Cimmeria (Black Sea Colonies)

The Cimmerian Bosporus has been fought over for its resources and strategic importance for millennia. The adventurous Greeks of Miletus, in Asia Minor, branched out into the Black Sea during the 6th and 7th centuries BC, forming several colonies around the Kerch Strait and Maeotis Swamp. Like other Greek outposts along the Black Sea coast, their intention was to exploit the natural resources of the region, trading them with the wider Greek world to generate great wealth for their home city.

As in most colonial ventures of the time, there was resistance to Cimmerian control from the local Scythian and Sarmatian tribes, leading to a degree of interbreeding and cultural osmosis between the two as the centuries wore on. By the beginning of the 5th century BC the Cimmerian colonies had gravitated from classical Greek democracy to control by a single ruling family, the Archaeanactids. Their rule was, however, relatively short-lived; a Thracian called Spartocus seized control in 438BC, ruling as a tyrant until 431BC. After his death he was succeeded by his son, Satyrus, whose conquest of nearby cities and maintenance of strong ties to Athens heralded the birth of the Cimmerian Kingdom, and a dynasty of rulers that endures to this day.

Despite this dynastic and diplomatic strength, Cimmeria remains under threat from the many nomadic tribes that surround it, and from the avaricious gaze of nearby Pontus, whose renowned military strength may yet prove its undoing.