Ancient Civilizations

from Scythia to Siberia 23 (2017) 189-209

brill.com/acss

A New Dedication from Olbia and the Problems

of City Organization and of Greco-Barbarian
Relations in the 1st Century AD
Askold I. Ivantchik
Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia,
Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow,
Russia
Institute Ausonius, CNRS, Bordeaux, France
ivantchik@u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr

Abstract

This article contains a publication of a dedication by strategoi to Augustus, his heir

Gaius Iulius Caesar and to the People, which was found in Olbia in 2006 and dates
from the period between the year 1 BC and the year AD 4. It is the earliest inscrip-
tion from post-Getic Olbia to have been discovered. Analysis of it makes it possible to
suggest that Olbia was rebuilt after the rout by Burebistas in the last years BC under
Roman control. The state organization of Olbia, which took shape after the city had
been restored, reproduced certain features of the Roman constitution. Despite sug-
gestions often voiced to the effect that Scythians or Sarmatians were included among
its citizens, they were only granted the status of Olbian citizens later on – in the years
50-80 AD. The city was restored by Greeks who, at least in part, had come from Asia
Minor and Thrace.

* Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskii Prospekt 32a, 119991,
Moscow, Russia; Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, 82/5,
Prospekt Vernadskogo, 119571, Moscow, Russia; Ausonius: Institut de recherche sur l’Antiquité
et le Moyen-Age, Maison de l’archéologie, 8, esplanade des Antilles, F-33607, Pessac cedex,
France.
** The article was prepared with the support of the Russian Science Foundation project “The
Crimean Scythia in the System of Cultural Relations between East and West (3rd century BC-
7th century AD)” (Grant No. 15-18-30047).

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2017 | doi 10.1163/15700577-12341316

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190 Ivantchik

Keywords

Black Sea region – Olbia – Rome – Sarmatians – Scythians – Getae – Burebistas –

strategoi

In 2006 the block of white marble bearing an inscription published in this ar-
ticle (Field Number: O-2006/P-25/465) was discovered during excavations in
the southern part of the Olbian city-site in Trench R-25 (figs. 1-3). At the time
I had the opportunity to study the original. It is currently held in the National
Archaeological Park “Olbia” in the village of Parutino in the Nikolaev Region of
the Ukraine. The block was found in a secondary context, in a pile of collapsed
stones near the surface, with mixed materials. It was 38.2 cm high, 25.5-26.2
cm wide and 29.2 cm thick; it widens out slightly towards the bottom. The
block is of a rather complicated shape, which can be explained by the fact
that an inscription was incised on it when it was used for the second time. The
front surface of the stone is polished and is quite badly worn. The top surface
is of an intricate shape: the part of it adjacent to the front surface is arranged
at right angles to it and is 6.5 cm wide. It is then cut away to a depth of 5.2 cm
and extends horizontally to the end of the surface. Both parts of this top sur-
face are even but have only been worked over roughly. The bottom surface
of the block has been carefully smoothed to a depth of 23 cm, then worked
roughly to a depth of 5.8 cm, till the end of the surface, probably to ensure that
it was well fixed into the stonework. The left surface of the block is even and
has been only roughly worked, but somewhat better than the upper one. There
are two grooves in it of rectangular shape for lead clamps extending from the
top and bottom edges of the surface. The first groove measures 2.1 × 5.1 cm and
is arranged at a distance of 7.9 cm from the front surface. The second groove
measures 2.1 × 4.6 cm and is arranged at a distance of 12.4 cm from the front
surface. Part of the surface adjacent to the reverse has been broken off. The
reverse has been polished but pieces have been broken off both left and right.
The right surface has been carefully smoothed but not polished. Two grooves
have been made in it for lead clamps rectangular in shape, extending from the
top and bottom edges of the surface. The first of these measures 2.2 × 5.8 cm
and is arranged at a distance of 7.5 cm from the front surface. The second
groove measures 4.1 × 9 cm and is arranged 10.4 cm from the front surface. The
grooves for the lead clamps on the right and left surfaces of the block bear wit-
ness to the fact that it was being re-used for carving an inscription on it. When
the block was first used, its right and left surfaces were the top and bottom

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A New Dedication from Olbia 191

Figure 1 Block with the dedication of the strategoi from Olbia. Side surface.

ones, given that grooves should have been arranged horizontally. The block
has survived virtually in its entirety, apart from the corners of the left and right
surfaces which have been broken off at the back.
An inscription consisting of 16 lines has been executed on the front surface.
The inscription’s field has survived in its entirety, but it is quite badly worn,
particularly in its lower part. It measures 31.5 × 23.8 cm and it occupies virtu-
ally the whole of the stone’s front surface. The edges of the field measure as
follows: upper edge – 1.7 cm; lower edge 4.2 cm; left edge 1.0 cm; right edge
1.0 cm. The letters have been carved out fairly deeply in an even and thorough
way and they have been decorated with small serifs. The alpha has a broken
crossbar. The theta is round with a horizontal stroke, which does not extend as
far as the circle’s edge: the first theta of the inscription is larger than the other
letters (with a height of 2.5 cm). The kappa has slightly foreshortened diago-
nals, the sigma has horizontal side strokes and the middle stroke of the epsilon
is foreshortened. The omega is in the shape of a circle which is not closed at the

