serhii plokhy the gates of europe a history of ukraine

As he saw it, to the west of the Don lay Europe. The Don is to the east of the Crimea, and at its mouth was a Greek colony belonging to the Bosporan Kingdom.Īccording to another Greek historian, Strabo, these were more than just rivers. It was already an important river for trade. The Dnieper stretches from the Black Sea northward past what would become the city of Kyiv. In particular, the Romans were interested in the two rivers, the Dnieper – or Dnipro, as Ukrainians call it – and the Don. Now, what would end up being known as the “Western world” was becoming familiar with the region. Like the Scythians, the Sarmatians were also nomadic, of Iranian origins, and made up of different multiethnic and multicultural tribes.Īround the first century CE, the Romans eventually made their way to the Greek colonies. But then, in the seventh and sixth centuries BCE, Greeks began to hear stories about a real tribe of nomadic warriors known as the Cimmerians, who were pushed out of the region after fierce battles with another nomadic tribe known as the Scythians.Īt this point, the black nutrient-rich soil of the steppes was already gaining a reputation that would later result in Ukraine being known as the “breadbasket of Europe.” The Scythians had been cultivating and trading grains, but all this came to a halt once the Sarmatians showed up. There were rumors that this was the land of the female warriors known as the Amazons and final resting place of the hero Achilles. Before Herodotus’s research, there were only mythological tales about what was going on in the area north of the Black Sea. Herodotus was interested in the history of the Barbarians, a term used at the time to describe anyone who wasn’t Greek.

Within it, the Greek empire ended and the land of the so-called “Barbarians” began. To the Greeks, this area was regarded as the Pontic frontier. This region includes a portion of steppes, forests, and mountains that stretch north beyond the Black Sea. In this case, it was Herodotus, a historian whose nine-volume series, Histories, contains some of the first known writing about the origins of Ukraine.Įven in the time of Herodotus, around 500 BCE, the area that would become Ukraine was on its way to becoming a dividing point between the East and the West.

So let’s dive right in.Īs is the case with a lot of ancient European history, the official written record really starts with the Greeks. It’s a dramatic story that involves a lot of different actors, with many ups and downs. This Blink will attempt the challenging feat of giving you an overview of Ukraine’s history as described by Serhii Plokhy in The Gates of Europe.

Serhii plokhy the gates of europe a history of ukraine