The first civilized people to settle in the Crimean lands were the ancient Greeks, or Hellenes. It was these people who made such a contribution to the development of all human civilization that cannot be overestimated. The influence of the ancient Greeks on the development of our peninsula is enormous.

The main reason for the resettlement of this people on the territory of the Northern Black Sea region was the search by low-income citizens for conditions for a normal life. The metropolis was overpopulated, there was no longer enough food and land for all free citizens, which gave rise to such a phenomenon as mass colonization. This movement dates back to the 7-6 centuries BC - the archaic era in the history of Ancient Greece. The first two waves of colonization affected lands close to Greece. The colonizers of the third wave crossed the Pont Euxine (the ancient Greek name of the Black Sea, translated as “Hospitable Sea”) and discovered fertile lands, an abundance of animals, birds, and fish. Being seafarers, the Greek settlers appreciated the local harbors and bays.

The first settlers who managed to create their own colonies on the territory of Crimea were the Ionian Greeks and the Dorian Greeks. It was they who, after some time, united other colonies around themselves and created two states - the Cimmerian Bosporus and the Tauride Chersonese.

The first city that the Hellenes founded in Crimea was Panticapaeum - present-day Kerch. The appearance of this city dates back to the turn of the 7th-6th centuries BC. A little later, in the 6th century BC, Feodosia was built, and the agricultural towns of Tiritaka, Parfeniy, Porfmiy, Myrmeky appeared on the Crimean coast of the Kerch Strait. The main inhabitants of these Hellenistic settlements were inhabitants of the western coast of Asia Minor (mainly from the Ionian city of Miletus) and the cities of the Aegean Sea.

Very quickly the colonists established their economic life: agriculture, cattle breeding, fishing and hunting developed; various crafts are emerging - construction, jewelry, metalworking, weaving, ceramics; the emergence of surplus products and goods makes it possible to establish trade with the metropolis and natural exchange with neighboring tribes. Already in the middle of the 6th century BC, their own coins were minted in Panticapaeum, and a little later - in other cities.

Gradually, the colonies, increasing territorially and in number of inhabitants, became cities and turned into small state policies. Their centers in the east of Crimea were Panticapaeum, Feodosia and Nymphaeum.

The threat of attack from barbarian tribes and economic interests became the reason for the unification of most of the cities of the Kerch Strait. The new state that emerged as a result of this unification was called the Cimmerian Bosporus. The first mention of this state belongs to the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, who named the time of its birth - around 480 BC. This state is not only expanding, but also becoming ethnically diverse: in addition to the Greeks, it is inhabited by Scythians, Taurians, and on the other side of the Kerch Strait - Sindians and Maeotians.

--

Everything that the Greeks achieved in their historical homeland is widely used in Crimea. Urban planning, architecture, painting, philosophy, education, lawmaking, medicine, literature, theater, sports, a high level of development of agriculture and crafts - all this finds fertile soil on the Crimean soil for application and dissemination. Most likely, the Cimmerian Bosporus also included a settlement located on the site of the present Old Crimea. Numerous archaeological finds of Hellenistic origin and Panticapaean coins confirm this assumption.

At the end of the 4th century AD, after the invasion of the Huns, the Bosporus had to recognize their supremacy, and in the 6th century, the heiress of the fallen Roman Empire - Byzantium - subjugated these lands to itself.

In the southwestern part of Crimea there was another Hellenistic state - Tauride Chersonesos. Its center was Chersonesos (now Sevastopol), which was founded in the second half of the 5th century BC. colonists from Heraclea Pontica - a Dorian city on the southern coast of the Black Sea. The constant threat of attack from neighboring Tauri forced the settlers to quickly turn Chersonesos into a fortified city. The socio-economic development of the Chersonesos is taking place according to a scenario very similar to the development of their fellow countrymen, who mastered the Crimean lands a little earlier - the Bosporans. For a short time, Chersonesos was even under the Bosporan protectorate. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, Chersonesus became the center of Roman military occupation in Crimea. The city did not suffer from the Huns, since it was outside their routes of conquest. At the end of the 5th century, Chersonesos became part of the Eastern Roman Empire.

