Tanais was an ancient Greek trading city at the mouth of the Don river, on the Sea of Azov in what is now southern Russia. It was founded by Greeks from the Bosporan Kingdom as a trading post with the nomadic peoples of the steppe, such as the Sarmatians, and became an important meeting point for the exchange of goods like grain, fish, furs and slaves. The population was a mix of Greeks and local people. The city was destroyed several times, including by Polemon of Pontus and later by the Goths, and in the fifth century it was abandoned. It is now an archaeological reserve and one of the northernmost Greek settlements known.
Before and after
- from 306 BCE to 168 BCEAntigonid dynasty
- from 305 BCE to 30 BCEPtolemaic dynasty
- from 305 BCE to 30 BCEPtolemaic Kingdom
- 304 BCEBirth of Ashoka
- from 4th century BCE to 5th centuryOrigins of Tanais
- 4th century BCEElements
- from 4th century BCE to 5th centuryXiongnu
- 4th century BCEPublication of Arthashastra
- from 4th century BCE to 4th centuryFounding of Library of Alexandria
More in Civilizations & archaeology
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- 600 BCEFounding of Milan
- 6th century BCEConstruction of Parthenon
- from January 27 BCE to January 395 CERoman Empire
- 11 May 330 CEConstantine dedicates Constantinople
- 25 March 421 CEFounding of Venice
The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires.