Bosporan Kingdom
Encyclopedia
The Bosporan Kingdom or the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus was an ancient state, located in eastern Crimea
and the Taman Peninsula
on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus (see Strait of Kerch
). It is interesting as the first truly 'Hellenistic' state in the sense of one in which a mixed population adopted the Greek language
and civilization.
The Bosporan Kingdom was the longest surviving known Roman Client Kingdom. It was a Roman Province from 63 to 68, under Roman Emperor Nero
. In the 1st century and 2nd century was a period of a new golden age of the Bosporan state. In the end of the 2nd century the King Sauromates II
inflicted a critical defeat to the Scyths and included all the territories of the Crimea in the structure of his state.
The prosperity of the Bosporan Kingdom was based on the export of wheat, fish and slaves
, and this commerce supported a class whose showy wealth over the centuries is still being dug out, often illegally, from numerous burial barrows or kurgan
s. The once thriving cities of the Bosporan have left extensive architectural and sculptural remains, while the kurgans continue to yield spectacular Greco-Sarmatian objects, the best examples of which are now preserved in the Hermitage
in St. Petersburg
. These include gold work, vases imported from Athens
, coarse terracottas, textile fragments and specimens of carpentry
and marquetry
.
The whole district was dotted with Greek cities: on the west side, Panticapaeum
(Kerch
), the chief of all, often itself called Bosporus, Nymphaeum and Myrmekion
; on the east Phanagoria (the second capital), Kepoi
, Germonassa
, Portus Sindicus
, Gorgippia. These Greek colonies
were mostly settled by Milesians
, Panticapaeum in the 7th or early in the 6th century BC, but Phanagoria (c. 540 BC) was a colony of Teos
, and Nymphaeum had some connection with Athens — at least it appears to have been a member of the Delian League
.
According to Diodorus Siculus
(xii. 31) the locality was governed from 480 BC to 438 BC by a line called the Archaeanactidae, probably a ruling family, who gave place to a tyrant
Spartocus (438 BC - 431 BC), apparently a Thracian
. He founded a dynasty which seems to have endured until c. 110 BC. The Spartocids
have left many inscriptions which indicate that the earlier members of the house ruled as archon
s of the Greek cities and kings of various native tribes, notably the Sindi of the island district and other branches of the Maeotae
. Unfortunately, the texts, inscriptions and coins do not supply sufficient material for a complete list of these monarchs.
Satyrus
(431 BC - 387 BC), the successor of Spartocus, established his rule over the whole district, adding Nymphaeum to his dominions and laying siege to Theodosia, which was a serious commercial rival because of its ice-free port
and proximity to the grain fields of eastern Crimea. It was reserved for his son Leucon (387 BC - 347 BC) to take this city. He was succeeded by his two sons conjointly, Spartocus II, and Paerisades; the former died in 342 and his brother reigned alone until 310. Then followed a civil war in which Satyrus defeated his younger brother Eumelus at the Battle of the River Thatis
in 310 BC
but then was killed giving Eumelus the throne.
His successor was Spartocus III (303 BC - 283 BC) and after him Paerisades II. Succeeding princes repeated the family names, but we cannot assign them any certain order. We know only that the last of them, Paerisades V, unable to make headway against the power of the natives, in 108 BC called in the help of Diophantus
, general of King Mithridates VI of Pontus
, promising to hand over his kingdom to that prince. He was slain by a Scythia
n named Saumacus who led a rebellion against him.
The house of Spartocus was well known as a line of enlightened and wise princes; although Greek opinion could not deny that they were, strictly speaking, tyrant
s, they are always described as dynasts. They maintained close relations with Athens
, their best customers for the Bosporan grain export, of which Leucon I set the staple at Theodosia, where the Attic ships were allowed special privileges. The Attic orators make numerous references to this. In return the Athenians granted him Athenian citizenship and set up decrees in honour of him and his sons.
In the 1st century BC, after his defeat by Roman General Pompey
in 63 BC, King Mithridates VI of Pontus
fled with a small army from Colchis
(modern Georgia) over the Caucasus Mountains to Crimea
and made plans to raise yet another army to take on the Romans. His eldest living son, Machares
, viceroy of Cimmerian Bosporus, was unwilling to aid his father. Mithridates VI had Machares killed, and Mithridates VI took the throne of the Bosporan Kingdom. Mithridates then ordered the conscriptions and preparations for war. In 63 BC Pharnaces II, the youngest son of Mithridates VI, led a rebellion against his father, joined by Roman exiles in the core of Mithridates VI's Pontic army. Mithridates VI withdrew to the citadel in Panticapaeum
, where he committed suicide. Pompey buried Mithridates VI in the rock-cut tombs of his ancestors in Amasia, the old capital of the Kingdom of Pontus
.
