Listed 11 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "SARMATIA Ancient country RUSSIA" .
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
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.
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
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.)
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
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.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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).
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains 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.
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.
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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