The city, whose name is translated from Greek as “beautiful harbor,” arose on the shores of Uzkaya Bay in the 4th century BC. e. By the end of the century, he became dependent on Chersonesos, and in the 3rd century BC. e. - into the sphere of Scythian interests. The strengthening of the Scythians forced the Greeks to significantly update the defensive line of the settlement, building into it a fortress wall with towers near the bay. However, the measures taken did not save the city - in the 2nd century BC. e. it nevertheless passed into the hands of the Scythians. At the end of the 2nd century BC. e. Kalos Limen became part of the power of Mithridates VI, but after his death it returned to the Scythians. The end of the settlement dates back to the 1st century AD. BC: it is believed that it was completely destroyed by the nomadic Sarmatian tribes invading from the northern steppes.

Kulchuk

High relief “Feasting Hercules”, found in 2008 at the Kulchuk settlement. Stored in the Kalos Limen museum in the village of Chernomorskoye

The settlement on the southern coast of the Tarkhankut Peninsula (2.5 km south of the modern village of Gromovo) arose in the 4th century BC. e. and became one of the largest in the Chersonesos state. Like many other Black Sea cities, it was forced to repel constant attacks by Scythian tribes that occupied some areas of the steppe Crimea. During the Greco-Scythian conflicts, Kulchuk changed hands several times, but nevertheless remained a major trading point. The Scythians built their own fortification system here - a rampart and a moat lined with stone. The last owners of the settlement in the ancient era were the Scythians - with them in the 1st century AD. e. life in this place died out, as researchers believe, due to drought and the threat from the Sarmatian tribes. In the Middle Ages, when Crimea was under the control of the Khazar Kaganate, a settlement arose again on Kulchuk, now Khazar.

Belyaus

Another settlement founded in the 4th century BC. e. immigrants from Chersonesus. It was a block of five estates, fenced with stone walls, along which outbuildings were located. At the beginning of the 2nd century BC. e. Belyaus was captured by the Scythians, who, as in Kulchuk, built a rampart and a ditch lined with stone. In the second half of the 1st century BC. e. life on Belyaus was dying out - a few inhabitants reappeared in the settlement only in the 3rd century AD. e. During the Great Migration of Peoples (IV-V centuries AD), the Huns stayed in this place, and the last inhabitants of Belyaus were the Khazars.

Kara-Tobe

Defensive tower

The settlement on the western coast of Crimea was, like many others, founded in the 4th century BC. e. and then included in the Chersonesos state. But, unlike other cities, early Greek buildings were practically not preserved here: the surrounding areas were poor in stone, and therefore the buildings that had served their purpose were immediately dismantled in order to erect new structures. At the beginning of the 2nd century BC. e. the settlement fell into the sphere of influence of the Scythians, and Scythian buildings arose on the site of Greek estates. The Scythians were driven out by the troops of Mithridates VI, but after the death of the Pontic king they returned to the Black Sea settlements, including Kara-Tobe. Around 20 AD e. the settlement died in a fire - the residents left their homes in a hurry, not even having time to save their utensils. After this, life on Kara-Toba was restored, but never reached its previous level. During the confrontation between the Scythians and Rome, which in the third quarter of the 1st century AD. e. came to the aid of Chersonese, the residents left Kara-Tobe without a fight. At the end of the 1st century AD. e. a small village arose there again, but at the beginning of the 2nd century AD. e. the life of the settlement finally died out.

