 125 miles from N. to S., from Perecop to Cape Kikineis.
It contains an area of about 10,050 square miles. Nearly three-fourths of Taurica
consist of flat plains little elevated above the sea; the remainder towards the
S. is mounotainous. The NW. portion of the low coutry, or that which would lie
to the W. of a line drawn from the isthmus to the mouth of the river Alma, consists
of a sandy soil interspersed with salt lakes, an evidence that it was at one time
covered by the sea (Pallas, Ib. p. 605, &c.); but the E. and S. part has a fertile
mould. The mountain chain (Taurici Montes) begins to rise towards the centre of
the peninsula, gently at first on the N., but increasing in height as the chain
approaches the sea, into which it sinks steeply and abruptly. Hence the coast
at this part presents huge cliffs and precipices, and the sea is so deep that
the lead often finds no bottom at the distance of a mile or two from the shore.
From these mountains, which extend from Symbolon, or Balaclava, on the W., to
Theodosia, or Caffa, on the E., many bold promontories are projected into the
sea, enclosing between them deep and warm valleys open to the S., and sheltered
from the N. wind, where the olive and vine flourish, the apricot and almond ripen,
and the laurel creeps among the dark and frowning cliffs, The most remarkable
mountains of this chain are that anciently called the Cimmerium at the N. extremity,
and the Trapezus at the S. (Strab. vii. p. 309.) The former, which is said to
have derived its name from the Cimmerians, once dominant in the Bosporus, is now
called Aghirmisch-Daghi. It lies nearly in the centre of the peninsula, to the
NW. of the ancient Theodosia, and near the town of Eski-Krim, or Old Crim. Some
writers, however, identify Cimmerium with Mount Opouk, on the S. coast of the
peninsula of Kertsch. (Kohler, Mem. de l'Acad. de St. Petersb. 1824, p. 649, seq.;
Dubois de Montperreux, Voyages, &c. v. p. 253, seq.) But Trapezus is by far the
highest mountain of Taurica. Kohl estimates its height at 5000 German feet (Reisen
in Sudrussland, i. p. 204); other authorities make it rather less, or 4740 feet.
(Neumann, Die Hellenen im Scythenlande, p. 448.) According to Mr. Seymour, it
is 5125 English feet high. (Russia on the Black Sea, p. 146.) Its form justifies
its ancient name, and is said to resemble that of the Table Mountain at the Cape
of Good Hope (Kohl, Ib.). A good idea of it may be obtained from the vignette
in Pallas (ii. p. 196). As it stands somewhat isolated from the rest of the chain,
it presents a very striking and remarkable object, especially from the sea. At
present it is called Tchlatyr-Dagh, or the Tent Mountain. The other mountains
seldom exceed 1200 feet. Their geological structure presents many striking deviations
from the usual arrangement, especially in the absence of granite. These anomalies
are fully described by Pallas in his second volume of travels. That part of Taurica
which lay to the E. of them was called the Rugged, or Rocky, Chersonesus (trekee,
Herod. l. c.) It is in these mountains that the rivers which water the peninsula
have their sources, none of which, however, are considerable. They flow principally
from the northern side, from which they descend in picturesque cascades. Only
two are mentioned by the ancients, the Thapsis and the Istrianus. At present the
most fertile districts of Taurica are the calcareous valleys among the mountains,
which, though often covered with only a thin layer of mould, produce excellent
wheat. The nature of the country, however, does not now correspond with the descriptions
of the ancients. Strabo (l. c.) praises its fertility in producing corn, especially
in that part which lies between Panticapaeum (Kertsch) and Theodosia (Caffa),
which at present is a desolate and monotonous steppe. But this may probably be
accounted for by the physical and political revolutions which the country has
undergone. Taurica yielded a large tribute of wheat to Mithridates Eupator, King
of Bosporus. That sovereign took much interest in promoting the cultivation of
the country, especially by the planting of trees; but all his care to rear the
lanrel and the myrtle in the neighbourhood of Panticapaeum is said to have been
vain, though other trees grew there which required a mild temperature. (plin.
xvi. s. 59.) Wine was produced in abundance, as at the present day, and the custom
mentioned by Strabo (p. 307), of covering the vines with earth during the winter,
is still observed, though Pallas considers it unnecessary (Voyages, &c. ii. p.
444.)
The interest connected with the ancient history of the Tauric Chersonese
is chiefly derived from the maritime settlements of the Greeks, and our attention
is thus principally directed to the coasts. Its coasts, like those of the Euxine
in general, were early visited by the Milesians, who planted some flourishing
colonies upon it. Besides these we find a Dorian colony established near the site
of the present Sebastopol; and, if we may believe Aeschines (contra Ctesiph. p.
141, sq.), the Athenians once possessed the town of Nymphaeon on the Cimmerian
Bosporus, which, according to him, was betrayed to the Bosporan kings by Gylon,
the maternal grandfather of Demosthenes (Cf. Crateros in Harpocration, s. v. Numphaion.)
The interior of the peninsula was but little known to the ancients, and we shall
therefore best explain their connection with it by taking a survey of the coasts.
We shall begin on the NW. side, after the bay of Carcina or Tamyraca,
which has been already described. From this bay the peninsula stretches to its
most westerly point, Cape Tarchan, which presents some high land; but to the S.
of Tarchan the coast sinks to a dead level as far as the river Alma, to the S.
of which it again begins to rise in high cliffs. All the W. coast, however, presents
no place of note in ancient history till we come to its extreme southern point,
where a bald plateau of hills runs in a westerly direction into the sea. On the
E. this tract is divided from the rest of the peninsula by a deep and broad valley,
into which it falls by steep declivities. The harbour of Sebastopol (or Roads
of Aktiar) on the N., which bites into the land for about 4 miles in SE. direction,
and that of Balaclava on the S. coast of the peninsula, which runs up towards
the N., form an isthmus having a breadth, according to Strabo (p. 308), of 40
stadia, or 5 miles. This measurement is confirmed by Clarke (Trav. ii. p. 219),
who, however, seems only to have been guided by his eye; for in reality it is
rather more, or about 6 miles. The S. coast of the little peninsula formed by
this isthmus presents several promontories and small bays, with cliffs of from
500 to 700 feet in height.
So barren a spot presented no attractions to the Milesians, the chief
colonisers of the Euxine; but a more hardy race of emigrants, from the Dorian
city of Heracleia in Pontus, found a new home upon it, and founded there the town
of Chersonesus (Strab. l. c.). We learn from Pliny (iv. 12. s. 26) that it was
at first called Megarice, apparently from the circumstance that Megara was the
mother city of the Pontic Heracleots. From these settlers the little peninsula
we have just described obtained the name of the Chersonesus Heracleotica or Heracleotic
Chersonese, sometimes also called the small Chersonesus (e mikra, Strab, l. c.),
by way of distinction from the great, or Tauric, peninsula.
The original city of Chersonesus seems to have been founded at the
westernmost point of the peninsula, close to the present Cape Fanary. The date
and occasion of its foundation are not ascertained; but Neumann conjectures that
it may have been built about the middle of the fifth century B.C. (Die Hellenen,
&c. p. 383). Considerable remains of the ancient city were visible so late as
the end of the last century (Clarke, Trav. ii. pp. 292, seq.; Pallas, ii. pp.
70, seq); but every trace of them had vanished when Murawiew Apostol visited the
spot (Reise durch Taurien, p. 62). They were destroyed by a certain Lieut. Kruse,
who used the stones for building and converted the ground into a vineyard (Dubois
de Montperreux, Voyages, &c. vi. p. 133). The ancient Chersonesus, however, had
fallen into decay: before the time of Strabo; but the new town was flourishing
and appears from the ruins to have been seated on the W. side of what is now the
Quarantine Harbour of Sebastopol (Neumann, p. 392). The place was much damaged
towards the end of the fourteenth century by Olgierd, sovereign of Lithuania,
since which time it has been gradually falling into ruins (Karamsin, Russ. Gesch.
v. 13. Germ. tr.). The Turks carried away many of its sculptures and columns to
adorn Constantinople. Nevertheless, the town, although almost entirely deserted,
remained for three centuries in so perfect a state that a plan might have been
drawn of it at the time when it came into the possession of the Russians; but
its ruin was soon completed by its new masters, who blew up the walls and destroyed
the graves and temples. (Clarke, ii. p. 207.) Pliny (iv. 12. s. 26) gives the
circumference of its walls at 5 miles; but their outline could still be traced
in 1820, and according to Dubois de Montperreux (vi. 138), was only about a quarter
of that size. It is probable that Pliny may have confounded the town walls with
the wall or rampart which extended across the isthmus, which, as we have already
seen, Strabo describes as being 40 stadia, or 5 miles, broad. The same writer
speaks of it in another place (p. 312) as being fortified with a wall. This wall
ran from Ctenus, at the E. extremity of the harbour of Sebastopol to Symbolon
(Balaclava) on the S. coast, and appears to have been made by the Bosporan kings
as a defence against the Scythians. An account of its remaining vestiges is given
by Clarke (ii. p. 285, seq.; cf. Seymour, p. 149.). The whole enclosure was anciently
covered with gardens and villas, and the foundations of houses and of the boundary
walls of fields and gardens may still be traced, as well as many remains of the
town on the promontory between Quarantine Bay and Streletska Bay. Vestiges of
the principal street show it to have been 20 feet broad. The town wall on the
land side was near 2 miles long, built of limestone, and 5 or 6 feet thick, with
3 towers (Seymour, p. 150). Many antiquities and coins have been found in the
ruins of Chersonesus. In the neighbourhood are graves of the most simple kind,
hewn in the rock. They are easy of access, and present in this respect a remarkable
contrast to those at Panticapaeum; but, from this cause, nothing but bones have
been found in them, whilst those at Panticapaeum have yielded valuable antiquities.