After the death of Mithridates VI (63 BC), Pharnaces II (63 BC - 47 BC) made his submission to Pompey, and then tried to regain his dominion during Julius Caesar's Civil War
, but was defeated by Caesar
at the Zela
and was later killed by his former governor and son-in-law Asander
.
Before the death of Pharnaces II, Asander had married Pharnaces II’s daughter Dynamis
. Asander and Dynamis were the ruling monarchs until Caesar
commanded a paternal uncle of Dynamis, Mithridates II
to declare war on the Bosporan Kingdom and claimed the kingship for himself. Asander and Dynamis were defeated by Caesar’s ally and went into political exile. However, after Caesar’s death in 44 BC, the Bosporan Kingdom was restored to Asander and Dynamis by Caesar’s great nephew and heir Octavian (future Roman Emperor
Augustus
). Asander ruled as an Archon and later as King until his death in 17 BC. After the death of Asander, Dynamis was compelled to marry a Roman usurper
called Scribonius, but the Romans under Statesman Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
interfered and set Polemon I of Pontus
(16 BC - 8 BC) in his place. Polemon married Dynamis in 16 BC and she died in 14 BC. Polemon ruled as King until his death in 8 BC. After the death of Polemon, Aspurgus
, the son of Dynamis and Asander, succeeded Polemon.
The Bosporan Kingdom of Aspurgus was a "Client State" of the Roman Empire
, helped by Roman garrisons. Aspurgus (8 BC - 38) founded a line of kings which endured with certain interruptions until 341. Aspurgus adopted the Roman names "Tiberius Julius" because he received Roman citizenship
and enjoyed the patronage of the first two Roman Emperor
s, Augustus
and Tiberius
. All of the following kings adopted these two Roman names followed by a third name, mostly of Pontic
, Thracian
origin (such as Kotys
, Rhescuporis and Rhoemetalces), but also of local origin (such as Sauromates, Eupator, Ininthimeus, Pharsanzes, Synges, Terianes, Theothorses and Rhadamsades).
The Roman Client Kings of the dynasty had descended from King Mithridates VI of Pontus
and his first wife, his sister Laodice
, through Aspurgus. The kings adopted the "Pontic Era" introduced by Mithridates VI, which started with 297 BC; this era was used to date coins. Bosporan kings struck coinage throughout the kingdom period, which included gold stater
s bearing portraits of the respective Roman Emperors. However this coinage increasing became debased in the 3rd century. Hence, we know their names and dates fairly well, though scarcely any events of their reigns are recorded. Their kingdom covered the eastern half of Crimea and the Taman peninsula, and extended along the east coast of the Maeotian marshes
to Tanais
at the mouth of the Don
, a great market for trade with the interior.
They carried on a perpetual war with the native tribes, and in this were supported by their Roman suzerains, who even lent the assistance of garrison and fleet. In 63 for unknown reasons, the Roman Emperor Nero
disposed Bosporan King Cotys I
from his throne. Perhaps Nero wanted to minimise the role, power and influence of local client rulers and desired the Bosporans to be completely governed by the Roman state. The Bosporan Kingdom was incorporated as a part of the Roman Province of Moesia
Inferior from 63-68. In 68, the new Roman Emperor Galba
had restored the Bosporan Kingdom to Rhescuporis I
, the son of Cotys I.
At times rival kings of some other races arose and probably produced some disorganization. At one of these periods (255) the Goths
and Borani were able to seize Bosporan shipping and raid the shores of Anatolia
.
With the coins of the last king Rhescuporis VI
in 341, materials for a connected history of the Bosporan Kingdom come to an end. The kingdom probably succumbed to the Huns
, who defeated the nearby Alans
in 375/376 and moved rapidly westwards, bringing destruction in their wake.
(and Bulgarian) protection. Phanagoria was the capital of Old Great Bulgaria. From time to time Byzantine officers built fortresses and exercised authority at Bosporus, which constituted an archbishop
ric.
They also held Ta Matarcha on the eastern side of the strait, a town which in the 10th and 11th centuries became the seat of the Kievan Rus'
principality of Tmutarakan
, which in turn gave place to Tatar
domination.
