Tyras
Encyclopedia
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
city founded as colony of Miletus
Miletus
Miletus was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia , near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria...
, probably about 600 BC, situated some 10 m from the mouth of the Tyras River (Dniester
Dniester
The Dniester is a river in Eastern Europe. It runs through Ukraine and Moldova and separates most of Moldova's territory from the breakaway de facto state of Transnistria.-Names:...
). The surrounding native tribe were called the Tyragetae
Tyragetae
The Tyrageti, Tyragetae, or Tyrangitae , literally, the Getae of the Tyras, were a sub-tribe of the Getae Thracians, situated on the river Tyras . They were regarded as an immigrant tribe of European Sarmatia dwelling E...
.
History
Of no great importance in early times, in the 2nd century BC Tyras fell under the dominion of native kings whose names appear on its coins, and it was destroyed by the GetaeGetae
The Getae was the name given by the Greeks to several Thracian tribes that occupied the regions south of the Lower Danube, in what is today northern Bulgaria, and north of the Lower Danube, in Romania...
about 50 BC
50 BC
Year 50 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Paullus and Marcellus...
.
In 56
56
Year 56 was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known in the Roman Empire as the Year of the Consulship of Saturninus and Scipio...
AD, it seems to have been restored by the Romans
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
under Nero
Nero
Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....
and henceforth formed part of the province of Lower Moesia. There exists a series of its coins with heads of emperors from Domitian
Domitian
Domitian was Roman Emperor from 81 to 96. Domitian was the third and last emperor of the Flavian dynasty.Domitian's youth and early career were largely spent in the shadow of his brother Titus, who gained military renown during the First Jewish-Roman War...
to Alexander Severus
Alexander Severus
Severus Alexander was Roman Emperor from 222 to 235. Alexander was the last emperor of the Severan dynasty. He succeeded his cousin Elagabalus upon the latter's assassination in 222, and was ultimately assassinated himself, marking the epoch event for the Crisis of the Third Century — nearly fifty...
.
Indeed the autonomous caulking of coins in the city, called by the Romans Alba Julia, lasted from the time of the emperor Domitianus (81 AD) up to the end of the board of the emperor Alexander Sever (235 AD) with little breaks. The coins of Tyras of this period represented copper with the portraits of the members of the Imperial house for the province of the Roman Empire.
In Tyras was stationed a small unit of the Roman Classis Flavia Moesica
Classis Flavia Moesica
Classis Flavia Moesica was the Roman navy on the Danube river near the Black sea.-Characteristics:This navy of the Roman Empire was stationed in eastern Europe, controlling the limes in Dacia...
.
Soon after the time of Alexander Severus, it was partially destroyed by the Goths
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
, but archeological findings show that Romans remained there until the end of the fourth century (under Theodosius I
Theodosius I
Theodosius I , also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule over both the eastern and the western halves of the Roman Empire. During his reign, the Goths secured control of Illyricum after the Gothic War, establishing their homeland...
). Later the Byzantines renamed the city, destroyed by barbarian invasions, with the new name Maurokastron (meaning "white fortification").
Its government was in the hands of five archon
Archon
Archon is a Greek word that means "ruler" or "lord", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem ἀρχ-, meaning "to rule", derived from the same root as monarch, hierarchy, and anarchy.- Ancient Greece :In ancient Greece the...
s, a senate, a popular assembly and a registrar. The types of its coins suggest a trade in wheat, wine and fish. The few inscriptions are also mostly concerned with trade.
Its remains are scanty, as its site has been covered by the great medieval fortress called by the Genoese
Republic of Genoa
The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....
Maurocastro (and later Akkerman/Cetatea Alba).
See also
- O D E S S A S T A T E M U S E U M o f A R C H A E O L O G Y
- Bilhorod-DnistrovskyiBilhorod-DnistrovskyiBilhorod-Dnistrovskyi is a city situated on the right bank of the Dniester Liman in the Odessa Oblast of southwestern Ukraine, in the historical region of Bessarabia...
- P.O. Karyshkovskij, I.B. Klejman “The City of Tyras. A Historical and Archaeological Essay” – Polis Press, Odessa, 1994.
- MA in Black Sea Cultural Studies. International Hellenic University-School of Humanities