48 SPREAD OF THE GREKK COLONIES, [CHAP.
three which were most famous for their arsenals and manu-
factories of arms, Rhodes and Massilia being the other two1.
The progress of colonisation in this direction was for a while
interrupted in consequence of movements on the
the Nwth* °n part of the Cimmerian peoples, and Sinopc itself
Coast of the required to be founded anew by Miletus a hundred
and fifty years after its first establishment; but in
the course of time a fresh advance was made along the western
and northern coasts of the Euxine, until at last the whole of that
sea was encircled with a belt of Greek cities. The mouths of
the great rivers which pour their waters into it offered a special
attraction to the settlers on account of the means of intercourse
which they provided with the natives of the interior; and the
positions of several of their trading stations are at once recog-
nised by their bearing the names of the streams with which they
were associated—Istros being the port for the Danube, Tyras
for the Dniester, Tanais for the Don, and Phasis for the Rioa
The most important of all was Olbia, or the "city
Of weaith," which was founded in 643 u.c. near
the embouchure of the Hypanis (Bug), somewhat
below the site of the modern Nicolaicf, and in the vicinity
of the mouth of the Borysthenes (Dnieper). The temptations
held out by the immense export and import trade, which soon
sprang up throughout this region, overcame the repugnance which
the Greeks must at first have felt to a country and a climate so
unlike their own: for here, instead of the varied aspect and
genial skies of Greece, they met with a monotonous expanse of
dreary steppes, which were exposed to winters of extraordinary
rigour. As they advanced further towards the east these dis-
couragements were intensified. There they found themselves
opposed by the Tauri of the Crimea, the memory of whose
barbarous customs has been perpetuated in the story of Iphigcneia
and Orestes, and by the savage Sarmatian tribes, who dwelt on
the northern side of the Palus Maeotis. But, notwithstanding
1 Strabo, 14. t. 5; speaking of Rhodes he says, jcdvrct00a ft, cSo-irep &»
McunraMp xtd Kv#/cy, rA repl TO&S Apx^KTOvay /cal r&s dpywovodcLs xal 0i)<rav-
pote forXwv re *ai rQv AAXwv AnrorfSaoTeu 3ta0«p6m>j, jcai *n ye r&v vex/)'
Cp, ftl§o f 9. §f ji.