With the Diaspora
, and thanks to the nearby Khazars
state, a Jewish element had been added to the population, and under its influence were developed in all the cities of the kingdom (especially Tanais
) societies of "worshipers of the highest God," apparently professing a monotheism without being distinctively Jewish or Christian.
). The gold staters of Panticapaeum bearing Pan's head and a griffin are especially remarkable for their weight and fine workmanship. There are also coins with the names of the later Spartocids and a singularly complete series of dated solidi issued by the later or Achaemenian dynasty. In them may be noticed the swift degeneration of the gold solidus through silver and potin to bronze.
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
and the Taman Peninsula
Taman peninsula
The Taman Peninsula is a peninsula in the present-day Krasnodar Krai of Russia. It is bounded on the north by the Sea of Azov, on the west by the Strait of Kerch and on the south by the Black Sea. The peninsula has evolved over the past two millennia from a chain of islands into the peninsula it is...
on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus (see Strait of Kerch
Strait of Kerch
The Kerch Strait connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, separating the Kerch Peninsula in the west from the Taman Peninsula in the east. The strait is to wide and up to deep....
). It is interesting as the first truly 'Hellenistic' state in the sense of one in which a mixed population adopted the Greek language
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
and civilization.
The Bosporan Kingdom was the longest surviving known Roman Client Kingdom. It was a Roman Province from 63 to 68, under Roman Emperor Nero
Nero
Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....
. In the 1st century and 2nd century was a period of a new golden age of the Bosporan state. In the end of the 2nd century the King Sauromates II
Tiberius Julius Sauromates II
Tiberius Julius Sauromates II Philocaesar Philoromaios Eusebes, also known as Sauromates II was a prince and Roman Client King of the Bosporan Kingdom....
inflicted a critical defeat to the Scyths and included all the territories of the Crimea in the structure of his state.
The prosperity of the Bosporan Kingdom was based on the export of wheat, fish and slaves
History of slavery
The history of slavery covers slave systems in historical perspective in which one human being is legally the property of another, can be bought or sold, is not allowed to escape and must work for the owner without any choice involved...
, and this commerce supported a class whose showy wealth over the centuries is still being dug out, often illegally, from numerous burial barrows or kurgan
Kurgan
Kurgan is the Turkic term for a tumulus; mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves, originating with its use in Soviet archaeology, now widely used for tumuli in the context of Eastern European and Central Asian archaeology....
s. The once thriving cities of the Bosporan have left extensive architectural and sculptural remains, while the kurgans continue to yield spectacular Greco-Sarmatian objects, the best examples of which are now preserved in the Hermitage
Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,...
in St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
. These include gold work, vases imported from Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, coarse terracottas, textile fragments and specimens of carpentry
Carpentry
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
and marquetry
Marquetry
Marquetry is the art and craft of applying pieces of veneer to a structure to form decorative patterns, designs or pictures. The technique may be applied to case furniture or even seat furniture, to decorative small objects with smooth, veneerable surfaces or to freestanding pictorial panels...
.
Early Greek colonies
Panticapaeum
Panticapaeum , present-day Kerch: an important city and port in Taurica , situated on a hill Panticapaeum (Greek: Παντικάπαιον, Pantikápaion), present-day Kerch: an important city and port in Taurica (Tauric Chersonese), situated on a hill Panticapaeum (Greek: Παντικάπαιον, Pantikápaion),...
(Kerch
Kerch
Kerch is a city on the Kerch Peninsula of eastern Crimea, an important industrial, transport and tourist centre of Ukraine. Kerch, founded 2600 years ago, is considered as one of the most ancient cities in Ukraine.-Ancient times:...
), the chief of all, often itself called Bosporus, Nymphaeum and Myrmekion
Myrmekion
Myrmēkion was an ancient Greek colony in the Crimea, situated on the shore of the Cimmerian Bosporus, 4 kilometres to the north of Panticapaeum, the capital of the Bosporan Kingdom. It was founded in the mid-6th century BC as an independent polis, which soon became one of the richest in the...
; on the east Phanagoria (the second capital), Kepoi
Kepoi
Kepoi or Cepoi was an ancient Greek colony situated on the Taman peninsula, three kilometres to the east of Phanagoria, in the present-day Krasnodar Krai of Russia. The colony was established by the Milesians in the 6th century BC...
, Germonassa
Tmutarakan
Tmutarakan was a Mediaeval Russian principality and trading town that controlled the Cimmerian Bosporus, the passage from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. Its site was the ancient Greek colony of Hermonassa . It was situated on the Taman peninsula, in the present-day Krasnodar Krai of Russia,...
