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Polybius in a familiar passage, lists goods moving past Byzantium between the Mediterranean. world and the Black Sea region; among these goods, slaves are accorded a prominent place:…as regards necessities it is an unidsputed fact that the most plentiful supplies and best qualities of of cattle and slaves reach us from the countries lying round the Pontus, while among luxuries the same countries furnish us with an abundance of honey, wax and preserved fish; from the surplus of our countries they take olive-oil and every kind of wine. As for grain, there is give and-take – with them sometimes supplying us when we require it and sometimes importing it from us

This chapter discusses the ethnic, religious, economic and political interactions of Olbia with other communities during the 600–100 century BC. It focuses on the various relationship of the Greater Olbia with both Greeks and non-Greeks. Greater Olbia pertains to Olbia's mini-empire in the northwest Black Sea and spans across the estuary of the lower Bug, the lower Dnieper, the north-west Crimea, the outer estuary of Dnepier or Hylaea, the Berezan, the island of Lueke, and the settlements along Dniester. Greater Olbia was largely dependent on the maintenance of broadly symbiotic relationships with non-Greeks. These relationships and interactions with other non-Greek communities are reflected in the existence of a rich mix of traditional Greek and barbarian names in the personal names of Greeks. However distinct and Greek the Olbiopolitans may have perceived themselves, they were subjected to extensive cultural osmosis between Greeks and non-Greeks in and around the city. This osmosis and symbiosis can be seen in the religion, the pottery, the names and other aspects of the Olbiopolitan living such as the observation of Dio Chrysostom where he made note of a young Olbiopolitan cavalryman in a garb of a barbarian yet with his head full of Achilles.

Introduction: Aims, Contexts and Connectivity 5 7 After the death of his associate Juba II in ad 23 or 24: Strabo 17. 3. 7, with admirable remarks by Roller (2014) 15-16, also on the various modern hypotheses as to how and when Strabo wrote his great work, mostly best forgotten. 8 Demosthenes' descent from a lady of the region caused him to be characterised as a Scythian: e.g. Aeschin. 2. 173 and pp. 196 and 260 below on Bol'shaya Bliznitsa. We cannot use such rhetoric to mine hard data, as M ü ller (2010) desires.