According to Clarke (ii. 201, 210), the town of Eupatorium stood close to Chersonesus,
though others have identified it with Inkerman. About the latter place, the ancient
Ctenus, the rock is pierced all over with the subterranean dwellings of the ancient
Tauri. On the top are the ruins of the castle built by Diophantes, general of
Mithridates, to defend the Chersonese against the Tauro-Scythians. These caverns
or crypts are now rapidly falling in. (Seymour, p. 140.) Similar caves are found
in other parts of the peninsula.
The Heracleotic Chersonese was noted as the seat of the savage worship
of Diana Tauropolis. The natives, or Tauri, themselves had a worship of a similar
kind; but whether it was indigenous among them, or whether they borrowed it from
the Dorian Heracleots who settled here, cannot be ascertained. The account of
the Tauri themselves, that their virgin goddess was Iphigenia, the daughter of
Agamemnon, would seem to lead to the latter conclusion; though it is well known
that the nations of pagan antiquity readily adopted one another's deities when
any similarity was observable in their rights and attributes; and from the account
of Herodotus (iv. 103) it might perhaps be inferred that this horrible worship
existed among the Tauri before the arrival of the Greeks. Artemis was a peculiarly
Dorian deity, and was worshipped in several parts of Greece with human sacrifices.
There was a tradition that the town of Chersonesus was founded by Artemis herself.
The Heracleot Chersonites erected a famous temple on a headland which took the
name of Parthenium from it. Strabo however merely calls the Parthenium the temple
of the virgin, a certain daemon (p. 308), and does not mention Artemis. Opinions
vary as to which is the real promontory of Parthenium. Many seek it at cape Fanary
or Chersonese, which seems too near the town of Chersonesus, as Strabo places
the temple at the distance of 100 stadia from the town, though Fanary answers
to his description in other respects. Clarke and Pallas identify it with the Aia
Barun or Sacred Promontory (Clarke, ii. p. 286, and note), between Cape Fiolente
and Balaclava, which, besides its name, has also a ruin to recommend it; though
the latter claim to notice is shared by C. Fiolente. Dubois de Montperreux (vi.
p. 194, sq.) thinks that the temple may have stood on the spot now occupied by
the monastery of St. George; whilst Neumann, again places it on the headland a
little to the NW. Of C. Fiolente. It will be seen that these opinions rest on
little more than conjecture. On the coins of the Heracleotic Chersonese the image
of Artemis occurs by far the most frequently. She sometimes appears with Apollo,
sometimes with Hercules, the patron hero of the mother city, but more generally
alone, and always as the goddess of the chase, never as Selene (Von Kohne, in
the Memoirs of the Archaeolog. and Numism. Society of St. Petersburg, vol. ii.
ap. Neumann, p. 420). On other coins a fish is frequently seen; and one has a
plough on the obverse, and an ear of corn between two fishes on the reverse (Ib.).
The bays of the Heracleotic peninsula abound with fish, which formed a great part
of the riches of the country.
Of the history of the Heracleotic Chersonesus we know but little,
but it may perhaps be inferred from the Inscription of Agasicles that its constitution
was republican. It was important enough to take a part in political affairs as
an independent city, at least as late as about the middle of the 2nd century B.C.,
when, like its mother city, Heracleia, it was a party to the alliance against
Pharnaces I., king of Pontus, and Mithridates, satrap of Armenia. (Polyb. Frg.
lib. xxvi. c. 6, vol. iv. p. 345, sqq., ed. Sweigh.) Soon afterwards, however,
we find it struggling with the Taurians and their allies the Sarmatians for existence
(Polyaen. Strat. viii. c. 56), and it was ultimately compelled to place itself
under the protection of Mithridates the Great. Subsequently, however, it regained
its independence, through the Romans, and under the name of Cherson or Chorson
flourished till a late period of the middle ages, and even overturned the Bosporan
kingdom. (Const. Porphyr. de Adm. Imp. c. 53.)
Leaving the Heracleotic Chersonese, we will now proceed to describe
the remainder of the coast of the Tauric peninsula, which may be soon despatched,
as an account of its different cities is given in separate articles. From the
haven of Symbolon (Balaclava) to Theodosia (Caffa) the coast is correctly described
by Strabo as craggy, mountainous, and stormy, and marked with many headlands (p.
309). The distance, however, which he assigns to this tract of 1000 stadia, or
125 miles, is rather too small. In both the Periplus of the Euxine the distance
given is 1320 stadia, but this must include all the indentures of the coast. The
most remarkable promontory in. this part was the Criu-metopon, or Ram's Head,
which has been variously identified. Some writers have taken it for the promontory
of Laspi, which is in reality the most southern point of the peninsula. Some again
have identified it with Ai Petri, and a still greater number with the Aju-dagh.
But the account given by Arrian and the Anonymous agrees better with Cape Aithodor.
These writers say that the Criu-metopon lay 220 stadia to the W. of Lampas. (Arrian,
Peripl. p. 20; Anon. Peripl. p. 6.) Now Lampas is undoubtedly the present Bijuk
Lampat, the distance between which and Cape Aithodor agrees very accurately with
the preceding measurement. Scymnus indeed (ii. 320, Gail) states the distance
at only 120 stadia; but this is evidently an error, as it is too short by half
even for Aju-dagh. Cape Aithodor is not much N. of Lapsi, and from its position
might easily have been taken by the Greeks for the southernmost point of the peninsula.
(See Neumann, 451, sq.)
From the traces of Greek names, ruins, remains of marble columns,
&c., it may be inferred that the whole of this tract was once in the hands of
the Greeks. But these relics probably belong to the Byzantine times, since the
older geographers mention only four places on this part of the coast, namely,
Charax, Lagyra, Lampas, and Athenaeon.
To the E. of Theodosia the coast of the Euxine trends into a large
bay, which, approaching the Palus Maeotis on the N., forms an isthmus about 12
miles broad, to the E. of which, as far as the Cimmerian Bosporus, extends the
Bosporan peninsula, or that of Kertsch, which swells out to double the breadth
of the isthmus. The western half of this peninsula is flat; but the eastern portion
rises into hills, which surround the bay in which Panticapaeum was situated. It
possessed several flourishing maritime towns, as Cazeka and Cimmericum on the
S. coast; Nymphaeon Panticapaeum, the Bosporan capital, on the Cimmerian Bosporus;
with some others of less note, as Myrmecium, Porthmion, and Hermisium. There were
also probably towns in the interior; but we know the name of only one, namely,
Iluratum. (Ptol. iii. 6. § 6.) Beyond the Bosporan straits we have little to guide
us but the accounts of Ptolemy. From those straits, the N. coast of the peninsula,
which is high and chalky, proceeded in a westerly direction to the modern Arabat.
Somewhere on this tract lay the Greek colony of Heracleion.
On the E. side of the Tauric peninsula, the Tongue of Arabat, a narrow
slip of land scarcely raised above the level of the sea, 52 miles long and about
half a mile broad, runs along the whole coast, dividing the Maeotis from the Sapra
limne, or Putrid Sea. But though Strabo knew that the latter formed the western
portion of the Maeotis (p. 208), he nowhere mentions the Tongue of Arabat. The
Putrid Sea seems to be the Lacus Buges of Pliny (iv. 12. s. 26); but his description
is not very intelligible. According to the accounts of recent travellers the Putrid
Sea, now called the Shivashe, does not appear to deserve its name, as it has neither
an unpleasant smell nor are its shores unhealthy (Seymour, p. 33); yet in the
times of Clarke and Pallas it seems to have possessed both these offensive qualities.
(Clarke, Tray. vol. ii. p. 314, note.)