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192 Ivantchik

Figure 2 Block with the dedication of the strategoi from Olbia. Upper surface.

bottom; its ends are linked by very short verticals with the horizontal strokes.
None of the words are carried over from one line to the next. The height of the
letters in the upper part of the inscription (Lines 1-7) is 1.6-1.9 cm; lower down
the size of the letters is smaller: 1.4-1.7 cm in Lines 8-9; 1.2-1.5 cm in Lines 10-16.
The average distance between the lines is 0.5 cm.

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A New Dedication from Olbia 193

Figure 3 Dedication of the strategoi from Olbia.

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194 Ivantchik

The text of the inscription reads as follows:

Θεῶι Καίσαρι
Σεβαστῶι καὶ
Γαίωι ʼΙουλίωι
Καίσαρι θεοῦ vac. 1 litt.
5 Σεβαστοῦ υἱῶι
καὶ τῶι δήμωι
vac. 2 litt. στρα̣τη̣ ̣ γοὶ vac. 1 litt.
ἐπὶ̣ ἀρχό̣ντ̣ων τῶν
περὶ Ἰσ̣ [μ]η̣ ν̣[ίη]ν̣ Τειτα
10 vac. 2 litt. τὸν καὶ .ε̣[.]α̣ωνα
Παπίας ̣ ῾Ι̣εροσῶν̣τος ̣
Πάπας Τ̣ ονου̣ vac. 3 litt.
Αἷμος Τειτα vac. 3 litt.
Νουμή̣νιος Β̣ ασιλείδου
15 Αβαιγ̣ος Νε̣ι ̣κ̣ άνορος
῎Ερως Σορφου̣ vac. 3 litt.

“To the God Caesar Augustus and to Gaius Iulius Caesar, son of the God
Augustus, and to the People, under the archontes headed by Ismenies, son
of Teitas, also called ... -aon, the strategoi Papias son of Hieroson, Papos son
of Tonos, Haemus son of Teitas, Numenios son of Basilides, Abaigos son of
Nikanor, Eros son of Sorphos (dedicated)”.
The inscription thus consists of a dedication of an unnamed object in the
name of the college of strategoi. It is most likely to have been a building, into
the wall of which the block with the inscription had been inserted, so that the
object dedicated was clear and did not require specification. The dedication
was made simultaneously to Augustus and his grandson Gaius Iulius Caesar,
son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, who had been adopted by Augustus together
with his brother Lucius in 17 BC; the brothers were considered his heir after the
death of Agrippa in 12 BC. In the year 1 BC, Gaius was appointed commander of
the army in the East and then put in charge of military operations in Armenia,
where he was wounded. He died of that wound in AD 4 in Lycia on the way
to Rome. This means that the inscription can confidently be assigned a date
before AD 4. The terminus post quem is most likely 1 BC – the year when Gaius
had arrived in the East with the rank of proconsul. It was precisely at that time
that Gaius would appear to have started to be assigned divine honours, despite
no official deification having taken place in Rome. The evidence of his cult is to
be found on the island of Cos, for example, where there is direct reference to a

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A New Dedication from Olbia 195

priest of Gaius Caesar, an altar was dedicated to him and he himself is referred
to as νέος θεός1 and where the Καισάρηα Games were held in his honour (Syll³
1065 = IGR IV, 1064), or in Phrygian Hierapolis, where an altar was dedicated to
him and the goddess Roma (SEG 29, 140).
Apart from Augustus and his official heir, who enjoyed particular popularity
in the East of the Empire, the dedication is also addressed to the personified
people, to Demos. The cult of Demos and dedications to him are well attested
in the cities of the North Pontic region2 and have been recorded in Olbia as
well – in both the pre-Getic and post-Getic periods. An inscription of Posideos,
son of Dionysios, who had built or restored a wall and dedicated it to Demeter,
Kore, Pluto and Demos (SEG 40, 633) dates from the first quarter of the 2nd
century BC. A dedication of a tower, built by Anaximenes, son of Posideos, and
his brothers to Zeus Poliarchos and to Demos (IOSPE I² 183) dates from the 2nd
century AD. The inscription closest to that published here is the dedication of a
portico by Ababos, son of Kallisthenes, to the Emperors Augustus and Tiberius
and to Demos (IOSPE I² 181).3 This last inscription is of a date only slightly later
than the one under discussion. Its terminus post quem is the year AD 4, the year
when Tiberius had been adopted by Augustus, after which he got the name
Tiberius Iulius Caesar (in the inscription his name appears as Τιβέριος Καῖσαρ).
The fact that Tiberius uses the title of the Imperator Augustus (Αὐτοκράτωρ
Σεβαστός) indicates that the inscription must date from after the death of
Augustus in AD 14 and, to be more precise, from after Tiberius had accepted the
title of Augustus on September 17th in the year AD 14. Despite the fact that the
titles of Emperors were recorded in Greek inscriptions with less accuracy than
in Latin ones and that, in particular, rulers might be referred to as θεός prior
to official deification, it would appear that not a single inscription has been
recorded, in which Tiberius is named as Σεβαστός during Augustus’ lifetime.4
At the same time the title pontifex maximus, which Tiberius was granted on
March 10th in the year AD 15, is still borne by Augustus, as is the title pater