Chersonese Tauride

The polis was founded in 529 BC by immigrants from Heraclea Pontus and existed for a long time as a Greek colony. Over time, it turned into the capital of the state, to which many Black Sea cities submitted. But the problem was the Scythian tribes, with whom Chersonesus was forced to wage constant wars, which caused enormous harm to its economy. In the end, Chersonesus resorted to the help of the Pontic king Mithridates VI Eupator - and was eventually absorbed by his power. After the death of Mithridates, Chersonesus became part of the Roman Empire, and in the 5th century AD it submitted to Byzantium. However, despite the consistent dependence on three empires, the city of Chersonesos remained the largest political and cultural center of the Northern Black Sea region until the beginning of the 13th century. With the weakening of Byzantium, Muslim and nomadic tribes became more active in the region, who repeatedly plundered the city, until in 1399 the Golden Horde temnik Edigei completely destroyed Chersonesus.

Panticapaeum

Ruins of the prytaneum, a city council in ancient Greece

The city on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus, on the site of modern Kerch, was founded in the 7th century BC. e. came from Miletus. In the 540s BC. e. Panticapaeum led a military confederation that gathered the surrounding Greek city states, which found it difficult to resist the nomads attacking them alone. In the 5th century BC. e. The Archeanactid dynasty reigned in Panticapaeum, and then the Spartokid dynasty, which turned the confederation into the Bosporan state, and Panticapaeum into a huge prosperous city (its territory grew to 100 hectares). At the end of the 2nd century BC. e. The Bosporan kingdom lost its former power and submitted to the Pontic king Mithridates VI Eupator. However, this did not greatly damage Panticapaeum, which now became the capital of another state. Mithridates annexed a huge territory to his kingdom - in addition to the Black Sea region, it included Asia Minor, Colchis and Greater Armenia - but began to be at enmity with Rome. The wars that began were unsuccessful for him - as a result, fleeing from Roman troops, Mithridates took refuge in his own palace in Panticapaeum and, seeing that enemy troops were approaching the city, committed suicide.

Greek city-states of Crimea:
history of construction, location, public order

The formation of Greek city-states in Crimea is an achievement of the Great Colonization of the Hellenes, which took place on the lands of the peninsula between the 8th and 6th centuries. BC e. It is sometimes believed that the process of development of the Mediterranean coast and the Black Sea region is better described by the term “resettlement”. However, what made the Greeks leave their native places and go to places where they had to start life again?

Firstly, during this period of history there was a population explosion in Greece. The overpopulation of Hellas gave rise to the beginning of migration processes. Secondly, the Greeks were sorely short of agricultural land. In addition, the migration processes were associated with trade expansion, the search for products and sources of raw materials that were scarce or did not exist at all in Greece.

All this is complemented by military, social and ethnic reasons. The Hellenes were threatened by the Lydians and Persians, and there were significant disagreements between the Greeks, generated by belonging to different segments of the population and interethnic tensions.

Pampered under the warm sun, the Hellenes initially did not like the relatively cold local climate, and the inhabitants of Crimea were fearful. They called the Black Sea the phrase “Pont Aksinsky”, which means “inhospitable sea”. However, they soon changed their point of view and the prefix “a” was transformed into “ev”. This is how the Greek toponym Pont Euxine (“hospitable sea”) appeared, and the history of Crimea began to take on a different character.

The Greek city-states of Crimea were built by immigrants from Miletus. Less often - immigrants from Heraclea Pontic. However, scientists managed to find traces of the habitation of Greeks on the peninsula who arrived from Colophon, Ephesus and Teos. The area of ​​the Greek settlers was formed: the South-East of Crimea, the shores of the Kerch Strait and the territory of the Taman Peninsula.

Greek city-states and settlements in the Northern Black Sea region:

The political structure of the Crimean ancient settlements was similar to that in mainland Hellas. The Greek city-states of Crimea were predominantly slave-owning republics with a democratic way of life. The polis model allowed the city and its choir to organically coexist and made such settlements independent and viable units.

The Greek city-states of Crimea had three traditional branches of government today; they could solve all internal problems and independently elect government bodies. Their legislative power was represented by the people's assembly, the executive power by collegiums and magistrates. Adult men were allowed to solve problems of national importance. Slaves, foreigners and females had no rights. The courts in the Greek colonies of Crimea were highly specialized.

The first Greek city grew up in the east of Crimea, its name is Panticapaeum.