The chief feature in the history of the Chersonesus Taurica, is that
of the kingdom of the Bosporus. After the extinction of that dynasty, towards
the end of the 4th century of our era, the peninsula fell into the hands of the
Huns, of which race remnants still existed between Panticapaeum and Cherson in
the 6th century. (Procop. Goth. iv. 5.) It was subsequently overrun by the Goths
and other nations who followed the great stream of emigration. Justinian reunited
the kingdom of the Bosporus to the Greek Empire; and the Byzantine emperors, till
the fall of Constantinople, always regarded the Tauric peninsula as part of their
dominions. But the Tatars had made themselves the actual masters of it before
the middle of the 13th century. Under these possessors, the Genoese, who settled
on the coasts towards the end of the same century, played the same part as the
Greeks did when the country was possessed by the Tauri, and planted several flourishing
colonies. (Neumann, Die Hellenen im Skythenlande; Georgii, Alte Geographie, vol.
ii; Clarke's Travels, vol. ii.; Danby Seymour, Russia on the Black Sea; Forbiger,
Handb. der alt. Geogr. vol. iii.)
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THEODOSIA (Ancient city) TAVRIS
Theodosia (Theodosia, Ptol. iii. 6. § 3), a flourishing colony of
the Milesians, on the coast of the Chersonesus Taurica, in European Sarmatia,
with a harbour capable of containing 100 ships. (Strab. vii. 309; Arrian, Per.
P. Eux. p. 20.) In the dialect of the natives, it was called Ardabda (Ardabda,
Anon. Per. P. Eux. p. 5), which is said to have signified, in the dialect of the
Taurians, seven gods (Pallas, i. p. 416), and at a later period Kapha (Kapha,
Const. Porphyr. de Adm. Imp. c. 53); whilst by the Geogr. Rav. (iv. 3, v. 11)
we find it named Theodosiopolis. It enjoyed an extensive commerce, particularly
in corn (Dem. adv. Lept. p. 255), but appears to have been ruined before the age
of Arrian, in the beginning of the second century. (Arrian, l. c.) Yet it continues
to be mentioned by later writers (Polyaen. v. 23; Amm. Marc. xxii. 8. § 36; Oros.
i. 2; Steph. B. s. v. &c.) Yet we should not, perhaps, allow these writers much
authority; at all events the very name of the Milesian colony appears to have
vanished in the time of the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, under whom the
site on which it stood was already called Kaffon (de Adm. Imp. c. 43; cf. Neumann,
Die Hellenen im Skythenlande, p. 469.) Clarke imagined that he had discovered
its ruins at Stara Crim, where there are still some magnificent remains of a Greek
city (Tray. ii. p. 154, sq.; cf. p. 150 and note); but the more general, and perhaps
better founded opinion is, that it stood, near its namesake, the modern Caffa
or Theodosia. (Cf. Raoul-Rochette, Ant. du Bosp. Cimm. p. 30; Dubois, v. p. 280.)
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TYRAS (Ancient city) DAKIA
Tyras (Turas, Ptol. iii. 10. § 16), a town of European Sarmatia, situated
at the mouth of the river just described. (Herod. iv. 51; Mela, ii. 1.) It was
originally a Milesian colony (Scymn. Fr. 55; Anon. Peripl. P. Eux. p. 9); although
Ammianus Marcellinus (xxii. 8. § 41), apparently from the similarity of the name,
which he writes Tyros, ascribes its foundation to the Phoenicians from Tyre. Pliny
(iv. 12. s. 26; cf. Steph. B. p. 671) identifies it with an older town named Ophiusa
(gelidis pollens Ophiusa venenis, Val. Flacc. vi. 84). Ptolemy, however (l. c.),
makes them two different towns; and places Ophiusa somewhat more N., and towards
the interior. Scylax knows only Ophiusa, whilst the later writers, on the other
hand, knew only Tyras. (Cf. Neumann, Die Hellenen im skythenlande, p. 357, seq.)
It probably lay on the site of the present Ackermann. (Clarke,> Travels, ii. p.
124; Kohl, Reisen in Sudrussland, i. 167.)
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YLEA (Ancient country) SKYTHIA
Hylaea (Hulaie, Hulee, Steph. B.), the peninsula which lies to the NW. of Taurica, formed
by the lower part of the Borysthenes, the Euxine, the gulf of Carcinitis, and
the river Hypacyris, which flows through it. According to Herodotus (iv. 9, 18,
54, 76), it is a woody region lying to the E. of the Borysthenes (Dnieper), of
which Pliny makes mention: Inde silvestris regio, Hylaeum mare, quo alluitur,
cognominavit (iv. 12). It would seem to be indicated by Pomponius Mela: Hypacaris
per Nomadas evolvitur, Silvae deinde sunt, quas maximas hae terrae ferunt (ii.
1.45: comp. Scymn. Fr. 105; Anon. Peripl.).
It is uncertain whether there remain any traces of this woodland.
Some old maps present the name of the Black Forest in the very same place; and
this may have had a much wider extent in earlier times. From the communications
of several travellers, however, it appears that there is no wood now, although
the fact of its having once existed is preserved in the popular traditions of
the country; nor does the woody country occur till the banks of the river Don
are reached. It has been identified with the great plain of Janboylouk in the
steppe of the Nogai. (Rennell, Geog. of Herod.; Potocki, Voyage dans les Steps
d'Astrakhan; Koler, Mem. de l'Acad. de St. Petersb. ; Kohl, Sud Russland)
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CAUCASUS (Mountain) RUSSIA
The modern Caucasus; a great chain of mountains in Asia, extending
from the east shore of the Pontus Euxinus (Black Sea) to the west shore of the
Caspian. There are two chief passes over the chain, both of which were known to
the ancients: one, near Derbent, was called Albaniae, and sometimes Caspiae Pylae;
the other, nearly in the centre of the range, was called Caucasiae Pylae. That
the Greeks had some vague knowledge of the Caucasus in very early times is proved
by the myths respecting Prometheus and the Argonauts, from which it seems that
the Caucasus was regarded as at the extremity of the earth, on the border of the
river Oceanus. When the soldiers of Alexander advanced to that great range of
mountains which formed the northern boundary of Ariana, the Paropamisus, they
applied to it the name of Caucasus; afterwards, for the sake of distinction, it
was called Caucasus Indicus.
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DAKIA (Ancient area) SARMATIA
Dakia, as a Roman province, lay between the Danube and the Carpathian
Mountains, and comprehended the modern Transylvania, Wallachia, Moldavia, and
part of Hungary. The Daci were of the same race and spoke the same language as
the Getae, and are therefore usually said to be of Thracian origin. They were
a brave and warlike people. In the reign of Domitian they became so formidable
under their king, Decebalus, that the Romans were obliged to purchase a peace
of them by the payment of tribute. Trajan delivered the Empire from this disgrace.
He crossed the Danube, and after a war of five years (A.D. 101-106) conquered
the country, and made it a Roman province. At a later period Dacia was invaded
by the Goths; and as Aurelian considered it more prudent to make the Danube the
boundary of the Empire, he resigned Dacia to the barbarians, removed the Roman
inhabitants to Moesia, and gave the name of Dacia (Aureliani) to that part of
the province along the Danube where they were settled.
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FANAGORIA (Ancient city) SKYTHIA
(Phanagoreia). A Greek city on the Asiatic coast of the Cimmerian Bosporus, was chosen by the kings of Bosporus as their capital in Asia.
PARTHENION (Ancient city) TAVRIS
A promontory in the Chersonesus Taurica, on which stood a temple of the Tauric Artemis, from whom it derived its name. It was in this temple that human sacrifices were offered to the goddess.
SARMATIA (Ancient country) RUSSIA
The eastern part of Poland and southern part of Russia in Europe.
A name first used by Mela for the part of northern Europe and Asia extending from
the Vistula (Wisla) and the Sarmatici Montes on the west, which divided it from
Germany, to the Rha (Volga) on the east, which divided it from Scythia; bounded
on the southwest and south by the rivers Ister (Danube), Tibiscus (Theiss), and
Tyras (Dniester), which divided it from Pannonia and Dacia, and, farther, by the
Euxine, and beyond it by Mount Caucasus, which divided it from Colchis, Iberia,
and Albania; and extending on the north as far as the Baltic and the unknown regions
of northern Europe. The people from whom the name of Sarmatia was derived inhabited
only a small portion of the country. The greater part of it was peopled by Scythian
tribes; but some of the inhabitants of its western part seem to have been of German
origin, as the Venedi on the Baltic, and Iazyges, Rhoxolani, and Hamaxobii in
southern Russia; the chief of the other tribes west of the Tanais were the Alauni
or Alani Scythae, a Scythian people who came out of Asia and settled in the central
part of Russia. The whole country was divided by the river Tanais (Don) into two
parts, called respectively Sarmatia Europaea and Sarmatia Asiatica; but it should
be observed that, according to the modern division of the continent, the whole
of Sarmatia belongs to Europe. It should also be noticed that the Chersonesus
Taurica (Crimea), though falling within the specified limits, was not considered
as a part of Sarmatia, but as a separate country.
In a general way the name Sarmatia is often used very indefinitely
of the whole of northeastern Europe. The historical sources of our knowledge of
Sarmatia in ancient times are collected and discussed by Kalina, De Fontibus,
etc. (1872).
