Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

the scythians as others saw them
would imply that Miletos must have been serving as the agent for the disenchanted
who swirled around the Aegean in search of purpose and fortune. So large a colonizing
force could hardly have been recruited from its own meagre hinterland.
Although the sending out of colonial ventures was probably a near continuous process
spread over almost two centuries, it is possible to identify three surges in activity.
The first was underway in the middle of the seventh century. It was at this time that
Histria was established on a narrow peninsula close to the mouth of the Danube and
the island (or peninsula) of Berezan was settled. Berezan lies close to the wide estuary
into which the rivers Dnieper and Bug flow and was admirably sited to command
trade along these river routes leading deep into the steppe and the forest steppe. A little
later Apollonia was founded on an island just off the coast of what is now Bulgaria.
These establishments, on restricted peninsulas or islands were trading enclaves (emporia).
They had no agricultural land (chora) to support farming communities.
The next wave of colonization got underway soon after 600 and involved settlers
establishing themselves to farm (apokia). Tomis, to the south of Histria, was founded
at this time. Existing communities received incomers and began to acquire land for
them. Such was the case with Berezan, where land on the mainland was opened up,
and it was not long before a new town was created at Olbia in the midst of it, not far
from the pioneering island market. Attention also turned to the Taman and Kerch
Peninsulas which commanded the Kimmerian Bosphorus—the seaway which led
from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov giving access to the river Don which flowed
into it. So attractive was the area that in the brief period 580–60 nine new colonies
were set up, five on the European side and four on the Asian side. All were ports, and
prominent among them was Panticapaeum directly overlooking the strait. Not only
were the land and sea productive but the opportunity to trade with the Scythians
inhabiting the region was irresistible.
A third wave of colonization began after about 560 and lasted for some thirty
years, encouraged, at least in part, by the Persian incursion into western Asia Minor
and the consequent disruption which this caused. While many new colonies were
established by the Greek cities of the Aegean, extending now all around the shores
of the Black Sea, some of the existing colonies sent out pioneer communities of their
own to found new settlements. Everywhere the immigrant Greek population grew,
especially on the Kerch and Taman Peninsulas. That the process of settlement was
complex is shown by the city of Chersonesos on the southern shore of the Crimean
peninsula. According to Greek tradition the initial settlement was founded in the
fifth century by colonists sent from Herakles, a town established on the southern
shore of the Black Sea in 554 by Boeotians and Megarians. Excavations have shown,
however, that a large settlement already existed on the site of Chersonesos and was
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