, Portus Sindicus
Anapa
Anapa is a town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located on the northern coast of the Black Sea near the Sea of Azov. It was originally a seaport for the Natkhuay tribe of the Adyghe people. Population: The town boasts a number of sanatoria and hotels...
, Gorgippia. These Greek colonies
Colonies in antiquity
Colonies in antiquity were city-states founded from a mother-city—its "metropolis"—, not from a territory-at-large. Bonds between a colony and its metropolis remained often close, and took specific forms...
were mostly settled by Milesians
Miletus
Miletus was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia , near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria...
, Panticapaeum in the 7th or early in the 6th century BC, but Phanagoria (c. 540 BC) was a colony of Teos
Teos
Teos or Teo was a maritime city of Ionia, on a peninsula between Chytrium and Myonnesus, colonized by Orchomenian Minyans, Ionians, and Boeotians. The city is situated on a low hilly narrow strip of land connecting two larger areas of land . Teos ranked among twelve cities comprising the Ionian...
, and Nymphaeum had some connection with Athens — at least it appears to have been a member of the Delian League
Delian League
The Delian League, founded in circa 477 BC, was an association of Greek city-states, members numbering between 150 to 173, under the leadership of Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Persian Empire after the Greek victory in the Battle of Plataea at the end of the Greco–Persian Wars...
.
Kings of Cimmerian Bosporan
- See Also: List of Kings of Cimmerian Bosporus
According to Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...
(xii. 31) the locality was governed from 480 BC to 438 BC by a line called the Archaeanactidae, probably a ruling family, who gave place to a tyrant
Tyrant
A tyrant was originally one who illegally seized and controlled a governmental power in a polis. Tyrants were a group of individuals who took over many Greek poleis during the uprising of the middle classes in the sixth and seventh centuries BC, ousting the aristocratic governments.Plato and...
Spartocus (438 BC - 431 BC), apparently a Thracian
Thracians
The ancient Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting areas including Thrace in Southeastern Europe. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family...
. He founded a dynasty which seems to have endured until c. 110 BC. The Spartocids
Spartocids
Spartocids : a Thracian dynasty of the Kingdom of Bosporus, ruled in 438–110 BC.The following genealogy is based upon Ferdinand Justi, Iranisches Namenbuch, , , p. 400:- See also :...
have left many inscriptions which indicate that the earlier members of the house ruled as archon
Archon
Archon is a Greek word that means "ruler" or "lord", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem ἀρχ-, meaning "to rule", derived from the same root as monarch, hierarchy, and anarchy.- Ancient Greece :In ancient Greece the...
s of the Greek cities and kings of various native tribes, notably the Sindi of the island district and other branches of the Maeotae
Maeotae
Maeotae or Mæotæ or Maeotici were an ancient people dwelling along the Palus Maeotis in antiquity. It is not clear whether they spoke an Iranian language or were related to the modern-day Adyghe. The best attested tribe among them was the Sindi.The earliest reference may be the logographer...
. Unfortunately, the texts, inscriptions and coins do not supply sufficient material for a complete list of these monarchs.
Satyrus of Bosporus
Satyrus was the ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom in 431 - 387 BC. He established his rule over the whole district of Maeotae, adding Nymphaeum to his dominions and laying siege to Theodosia, which was a serious commercial rival because of its ice-free port and proximity to the grain fields of eastern...
(431 BC - 387 BC), the successor of Spartocus, established his rule over the whole district, adding Nymphaeum to his dominions and laying siege to Theodosia, which was a serious commercial rival because of its ice-free port
Port
A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....
and proximity to the grain fields of eastern Crimea. It was reserved for his son Leucon (387 BC - 347 BC) to take this city. He was succeeded by his two sons conjointly, Spartocus II, and Paerisades; the former died in 342 and his brother reigned alone until 310. Then followed a civil war in which Satyrus defeated his younger brother Eumelus at the Battle of the River Thatis
Battle of the River Thatis
The Battle of the River Thatis was part of a succession dispute in the Bosporan Kingdom that was fought in 310 BCE. On the death of Pairisades, Satyrus took the throne but his younger brother, Eumelos, fled to the Thataeans who backed his claim....
in 310 BC
310 BC
Year 310 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rullianus and Censorinus...
but then was killed giving Eumelus the throne.
