Colchis (Black Sea Colonies)

Far to the east of the Black Sea, at the very edge of the Greek world, lies Colchis. A place of legend, it was the final destination on Jason’s quest for the Golden Fleece. Considered to be “the farthest voyage”, Greek traders from the Ionian city of Miletus, in Asia Minor, arrived in Colchis during the 6th century BC. Setting up trading posts, and later cities, at several locations including Phasis and Dioscurias – modern day Poti and Sukhumi in Georgia - they built a thriving mercantile economy there.

Yet the Greeks were not the first foreign visitors to Colchis. During the 1st millennium BC it came under Assyrian, Scythian, and eventually Achaemenid Persian influence. Nevertheless, to the Milesian Greeks, the natives appeared to be mainly Scythian in origin – a broad term in itself - and although initially fought and enslaved, they were eventually assimilated into what became a uniquely ‘Colchian’ society, yet run along Greek democratic lines.

The current ruler controls a powerful trading state with strong Scythian influences and a nobility who extol the finest qualities of both cultures. Although they fight in the classical Greek hoplite way, the ferocity of Colchis’ nomadic past is very much alive and well. As such, Colchis has set out to conquer - to absorb further Scythian tribes, and as many former-Persian lands as possible, into his burgeoning empire.