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SKYTHIA (Ancient country) RUSSIA
(Skuthia, and Skuthike sc. ge). A name variously used by the ancients at different
periods of history. The Scythia of Herodotus comprises, to speak generally, the
southeastern parts of Europe, between the Carpathian Mountains and the river Tanais
(Don). The Greeks became acquainted with this country through their settlements
on the Euxine; and Herodotus, who had himself visited the coasts of the Euxine,
collected all the information he could obtain about the Scythians and their country,
and embodied the results in a most interesting digression, which forms the first
part of his fourth book. He describes the country as a square of 4000 stadia (400
geographical miles) each way, the western boundary being the Ister (Danube) and
the mountains of the Agathyrsi; the southern the shores of the Euxine and Palus
Maeotis, from the mouth of the Ister to that of the Tanais, this side being divided
into two equal parts, of 2000 stadia each, by the mouth of the Borysthenes (Dnieper);
the eastern boundary was the Tanais, and on the north Scythia was divided by deserts
from the Melanchlaeni, Androphagi, and Budini. It corresponded to the southern
part of Russia in Europe. The people who inhabited this region were called by
the Greeks Skuthai, a word of doubtful origin, which first occurs in Hesiod; but,
in their own language, Skolotoi, i. e. Slavonians. They were believed by Herodotus
to be of Asiatic origin; and his account of them, taken in connection with the
description given by Hippocrates of their physical peculiarities, has been regarded
as proof that they were a part of the great Mongol race, who wandered, from unknown
antiquity, over the steppes of Central Asia; yet the general drift of opinion
at the present time is toward assigning to them Aryan affinities. Herodotus says
further that they were driven out of their abodes in Asia, north of the Araxes,
by the Massagetae; and that, migrating into Europe, they drove out the Cimmerians.
If this account be true, it can hardly but have some connection with the irruption
of the Cimmerians into Asia Minor, in the reign of the Lydian king Ardys, about
B.C. 640.
The Scythians were a nomadic people, that is, shepherds or
herdsmen, who had no fixed habitations, but roamed over a vast tract of country
at their pleasure, and according to the wants of their cattle. They lived in a
kind of covered wagons, which Aeschylus describes as "lofty houses of wicker-work,
on well-wheeled chariots". They were filthy in their habits, never washing,
fought on horseback, scalped their enemies, and drank out of their skulls when
slain. They kept large troops of horses, and were most expert in cavalry exercises
and archery; and hence, as the Persian king Darius found, when he invaded their
country (B.C. 507), it was almost impossible for an invading army to act against
them. They simply retreated, wagons and all, before the enemy, harassing him with
their light cavalry, and leaving famine and exposure, in their bare steppes, to
do the rest. Like all nomadic races, they were divided into several hordes, the
chief of whom were called the Royal Scythians; and to these all the rest owned
some degree of allegiance. Their government was a sort of patriarchal monarchy
or chieftainship. An important modification of their habits had, however, taken
place, to a certain extent, before Herodotus described them. The fertility of
the plains on the north of the Euxine, and the influence of the Greek settlements
at the mouth of the Borysthenes and along the coast, had led the inhabitants of
this part of Scythia to settle down as cultivators of the soil, and had brought
them into commercial and other relations with the Greeks. Accordingly, Herodotus
mentions two classes or hordes of Scythians who had thus abandoned their nomad
life; first, on the west of the Borysthenes, two tribes of Hellenized Scythians,
called Callipidae and Alazones; then, beyond these, "the Scythians who are
ploughers (Skuthai aroteres), who do not grow their corn for food, but for sale";
these dwelt about the river Hypanis (Boug), in the region now called the Ukraine,
which is still, as it was to the Greeks, a great cornexporting country. Again,
on the east of the Borysthenes were "the Scythians who are husbandmen"
(Skuthai georgoi), i. e. who grew corn for their own consumption: these were called
Borysthenitae by the Greeks; their country extended three days' journey east of
the Borysthenes to the river Panticapes. Beyond these, to the east, dwelt "the
nomad Scythians (nomades Skuthai), who neither sow nor plough at all." Herodotus
expressly states that the tribes east of the Borysthenes were not Scythian. Of
the history of these Scythian tribes there is little to state, beyond the tradition
already mentioned, that they migrated from Asia and expelled the Cimmerians; their
invasion of Media, in the reign of Cyaxares, when they held the supremacy of Western
Asia for twenty-eight years, and the disastrous expedition of Darius into their
country. In later times they were gradually overpowered by the neighbouring people,
especially the Sarmatians, who gave their name to the whole country. Meanwhile,
the conquests of Alexander and his successors in Central Asia had made the Greeks
acquainted with tribes beyond the Oxus and the Iaxartes, who resembled the Scythians,
and belonged, in fact, to the same race, and to whom, accordingly, the same name
was applied. Hence, in writers of the time of the Roman Empire, the name of Scythia
denotes the whole of Northern Asia, from the river Rha (Volga) on the west, which
divided it from Asiatic Sarmatia, to Serica on the east, extending to India on
the south. It was divided by Mount Imaus into two parts, called respectively Scythia
intra Imaum, i. e. on the northwestern side of the range, and Scythia extra Imaum,
on its southeastern side. The later Scythians overran Parthia (B.C. 128), and
also invaded Northern India, where they maintained themselves for several centuries.
The Jats and Rajputs of modern India have by some scholars been regarded as the
descendants of these Scythian invaders.
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TANAIS (Ancient city) SKYTHIA
Now the Don, i.e. "water"; a great river, which rises
in the north of Sarmatia Europaea (about the centre of Russia), and flows to the
southeast till it comes near the Volga, when it turns to the southwest, and falls
into the northeast angle of the Palus Maeotis (Sea of Azof). It was usually considered
the boundary between Europe and Asia.
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TAVRIS (Peninsula) SKYTHIA
Peninsula in northern Black
Sea (today's Crimea), part of Scythia.
Tauris is the region where, according to legends, Iphigenia, the daughter
of Agamemnon, was led by Artemis who had saved her at the last minute from death
in Aulis, after her father
had ordered her sacrificed to propitiate the goddess and bring wind on the area
where the Greek fleet was waiting to sail toward Troy.
There, Iphigenia became priestess of Artemis at the court of king Thoas and had
to sacrifice foreigners landing on the shore until one day, she recognized in
two foreigners her brother Orestes and his friend Pylades, sent there by the oracle
of Delphi to bring back the
statue of Artemis. Iphigenia then helped them steal the statue and fled with them.
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 1998), ed.
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SAINT PETERSBURG (Town) RUSSIA
PANTICAPAION (Ancient city) TAVRIS
CHARAX (Ancient city) TAVRIS
Charax. Scythian fortress (later, Roman) of the 3d c. B.C. on the Ai-Todor
promontory near ancient Chersonesus, not far from modern Yalta. A fortress of
the Tauri tribe, it was ringed with thick cyclopean walls of hewn stone. The fort
was seized by the Romans in the 1st c. A.D. and made into a military camp. It
then acquired a second ring of walls and the area was increased to 1.5 ha.
Houses with walls of stone and brick have been uncovered, and water
pipes and mosaic-floored basins (design of cuttlefish) have been found; also,
there are ruins of Roman baths (25 x 15 m) and a necropolis of the 3d-4th c. Pottery
and other articles are of local manufacture. The Simferopol Museum contains material
from this site.
M. L. Bernhard & Z. S. Ztetyllo, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
CHERSONISSOS (Ancient city) TAVRIS
A city on the W coast of the Crimea ca. 3 km W of modern Sebastopol.
It is mentioned in the ancient sources (Strab. 7.4.2-7; Plin. HN 4.85; Polyb.
25.2.12; Pompon. 2.1.3; Ptol. Geog. 3.6.2 etc.). Founded in 421 B.C. by colonists
from Herakleia Pontica, perhaps on the site of an earlier Greek settlement, it
rapidly became the major city of SW Crimea and the chief center in this area for
international trade. In the 3d c. B.C. Kerkinitis and Kalos Limen came under its
control. In the 2d c. B.C. under attack from the Scythian king Palak, it was supported
by Mithridates Eupator, king of Pontus. Although the Scythians were conquered,
Chersonesos lost its independence and became one of the cities of the Bosporan
kingdom.
The city covered an area of 38 ha and its defensive system is one
of the major architectural monuments of the N Black Sea region. Stone walls (3.5
km long and up to 3.8 m thick), with crenellated towers and gates, were first
constructed in the 4th-3d c. and rebuilt in the Hellenistic and Roman times and
later. The city was laid out according to the Miletian plan with straight streets
crossing at right angles. Traces of houses from the 3d-2d c. follow the same plan
as those in other cities in the region. A corridor led to an inner courtyard onto
which rooms opened; each house had a well or cistern and the basins were often
paved with mosaics. Other architectural remains include a mint of the 4th c. B.C.,
several wine-making establishments, several large pottery workshops, numerous
cisterns for the salting of fish; large baths of the Roman era, Christian basilicas
of the 5th-7th c.; an odeum (?); a theater of the late 3d-early 2d c. B.C., which
was still in use in the 4th c. Outside the walls in the Hercules peninsula excavations
have uncovered the ruins of numerous fortified farinsteads, some for grape growing
and others for grain.