His successor was Spartocus III (303 BC - 283 BC) and after him Paerisades II. Succeeding princes repeated the family names, but we cannot assign them any certain order. We know only that the last of them, Paerisades V, unable to make headway against the power of the natives, in 108 BC called in the help of Diophantus
Diophantus
Diophantus of Alexandria , sometimes called "the father of algebra", was an Alexandrian Greek mathematician and the author of a series of books called Arithmetica. These texts deal with solving algebraic equations, many of which are now lost...
, general of King Mithridates VI of Pontus
Mithridates VI of Pontus
Mithridates VI or Mithradates VI Mithradates , from Old Persian Mithradatha, "gift of Mithra"; 134 BC – 63 BC, also known as Mithradates the Great and Eupator Dionysius, was king of Pontus and Armenia Minor in northern Anatolia from about 120 BC to 63 BC...
, promising to hand over his kingdom to that prince. He was slain by a Scythia
Scythia
In antiquity, Scythian or Scyths were terms used by the Greeks to refer to certain Iranian groups of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who dwelt on the Pontic-Caspian steppe...
n named Saumacus who led a rebellion against him.
The house of Spartocus was well known as a line of enlightened and wise princes; although Greek opinion could not deny that they were, strictly speaking, tyrant
Tyrant
A tyrant was originally one who illegally seized and controlled a governmental power in a polis. Tyrants were a group of individuals who took over many Greek poleis during the uprising of the middle classes in the sixth and seventh centuries BC, ousting the aristocratic governments.Plato and...
s, they are always described as dynasts. They maintained close relations with Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, their best customers for the Bosporan grain export, of which Leucon I set the staple at Theodosia, where the Attic ships were allowed special privileges. The Attic orators make numerous references to this. In return the Athenians granted him Athenian citizenship and set up decrees in honour of him and his sons.
In the 1st century BC, after his defeat by Roman General Pompey
Pompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
in 63 BC, King Mithridates VI of Pontus
Mithridates VI of Pontus
Mithridates VI or Mithradates VI Mithradates , from Old Persian Mithradatha, "gift of Mithra"; 134 BC – 63 BC, also known as Mithradates the Great and Eupator Dionysius, was king of Pontus and Armenia Minor in northern Anatolia from about 120 BC to 63 BC...
fled with a small army from Colchis
Colchis
In ancient geography, Colchis or Kolkhis was an ancient Georgian state kingdom and region in Western Georgia, which played an important role in the ethnic and cultural formation of the Georgian nation.The Kingdom of Colchis contributed significantly to the development of medieval Georgian...
(modern Georgia) over the Caucasus Mountains to Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
and made plans to raise yet another army to take on the Romans. His eldest living son, Machares
Machares
Machares was a Pontian prince and son of King Mithridates VI of Pontus and Queen Laodice. He was made by his father ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom after Mithridates, for the second time, reduced that country, after the short war with the Roman Murena, in 80 BC....
, viceroy of Cimmerian Bosporus, was unwilling to aid his father. Mithridates VI had Machares killed, and Mithridates VI took the throne of the Bosporan Kingdom. Mithridates then ordered the conscriptions and preparations for war. In 63 BC Pharnaces II, the youngest son of Mithridates VI, led a rebellion against his father, joined by Roman exiles in the core of Mithridates VI's Pontic army. Mithridates VI withdrew to the citadel in Panticapaeum
Panticapaeum
Panticapaeum , present-day Kerch: an important city and port in Taurica , situated on a hill Panticapaeum (Greek: Παντικάπαιον, Pantikápaion), present-day Kerch: an important city and port in Taurica (Tauric Chersonese), situated on a hill Panticapaeum (Greek: Παντικάπαιον, Pantikápaion),...
, where he committed suicide. Pompey buried Mithridates VI in the rock-cut tombs of his ancestors in Amasia, the old capital of the Kingdom of Pontus
Kingdom of Pontus
The Kingdom of Pontus or Pontic Empire was a state of Persian origin on the southern coast of the Black Sea. It was founded by Mithridates I in 291 BC and lasted until its conquest by the Roman Republic in 63 BC...
.
Roman Cimmerian Bosporan Kingdom
Caesar's civil war
The Great Roman Civil War , also known as Caesar's Civil War, was one of the last politico-military conflicts in the Roman Republic before the establishment of the Roman Empire...