1  Herzog 1899, 145, 229, No. 222 (IGR IV, 1094).

2  See: Ruscu 2006.
3  In Trench R-25 the remains of a five-pillar Doric portico were found dating from the 1st cen-
tury AD. V. Krapivina and A. Buïskikh who excavated it, were inclined to regard the structure
as a portico built by Ababos: Krapivina, Buïskikh 1997, 125. If that is the case then the two
structures connected with the earliest inscriptions in post-Getic Olbia – the building dedi-
cated by the strategoi and Ababos’ portico – were in the immediate vicinity of each other.
The stone, on which Ababos’ inscription had been executed was found in Ochakov, so its
initial find-spot in Olbia remains unknown.
4  R. Cagnat dated, however, this inscription to between AD 4 and 14, but did not substantiate
the proposed date: IGR I. 853.

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196 Ivantchik

patriae. This would appear to signify that the date of the inscription must fall
between these two events, i.e. between September 17th in the year AD 14, when
Tiberius was granted the title Augustus and March 10th in the year AD 15, when
he became the pontifex maximus.5
The combination of the dedication to the Emperor and members of his
family with a dedication to Demos is found quite frequently, starting from the
reign of Augustus.6 It can be assumed that this combination is of political sig-
nificance and serves to underline the loyalty to the city, supplementing the
general loyalty to the Empire as a whole, finding expression in the cult of the
Emperor.7 In this respect Olbia, which was not officially part of the Empire,
was no different from those cities which were. It was probably particularly im-
portant for the citizens of Olbia, which had recently been restored and where
building work was still in progress, to emphasize that loyalty.
As pointed out earlier, the dedication of the strategoi can be reliably dated
to the years between 1 BC and AD 4. This means that it is the earliest known
inscription from post-Getic Olbia. In itself it is rather banal and is one of a
large series of Olbian dedications, including those on buildings, made in the
name of colleges of archontes, strategoi and agoranomoi. The addressee of the
dedication is however not banal at all: there is no other attested dedications
to Emperors or to the Demos in the name of colleges. The strategoi usually
erected inscriptions to Apollon Prostates or Achilles Pontarches. Another dis-
tinctive feature is the early date: it is nearly a century earlier than the other in-
scriptions in that group. Precisely this date makes the inscription an important
historical source.
First and foremost, the early date testifies to the fact that the form of state
organisation found in Olbia, which we know about from inscriptions of the
2nd and 3rd centuries AD, took shape in the city immediately after it had been
restored. The most important college was that of archontes, which consisted of
five members and was headed by an eponymous magistrate, who was elected
for a year. The whole college was pobably also elected for a year. The second
most important college was that of the strategoi, which had six members, was
headed by the first strategos and was elected for a year as well. Finally there are
frequent references to a college of agoranomoi, which consisted of five mem-
bers and was also headed by a chairman. The customary progression in the

5  My thanks to G. Kantor for his discussion of the date for this inscription.
6  For a list of inscriptions containing such a combination see Ruscu 2006, 774, note 26.
7  It is in precisely this way that Nilsson (1961, 145) explains the spread of the cult of Demos in
the Late Hellenistic period: it was designed as a counterweight to the cult of the rulers, which
embodied the monarchic idea of the structures above polis level.

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A New Dedication from Olbia 197

