Ancient Greek Colonies of the Northern Black Sea Region

• Borisfen (on the island of Berezan at the mouth of the Dnieper ) is the first Greek colony in the Northern Black Sea Region, later its center moved north to Olbia; founded approx. 647 BC e.
• Thira (now Belgorod-Dniester , founded around 502 BC); the oldest city (of existing) in Ukraine.
• Olbia ( Ochakovo district, founded in the first quarter of the 6th century BC, one of the largest policies in the region);
• Kerkinitida (now Evpatoria , founded around 550 BC by the Ionians. In the 4th – 2nd centuries BC, it was ruled by Khersones, then captured and practically destroyed by the Scythians.);
• Tauric Chersonesos (now in its place Sevastopol ; founded by Heracles over 528 BC) - the most important city in southwestern Tavria; weakened by the struggle with the steppe nomads and the Bosporus, became dependent on Rome, later became the possession of Byzantium. The principality of Theodoro became his successor.
• Kalos-Limen (near the village of Black Sea) - founded in the 4th century BC. e. Ionians. At the end of IV in BC. e. was captured by the Chersonesites; became an arena of confrontation between Greeks and steppe peoples - Scythians and Sarmatians. Destroyed by the Sarmatians in the 1st century AD e.
• Theodosius - founded in the middle of the VI century BC. e., from 355 BC. e. - captured by the Bosporus kingdom. After the Hun invasion - Alan, then the Khazar settlement, gradually deserted. The revival began in 1267, when this place was bought from the Tatars by the Genoese under a trading factor and where a city was revived under the name Kafa ;

The ruins of Chersonesos, the Byzantine basilica (the so-called basilica of 1935)

• Panticapaeum of the Bosporan kingdom (now Kerch , founded at the very end of the 5th century BC or the first quarter of the 5th century BC) with adjacent policies and settlements that also became part of the Bosporan kingdom:
  • Nymphaeum
  • Tiritaka
  • Mirmeky
  • Ilurat
  • Kimmerik
  • Acre
  • Kitei
  • Zenon Chersonesus
  • Heracles
  • Porphymy
  • Parthenius

On the Asian side of the Cimmerian Bosporus:

• • Germonassa - founded by the Miletians in the first quarter of the VI century BC. e.
  • Kepy - founded by the Miletians in the 580s - 570s BC. e.
  • Coroconda
  • Patrae - founded no later than the third quarter of the VI century BC. e.
  • Fanagoria - founded shortly after 543 BC. e., the largest city on the Asian side of the Kerch Strait;
  • Cimmeria
  • Achilles
  • Bata

In ancient times, the political structure was close to that of the metropolises. Local residents were engaged in agriculture, fishing, crafts and trade. Through the colonies, bread and skins were exported from Scythia to Greece, mainly ceramics, wine, and olive oil were imported in return.

Around 480 BC Greek policies on the shores of the current Kerch Strait (Cimmerian Bosporus) were united under the rule of Panticapaeum in the Bosporus kingdom .

In the 1st century BC e. The Bosporus kingdom became dependent on the Asia Minor Pontic kingdom, and later on on the Roman Empire , for which the Northern Black Sea Coast became a provincial northeastern outskirts. Also, depending on Rome, there were Thira and Olbia. The Roman fortress is known to the south of modern Yalta ( Haraks ).

Almost all the Greek policies of the Black Sea region died or suffered a deep crisis during the Great Migration . Most of all, “survived” Chersonesus (due to the fact that it was part of the Roman, and later Byzantine empires ) - until 1399, when it was destroyed by the troops of Timur (Murza Edigei) and finally abandoned.

Greek colonies were an outpost of ancient, and later Christian civilization in the barbarian world of southeastern Europe. Here in Chersonesos in the 9th century The Grand Duke of Kiev Vladimir was baptized, from where the spread of Christianity to Russia went north.

The successor of the Greek colonies in Crimea in the Middle Ages was the Orthodox principality of Theodoro in the south of the peninsula. The Greeks also made up the majority of the population in the Genoese colonies of Crimea . A significant part of them died as a result of the Turkish conquest in 1475 , the remaining ones were largely renounced, converted to Islam. Finally, the Greeks were evicted from the Crimea by Catherine II in 1778 in the Sea of ​​Azov (partly returned with time) and in 1944 .