Among the many Greek inscriptions found are the oath of the inhabitants
of the city (3d c. B.C.) and the decree of Diophanes (end of the 2d c. B.C.).
A fine head of an ephebus in the manner of Skopas has been discovered; also many
locally made terracottas, including a torso of a statue of Herakles. The Roman
period is represented by funerary monuments, with portraits, and sarcophagi ornamented
with scenes of Eros, griffins, and other figures of local legend. The Cherson
Museum contains material from this site.
M. L. Bernhard & Z. S. Ztetyllo, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
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ERMONASSA (Ancient city) TAVRIS
Ionian colony near Taman on the S shore of the Gulf of Taman. It is
mentioned in the ancient sources (Eust. ad Dion, 1. 549; Strab. 11.2.10; Plin.
HN 6.18). Founded in the mid 6th c. B.C., it reached its zenith in the 4th-3d
c. B.C. Many ancient buildings and streets have been uncovered, including a large
dwelling of the 4th c. B.C. with an interior peristyle courtyard; remains of archaic
structures; grain pits; and a hearth. There are also remains of buildings of the
1st-4th c. A.D., some along a paved street, and evidence of extensive replanning
and construction in the 2d c. A.D.
The necropolis, which dates from the 6th-5th c. B.C., contains tumulus
tombs. There is a fine marble sarcophagus from the beginning of the 3d c. B.C.;
the lid is shaped like a pitched roof and has acroteria. The sides of the sarcophagus
are decorated with a frieze of rosettes. The Hermitage and Kiev Museums contain
material from the site.
M. L. Bernhard & Z. S. Ztetyllo, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
FANAGORIA (Ancient city) SKYTHIA
Phanagoria. A city on the S coast of the Gulf of Taman colonized from Teos ca.
540 B.C. (Strab. 11.2.10) on a site of which the earliest traces of habitation
go back to the 2d millennium. From 480 B.C. on, the city belonged to the monarchy
of the Archeactides but remained an independent polis, as is proved by the titles
of its archontes contained in inscriptions.
The Greek city spread out on two terraces 37 ha in area of which nearly
half (15 ha) was destroyed by the sea. The walls, which were of unhewn blocks,
are partially preserved. The lower quarter was the city center and was dominated
by the fortified acropolis. The city reached the height of its prosperity in the
4th c. B.C.; traces of paved streets, wells, water pipes, basements of rectangular
houses with tiled roofs date from this period. Marble architectural fragments
and Ionic capitals come from a temple of Aphrodite Urania. Demeter, Kore, Apollo,
and Dionysos were worshiped in the city. The remains of a gymnasium from the 3d
c. B.C. and a heroon with painted decoration have been found. Also to the 4th-3d
c. date the Bol'shaia Blitznitza barrow and the Mt. Vasiurina kurgans (see below).
In the 2d c. B.C. the city was conquered by Mithridates. Several winemaking establishments
date to the early centuries A.D. and the remains of baths (?). In the 4th c. A.D.
the city was destroyed by the Huns but revived by the end of the century and became
an important mediaeval center.
In a kurgan necropolis on the outskirts of the city rich archaeological
finds provide evidence of contact with the great centers of Hellenic civilization.
In the 6th c. B.C. Ionic wares were imported, followed by Attic wares and wares
from Chios and Thasos. However, there was from the beginning considerable local
production, consisting of imitations of Greek models, especially of pottery. The
Hermitage Museum and the Pushkin Museum, Moscow, contain material from the site.
M. L. Bernhard & Z. Sztetyllo, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
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GORGIPPIA (Ancient city) TAVRIS
A city on the Taman peninsula mentioned by Strabo (11.2.10). It dates
to the 6th c. B.C. The Greeks set up an emporium on the site, which was inhabited
by the Sindi (Ps.-Scymn. Periplus 72), and named it in honor of a member of the
Spartocid dynasty. In the 3d c. A.D. it was destroyed by the Goths but it made
a brief recovery before its final decline in the 4th c.
With an area of 20 ha, the city was almost equal in importance to
Phanagoria, whose prosperity like Gorgippia's derived from the wheat trade. The
city's most prosperous period was the 3d c. B.C. Excavations have revealed remains
of dwellings, two wine-making establishments, a potter's kiln, a main street.
Greek inscriptions prove that the city aristocracy was Hellenized to a considerable
extent: the names of the native victors of the agones, held in honor of Hermes,
are Greek, as is shown in the list from the 3d c. B.C.
The necropolis, which dates from the 4th c. B.C., consists of simple
tombs and a series of kurgans lining the roads to the city. The burial chambers
were roofed with a false cupola of stone. Archaeological finds include Attic red-figure
and black-glazed ware, Bosporan ware decorated with watercolor, and hand-thrown
vessels produced locally. Particularly noteworthy are the portrait of an inhabitant
and some funerary reliefs of local origin. The Hermitage Museum contains material
from the site.
M. L. Bernhard & Z. S. Ztetyllo, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
IRAKLIA (Ancient city) SKYTHIA
On a hill, divided in two, that dominates the right side of the Danube,
ca. 51 km N-NW of ConstanTa, a fortified center probably founded at the time of
the expedition of Alexander the Great on the Danube. Because the site dominates
not only the route between the Wallachian plain and Scythia Minor but also the
natural road that leads from the Danube to the port of Tomi on the Black Sea,
the hill was of great strategic importance in the life of Scythia Minor (Dobrogen)
from Hellenistic times until the 5th-6th c.
Excavations have brought to light evidence of habitation as early
as Neolithic times. In the Bronze Age, on the hill called Sofia in Cernavoda arose
the first habitation site. It was defended by one or more ditches. Its domestic
implements and ceramics testify to diverse cultural currents, that have been identified
as Cernavodian culture. During the late phase of the Iron Age (4th c. B.C.) a
habitation center developed that had Hellenistic necropoleis. The funerary material
contains as many local products of the Getaean type as imported objects from the
Greek world on the coast of the Black Sea: Histria, Tomi, and Kallatis. The local
ceramics assume forms that are directly linked with the Greek products. Thus the
hill, always important because of its position as a crossroads, became involved
with the Hellenistic Macedonian world through the commercial expansion of the
Greek colonies on the coast of the Black Sea, and perhaps also through their territorial
expansion.
During the Roman period Axiopolis was already a center of a certain
importance because of the ease of reaching Tomi by the Roman road that followed
the right bank of the Danube along a bypath rebuilt several times. Being part
of the customs system and used for the quartering of the naval military forces
that defended the line of the lower Danube, Axiopolis was the seat of a Collegium
nautae universi Danubii. Nothing, however, is known of the arrangement of the
Roman civitas of this period. The first indications of fortification are, very
probably, from the 5th-6th c. To this period may be dated at least one of the
great ramparts in earth and stone that join Axiopolis to Tomi. The hill where
the inhabited zone of the 5th-6th c. arose is rectangular in form with an incline
toward the N. On this side is found a line of first defense formed by a wail that
has been rebuilt several times. On the S flank are two other citadels, incorporating
remains of other earlier fortifications, which have also been rebuilt repeatedly
until the 9th-lOth c. Axiopolis' greatest flowering was in the 6th c. and corresponds
to a general well-being in all of Scythia Minor. To the same period belongs the
basilica near the S gate.
D. Adamesteanu, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited July 2003 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
KALOS LIMIN (Ancient city) TAVRIS
Greek city and port near Chernomorskoe along the NW Crimean coast.
It was founded in the late 4th-early 3d c. B.C. by Chersonesus. A fortress against
the Scythians, it was built well into enemy territory. It was captured by the
Scythians ca. mid 2d c. B.C. and occupied by them until the early centuries of
our era.
Excavations have revealed remains of fortifications, made of beaten
earth, and ruins of stone dwellings dating from the 1st c. B.C. to the 2d c. A.D.
The finds include pottery and other articles of local make, non-Greek in influence
M. L. Bernhard & Z. S. Ztetyllo, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
KERKINITIS (Ancient city) TAVRIS
An ancient Greek colony along the NW Crimean coast. It was founded
in the late 6th-early 5th c. B.C., perhaps by Heraklea Pontica, on the site of
a pre-Greek settlement. Kerkinitis came under the control of Chersonesus in the
late 4th c. and enjoyed a period of prosperity. As a center for the surrounding
agricultural area, it provided Chersonesus with grain and had trade relations
with the Scythians of the interior. It also issued its own coins from the mid
4th to the 2d c. B.C. The Scythians captured it in the mid 2d c. and occupied
it until the early centuries A.D. (Hecateus, Fr. 153; Herod. 4.55, 4.99).