career of a politician in Olbia involved a kind of cursus, which required him to

hold one after the other the office of an agoranomos, then the first agoranomos,
a strategos, then the first strategos, an archōn and finally the first archōn: this
information emerges from prosopographic data.8 The new dedication of the
strategoi contains recognizable elements of this system: the date pertaining to
the eponymous archōn, in connection with which the standard formula ἐπὶ τῶν
περὶ τὸν δεῖνα ἀρχόντων is used, and the list of the college of strategoi consisting
of six members. It can be assumed that the remaining elements of the Olbian
constitution, which represented a coherent system, were also in place.
The similarity between the Olbian cursus and the Roman cursus honorum
is striking: the sequence agoranomos – strategos – archon corresponds to the
Roman aedile – praetor – consul and even the Greek names for the colleges are
the same as those often used for translation into Greek of the corresponding
Latin terms, even if the variant archon for consul is attested (LSJ, s.v.), but is
not the one most frequently encountered. Тhis situation is far from a banal
one. A cursus for a city’s magistracy existed in Roman colonies (quaestor –
aedile – duumvir), but this system was adhered to more thoroughly in the West,
than the East: in Greek-speaking provinces considerable variations are to be
observed. As far as most of the Greek cities were concerned, it is doubtful that
any kind of clear hierarchy of magistracies existed in them, even in the impe-
rial period, although distinctions would have been drawn, of course, between
those that were more important and prestigious and those that were less so.9
This similarity between the Olbian and Roman systems of magistracies is
highly unlikely to be mere chance. Indeed, both the earliest inscriptions from
the post-Getic era, relating to the period shortly after the restoring of the city,
are dedications of buildings to Roman Emperors. No other direct dedications
to Roman Emperors of a later date have been recorded in Olbia. It is only
under the Severi that dedications to the gods appear, wishing good health to
the Emperor and to members of his family (IOSPE I², 174, 184) as well as those
of their statues (IOSPE I², 199 A, B), but no further dedications to Emperors as
gods have been recorded, even in those periods when there was a Roman gar-
rison stationed in Olbia.
It seems to testify to a level of relations between the city and Rome and a
degree of dependence on Rome, which would not be repeated again in Olbia
afterwards. At that period, equally close relations with Rome had been estab-
lished in other Greek cities in the West Pontic region. Alexandru Avram has
demonstrated convincingly that these cities had become subject to Rome as

8  Cf. Ivantchik, Krapivina 2007.

9  See Kirbihler 2012, with bibliography.

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198 Ivantchik

result of the campaign by P. Vinicius c. 3/2 BC.10 P. Vinicius himself was hon-
ored in Kallatis and got a title of patron (πάτρων) of the city (ISM III, 57).
Not long ago another inscription from Kallatis was published, from which
it emerged that the city honoured another Roman military commander as its
benefactor and patron – Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Augur, consul in 14 BC.11
His campaign against the Getae and the Sarmatians had already been known
(Flor. Epit. II. 28-29; Tac. Ann. IV. 44. 1), but it was assumed that it had taken
place in the middle reaches of the Danube. This new inscription bears witness
to the fact that it extended at least as far as the shores of the Black Sea and the
lower reaches of the Danube and may perhaps have related exclusively to those
territories. It probably dates from between the years 9 and 6 BC, i.e. it slightly
pre-dates the campaign of Publius Vinicius, yet, in all probability, Lentulus’
campaign did not lead to the establishment of Rome’s firm control over the
Greek cities in the West Pontic region.12 The decree of Dionysopolis in honour
of Mocaporis, son of Auluporis, strategos of the Thracian king Rhoemetalces I
(12 BC – 12 AD), who had completed a campaign “across the Istros against the
common enemies, the Iazyges”,13 is of a close date, but the hypothesis to the
effect that despite the absence of any mention of the Romans, what is implied
here is precisely Lentulus’ campaign,14 is not proved.
It was probably after the campaign of P. Vinicius that the cult of Emperors
was introduced in the cities of the Pontic region: in Histria evidence of this is
provided by the mention of a temple of Augustus built in his lifetime (ISM I,
146) and in Kallatis by that of a cultic statue dating from the same period.15
The dedication of the strategoi bears witness to the existence of the cult
of Emperors in Olbia as well in the period immediately after the campaign
led by P. Vinicius. It is likely that Olbia shared the fate of other Greek cities
on the west Pontic coast: they had not been officially incorporated into any
Roman province, but were under the control of the Roman Empire. The official

10  Avram 1998, cf. Matei-Popescu 2014, 176.

11  Avram, Ionescu 2014.
12  Avram, Ionescu 2014, with references.
13  Sharankov 2013, 64.
14  Matei-Popescu 2014, 176.
15  Avram 1998, 129. See also, dedications to Augustus of buildings executed during his life-
time, found in Kallatis: ISM III, 58; Saprÿkin, Pÿslaru [Pâslaru] 2013 = Saprykin, Pâslaru,
Colesniuc 2014. The dating of that last inscription by the authors of the publication to
between 27 and 14 BC (or even between 27 and 25 BC) based on the fact that Augustus
is referred to in it as “Caesar Augustus” rather than “Emperor Caesar Augustus”, is not
convincing. There is no reason for not giving this inscription – like the previous one – the
date range 3/2 BC to 14 AD.

