bgr_874725 - SARMATIA - OLBIA Grand bronze

SARMATIA - OLBIA

(6th - 5th century BC)

Olbia as Istros (Istrus) was a Milesian colony, located not far from Borysthenes and Hypanis on Pontus Euxin, equidistant from Tyra and Panticapaeum on the Chersonese of Thrace. Its prosperity came from its strategic geographical position between the Scythian tribes and Pont-Euxin. It experienced its greatest economic expansion in the Hellenistic period. It was finally taken by the barbarians in the 3rd century AD.