Kerch. Ruins of Panticapaeum - the first Greek city-state on the territory of Crimea	In the center of the picture is K.F. Bogaevsky “Theodosius” (1930) - Quarantine Hill - the alleged site of the founding of the Greek city-state, traces of which are now hidden by the layers of subsequent civilizations. The Genoese fortress of Kafa is depicted on Quarantine Hill.

Over time, several more large settlements were built on the peninsula: Chersonesos, Kerkinitida, Kalos-Lymen, Nymphaeum, Feodosia.

Greek city-state of Chersonesus: ruins of a residential quarter (Gagarinsky district of Sevastopol)	Ruins of the Greek city-state of Kalos-Limen (northwestern coast of Crimea)

The largest Greek state union of the Crimean peninsula of ancient times - the Bosporan kingdom - emerged as a result of constant confrontations with local barbarians; it will be discussed separately.

The Greek city-states on the Crimean peninsula can be divided into two parts - those that at some historical moment came under the influence of Chersonesos and those that found themselves in the sphere of interests of Panticapaeum. The latter, starting as independent city-states, united in a union, or rather, they were forced to do so by necessity - it was necessary to confront local tribes and develop trade with the metropolis. Later, these policies became part of the Bosporan kingdom of the Spartokid dynasty. What cities are these?

Greek city-states under the influence of Panticapaeum

If the capital was founded in the 7th century BC, then Nymphaeum, located a little south, was founded at the beginning of the 6th century. It was one of the largest and most important Greek city-states.

Founded by the Milesians, it soon came under the influence of Athens and, accordingly, entered the Delian symmachy, which was eventually defeated in the fight against Sparta. Nymphaeus broke away from Athens and handed over his fate to the Spartokids and the Bosporan kingdom. The city was destroyed more than once (especially catastrophically by the Goths), artifacts were stolen more than once in our time, so archaeologists did not get much. But what remains allows us to judge the greatness of the city and its architectural splendor.

A little north of Nymphaeum, in the same period as the last one, another policy was founded by the Milesians - Tiritaka. This Greek city-state had an industrial and economic orientation, which is confirmed by excavations. It was surrounded by walls only in the 3rd century AD. It was repeatedly destroyed by both the enemy and earthquakes. Under the Byzantines, during the reign of Justinian I, a basilica was established in Tiritaka, the ruins of which were explored during an archaeological expedition.

Among all the Greek city-states of Crimea, the most attractive is Acre, all because this city almost completely went under water as a result of transgression, a rise in the water level of the Black Sea. This city was not as large as Panticapaeum; its main structure was the port. As a result of underwater archaeological expeditions, walls, towers, building foundations, many small objects and a rich collection of coins were found.

From the west, the port Greek city-states were constantly subject to raids by nomads, especially after the fall of the Pontic kingdom. To protect the policies from these raids, the city of Ilurat was built from the depths of the Kerch Peninsula in the 1st century AD. Active excavations were carried out after the war; massive walls were discovered, which were rebuilt more than once. Underground passages, wells, towers - Ilurat was built using all modern fortification knowledge at that time. However, the fortress did not last long; at the end of the third century AD, the defenders abandoned it.

The history of Crimea in antiquity is a constant search for comrades-in-arms and a regular struggle for survival. Who were the Crimean Greeks afraid of? Their relations with the Tauri who inhabited the peninsula were changeable. At first, the Crimean aborigines were perceived by the Hellenes only as a pirate people, capable of killing a stranger in order to sacrifice him. In the places where the Taurians settled, practically no objects made by the Greeks were found. This means that there were no trade relations between the peoples.

In ancient policies, samples of molded ceramics with black walls were found, which suggests the presence of marital ties between young representatives of the Taurus tribes and the sons of the colonists. A 5th century tombstone was also found in Panticapaeum. BC e., located above the grave of the respected brand. This means that male Tauris sometimes lived in the Greek cities of Crimea. Scholars believe that, as a rule, they had the status of slaves, but there were still exceptions.

The Greek settlers tried to live peacefully with their Scythian neighbors, bringing rich gifts to the barbarian kings, who ceded their territories to them. From time to time, short-term military confrontations arose between them and the frightened Greeks built defensive fortresses. One of these wars marked the end of the Scythian kingdom.

During excavations of some Greek cities, surgical instruments made of bronze and bones were found. These artifacts suggest that in the Crimean ancient settlements of immigrants from Greece there was a fairly developed medicine.

The high level of cultural life in the Greek city-states of Crimea is evidenced by the presence of the same theaters as those that existed in the historical homeland of the Hellenes. In such structures there could be up to 3,000 people at the same time. Scientists also found musical instruments used by the Greeks in Crimea: lyre, trumpet, flute, cithara.

The people who inhabited the Greek city-states of Crimea professed polytheism and polytheism. They worshiped pagan gods who personified the forces of nature. Very soon they began to pay more attention to Apollo, the protector of the settlers.

In Chersonesus, the cult of Artemis, the patron goddess of this polis, was honored. They made sacrifices in the form of fish, domestic animals, and agricultural products. Deities were worshiped in sanctuaries, temples, and home altars. Clay copies of victims were often brought there. In the 3rd century. n. e. paganism in Crimea began to be replaced by Christian teaching.

Let's draw some conclusions. The ancient colonization of Crimea began in the VIII-VII centuries. BC e. and the Greek city-states existed until the invasion of the Huns, which occurred in the 4th century. n. e.

All settlements founded by people from Miletus, Heraclea Pontus, Colophon, Ephesus and Theos were republics with three branches of government. Among them, only one monarchy stands out - the Bosporus Kingdom. The first Greek city in Crimea is Panticapaeum. It appeared in the 7th century. BC e.

A century later the Nymphaeum was built. Then Tiritaka, Acre, Ilurat, Kitey, Cimmeric, Pormfiy, Mirmekiy, Zenon Chersonesos, Theodosius grew up. Soon they all fell under the influence of Panticapaeum and became part of the Bosporan kingdom.

In the VI century. BC e. The Greeks built the Tauride Chersonese, which managed to conquer Kerkinitida and Kalos-Lymen. The Crimean Greeks got along with the Tauri, Scythians, and Sarmatians, who also lived on the peninsula. From the 1st century BC e. the authorities of the Greek city-states of Crimea were forced to submit to Rome. Chersonesus existed longer than all other Greek city-states and became a stronghold of Byzantinism in Crimea.

INLIGHT/olegman37

GREEK COLONIAL CITIES IN THE CRIMEA. BOSPORUS KINGDOM. CHERSONES. SARMATIANS, THE PONTIAN KINGDOM AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE CRIMEA. 7th century BC - III century.

In the middle of the 8th century BC, the Greeks appeared in the Black Sea region and in the northeast of the Aegean Sea. The lack of arable land and metal deposits, political struggle in the city-states - Greek city-states, and an unfavorable demographic situation forced many Greeks to look for new lands for themselves on the coasts of the Mediterranean, Marmara and Black Seas. The ancient Greek tribes of the Ionians, who lived in Attica and in the region of Ionia on the coast of Asia Minor, were the first to discover a country with fertile land, rich nature, abundant vegetation, animals and fish, with ample opportunities for trade with local “barbarian” tribes. Only very experienced sailors, who were the Ionians, could sail the Black Sea. The carrying capacity of Greek ships reached 10,000 amphoras - the main container in which products were transported. Each amphora held 20 liters. Such a Greek merchant ship was discovered near the port of Marseille off the coast of France, which sank in 145 BC. e., 26 meters long and 12 meters wide.