At its height, the settlement covered an area of 8 ha. By the late
4th c., stone defensive walls and towers encircled the site. The walls were partially
rebuilt and strengthened in the 3d c. The earliest dwelling, a two-room house
with stone walls, a beaten clay floor, and an adobe hearth, dates to the late
6th-early 5th c. B.C. Other remains uncovered in limited excavations include a
stone house of the 4th-3d c. with a cellar, a house of the late 3d-early 2d c.
with stone walls and floors, a large stone-paved drain cutting N-S across the
site and leading to a stone-lined reservoir, and a round stone structure of the.
4th-3d c., 6.2 m in diameter, whose purpose is not clear. The necropolis, located
NW of the site, had burials of the late 6th-2d c. B.C. including some rich graves
of the 4th-3d c. It is now completely destroyed.
T. S. Noonan, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
KIMERIKON (Ancient city) TAVRIS
Greek city 50 km S of Kerch, founded in the 6th c. B.C. by Greek colonists
from Miletos (Hekataios 1.164; Strab. 11.2.5).
The city is situated on the SW slope of Mt. Opuk along the coast of
the Black Sea, where there was a Cimmerian settlement before the arrival of the
Greeks. Traces of houses, rectangular in plan, have been found dating from the
6th-5th c. B.C. Ionian ware and amphorae from Chios were found inside them, together
with local hand-thrown wares. In the 4th c. B.C. the city was ringed with fortifications
and became an important fortress in the defense system of the Bosporan kingdom
against the Scythians. The city walls are 2.5 m thick, those of the acropolis,
3.5 m. The city reached its height in the 1st-2d c. A.D. when the walls were enlarged
and the houses built of stone. Toward the end of the 3d c. A.D. the city was destroyed
by fire. The Kerch Museum contains material from the site.
M. L. Bernhard & Z. Sztetyllo, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
KIPI (Ancient city) SKYTHIA
A Miletian colony founded in the mid 6th c. B.C. on the Gulf of Taman
NE of Phanagoria, on the site of a Kimmerian (?) settlement (Strab. 11.2.10; Diod.
20.24; Plin. HN 6.112). At first the city, of mixed population, subsisted on farming
and trade with Asian Greeks and local tribes, paying taxes to the Bosporan kings.
The inhabitants prospered from the wheat trade between the 4th c. B.C. and the
1st c. A.D., but from the 2d c. A.D. the city was increasingly barbarized by the
Sarmatians. The Huns destroyed it in the 4th c.
The Greek city, originally 20-25 ha, covered a small hill and extended
down the slopes to the seashore. Much of the coastal part of the site is now under
water. Remains of a house of the mid 6th c. B.C. have been found and some of the
numerous graves from several necropoleis can be dated to the same period, but
other architectural remains date to the 1st c. A.D. or later. From the 1st c.
are ruins of a temple in antis dedicated to Aphrodite; the terracotta ex-votos
found nearby represent the goddess. The remains of houses from this century reflect
the high standard of living. The foundations are of stone, the walls of brick,
often imported from Sinope as were the roof tiles; there are traces of water pipes.
There are also remains of baths from the 1st c. A.D. and two wine-making establishments
(1st-3d c.).
Finds include not only Klazomenai wares, Classical and archaic Attic
bowls, terracotta figurines of local manufacture (4th c. B.C.), imported Syrian
glassware and Egyptian scarabs, but a headless marble statue 0.53 m high known
as the Aphrodite of Taman (1st half of the 2d c. A.D.) and a head of Aphrodite
from a workshop near the Pergamon school of the 2d c. B.C.
The Hermitage Museum contains material from the site.
M. L. Bernhard & Z. S. Ztetyllo, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
KITALON (Ancient city) TAVRIS
A Greek city on the N coast of the Black Sea 40 km SW of Kerch near
Zavetnoe. It probably dates to the 4th-5th c. B.C. (Ps. Skyl., 10.68; Plin. HN
4.86).
In the 4th-3d c. the city was surrounded by walls 2.5 m thick and
these were reinforced in the Roman period by a second circle of ramparts. The
city was a fort of major importance against the Scythian nomadic tribes. On the
outskirts is a kurgan necropolis belonging to the Hellenized Scythians who inhabited
the city. Another necropolis from the Roman period (2d-3d c.) contains tombs decorated
with frescos representing warriors, teams of horses, and ships. Particularly noteworthy
are a sundial of the 2d c. A.D. with a relief of a bull's head in the center (Kerch
Museum); from the 3d c. A.D. an offering table of stone with a Greek inscription
colitaining a reference to a temple; and several other Greek funerary inscriptions
with non-Greek names. The Hermitage and Kerch museums contain material from the
site.
M. L. Bernhard & Z. Sztetyllo, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
MIRMIKION (Ancient city) TAVRIS
A Greek city on the N coast of the Black Sea, 5 km NE of Kerch. It
was founded by Ionian colonists in the mid 6th c. B.C. (Strab. 7.4.5; Plin. HN
4.86-87; Ptol. Geog. 6.1). In the 5th c. the city issued its own coins, and a
sanctuary temple of Demeter dates to the 5th-4th c.
In 480 B.C. it became part of the monarchy of Archeanaktides. In the
4th c. B.C. when the city was at the height of its prosperity, it acquired a rampart
and its houses were built of stone and brick (remains of monumental architecture,
paved streets, water pipes). Several great wine-making establishments flourished
in the 4th-3d c. B.C. Among the traces that have been uncovered are large cisterns,
and stamped amphorae from Rhodes, Sinope, Chidos, Chersonesus, and Thasos. Attic
wares predominate from the 4th B.C. on (red-figured bowls, West Slope, etc.),
the pottery of Rhodes, Alexandria, and Pergamon being the most plentiful in the
Hellenistic period. Terracottas were imported mainly from Myrina and Amissos;
here the figures of Demeter and Kybele and the great masks of Dionysos are most
frequently found. The coins are predominantly Bosporan. From the 3d c. B.C. on
the city declined, reviving only in the Early Roman period; it never regained
its former prosperity. Its final decline dates from the end of the 1st B.C., and
it was laid waste by the Huns in the 4th c. Among the most noteworthy finds are
a terracotta statuette of Kybele (0.58 m) and a marble Roman sarcophagus with
scenes from the legend of Achilles found near the city. The Hermitage Museum and
the Warsaw National Museum contain material from the site.
M. L. Bernhard & Z. S. Ztetyllo, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
NIKONION (Ancient city) SARMATIA
Greek settlement, probably a colony of Istria, on the E shore of the
Dniester liman near Odessa (Ps. Skyl. 68). It was founded in the mid 6th c. B.C.
The settlement, 4 ha in area, was burned in the mid 4th c. B.C., after which it
became an agricultural village. In the 2d c. B.C. it was destroyed by a natural
disaster but recovered and existed into the 4th c. A.D. It imported mainly Attic
wares from the 6th-4th c. along with some rare specimens of wares from Corinth
and Chios. Coins of Istria predominate from the 5th-4th c. and, sporadically,
coins of Olbia (6th-5th c.) and Tiras (4th c. B.C.). Particularly noteworthy are
some stamped amphorae from Thasos, Chersonesus, Herakleia and Sinope. Terracottas
(Ionian, 6th c.; Attic, 5th c.) are predominantly figurines of Demeter and Aphrodite.
From the 1st c. A.D. imported articles disappeared, being replaced by those of
local manufacture. The Odessa Museum contains material from the site.
M. L. Bernhard & Z. Sztetyllo, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
NYMFEON (Ancient city) TAVRIS
Ancient Greek city 17 km S of Kerch along the shore of the Kerch Strait
near the modern village of Geroevka. It was founded by Ionian colonists in the
first half of the 6th c. B.C. on the site of an earlier native (Scythian?) settlement.
Owing to its good port, Nymphaion emerged as an important commercial center, especially
for the grain trade. It was probably incorporated into the Bosporan state in the
early 5th c. but ca. 444 B.C. became the main Athenian base in the E Crimea. With
the decline of Athens in the late 5th c. it was again included in the Bosporan
state. The city issued its own coins for a short period around this time. Following
an apparent decline in the Hellenistic era, it recovered in the early centuries
A.D. It was destroyed in the mid 3d c. by the Goths. (Aesch. In Ctes. 171; Steph.
Byz.; Ps. Skyl. 68; Strab. 7.4.4; Ptol. 3.6.2; Plin. HN, 4.86; Anon. Perpl. Ponti
Euxini, 76 [50]).
The site, located on a small hill, covered an area of some 9 ha but
part of the ancient port and adjoining city are now under water. The architectural
remains date primarily from the late archaic, Classical and Early Roman eras and
include numerous residential, commercial, and public buildings along with the
accompanying paved courtyards and streets. Recent excavations, however, have revealed
several Hellenistic structures including a unique large building of the 3d c.