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A New Dedication from Olbia 199

incorporation of these cities into the new province of Moesia dates from a later
period, but Olbia still remained outside its limits.
Then the question arises as to when Olbia was rebuilt after the Getic rout.
Unfortunately neither the circumstances nor the date of that rebuilding are
known. In the academic literature it is virtually taken for granted that the city
remained empty for several decades and was only restored at the end of the 1st
century BC.16 This hypothesis is based mainly on archaeological data. To this
day archaeological levels or remains of buildings, which would relate to the
second half of the 1st century BC or to the first half of the 1st century AD, are
virtually unknown. It is only within the territory of the suburbs that paving,
rubbish pits and pottery kilns dating from the beginning of the 1st century AD
have been recorded. Recently also in Trench R-25 – near the place where the
inscription published here was discovered – cellars were cleared which con-
tained materials dating from the first half of the 1st century AD.17 Objects dat-
ing from the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD are however encountered in
Olbia in levels of a later period almost everywhere. Nevertheless it has not been
possible to assign them sufficiently precise dates, which would have made it
possible to single out from among them objects of the third or fourth quarter
of the 1st century BC and so archaeological data cannot provide an answer to
the question as to when exactly Olbia was re-built. At the same time, data relat-
ing to Histria – both archaeological and epigraphic – show that the ‘scenario’
suggested for Olbia was not the only possible one. The fate of Histria in various
periods of its existence is in many respects similar to that of Olbia, her sister
city and neighbour. Like Olbia, Histria had been destroyed by Burebistas and,
like Olbia, had been restored after that destruction. Excavations in the sacred
area of Histria and comparison of their results with the epigraphic data – in
particular with the decree in honour of Aristagoras, son of Apaturios (ISM I,
54), have shown that the invasion by Burebistas was not the only one and the
city must have been subjected to a whole series of attacks. The last and most
devastating of these led to the destruction of the sacred area, which was later
occupied by residential districts. Yet between the destruction of the city in
the course of that last incursion and its restoration a limited amount of time
elapsed: probably several years and in any case no more than the life-span of a
single generation.18
As pointed out earlier, Olbia’s post-Getic constitution bears the imprint
of Roman influence, something unusual even for cities which had long been

16  Krapivina 1993, 9-10, 139-141.

17  Information provided by A.V. Buïskikh; the material has not yet been published.
18  Alexandrescu 2005, 142-154.

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200 Ivantchik

firmly incorporated into the empire. This fact can be explained in the simplest
way, if we assume that Olbia was rebuilt with the support or involvement of
the Romans. If the traditional date given for the rebuilding of Olbia, namely
the end of the 1st century BC, is correct, it can then be linked with the activities
of P. Vinicius, who paid a great deal of attention to the Greek cities on the west
Pontic coast and who was granted by certain of them the honorific title of polis
patron. According to Avram, it is precisely Vinicius’ activity which is described
as δευτέρα κτίσις τῆς πόλεως in the local tradition of Histria (ISM I, 191, 193).19
It is perfectly possible that in Olbia’s case this was not just a symbolic second
founding of the city, but an actual one, which can then be precisely dated to
3/2 BC. In that case the inscription of the strategoi and also Ababos’ dedication
have a date which is separated from the second foundation of the city by only
a few years and is connected with the active construction work which followed
on from that founding.
The possibility cannot of course be ruled out that the rebuilding of Olbia
took place significantly earlier. The terminus post quem can probably be de-
fined as the year 44 BC – the date of Burebistas’ death, after which his king-
dom rapidly collapsed.20 In the years that followed, the Romans, preoccupied
with civil war, had no time for that rather remote region, but after the war was
over in 31 BC the situation changed. By 29/28 BC Marcus Licinius Crassus had
completed his campaign into the territory of Dobrudja (Dio Cass. 51.23-27);
his Triumph over the Thracians and the Getae was celebrated on July 2, 27 BC
(CIL I² 478). Yet neither in the inscription connected with that Triumph nor in
the information provided by Dio Cassius, was reference made to any activity
on his part associated with the Greek coastal cities: nor is there any evidence
pertaining to it in the inscriptions originating from those cities. Crassus was
most likely occupied with pacifying and controlling the Getae of the hinter-
land and was not deflected from this task by the Greek cities. It is therefore
highly unlikely that Olbia would have attracted his attention, given that it was
a long way north of the region of prime concern to him.
So if we accept that the rebuilding of Olbia took place with support from
the Romans, such activity could be linked with the name of P. Vinicius and be
dated to the year 3/2 BC. It would be less likely but not impossible to link it
with the campaign of Cornelius Lentulus Augur and assign it a date a few years
earlier – between 9 and 6 BC. Of course, the similarity between the cursus

19  Avram 2003, 318.

20  Odessos, for example, was probably re-built immediately after the death of Burebistas:
see the catalogue of priests, who fulfilled their obligations “after the return”, which dates
from 44/43 BC – AD 2/3: IGBulg I2 46.

