Miletopolis, or, according to Herodotus,' the city of the Borysthenians, because it was at the confluence of the^ypanis (Boug) with the Borysthenes (Dnieper), a city afterwards called Olbiopolis,' was founded in the second year of the thirty-first' Olympiad, 655 B.C^ by Milesians, who em^rated when Miletus, like Tyre and Carthage, had attained a high d^ree of commercial prosperity; and the colonists were no sooner settled on the ligit bank of the Hypanis than they established a commonwealth after the model of their mother country, instituting councils and d&Xing their own archons, governors, and m^istrates.
The first care of the Borysthenians was to enclose their city with a great wall as a protection against the Scythians, to the confines of whose territoty they had come. Having thus secured
' Herod, iv.
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OLBIOPOLIS. aas themselves from sudden attack, they extended their commerce beyond the shores of the £uxine to the Archipelago, Asia Minor, and Greece, increasing in wealth and encouraging the arts, until the artists of Olbia successfully emulated those of Athens and Corinth. But their troublesome and formidable enemies kept the Olbians in a continual state of warfare, until at last their city was taken and completely destroyed by Baerebistus, king of the Getae, 54 fi.c., who afterwards crossed the Ister (Danube), and ravaged Thrace, Macedonia, and Illyria, All intercourse between the Hypanis and Greece thereafter ceased, to the great disadvantage of.the Scythians who were not long in ui^ing upon the Greeks to return, which many consented to do, when a second Olbia was founded, also an independent state, except that it was required to pay a certain tribi-te to the Scythians and employ the effigy and name of their king on its coins — conditions from which the new colonists after a time sought to free themselves. Hostilities ensued, and the Olbians being eventually constrained to turn to Rome for succour, the Emperor Antoninus sent to their relief his forces, which vanquished the Scythians and compelled them to send hostages to Olbia as a pledge for the future. Olbia became a Roman possession, recovering its independence for a short time only, 217-222. Authors of the fourth and sixth centuries allude to the city of Olbia as being in existence in their time, but there is no evidence that the inhabitants ever embraced Christianity.'
As we roamed about verifying the localities marked on Count OuvarofTs plan, a number of children came up to us with their little hands full of oxidized coins and arrow-heads, beads and frag-
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VOL. II. Q
by Google ments of pottery, for the site of Olbia is to them an inexhaustible mine of such little treasures. To dig is strictly forbidden, but wet weather is patiently awaited, the action of the water over the sandy and calcareous soil is watched, and a diligent search made afler antiquities. The best are secreted by the peasants, who make better bargains with strangers than with the agents of the Crown. The few objects I obtained are of some interest, and include — a portion of a lamp, on which is represented at an altar a man wearing the Scythian cap (see Vignette); the head of a female divinity; fragment of a vase, with figures in red on a black ground; fragment of a vase with figure in relief {see Illustration); seated figure 4J inches (headless and fractured) of the goddess Demeter (Ceres), the drapery arranged as fig, I, plate XXI. Ouvaroff; an exquisite head of Pan in marble, probably the handle of a vase; an unguentarium; various lamps, and an u/j,if>t4>opevi, a two-handled amphora 28 inches in length, in perfect condition; beads of vitreous paste, a few good arrow-heads and bronze fish, some of the latter with the letters er or oir;' autonome coins of Olbla; a half halcus (fig. 8, plate xxii, OuvarofT); a half-obole (fig. 1 1, plate XXIt. OuvarofT) and an as, termed by Ouvaroff a half-obole (fig. S, plate XXll.) 18, scale of Mionnet,in a marvellous state of preservation.
Among the peasantry in the neighbourhood of Paroiityno and NicolaHeff are many followers of a sect called the Stundists^ who style themselves ' Brethren in friendship with God,' take the Bible as their standard, condemn the institutions and ceremonies of the Church, especially the employment and adoration of im^es, are intolerant towards those who do not partake of their own rel^ious
1 These Itsh are believed by M. Kohler, TAPIXOI, p. 34;, Mmaira dltAailnir. &c, Sl Petersburg, to belong lo the earliest monetary system of Olbio.
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FRAGMENTS FOUND AT OLBIOPOLIS.
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