B.C. made of rose marl. Large sections of the city were replanned and rebuilt
during the 1st c. A.D. Many buildings were destroyed in the 2d c., after which
time only a relatively few new buildings were erected.
The most interesting architectural monuments from the city are probably
the sanctuaries of Demeter, Aphrodite, and the Kabeiri, the latter two located
in the upper city (acropolis). The remains of the Sanctuary of Demeter are found
in the lower terrace along the seashore and consist of parts of the perimeter
and sanctuary walls as well as the foundations of the main altar. The original
sanctuary, built in the mid 6th c. B.C., was a small quadrangular room of adobe
brick walls on a stone foundation. It was subsequently destroyed and rebuilt on
several occasions during the city's history. The Sanctuary of Aphrodite had several
rooms. First constructed in the late 6th c. B.C., it was destroyed in the 4th
c. The walls of the Sanctuary of the Kabeiri, built in the 6th c. B.C., still
remain. Many terracotta statuettes, apparently used in votive offerings, were
found in and around the sanctuaries.
Other notable architectural monuments include two winemaking establishments
of the 4th c. B.C., the earliest thus far discovered in the N Black Sea, and the
city's defensive walls, which date from the Classical era. Remains of potters'
kilns date to the 6th c. B.C.
The kurgan necropolis contained rich burials of the 5th c. and first
half of the 4th c. B.C. Among the graves were stone tombs with horse burials.
T. S. Noonan, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
OLVIA (Ancient city) SARMATIA
Greek city situated on the right bank of the Bug liman, S of the present-day
village of Parutino. One of the most important cities on the N coast of the Black
Sea, it was founded in the 1st half of the 6th c. B.C. by Miletian colonists and
by inhabitants of the other Greek cities (Hdt. 4.78.79; Dio. Chrys. Or. 36).
The city rapidly became self-governing, reaching full prosperity in
the 4th c. B.C. From the beginning of the 3d c. B.C. the danger of barbarian invasions
grew. The Sarmatians and Scythians invaded the city in the 2d c. B.C., and from
that period it started to decline. The Getae seized it in the 1st c. B.C., and
the city gradually became barbarized and lost its Greek traditions. In the Roman
Empire it was a small town, becoming part of the province of Lower Mysia toward
the end of the 2d c. A.D. when it was surrounded by fortifications. In the 4th
c. the Getae again invaded Olbia and gradually destroyed it.
Olbia covered a triangular area originally of ca. 50 ha, but because
of erosion only ca. 33 ha remain. The city was spread out on two terraces, the
lower city along the river and the upper city with its business district and public
buildings near the agora and the temenos. Covering an area of over 2000 sq. m,
the agora was bordered by a stoa (45 x 17.5 m) of the 4th c. B.C. with 9 Ionic
columns, a large public building of the 4th-2d c., two large commercial buildings
divided into shops with basements for storage, and among other buildings a gymnasium
(?) with baths. The temenos covered an area of over 3000 sq. m and was bordered
by stone walls and porticos. Among its buildings are a temple of Zeus (13.9 x
7.7 m) of the 3d c. B.C., a temple of Apollo Delphinios (30-35 x 16 m) of the
4th-2d c. completely surrounded by porticos of Ionian columns; and from the 5th
c. B.C. a temple in antis dedicated to Apollo with an Ionic portico, an altar
for libations, and an altar for burnt offerings. By the 1st c. A.D. both the temenos
and the agora had been abandoned and this area, now beyond the new city walls,
became a commercial center with several pottery workshops, winemaking establishments,
and granaries.
It is possible to trace the evolution of the residential section from
the 6th c. B.C. In the beginning it consisted of small two-roomed houses with
an area of 12 sq. m. The houses of the 5th c. B.C. are more spacious. The largest
and most luxurious ones are those built in the 4th-3d c. B.C., especially in the
residential quarter of the lower city, where they are aligned on a broad stone-paved
street. These houses, covering an area of as much as 50 x 38 m, had a rectangular
vestibule leading to a square inner courtyard with rooms arranged around it. Some
contained as many as 25 rooms. Fragments of mosaics and wall paintings have been
found in a few houses.
In the late 2d c. A.D. a kurgan of Zeus was erected in what had been
a residential area of the 6th-2d c.: a burial mound 14.5 m high and 37 m in diameter
surrounded by a small wall. A dromos 1.75 m wide led down steps into a stone burial
chamber comprising two identical rooms.
The necropolis N and W of the city walls encompasses an area of almost
500 ha. About 2000 burials have been excavated. The most prevalent graves in all
periods were simple rectangular holes dug into the ground, but from the 5th c.
B.C. there are passage graves formed from a niche or passage cut into the side
of a tomb, and from the 4th c. B.C. vaulted graves with steps lead down a dromos
into a burial chamber. The burial of Heuresibius and Arete (2d c. A.D.) consisted
of a large kurgan covering a vault composed of two rooms.
In the early centuries A.D. the S part of the upper city became a
citadel with massive walls and towers. Among the buildings of this era are the
barracks (?) of the Roman garrison and a metal-working shop of the 3d-4th c.
From the 6th c. B.C. Olbia minted its own coins, and in the 4th c.
B.C. gold staters of Alexander and Lysimachos. Among the rich archaeological finds
are wares of the 6th c. B.C. from Rhodes, Miletos, Samos, Corinth, Chios, Klazomenai,
Chalkis, and black-figured Attic bowls, as well as the local production of bowls
and terracottas imitating imported forms. The Hermitage Museum contains material
from the site.
M. L. Bernhard & Z. Sztetyllo, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
PANTICAPAION (Ancient city) TAVRIS
Chief city and port of the Kimmerian Bosporus, founded by Greek colonists
from Miletos in the late 7th-early 6th c. on the site of an earlier settlement,
Panti Kapa, on Mt. Mithridates (Strab. 7.4.4; Plin. HN 4.87). The city became
the capital of the Spartocids in the 5th-4th c. Its economic decline in the 4th-3d
c. was the result of the Sarmatian conquest of the steppes and the growing competition
of Egyptian grain. In 63 B.C. the city was partly destroyed by an earthquake.
Raids by the Goths and the Huns furthered its decline, and it was incorporated
into the Byzantine state under Justin I in the early 6th c.
On Mt. Mithridates the earliest traces of houses can be seen. Dating
to the end of the 7th c. and beginning of the 6th c. B.C., they are almost square
in plan and consist of just one room. In the 6th c. B.C. the houses were enlarged
to two rooms and nearby were built larger houses. These had several fairly luxurious
rooms and painted stucco walls. From the end of the 5th c. B.C. date the remains
of the walls that surrounded the city and traces of a sacred building on top of
Mt. Mithridates, probably an Ionian peripteral temple (ca. 20 x 40 m), as well
as a few fragments of the architrave and some column bases. A marble altar fragment
has also been found. In the 4th c. the city covered an area of 100 ha with larger
houses. In the 3d-2d c. B.C. a new type of house appeared having a peristyle courtyard;
the walls of the rooms were decorated with reliefs of painted stucco or terracotta
friezes, also in relief. The city was greatly influenced by indigenous cultures
in the early centuries A.D., in which period several complexes were put up containing
cisterns for wine production, as well as a considerable number of potters' kilns.
Traces of religious architecture include a fragment of the Doric architrave containing
the votive inscription of the temple that was dedicated to the cult of the Bosporan
king Aspurgos, A.D. 23.
The funerary architecture is monumental: a succession of kurgans 4th
c. B.C.-2d c. A.D.--the Golden Kurgan, Royal Kurgan, Kul Oba and Melek Cesme--show
the complete evolution of this type of tumulus tomb (see below). The Demeter kurgan,
which dates from the 1st c. A.D., is much smaller than these and has a well-preserved
fresco. In the center of the cupola is a medallion containing the head of Demeter.
A frieze on the walls represents Pluto, Demeter, the nymph Calypso, and Hermes.
The frescos in still later tombs show mainly battle scenes, gradually giving way
to more schematic, geometric designs. The rich grave gifts in the tombs indicate
the wealth of the city and its inhabitants.
During the first centuries of the city's existence, imported Greek
articles predominated: pottery, terracottas, and metal objects, probably from
workshops in Rhodes, Corinth, Samos, and Athens. Local production, imitated from
the models, was carried on at the same time. Athens manufactured a special type
of bowl for the city, known as Kerch ware. Local potters imitated the Hellenistic
bowls known as the Gnathia style as well as relief wares--Megarian bowls. The
city minted silver coins from the mid 6th c. B.C. and from the 1st c. B.C. gold
and bronze coins. The Hermitage and Kerch Museums contain material from the site.
