Greek city situated on the
right bank of the Bug liman, S of the present-day village
of Parutino. One of the most important cities on the N
coast of the Black Sea, it was founded in the 1st half of
the 6th c. B.C. by Miletian colonists and by inhabitants
of the other Greek cities (Hdt. 4.78.79
; Dio. Chrys. Or
The city rapidly became self-governing, reaching full
prosperity in the 4th c. B.C. From the beginning of the
3d c. B.C. the danger of barbarian invasions grew. The
Sarmatians and Scythians invaded the city in the 2d c.
B.C., and from that period it started to decline. The Getae
seized it in the 1st c. B.C., and the city gradually became
barbarized and lost its Greek traditions. In the Roman
Empire it was a small town, becoming part of the
province of Lower Mysia toward the end of the 2d c.
A.D. when it was surrounded by fortifications. In the 4th
c. the Getae again invaded Olbia and gradually destroyed
Olbia covered a triangular area originally of ca. 50 ha,
but because of erosion only ca. 33 ha remain. The city
was spread out on two terraces, the lower city along the
river and the upper city with its business district and public buildings near the agora and the temenos. Covering an
area of over 2000 sq. m, the agora was bordered by a
stoa (45 x 17.5 m) of the 4th c. B.C. with 9 Ionic
columns, a large public building of the 4th-2d c., two
large commercial buildings divided into shops with basements for storage, and among other buildings a gymnasium (?) with baths. The temenos covered an area of over 3000 sq. m and was bordered by stone walls and
porticos. Among its buildings are a temple of Zeus (13.9
x 7.7 m) of the 3d c. B.C., a temple of Apollo Delphinios
(30-35 x 16 m) of the 4th-2d c. completely surrounded
by porticos of Ionian columns; and from the 5th c. B.C.
a temple in antis dedicated to Apollo with an Ionic
portico, an altar for libations, and an altar for burnt offerings. By the 1st c. A.D. both the temenos and the agora had been abandoned and this area, now beyond the new city walls, became a commercial center with several
pottery workshops, winemaking establishments, and
It is possible to trace the evolution of the residential
section from the 6th c. B.C. In the beginning it consisted
of small two-roomed houses with an area of 12 sq. m.
The houses of the 5th c. B.C. are more spacious. The
largest and most luxurious ones are those built in the
4th-3d c. B.C., especially in the residential quarter of the
lower city, where they are aligned on a broad stone-paved street. These houses, covering an area of as much
as 50 x 38 m, had a rectangular vestibule leading to a
square inner courtyard with rooms arranged around it.
Some contained as many as 25 rooms. Fragments of
mosaics and wall paintings have been found in a few
In the late 2d c. A.D. a kurgan of Zeus was erected in
what had been a residential area of the 6th-2d c.: a burial
mound 14.5 m high and 37 m in diameter surrounded
by a small wall. A dromos 1.75 m wide led down steps
into a stone burial chamber comprising two identical
The necropolis N and W of the city walls encompasses
an area of almost 500 ha. About 2000 burials have been
excavated. The most prevalent graves in all periods were
simple rectangular holes dug into the ground, but from
the 5th c. B.C. there are passage graves formed from a
niche or passage cut into the side of a tomb, and from
the 4th c. B.C. vaulted graves with steps lead down a
dromos into a burial chamber. The burial of Heuresibius
and Arete (2d c. A.D.) consisted of a large kurgan covering a vault composed of two rooms.
In the early centuries A.D. the S part of the upper city
became a citadel with massive walls and towers. Among
the buildings of this era are the barracks (?) of the Roman
garrison and a metal-working shop of the 3d-4th c.
From the 6th c. B.C. Olbia minted its own coins, and
in the 4th c. B.C. gold staters of Alexander and Lysimachos. Among the rich archaeological finds are wares
of the 6th c. B.C. from Rhodes, Miletos, Samos, Corinth,
Chios, Klazomenai, Chalkis, and black-figured Attic
bowls, as well as the local production of bowls and terracottas imitating imported forms. The Hermitage Museum contains material from the site.
E. H. Minns, Scythians and Greeks
(1913) 453-89; B. Farmakovskii, Ol'viia
(1940); Ol'viia i nizhnee Pobuzh'e v antichnuiu epokhu
[Materialy i issledovaniia PO arkheologii SSSR, No. 50]
(1956); Ol'viia, II [Arkheologichni Pam'iatky URSR, No.
7] (1958); L. M. Slavin, “Periodizatsiia istoricheskogo
razvitiia Ol'vii,” Problemy istorii Severnogo Prichernomor'ia v antichnuiu epokhu
(1959) 86-107; A. L.
Mongait, Archaeology in the USSR
, tr. M. W. Thompson (1961) 180-85; C. M. Danoff, Pontos Euxeinos
(1962) 1092-1104 = RE
Suppl. IX; Ol'viia, Temenos agora
(1964); E. Belin de Ballu, L'Histoire des Colonies
grecques du Littoral nord de la Mer Noire
id., Olbia: Cité antique du littoral nord de la Mer Noire
(1972); L. M. Slavin, Zdes' byl gorod Ol'viia
B. Brašinskij, “Recherches soviétiques sur les monuments
antiques des régions de la Mer Noire,” Eirene
87-92; A. I. Karasev, “Raskopki Ol'viiskoi agory v 1967-1969 gg.,” KSIA
130 (1972) 35-44.
M. L. BERNHARD & Z. SZTETYŁŁO