Ольвия и Римская империя: динамика и характер контактов
Olbia and the Roman Empire. Dynamics and Nature of Contacts

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with the nature of relationships between the Civic Community of Olbia and the Roman administration from the turn of our era till the third quarter of the 3rd century. Having carried out a complex analysis of the records, the author has come to a conclusion that the interrelation between Olbia and the Roman Empire was ambiguous in the first centuries A.D. As late as the third quarter of the 2nd century, the Imperial Provincial administration did not render the Civic Community any direct military assistance, but rather limited its help to a diplomatic support, mediation in a defensive alliance with the Sarmatians and basing the infantry troop of irregular forces and Bosporus cavalry in the city. In the third quarter of the 2nd century, a permanent Roman garrison was stationed in Olbia, what testifies to Olbia’s changing role in the Roman policy in the Black Sea North-West Region. In late 2nd – early 3rd centuries the ties between Olbia and the Empire became stronger. At the same time, we have reasons to believe that at that time the Civic Community gained autonomy, on the basis of which the Roman-Olbian contacts were regulated at the state level. This resulted in appearance of people possessing Roman civic rights in the city, as well as in the beginning of Romanization of the population. However, it did not affect the majority of population, which largely preserved its Greek traditions. For this reason, the norms of the Roman provincial culture were mostly supported by the military men of the imperial garrison till as late as their withdrawal from Olbia in the third quarter of the 3rd century. In the third quarter of the 3rd century Olbia was defeated by a poly-ethnic union of barbarian tribes. The nature of relationship with the Empire after this event, as well as the peculiarities of the historical development of this center in the late classical period in general still requires a comprehensive study.

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