, but was defeated by Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
at the Zela
Battle of Zela
The Battle of Zela was a battle fought in 47 BC between Julius Caesar and Pharnaces II of The Kingdom of Pontus.-Prelude:After the defeat of the Ptolemaic forces at the Battle of the Nile, Caesar left Egypt and travelled through Syria, Cilicia and Cappadocia to fight Pharnaces, son of Mithridates...
and was later killed by his former governor and son-in-law Asander
Asander (Bosporan King)
Asander named Philocaesar Philoromaios was an aristocrat and a man of high rank of the Bosporan Kingdom.Asander was of Greek and possibly of Persian ancestry. There is not much is known on his family and early life. He started his political and military career as a general under Pharnaces II, King...
.
Before the death of Pharnaces II, Asander had married Pharnaces II’s daughter Dynamis
Dynamis (Bosporan queen)
Dynamis named Philoromaios was a Roman Client Queen of the Bosporan Kingdom during the Roman Republic and the reign of the first Roman Emperor Augustus.-Life:...
. Asander and Dynamis were the ruling monarchs until Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
commanded a paternal uncle of Dynamis, Mithridates II
Mithridates I of the Bosporus
Mithridates I of the Bosporus sometimes known as Mithridates II of the Bosporan and Mithridates of Pergamon , was a nobleman from Anatolia. Mithridates was one of the sons born to King Mithridates VI of Pontus from his mistress, the Galatian Celtic Princess Adobogiona. He also had a full blooded...
to declare war on the Bosporan Kingdom and claimed the kingship for himself. Asander and Dynamis were defeated by Caesar’s ally and went into political exile. However, after Caesar’s death in 44 BC, the Bosporan Kingdom was restored to Asander and Dynamis by Caesar’s great nephew and heir Octavian (future Roman Emperor
Roman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...
Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
). Asander ruled as an Archon and later as King until his death in 17 BC. After the death of Asander, Dynamis was compelled to marry a Roman usurper
Usurper
Usurper is a derogatory term used to describe either an illegitimate or controversial claimant to the power; often, but not always in a monarchy, or a person who succeeds in establishing himself as a monarch without inheriting the throne, or any other person exercising authority unconstitutionally...
called Scribonius, but the Romans under Statesman Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was a Roman statesman and general. He was a close friend, son-in-law, lieutenant and defense minister to Octavian, the future Emperor Caesar Augustus...
interfered and set Polemon I of Pontus
Polemon I of Pontus
Polemon Pythodoros, also known as Polemon I or Polemon I of Pontus was the Roman Client King of Cilicia, Pontus, Colchis and the Bosporan Kingdom....
(16 BC - 8 BC) in his place. Polemon married Dynamis in 16 BC and she died in 14 BC. Polemon ruled as King until his death in 8 BC. After the death of Polemon, Aspurgus
Tiberius Julius Aspurgus
Tiberius Julius Aspurgus Philoromaios was a Prince and Roman Client King of the Bosporan Kingdom.The name Aspurgus is a name of Iranian origin. His name goes back to the Iranian words aspa and aspabara . Aspurgus was a monarch of Greek and Iranian ancestry.Aspurgus was the son born to the ruling...
, the son of Dynamis and Asander, succeeded Polemon.
The Bosporan Kingdom of Aspurgus was a "Client State" of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, helped by Roman garrisons. Aspurgus (8 BC - 38) founded a line of kings which endured with certain interruptions until 341. Aspurgus adopted the Roman names "Tiberius Julius" because he received Roman citizenship
Roman citizenship
Citizenship in ancient Rome was a privileged political and legal status afforded to certain free-born individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance....
and enjoyed the patronage of the first two Roman Emperor
Roman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...
s, Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
and Tiberius
Tiberius
Tiberius , was Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced Nero and married Augustus in 39 BC, making him a step-son of Octavian...
. All of the following kings adopted these two Roman names followed by a third name, mostly of Pontic
Pontus
Pontus or Pontos is a historical Greek designation for a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in modern-day northeastern Turkey. The name was applied to the coastal region in antiquity by the Greeks who colonized the area, and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: Πόντος...
, Thracian
Thracian language
The Thracian language was the Indo-European language spoken in ancient times in Southeastern Europe by the Thracians, the northern neighbors of the Ancient Greeks. The Thracian language exhibits satemization: it either belonged to the Satem group of Indo-European languages or it was strongly...
origin (such as Kotys
Kotys
Kotys or Cotys may refer to:* Kotys * Cotys I , multiple people* Cotys II , multiple people* Cotys III , multiple people* Cotys IV, Odrysian king of Thrace...
