OLBIA, Olbiopolis, or Borysthenis, in the south of Russia, on the right bank of the Borysthenes, near its mouth, was a colony of Miletus, 655 b.c. It was the great station for the trade with the interior, and a wealthy city from a very early time. Inscriptions, published in the Corpus Inscr. Graec., vol. ii., especially the famous decree in honour of Protogenes, throw much light on its internal history in the few centuries before and after the Christian era. They show it as a Greek city, maintaining its independence with difficulty against the barbarians who continually threatened it; but the Greek life and the Greek names gradually gave place to Scythian, the city was finally merged in the surrounding tribes, and its civilization and importance disappeared. It is a commonplace among archaeologists to speak of the trade-route which led across country to the northern sea from Olbia, and a find of archaic Greek coins in Prussia is appealed to as a proof; but it has recently been proved that this find of coins was an imposture. Though it is probable that such trade-routes did exist at an early time, it is highly improbable that Greek traders used them. The natives brought down their goods to the Greek colonies, and the trade was there conducted, not by money, but rather by barter. The most interesting point about the religion of Olbia is the cult of Achilles Pontarches, the Ruler of the Sea, a deity who was extensively worshipped along the northern coast of the Black Sea. He was evidently a god of the native races, in whom some analogy of name or character made the Greeks recognize their hero Achilles. Hence arose the legend, known already to Pindar, that Achilles lived on in the White Isle in the Black Sea, a god surrounded by the other heroes. Olbia was destroyed by the ...