Otto Kretschmer
Banned
In Antiquity Greek colonies were established as far away as Ukraine. Any chances that some of the Greeks might have ended up as horse nomads on the Eurasian steppe?
AHC/WI: Greek horse nomads
- Thread starter Otto Kretschmer
- Start date
I think they would be absorbed by the larger Iranian Scythian/Sarmantian groups unless there was a huge wave of Greek colonists towards the Tauric/Crimean peninsula and there was a drive to push deeper into those lands, which is unlikely. Hellenized Scythians would be incredibly interesting, though.
More thoroughly hellenised Bactria and Greek speaking central Asian nomads would be interesting to see
Bosporan Kingdom wank. They establish more settlements in the center and north of the peninsula while still relying on Rome as a protector. There is some cultural fusion between the Scythians and the Greeks at this point. In Late Antiquity, the Bosporan Kingdom is still destroyed by steppe invasions and some of the Bosporan Greeks from the north and inland of the peninsula end up joining the steppe peoples and migrating elsewhere. They'd speak a language derived from Ancient Greek, but calling them Greeks would be highly debateable.
Long-term I think they'd be absorbed into some other group, but it would be incredibly interesting if the sort of Greek they'd speak (separated by a few centuries from the Koine Greek, based on a rural dialect, and no doubt with many loanwords from Scythian and other steppe peoples' languages) became a common language among those steppe peoples with the most contact with Byzantium like the Bulgars and Avars and some Slavic tribes leading to something like modern Bulgaria speaking Greek, be it "proper" Constantinople Greek or this sort of Steppe Greek (I'd call it Tauric or Bosporan). I'd not expect them to be Christian in this era or when they settle in Bulgaria (or perhaps somewhere else, Taurica in Pannonia maybe?) so there's no incentive to encourage "proper" Greek. Bulgaria is probably the most likely place since it's fairly close and OTL the Bulgars at one point occupied areas where there were Greek colonies.
Likewise, it would also be interesting if some remain in Crimea/adjacent parts of Ukraine and we get a division between the settled Greeks on the southern edge of the peninsula and the "barbarian" Tauric peoples on the northern and interior parts.
Long-term I think they'd be absorbed into some other group, but it would be incredibly interesting if the sort of Greek they'd speak (separated by a few centuries from the Koine Greek, based on a rural dialect, and no doubt with many loanwords from Scythian and other steppe peoples' languages) became a common language among those steppe peoples with the most contact with Byzantium like the Bulgars and Avars and some Slavic tribes leading to something like modern Bulgaria speaking Greek, be it "proper" Constantinople Greek or this sort of Steppe Greek (I'd call it Tauric or Bosporan). I'd not expect them to be Christian in this era or when they settle in Bulgaria (or perhaps somewhere else, Taurica in Pannonia maybe?) so there's no incentive to encourage "proper" Greek. Bulgaria is probably the most likely place since it's fairly close and OTL the Bulgars at one point occupied areas where there were Greek colonies.
Likewise, it would also be interesting if some remain in Crimea/adjacent parts of Ukraine and we get a division between the settled Greeks on the southern edge of the peninsula and the "barbarian" Tauric peoples on the northern and interior parts.