Abstract
The paper examines the events of the political history of Olbia in the mid-1st century AD, which have been linked by scholars to the Roman-Bosporan War of AD 45–49, traditionally based on two epigraphic documents, IOSPE I2 38 and the Mangup Inscription. However, a closer look at these texts reveals that such reconstructions of the political history of Olbia in the mid- 1st century AD are highly hypothetical. The author also argues that reconstructions based on the results of archaeological research in Olbia and her chora, including the work of recent years, are also based on very shaky grounds. The author concludes that all types of sources available to researchers that directly or indirectly relate to the history of Olbia in the AD 50–70s do not contain any indication that the city took direct part in the events of the Roman-Bosporan War. It seems more likely that after the defeat by the Getae, Olbia played the role of a trading port built on the Greek model and became a convenient point for trade interactions between Rome and the nomads.
Keywords
Rome, Olbia, Roman-Bosporan war of AD 45–49, epigraphy, classical archaeology.
Maria N. Rastegaeva
Saratov State University, Saratov, Russia
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