Ancient states founded by Greeks in the Northern Black Sea region played an important role in the development of peoples inhabiting what is now southern Ukraine. Close interaction between the Ancient Greek and barbarian civilizations makes it possible to find what was common and specific in the Greek culture of this region, as well as identifying the contribution made to the world cultural heritage by the tribes and peoples inhabiting the Northern Black Sea region in ancient times.
One of such city-states was Tiras on the current site of Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky, Odesa oblast. The excavations of Tiras have unearthed some structural remnants from classical, Hellenistic, and Roman times. But scant state funding has made it impossible to fully preserve the monuments. Thus what you can see now are only defensive structures, remnants of walls, foundations, and basements of houses, streets, avenues, and the foundation of a building referred to as a Roman barracks from the first century BC to the fourth century AD. In the thirteenth century, what had once been Tiras became a city of the Golden Horde, and in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the hospodars of Moldova built here a majestic fortress named Cetatea Alba (White Fortress).
The Lower Dnister was an area of Greek colonization in the northwest Black Sea littoral, where the Greeks founded two settlements, Tiras and Nikonios, in the sixth century BC, which later became major cultural centers. Tiras was originally a small Greek settlement, probably part of a unitary polis with Nikonios as the center. Most inhabitants of Tiras were engaged in agriculture. The absence of city coins indicates that it had a barter economy, where the labor of slaves or any dependent workforce at all could have been used only to a small degree. This was an ancient Greek civil community whose members’ well-being was based on small landholding. In the fourth and third centuries BC, farming settlements arose on the right bank of the Dnister and Budzhak estuaries. They were mainly responsible for Tiras’ economic growth during the period. In the late fourth and early third centuries BC Tiras began minting coins, a clear indication of its market development.
However, this upturn was short-lived. Signs of crisis caused primarily by foreign political factors began to surface in from the mid-third century BC. In the middle and late third century BC the Lower Dnister area suffered the invasion of Celtic tribes, which upset the economic situation throughout the northwest Black Sea region.
In the 80s-70s of the second century BC, Tiras came within the orbit of the Pontic Kingdom’s influence, and when Mithridates VI Eupator came to power and established control over all the West Pontic Greek cities, the city still more strengthened its political and perhaps economic ties with Pontus. This allowed Tiras dwellers to enlist the support of a powerful protector. Although within the sphere of Mithridates’ political influence, Tiras was still formally an independent state and its system of government did not undergo any major changes. After 72-71 BC Tiras saw the end of Mithridates VI Eupator’s power. The history of Tiras after his death has not been documented. But the historical situation on the northwest Black Sea coast allows us to suggest that Tiras was destroyed by Getic-Dacian King Burebista. After he died (c. 45-44 BC), the loose Getic state was divided by Burebista’s successors. The Greek colonies of the Northwest Black Sea littoral shook off Getic domination, and the residents returned to their cities, and as soon as about the time of Christ the cities began to experience an active life and gradual economic rebirth.
The beginning of a new Roman period in the history of the northwest Black Sea coast dates back to the second half of the first century BC, when, following the death of Mithridates VI Eupator, the region’s Greek population came into close contact with the Roman Empire. This was a crucial factor in the Greek population’s historical destiny. The rebirth of activities on the territory of Tiras coincides chronologically with the activation of Roman policies in the Balkans and the establishment of Kingdom of Odris allied with Rome in Thrace. The Roman Empire became the only real force capable of defending the region’s Greek population and stabilizing the military and political situation. This is why Tiras residents were interested in extending of political ties with Rome in the early first century AD.
The information now available does not suggest that Tiras was made part of the Roman province of Moesia at precisely that time. The relationship between Tiras and the Roman Empire changed when Emperor Nero came to power (54-68 AD). The issue of a special series of coins (c. 56-57 AD) shows that the Roman Senate passed a special resolution on Tiras about the city’s legal status which governed its relationship with the empire. The senate resolution was perhaps given the status of a law that set out the Tiras residents’ rights and duties. This act could graciously grant the city a certain political organization and a number of very important privileges. It can be supposed that Tiras was granted local government under supervision of the Roman Moesia provincial administration. The resolution could also bear fundamental privileges in terms of customs duties. Exempting the citizens from a number of tariffs was quite an effective measure aimed at economic stabilization and revitalization.
After Trajan’s Dacian wars and the formation of province Dacia, Tiras hosted a Roman garrison documented in a 116-117 written source. Its composition was not stable in the second and third centuries. In the first half of the second century, the Tiras garrison consisted of the Roman army’s Fifth Macedonian Legion soldiers and auxiliaries. Its nucleus was made up of legionnaires led by a Fifth Macedonian Legion centurion. In the second half of the second century, after the legion’s headquarters was transferred to Dacia, Tiras hosted soldiers of the First Italic and 11th Claudian Legions. From then on, the Roman garrison in Tiras was headed by the centurion of the First Italic Legion. Tiras was also used as a port for Moesian warships. The stationing of a Roman garrison in the city in the early second century stabilized the military and political situation in the area and promoted economic growth, to which archeological discoveries bear witness. As before, grain farming was the linchpin of the economy. Intensive housing construction went on in the city. One of the time’s special features was the emergence of production units in residential quarters. At that time Tiras was quite a large trade mediator between the Ancient Greek and Roman world on the one hand and the barbarian population of the northwest Black Sea coast on the other. This was facilitated by the city’s convenient location on the Dnister estuary, which made it possible to maintain stable river and land trade routes with areas far away from the Roman borders. Cross-city trade operations were conducted by water, because the considerable masses of Getic-Dacians and nomadic Sarmatians on the northwestern Black Sea littoral made it dangerous to carry goods by land.
In 214 Tiras was attacked by the Carps, an ancient nomadic tribe, during which a part of the urban quarters was ruined, and the population found refuge in the citadel. The Tiras garrison was reinforced by a fleet of Roman sailors who assisted other military units in land battles against the Carps. The early 230s saw increased pressure of barbarians from across the Danube on Roman borders. This was the beginning of the so-called Gothic wars. However, Tiras managed to survive during the stormy events in the 230s-240s. Owing to increased tension on the Danube and the renewed onslaught of barbarians against the empire, the Roman garrison was withdrawn from Tiras. A part of the civilian populace might have left Tiras with the Roman soldiers. Tiras was seized and ruined by the barbarians in the 250s and mid 260s.
We can conclude on the basis of various archeological materials that as soon as the barbarians began to control the Lower Dnister region, Tiras acquired the status of a military, political, and economic center in a Gothic early class society consisting in addition to Germanic peoples proper of the representatives of Sarmatian and Geto-Carpian tribes. In the fourth century, Tiras was an early urban center of a West Gothic community.
Nothing is known about Tiras’ destiny in the late fourth century. Yet, there are ample grounds to suppose that the city was wiped out during a Hun invasion. In 376, the Huns crossed the Dnister and rushed toward Roman borders through the Budzhak steppes. Tellingly, Tiras’ latest Roman coin dates to the times of Emperor Valentinian I (364-375) and is now the last clearly documented object found during the excavations of this ancient center.