M. L. Bernhard & Z. Sztetyllo, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
PARTHENION (Ancient city) TAVRIS
Greek settlement in the Bosporan kingdom, 5 km E of Mirmekion on the
N shore of the Black Sea and dating to the 5th c. B.C. (Strab. 7.4.2; 11.2). From
the 5th c. B.C. to the 1st-2d c. A.D. the settlement covered an area of 150 by
84.5 sq. m. Pottery and terracottas (busts of Kore) are from Bosporan workshops
of the 4th-3d c. Stamped amphorae from Rhodes and Sinope dating to the 3d-2d c.
have been found. The Hermitage Museum contains material from the site.
M. L. Bernhard & Z. Sztetyllo, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
PATRAIOS (Ancient city) SKYTHIA
A settlement of the 6th c. B.C.-14th c. A.D. along the N shore of
the Taman Gulf near the village of Garkushi has often been identified with Patraios
(Strab. 11.2.8; Steph. Byz. s.v. Patrasus ?). Excavations have led to the discovery
of a Greek agricultural settlement of the 6th-5th c. B.C. 250 m W.
On the hill part of the site, excavations revealed the remains of
a fortress (ca. early 1st c. A.D.) composed of a rampart, defensive walls, a moat,
and a thick clay platform which covered the horizontal interior surface. A stone
roadway of the Late Hellenistic era found under the platform indicates that the
fortress was built over an earlier site. The gate of the acropolis was flanked
by two rectangular pylons made of adobe bricks. The monuments and artifacts found
inside the fortress date from the 1st c. A.D. to mediaeval times. The rectangular
dwellings, which had adobe brick walls, were rebuilt several times but the original
plan and orientation were preserved. In one area, the dwellings formed whole blocks
which bordered both sides of a narrow street. Excavations suggest a comparatively
dense habitation inside the fortress during the 1st-3d c. when the population
also expanded onto the adjoining plain and the city developed its own wine and
pottery industries. Two winemaking establishments of the 2d-3d c. were uncovered,
one of which had several side areas for pressing by foot and a central area for
secondary pressing with a lever press. A large circular pottery kiln of the 2d-3d
c. was found in one dwelling.
T. S. Noonan, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
PORTHMEION (Ancient city) TAVRIS
An ancient Greek settlement NE of Pantikapaion along the W coast of
the Kerch Strait near the village of Zhukovka (Anon., Periplus Ponti Euxini, 69,
76). Founded in the late 6th c. B.C., it was extensively rebuilt about the middle
of the 3d c. B.C. on a grid pattern and was encircled with a powerful defensive
wall, possibly in response to the threat posed to the Bosporus by the Scythian
state established in the Crimea. The life of the city ended in the first half
of the 1st c. B.C., most likely during the turbulent reign of Mithridates Eupator.
The city, whose remains today cover an area of 0.65 ha, has been studied
since 1950 but only intermittently. Much of the original settlement was apparently
destroyed during rebuilding, but remains of dwellings from the late archaic and
Classical eras have been discovered. During the Hellenistic period, large one-block
buildings seem to have been constructed which were then subdivided into a series
of separate homes with common external walls bordering on the adjoining streets.
At one point along the defensive wall, a city gate flanked by towers was uncovered.
A paved street led from the gate into the city. Situated at the crossing from
the European to the Asiatic side of the Kerch Strait, the city had a lively trade
evidenced by numerous finds of various types of imported Greek pottery and by
coins of Pantikapaion.
T. S. Noonan, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
TANAIS (Ancient city) SKYTHIA
An ancient city on the steep right bank of the Mertvyi Donets, a branch
of the Don delta, near the village of Nedvigovka. Founded in the 3d c. B.C. (Strab.
11.2.3), it replaced Elizavetovskoe as the chief commercial center in the lower
Don and the main intermediary between the Graeco-Roman world and the inhabitants
N of the Sea of Azov. Its mixed population is proved by the indigenous names found
in Greek inscriptions. The city was destroyed by the Bosporan king Polemon ca.
8 B.C., but it recovered and began to flourish in the late 1st c. A.D. Its destruction
ca. 240, perhaps by Goths, put an end to the city as a major economic and cultural
center but it revived in the late 4th c. and existed very modestly until it died
out sometime before the mid 5th c.
Two walls encircled the city: the inner one of stone enclosed an area
of ca. 5 ha; at a distance of 215 m from it was an earthen wall. Between these
two rings of fortification were the huts of the poor. Within the walls traces
of houses have been found, built of uncut stone bonded with mud and roofed with
clay tile. There is no evidence of a street plan. There are potters' kilns and
evidence of local glass production.
The necropolis outside the walls contained inhumation burials and
a few cremations. Grave gifts include many Greek objects.
M. L. Bernhard & Z. Sztetyllo, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
THEODOSIA (Ancient city) TAVRIS
Greek city occupying the Karantinnaia Hill area of the modern town
of Theodosia (Feodosiia). It was founded by Miletian colonists in the second half
of the 6th c. B.C., possibly on the site of a pre-Greek settlement. Theodosia
emerged as a commercial rival of Pantikapaion in the E Crimea and, by the late
5th c. B.C., began to issue its own coins. In the first half of the 4th c. B.C.,
it was conquered by the Spartocid ruler Leucon I and incorporated into the Bosporan
state. The city experienced its heyday as an international trading center in the
4th-3d c. B.C. when it exported to Greece huge quantities of Bosporan grain obtained
from the enslaved natives of the surrounding areas. The harbor, at this time capable
of accommodating up to 100 ships, rivaled that at Pantikapaion. The city probably
suffered from the conflicts between the Bosporan state and the Crimean Scythians
in the 2d c. B.C., and later in the century it was seized by rebellious slaves.
After the forces of Mithridates Eupator ended the rebellion, Theodosia came under
his rule but subsequently joined the revolt against him. The city was in part
apparently destroyed ca. 2d c. A.D. but by the 3d c. had recovered. It survived
the collapse of the Bosporan state in the 4th c. and became one of the early mediaeval
Byzantine towns of the Crimea.
Although Theodosia is mentioned by many ancient sources (Strab. 7.4;
Demos. Lacrit. 31-34; Lept. 33; Ulp. Schol. a Demos. Lept. 33; Arr. 30; Anon.,
Peripl. Ponti Euxini 77 (51), 78 (52); App. Hist. Rom. 12. 108) and was one of
the major centers of the N Black Sea in ancient times, the only excavations at
the site have been exploratory. These have been impeded by a thick mediaeval stratum
as well as by modern buildings and construction projects. Most of the earlier
finds from Theodosia were obtained by chance during the pre-1914 construction
of a new harbor.
A necropolis containing burial mounds with many cremation graves of
the 5th-4th c. B.C. was excavated in the mid 19th c.
T. S. Noonan, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
TYRAMBE (Ancient city) SKYTHIA
A Greek settlement on the S coast of the Sea of Azov, 20 km E of Phanagonia.
Founded in the 6th c. B.C., probably by Greek colonists from Phanagonia (Strab.
11.2.4), the settlement has been almost completely destroyed by the sea.
In the 1st c. B.C. the city was ringed with a brick wall and became
a fortification within a general defensive system set up by the Bosporan state
against Rome. Destroyed in the 1st c. A.D., it survived to the 3d c. and was then
laid waste by the Getae.
The necropolis (5th c. B.C-3d c. A.D.), contains tumulus tombs with
a dromos and burial chamber cut in the earth. There is no stone work. The archaeological
finds made here are richer than those in the city: red-figured Attic lekythoi,
jewelry of gold and bronze (ring representing Eros and Psyche). Among the terracottas
is one showing Aphrodite and Priapos, another showing Aphrodite with a dolphin;
some plaster Gorgon masks probably served to decorate the sarcophagus. The Pushkin
Museum, Moscow, contains material from the site.
M. L. Bernhard & Z. Sztetyllo, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
TYRAS (Ancient city) DAKIA
A Greek city on the W bank of the Dniester liman near Belgorod-Dnestrovskii.
It is mentioned in ancient sources (Strab. 7.3.16; Ptol. 3.10.8; Ps. Skyl. 68;
Steph. Byz. and Anon. Peripl. 88.62). Founded in the 6th c. B.C., it was destroyed
by the Getae in the mid 1st c. B.C. The city recovered, was replanned, and was
destroyed again ca. 240 A.D., probably by the Goths.
Excavation has been hampered by thick mediaeval strata, but there
are remains of buildings with cellars from the 4th c. B.C. and some dwellings
of later eras. Parts of an ancient defensive wall with a circular tower (probably
2d c. A.D.) have been excavated, and from the same century a broad street with
rows of houses on either side. During this period Legio I Italica was stationed
in Tyras as well as Legio V Macedonia and Legio XI Claudia.
Pottery is represented by Ionian wares from the 6th c. B.C. and red-figured
Attic wares from the 5th c. From the 3d c. B.C. on, relief wares from Asia Minor
predominate. The city minted its own coins from 360 B.C. The Hermitage and Kiev
Museums contain material from the site.
M. L. Bernhard & Z. Sztetyllo, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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