The first contacts between the local population of the Northern Black Sea region and Greek sailors were recorded in the 7th century BC. e., when the Greeks did not yet have colonies on the Crimean Peninsula. In a Scythian burial ground on Mount Temir near Kerch, a painted Rhodian-Milesian vase of excellent workmanship, made at that time, was discovered. Residents of the largest Greek city-state of Miletus on the banks of the Euxine Pontus founded more than 70 settlements. Emporia - Greek trading posts - began to appear on the shores of the Black Sea in the 7th century BC. e., the first of which was Borysphenida at the entrance to the Dnieper estuary on the island of Berezan. Then in the first half of the 6th century BC. e. Olbia appeared at the mouth of the Southern Bug (Gipanis), Tiras appeared at the mouth of the Dniester, and Feodosia (on the shore of the Feodosian Gulf) and Panticapaeum (on the site of modern Kerch) appeared on the Kerch Peninsula. In the middle of the 6th century BC. e. in eastern Crimea, Nymphaeum (17 kilometers from Kerch near the village of Geroevka, on the shore of the Kerch Strait), Cimmerik (on the southern coast of the Kerch Peninsula, on the western slope of Mount Onuk), Tiritaka (south of Kerch near the village of Arshintsevo, on the shore of the Kerch Gulf) arose ), Mirmekiy (on the Kerch Peninsula, 4 kilometers from Kerch), Kitey (on the Kerch Peninsula, 40 kilometers south of Kerch), Parthenium and Parthia (north of Kerch), in the western Crimea - Kerkinitida (on the site of modern Evpatoria ), on the Taman Peninsula - Hermonassa (on the site of Taman) and Phanagoria. A Greek settlement arose on the southern coast of Crimea, called Alupka. The Greek city-colonies were independent city-states, independent of their metropolises, but maintaining close trade and cultural ties with them. When sending colonists, the city or the leaving Greeks themselves chose from among themselves the leader of the colony - an oikist, whose main duty during the formation of the colony was to divide the territory of the new lands among the Greek colonists. On these lands, called hora, were the plots of the city's citizens. All rural settlements of the choir were subordinate to the city. Colonial cities had their own constitution, their own laws, courts, and minted their own coins. Their policy was independent of the policy of the metropolis. The Greek colonization of the Northern Black Sea region mainly occurred peacefully and accelerated the process of historical development of local tribes, significantly expanding the areas of distribution of ancient culture.

Around 660 BC e. It was founded by the Greeks at the southern mouth of the Bosporus of Byzantium to protect Greek trade routes. Subsequently, in 330, the Roman emperor Constantine, on the site of the trading city of Byzantium, on the European shore of the Bosporus Strait, founded the new capital of the state of Constantine - “New Rome”, which after some time began to be called Constantinople, and the Christian empire of the Romans - Byzantine.

After the defeat of Miletus by the Persians in 494 BC. e. The colonization of the Northern Black Sea region was continued by the Dorian Greeks. Coming from the ancient Greek city on the southern coast of the Black Sea, Heraclea Pontica at the end of the 5th century BC. e. on the southwestern coast of the Crimean peninsula was founded in the area of ​​​​modern Sevastopol, Chersonese Tauride. The city was built on the site of an already existing settlement, and at first there was equality among all the inhabitants of the city - Taurians, Scythians and Dorian Greeks.

By the end of the 5th century BC. e. Greek colonization of Crimea and the shores of the Black Sea was completed. Greek settlements appeared where there was the possibility of regular trade with the local population, which ensured the sale of Attic goods. Greek emporias and trading posts on the Black Sea coast quickly turned into large city-states. The main occupations of the population of the new colonies, which soon became Greco-Scythian, were trade and fishing, cattle breeding, agriculture, and crafts related to the production of metal products. The Greeks lived in stone houses. The house was separated from the street by a blank wall; all buildings were located around the courtyard. Rooms and utility rooms were illuminated through windows and doors facing the courtyard.

From about the 5th century BC. e. Scythian-Greek connections began to be established and rapidly develop. There were also Scythian raids on Greek Black Sea cities. The Scythians attacked the city of Myrmekiy at the beginning of the 5th century BC. e. During archaeological excavations it was discovered that some of the settlements that were located near the Greek colonies during this period were destroyed in fires. Perhaps that is why the Greeks began to strengthen their policies by erecting defensive structures. Scythian attacks may have been one of the reasons why the independent Greek Black Sea cities around 480 BC. e. united in a military alliance.