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A New Dedication from Olbia 201

honorum in Olbia and in Rome provides only indirect evidence, so we cannot

rule out the possibility of Olbia already existing at that time and simply being
placed under the Roman control by Vinicius together with other cities in the
western part of the Pontic region. Yet the hypothesis of its rebuilding under
the Roman control appears to correspond in the best way to the archaeological
and epigraphic evidence available at this point in time.
The new inscription provides new information on another controversial
issue in the history of post-Getic Olbia as well. It is well known that in Olbian
inscriptions of the 2nd and 3rd centuries a very large number of Iranian names
is found. Approximately half the representatives of the Olbian élite (mainly
city magistrates or priests) known to us bore Iranian names or patronymics
(often both). At the same time they were evidently completely Hellenized with
regard to their culture. This appears to show that at some stage the citizenry
of Olbia had included quite a large number of Iranian families, who had – at
least in part – become part of the élite, rather than the ordinary population.
In the literature two questions have been discussed: what would be the origins
of these Iranians and in which circumstances they had been admitted to the
civic community?
The traditional point of view is that this event took place when Olbia was
being rebuilt: too few citizens of Olbia returned after decades of scattering to
other cities, so that these Hellenized barbarians had to be included as part of
the city community. They were mainly considered to be Sarmatians (hence the
so-called “Sarmatization” of Olbia).21 On the other hand, Valentina Krapivina
has suggested that these Iranians were not Sarmatians, but inhabitants of the
so-called Late Scythian city-sites in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, in which
the inhabitants of Olbia found refuge and were to spend several decades, rath-
er than in the neighbouring Greek cities. According to her, the descendants of
the former Olbian citizens and also the Hellenized Iranians, who had mingled
with them, came back to settle in the rebuilt Olbia: Krapivina regarded them
as Scythians rather than Sarmatians.22 This suggestion was supported by Vitaly
Zubar and Nadezhda Gavrilyuk. Yet the detailed analysis of Olbian names re-
cently carried out by Sergei Tokhtas’ev led him to draw the following conclu-
sion: “the conception according to which citizens of Olbia who had come from
the Iranian North Pontic milieu were of Sarmatian origin, remains the only
one which can be substantiated. Evidence to be found in the language and

21  See, for example, Latÿshev 1887, 173-187; Knipovich 1956, 134-135 etc.
22  Krapivina 1994 and a number of her later works. See, in particular: Gavrilyuk, Krapivina
2005 and Krapivina 2011.

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202 Ivantchik

onomastics, which play a crucial role here, makes this perfectly clear”.23 While
the question as to whether the Olbian Iranians were Sarmatians by origin (al-
though of course there could have been other Sarmatianized groups among
them, known under conventional name of “Scythians”; their language was
however not different) can be regarded as resolved, the date and circumstanc-
es of the inclusion of this group into the citizenry of Olbia remain unclear.
Analysis of the names mentioned in the inscription sheds some light on
this issue. The name of the first archon – Ἰσ[μ]ην[ίη]ς – can, despite the worn
nature of the stone, be read with every confidence. In the Pontic region it has
been recorded here for the first time, although it is well-known outside that
region. This theophoric name derived from the name of the Boeotian river-god
Ἰσμηνός: a river of this name flows through Thebes and the cult of Apollon
Ἰσμήνιος was one of the most important in that city. It is not surprising that this
name was most widespread in Thebes and Boeotia: in the Realencyclopädie
seven individuals bearing this name have been recorded, five of whom were
Thebans and most mentions of the name in the inscriptions also relate to
Boeotia. Yet in the Hellenistic, and particularly in the Roman period, the name
was also widespread beyond the confines of that region. It is also attested in
Athens, Delphi, Thessaly and Sicily, on the islands of Euboea, Kos, Paros and
Chios and also in Asia Minor in Caria and Lydia. Thus, the name is not specifi-
cally linked to any particular region, but it is without doubt a Greek name.
Ismenies’ father bears the name of Τειτας; that name was recorded in the
inscription on another occasion as well, as it was the name of the father of one
of the strategoi. The name is not attested anywhere else and it is possible to as-
sume that the two individuals concerned were brothers. It does not appear to
be Iranian, but in view of the fact that there are no close parallels its origin is
not clear. It is possible that the same name in the form Τιττα (the patronymic
in the genitive) is attested in one inscription dating from the 2nd century BC
from the Letoon in Xanthos24 (сf. Αὐρ. Τιττις Κάστορος from Lycaonia25). The
form Τειτος, which is encountered occasionally, is evidently a variant for the
rendering of the Latin name Titus in Greek and it is not relevant here. If we
take into account the parallels referred to above, it can be assumed that the
name originated from Asia Minor. Another possible parallel is the name Τιτας,
which has been found in two graffiti and one curse discovered in Athens and

23  Tokhtas’ev 2013, 606.

24  Gauthier, Bousquet 1994, 350-352, Line 14. The authors regard the name Τιττας as local,
drawing attention to the fact that, as in the case of the five other local names found in the
inscription, it is encountered for the first time: p. 356, note 1.
25  Cronin 1902, 112, 22.