, Rhescuporis and Rhoemetalces), but also of local origin (such as Sauromates, Eupator, Ininthimeus, Pharsanzes, Synges, Terianes, Theothorses and Rhadamsades).
The Roman Client Kings of the dynasty had descended from King Mithridates VI of Pontus
Mithridates VI of Pontus
Mithridates VI or Mithradates VI Mithradates , from Old Persian Mithradatha, "gift of Mithra"; 134 BC – 63 BC, also known as Mithradates the Great and Eupator Dionysius, was king of Pontus and Armenia Minor in northern Anatolia from about 120 BC to 63 BC...
and his first wife, his sister Laodice
Laodice (sister-wife of Mithridates VI of Pontus)
Laodice was a beautiful Pontian Princess and Queen who was first wife and sister-wife to King Mithridates VI of Pontus.She was a monarch of Persian and Greek Macedonian ancestry...
, through Aspurgus. The kings adopted the "Pontic Era" introduced by Mithridates VI, which started with 297 BC; this era was used to date coins. Bosporan kings struck coinage throughout the kingdom period, which included gold stater
Stater
The stater was an ancient coin used in various regions of Greece.-History:The stater is mostly of Macedonian origin. Celtic tribes brought it in to Europe after using it as mercenaries in north Greece. It circulated from the 8th century BC to 50 AD...
s bearing portraits of the respective Roman Emperors. However this coinage increasing became debased in the 3rd century. Hence, we know their names and dates fairly well, though scarcely any events of their reigns are recorded. Their kingdom covered the eastern half of Crimea and the Taman peninsula, and extended along the east coast of the Maeotian marshes
Maeotian marshes
In the geography of Antiquity the Maeotian marshes lay where the Don River emptied into the Maeotian Lake near Tanais. The marshes served as a check to the westward migration of nomad peoples from the steppe of Central Asia.The area was named after the Maeotae who lived around the Maeotian Lake....
to Tanais
Tanais
Tanais is the ancient name for the River Don in Russia. Strabo regarded it as the boundary between Europe and Asia.In antiquity, Tanais was also the name of a city in the Don river delta that reaches into the northeasternmost part of the Sea of Azov, which the Greeks called Lake Maeotis...
at the mouth of the Don
Don River (Russia)
The Don River is one of the major rivers of Russia. It rises in the town of Novomoskovsk 60 kilometres southeast from Tula, southeast of Moscow, and flows for a distance of about 1,950 kilometres to the Sea of Azov....
, a great market for trade with the interior.
They carried on a perpetual war with the native tribes, and in this were supported by their Roman suzerains, who even lent the assistance of garrison and fleet. In 63 for unknown reasons, the Roman Emperor Nero
Nero
Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....
disposed Bosporan King Cotys I
Tiberius Julius Cotys I
Tiberius Julius Cotys I Philocaesar Philoromaios Eusebes, also known as Cotys I or Kotys I was a prince and Roman Client King of the Bosporan Kingdom....
from his throne. Perhaps Nero wanted to minimise the role, power and influence of local client rulers and desired the Bosporans to be completely governed by the Roman state. The Bosporan Kingdom was incorporated as a part of the Roman Province of Moesia
Moesia
Moesia was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans, along the south bank of the Danube River. It included territories of modern-day Southern Serbia , Northern Republic of Macedonia, Northern Bulgaria, Romanian Dobrudja, Southern Moldova, and Budjak .-History:In ancient...
Inferior from 63-68. In 68, the new Roman Emperor Galba
Galba
Galba , was Roman Emperor for seven months from 68 to 69. Galba was the governor of Hispania Tarraconensis, and made a bid for the throne during the rebellion of Julius Vindex...
had restored the Bosporan Kingdom to Rhescuporis I
Tiberius Julius Rhescuporis I
Tiberius Julius Rhescuporis I Philocaesar Philoromaios Eusebes, also known as Rhescuporis I was a prince and Roman Client King of the Bosporan Kingdom....
, the son of Cotys I.
At times rival kings of some other races arose and probably produced some disorganization. At one of these periods (255) the Goths
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
and Borani were able to seize Bosporan shipping and raid the shores of Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
.
With the coins of the last king Rhescuporis VI
Tiberius Julius Rhescuporis VI
Tiberius Julius Rhescuporis VI, sometimes known as Rhescuporis VI was a prince and the last Roman Client King of the Bosporan Kingdom.Rhescuporis VI was the first born son to the Bosporan King Theothorses and his mother was an unnamed woman. He was of Greek, Iranian and Roman ancestry. His younger...
in 341, materials for a connected history of the Bosporan Kingdom come to an end. The kingdom probably succumbed to the Huns
Huns
The Huns were a group of nomadic people who, appearing from east of the Volga River, migrated into Europe c. AD 370 and established the vast Hunnic Empire there. Since de Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu, who had been northern neighbours of China 300 years prior to the emergence of the Huns,...
