city state · Poland, Lithuania and Russia

Tyras

600 BCE – 375 CE (approx.) · capital Tyras

A Greek colony at the mouth of the Dniester whose site, later the fortress of Akkerman, was inhabited for more than two thousand years.

Origins

Settlers from Miletus founded Tyras around 600 BCE on the right bank of the Dniester estuary, at modern Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi. The town took its name from the river, which the Greeks called Tyras, and is sometimes linked with an earlier settlement called Ophiusa.

Rule and society

Tyras was a small self-governing polis run by magistrates and a council on the usual Greek model. It lived by trading wine, olive oil and fine pottery to the peoples of the hinterland in return for grain, fish, hides and slaves, and it minted its own coins. Its neighbours were in turn Scythians, Getae and Sarmatians.

Decline and legacy

The Getae of Burebista sacked the town around 50 BCE. It recovered under Roman protection from the 1st century CE, with a Roman garrison and links to the province of Moesia Inferior. Gothic raids in the 3rd century and the arrival of the Huns ended the ancient city, though the site was later rebuilt as Moncastro and Akkerman.

Connections (2)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Tyras. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/tyras
MLA
“Tyras.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/tyras. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Tyras.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/tyras.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Tyras’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/tyras (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