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A New Dedication from Olbia 203

dating from the last quarter of the 6th century BC and in Sicily dating from the
middle of the 5th century BC.26 The name would appear to have derived from
a rare name for a magistracy recorded in Gortyna in Crete.27 Yet taking into
account the rare nature of this name and the geographical and chronological
distance between these inscriptions and the Olbian one it is more likely that
this is a chance matching of sounds.
The name Παπίας has been found many times in Olbia, including in the
pre-Getic period (IOSPE I², 34; post-Getic: 86, 96, 97, 98, 151, 175, 221, IOlb 83),
in the Bosporan Kingdom, in Chersonesos and beyond the confines of the
Pontic region. The name Πάπας is attested in Olbia for the first time, but in the
Bosporan Kingdom it is encountered very often (CIRB 82, 95, 365, 443, 693 and
so on). Both names belong to the same group of so-called Lallnamen, originat-
ing from the language of children; their linguistic identity is not clear. The zone
in which they are distributed most widely is Asia Minor, where they appear
several times more frequently than in any other region of the classical world:
for this reason their appearance in the Pontic region is also more likely to be
linked to the influence of Asia Minor.
The name ῾Ιεροσῶν is undoubtedly Greek, but it is encountered only rarely:
to date it has only been recorded in Olbia in the post-Getic period (IOSPE I²,
134, 332, IOlb 87) and in Tyras (IOSPE I², 2).
The name Τονος has not so far been encountered in the North Pontic re-
gion: nor has it appeared in other regions of the classical world with the excep-
tion of Macedonia (Parthikopolis and the surrounding territory) and Thrace
(Nicopolis ad Nestum), where it is mentioned together with clearly Thracian
names.28 This name is most probably also Thracian.29
The name Αἷμος is encountered for the first time in Olbia and the North
Pontic region, but it was known in Thrace (IGBulg II, 570),30 in Athens (IG II2
1799), in Thermos in Aetolia (IG IX, 12, 1:60, VII, 6), in Crete (list of settlers who
had moved to Miletus: Milet I, 3, 34 h, 14) and possibly in Egypt (Bernand 1992,
25, сf. however, SEG 49, 2315). This name is Greek and would appear to be the

26  SEG 16, 38; Dubois 1989, 121, 171.

27  Cordano 1990; BE 1991, 162, No. 192 (O. Masson); Dubois 1989, 198, No. 171.
28  For references, see: LGPN IV, 334, s.v.
29  As already pointed out in Tomaschek 1980, II.2, 38.
30  In LGPN IV this evidence was not noted and there is only a reference to Haemus, a
Macedonian robber mentioned in Apul. Met. VII, 5. The reference is, however, to a literary
character, whose name could easily have been an artificial one derived from the name of
mountains in Thrace.

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204 Ivantchik

hypocoristic of one of the composite names starting with the element Αἱμο-31
which are encountered not very frequently.
The names Νουμήνιος, Βασιλείδης, Ν(ε)ικάνωρ, ῎Ερως are fairly ordinary
Greek names, which have often been attested in the North Pontic region. Yet,
the names Βασιλείδης and Ν(ε)ικάνωρ, which are widespread (especially the
first one) both in the Bosporan Kingdom and in Chersonesos, are encountered
in Olbia for the first time.
There are two more names to discuss – Αβαιγος and Σορφος. They are both
attested here for the first time and there are no convincing parallels for either
of them. The second of these two names can, however, be cautiously defined
as Sarmatian. It can be compared with the Sarmatian name Σαυροφος recorded
in Panticapaeum (CIRB 698, 2). The first syllable reflects the monophthongiza-
tion of the Iranian diphthong found in its initial state in the form recorded by
the Bosporan inscription. In other instances the diphthong au in Sarmatian
names is also rendered as αυ or an omega or omicron: the monophthongiza-
tion of diphthongs in Sarmatian was not yet complete in the first centuries
AD or perhaps various dialects co-existed in it, in which monophthongization
proceeded at different speeds. At the beginning of two names it can thus be as-
sumed that we have the Sarmatian component *saw-/*sō-, which is found fair-
ly frequently in Sarmatian names and can be traced back to Ancient Iranian
*syāva-, “black”, *syav-, “to walk or move quickly” or *sava-, “morning”: Σευραγ
(CIRB 1099, 12), Σαυανων (CIRB 1279, 8), Σαυαγος (CIRB 67, 8; 1279, 26), Σαυαγας
(CIRB 1099, 6 etc.), Σαυνασος (CIRB 1280, 26).32 The second component of the
name -ρφος can be explained as the result of an elision of an omicron between
two syllables with the same vowel, or simply as haplography from *-ρоφος, re-
corded in the inscription from Panticapaeum. In that case, both forms reflect
one and the same Iranian name *Saw-rof- > Σαυροφος, *Saw-rof- > *Sō-rof- >
*Σοροφος > Σορφος. The etymology of the second component is not clear but
there is little doubt that it is of Sarmatian origin.
This means that of the 13 names of Olbian citizens mentioned in the inscrip-
tion (one of them twice) seven are genuine Greek ones (Ἰσμηνίης, ῾Ιεροσῶν,
Αἷμος, Νουμήνιος, Βασιλείδης, Νεικάνωρ, ῎Ερως), four are of different origin but
adapted in a Greek environment and of these three are probably from Asia
Minor (Τειτας, Παπίας, Πάπας) and one is Thracian (Τονος), one more is of un-
clear origin (Αβαιγος) and only one (Σορφος) is perhaps Sarmatian, although for
that one as well there are no direct parallels to be found among the Sarmatian