, who defeated the nearby Alans
Alans
The Alans, or the Alani, occasionally termed Alauni or Halani, were a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.-Name:The various forms of Alan —...
in 375/376 and moved rapidly westwards, bringing destruction in their wake.
Byzantine Cimmerian Bosporan
A few centuries after the Hunnic invasion, the Bosporan cities seem to have enjoyed a revival, under Byzantine EmpireByzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
(and Bulgarian) protection. Phanagoria was the capital of Old Great Bulgaria. From time to time Byzantine officers built fortresses and exercised authority at Bosporus, which constituted an archbishop
Archbishop
An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...
ric.
They also held Ta Matarcha on the eastern side of the strait, a town which in the 10th and 11th centuries became the seat of the Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus was a medieval polity in Eastern Europe, from the late 9th to the mid 13th century, when it disintegrated under the pressure of the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240....
principality of Tmutarakan
Tmutarakan
Tmutarakan was a Mediaeval Russian principality and trading town that controlled the Cimmerian Bosporus, the passage from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. Its site was the ancient Greek colony of Hermonassa . It was situated on the Taman peninsula, in the present-day Krasnodar Krai of Russia,...
, which in turn gave place to Tatar
Tatars
Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...
domination.
With the Diaspora
Diaspora
A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
, and thanks to the nearby Khazars
Khazars
The Khazars were semi-nomadic Turkic people who established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with the capital of Atil and territory comprising much of modern-day European Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Caucasus , parts of...
state, a Jewish element had been added to the population, and under its influence were developed in all the cities of the kingdom (especially Tanais
Tanais
Tanais is the ancient name for the River Don in Russia. Strabo regarded it as the boundary between Europe and Asia.In antiquity, Tanais was also the name of a city in the Don river delta that reaches into the northeasternmost part of the Sea of Azov, which the Greeks called Lake Maeotis...
) societies of "worshipers of the highest God," apparently professing a monotheism without being distinctively Jewish or Christian.
Numismatics of the Cimmerian Bosporan Kingdom
Although considered somewhat exotic prior to the demise of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Bosporan coins are now plentiful on the international coin markets, hinting at the vast quantities once produced. Several large series were produced by Bosporan cities from the 5th century BC, particularly in Panticapaeum (modern KerchKerch
Kerch is a city on the Kerch Peninsula of eastern Crimea, an important industrial, transport and tourist centre of Ukraine. Kerch, founded 2600 years ago, is considered as one of the most ancient cities in Ukraine.-Ancient times:...
). The gold staters of Panticapaeum bearing Pan's head and a griffin are especially remarkable for their weight and fine workmanship. There are also coins with the names of the later Spartocids and a singularly complete series of dated solidi issued by the later or Achaemenian dynasty. In them may be noticed the swift degeneration of the gold solidus through silver and potin to bronze.
See Also
- Cimmerian BosporusStrait of KerchThe Kerch Strait connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, separating the Kerch Peninsula in the west from the Taman Peninsula in the east. The strait is to wide and up to deep....
- Kingdom of PontusKingdom of PontusThe Kingdom of Pontus or Pontic Empire was a state of Persian origin on the southern coast of the Black Sea. It was founded by Mithridates I in 291 BC and lasted until its conquest by the Roman Republic in 63 BC...
- Roman EmpireRoman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
- Roman CrimeaRoman CrimeaRoman Crimea is the area of actual Crimea that was under control of the Roman Empire and mostly coincided with the Bosporan Kingdom. For nearly five centuries it was a Roman "Client State", but under emperor Nero it was briefly an area of the Roman Province of Moesia inferior .-History:Rome started...
External Links
- Rare and Unique Coins of Bosporan Kingdom. Bulletin of the Odessa Numismatics Museum. Issues 7,8,9. 2001. Odessa. Ukraine.
- Artezian, a fortified settlement on the Crimean Peninsula
- Гайдукевич В.Ф. Боспорское царство. М.—Л., 1949 (лит.).
- Полная библиография работ П.О. Карышковского на русском и английском языках на сайте Фридман А.С
- Bosporus: Roman control of ancient Crimea