Scythians and Greeks: Cultural Interaction in Scythia, Athens and the Early Roman Empire (Sixth Century BC to First Century AD)

Scythians and Greeks focuses on the ancient history of the northern Black Sea region: a major 'new frontier' of classical studies. The book presents a series of engagements with key themes bearing on cultural interactions within the region, from archaic Greek colonial settlement (approx. sixth cent. BC) down to the region's inclusion within the Roman imperial system (first cent. AD). By bringing together contributors from Russia, Ukraine and Georgia, the book makes available material and ideas which are either wholly new or known only to a very limited circle of specialists. The particular focus is on the relationships which developed, in peace and war, between the local peoples of the region (conventionally termed "Scythians") and the cultures of the classical Graeco-Roman world.

Table of Contents:
List of illustrations Map of the Black Sea Region 1. Introduction - DAVID BRAUND (University of Exeter, England) 2. E.H. Minns and M.I. Rostovtzeff: Glimpses of a Scythian Friendship - GREGORY BONGARD-LEVIN (Institute of History, Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia) 3. Key Points in Scythian History - V.YU. MURZIN (National Academy of Sciences, Kiev, Ukraine) 4. Scythian Kings and ‘Royal’ Burial-Mounds of the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BC - A.YU. ALEKSEYEV (Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia) 5. Masters and Workshops of the Jewellery and Toreutics from Fourth-Century Scythian Burial-Mounds - MIKHAIL TREISTER (University of Bonn, Germany) 6. Snake-Limbed and Tendril-Limbed Goddesses in the Art and Mythology of the Mediterranean and Black Sea - YULIA USTINOVA (Ben-Gurion University, Israel) 7. Pericles, Cleon and the Pontus: The Black Sea in Athens c. 440–421 - DAVID BRAUND (University of Exeter, England) 8. Who were the ‘Scythian’ Archers on Archaic Attic Vases? - A.I. IVANCHIK (University of Bordeaux/CNRS, France, and Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia) 9. Bobbies or Boobies? The Scythian Police Force in Classical Athens - BALBINA BÄBLER (University of Hamburg, Germany, and University of Exeter, England) 10. Olbia and the Scythians in the Fifth Century BC: The Scythian ‘Protectorate’ - S.D. KRYZHITSKIY (National Academy of Sciences, Kiev, Ukraine) 11. The Lower Dnieper Region as an Area of Greek/Barbarian Interaction - VALERIA BYLKOVA (Kherson Museum, Ukraine) 12. The Civic Frontiers of Tauric Chersonesus in the Fourth Century BC - M.I. ZOLOTARYOV † (Crimean branch of National Academy of Sciences, Simferopol, Ukraine) 13. The Development of Graeco-Barbarian Contacts in the Chora of the European Bosporus (sixth–first centuries) - A.A. MASLENNIKOV (Institute of Archaeology, Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia) 14. Thrace and the Bosporus under the Early Roman Emperors - SERGEY SAPRYKIN (Institute of History, Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia) 15. The Crimean Campaign of Tiberius Plautius Silvanus - V.M. ZUBAR (National Academy of Sciences, Kiev, Ukraine) Notes Bibliography of Works Cited Index

About the Author :
David Braund is Professor of Ancient History, and head of the Classics and Ancient History department at the University of Exeter. His particular specialism lies in the Black Sea region, especially Russia, Ukraine and Georgia, and he speaks Russian and Georgian fluently.

Review :
The editor's brief opening essay presents extraordinary interest with its apt and useful generalizations and conclusions touching upon topics of both historical-archaeological as well as editorial significance. This essay presents in summary form some of the most important results of an effort, ... to achieve the melding of two quite different scholarly worlds (the East, viz., Soviet and Russian, and the West)... For this reason alone, the volume under discussion should be welcomed, and considered essential by both classicists as well as scholars of the ancient world more generally... Generally speaking, the volume Scythians and Greeks is in every respect a useful tool for approaching the basic scholarly issues which are today occupying classical archaeology, the history of the northern Black Sea, and the greater Circumpontic region. This volume makes a significant contribution to the effort to make available to an international readership both what has already been accomplished as well as the results of ongoing research in this region. Such synthesizing works are essential for us all, particularly given the age in which we live.