31  Bechtel 1917, 25.

32  Cf. Abaev 1979, 303-305; Tokhtas’ev 2005, 25-26; Ivantchik 2007, 205-206; Tokhtas’ev
2013, 598.

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A New Dedication from Olbia 205

names recorded in Olbia. In the inscription closest in date to the one published
here – IOSPE I² 181 (end of the year AD 14 or beginning of the year AD 15) –
there are no Sarmatian names: the author of the dedication bears a unique
name that has not been recorded anywhere else – Αβαβος,33 which is clearly
a Lallname and possibly originates from Asia Minor, and a purely Greek pat-
ronymic Καλλισθένους. His son, known to us from the inscriptions IOSPE I2 79,
182, bore the name Ὀρόντας, which is of Persian origin and evidently, like other
Persian historical names had been brought to the North Pontic region from
Asia Minor. This confirms once again the origin of this important family from
Asia Minor. The name Kallisthenes has not been recorded in pre-Getic Olbia,
which confirms the assumption that we are dealing with settlers from outside.
Thus, Sarmatian names are virtually absent (only one has possibly been re-
corded) in the new inscription and in other inscriptions of similar date, which
sets them clearly apart from inscriptions of the same genre dating from the
period from the end of the 1st through to the 3rd century AD. In this group,
names of this kind accounted for almost half the total. This can hardly be re-
garded as just a coincidence, although that interpretation cannot be complete-
ly ruled out, bearing in mind how small the number of inscriptions is from
the first half of the 1st century AD. What is far more likely, however, is that
this situation indicates that the appearance of a sizeable group of families of
Sarmatian origin in the Olbian aristocracy took place not at the time when the
city was being rebuilt, but significantly later. So it means that we need to reject
the suggestion that, because of a shortage of citizens of Greek origin, a large
group of Hellenized Iranians from neighbouring areas was admitted to Olbia’s
citizenry at the time when the city was being rebuilt, regardless of how their
ethnic origin was defined – Scythian or Sarmatian. There are no grounds for
believing that they were involved in any way in the “second founding” of the
city. To judge from the range of names, the city was rebuilt by Greeks one part
of whom had originally come from Asia Minor and Thrace, where they had
borrowed some local names.
The inclusion in the ranks of the Olbian aristocracy of families of Sarmatian
origin took place in a far later period. It is known that between AD 50 and 90
the Sarmatian kings, Pharzoios and his heir Inensimeos, minted their coins in
Olbia. Olbia appears to have been dependent on those rulers at that time, al-
though it is not known what the specific conditions of that dependence were.
Yurii Vinogradov34 linked the acceptance of Sarmatians into the city’s élite

33  It is not excluded, but unlikely that the name is Semitic, cf. Ἀβαβοῦις (Dura-Europos),
Ἀβαβη/α, Ἀβάβιος (Arabia), Ἀβαβοῦς (Egypt).
34  Vinogradov 1994, 168-169.

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206 Ivantchik

precisely with this “protectorate”, as he termed it. Tokhtas’ev35 is also inclined

to accept this hypothesis. The new inscription confirms it as well: it records the
situation which preceeded the period of Pharzoios’ and Inensimeos’ “protec-
torate”. At that time there were virtually no families of Sarmatian origin among
those of the Olbian aristocracy and Sarmatian names, if they appeared at all,
did so only sporadically.

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Abbreviations

BE Bulletin Épigraphique in Revue des études grecques.

CIL Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Berlin, 1863-.
CIRB Corpus inscriptionum Regni Bosporani. Moscow, Leningrad, 1965.
IG Inscriptiones Graecae. Berlin, 1873-.
IGBulg Mihailov, G. Inscriptiones Graecae in Bulgaria repertae. Sofia, 1956-.
IGR Cagnat, R. Inscriptiones Graecae ad res Romanas pertinentes. Paris, 1911-1927.
IOlb Inscriptiones Olbiae / Nadpisi Ol’vii (1917-1965). Leningrad, 1968.
IOSPE Latyshev, B. Inscriptiones antiquae orae septentrionalis Ponti Euxini Graecae et
Latinae. Petropolis, 1885-1916.
ISM Inscriptiones Daciae et Scythiae Minoris Antiquae. Bucharest, 1983-.
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