Trade, crafts, agriculture, and the arts developed in the Greek city-states of the Black Sea region. They exerted great economic and cultural influence on the local tribes, while simultaneously adopting all their achievements. Trade was carried out through Crimea between the Scythians, Greeks and many cities of Asia Minor. The Greeks took from the Scythians primarily bread grown by the local population under Scythian control, cattle, honey, wax, salted fish, metal, leather, amber and slaves, and the Scythians took metal products, ceramic and glassware, marble, luxury goods, cosmetics products, wine, olive oil, expensive fabrics, jewelry. Scythian-Greek trade relations became permanent. Archaeological data indicate that in the Scythian settlements of the 5th - 3rd centuries BC. e. A large number of amphorae and ceramics of Greek production were found. At the end of the 5th century BC. e. The purely nomadic economy of the Scythians was replaced by a semi-nomadic one, the number of cattle in the herd increased, and as a result, transhumance cattle breeding appeared. Some of the Scythians settled on the ground and began to engage in hoe farming, planting millet and barley. The population of the Northern Black Sea region has reached half a million people.

Jewelry made of gold and silver found in the former Scythia - in the Kul-Ob, Chertomlyk, and Solokha mounds are divided into two groups: one group of jewelry with scenes from Greek life and mythology, and the other with scenes of Scythian life, apparently made according to Scythian orders and for the Scythians. It can be seen from them that Scythian men wore short caftans, belted with a wide belt, and trousers tucked into short leather boots. Women dressed in long dresses with belts and wore pointed hats with long veils on their heads. The dwellings of settled Scythians were huts with wicker reed walls coated with clay.

At the mouth of the Dnieper, beyond the Dnieper rapids, the Scythians built a stronghold - a stone fortress that controlled the water road “from the Varangians to the Greeks”, from the north to the Black Sea.

In 519 - 512 BC. e. The Persian king Darius I, during his campaign of conquest in Eastern Europe, was unable to defeat the Scythian army with one of the kings, Idanfirs. The huge army of Darius I crossed the Danube and entered the Scythian lands. There were much more Persians and the Scythians turned to the “scorched earth” tactic; they did not engage in an unequal battle, but went deep into their country, destroying wells and burning out grass. Having crossed the Dniester and the Southern Bug, the Persian army passed through the steppes of the Black Sea and Azov regions, crossed the Don and, unable to gain a foothold anywhere, went home. The company failed, although the Persians did not fight a single battle.

The Scythians formed an alliance of all local tribes, a military aristocracy began to emerge, a layer of priests and best warriors appeared - Scythia acquired the features of a state formation. At the end of the 6th century BC. e. joint campaigns of the Scythians and ethnic Proto-Slavs began. The Skolots lived in the forest-steppe zone of the Black Sea region, which allowed them to hide from the raids of nomads. The early history of the Slavs does not have precise documentary evidence; it is impossible to reliably cover the period of Slavic history from the 3rd century BC. e. until the 4th century AD e. However, it is safe to say that over the centuries the Proto-Slavs repelled one wave of nomads after another.

In 496 BC. e. The united Scythian army passed through the lands of Greek cities located on both banks of the Hellespont (Dardanelles) and which at one time covered the campaign of Darius I to Scythia, and through the Thracian lands reached the Aegean Sea and Thracian Chersonese.

About fifty Scythian mounds of the 5th century BC were discovered on the Crimean peninsula. e., in particular the Golden Mound near Simferopol. In addition to the remains of food and water, arrowheads, swords, spears and other weapons, expensive weapons, gold items and luxury items were found. At this time, the permanent population of northern Crimea increased and in the 4th century BC. uh, becomes very significant.

Around 480 BC e. the independent Greek city-states of Eastern Crimea united into a single Bosporan kingdom, located on both banks of the Cimmerian Bosporus - Kerch Strait. The Bosporan kingdom occupied the entire Kerch Peninsula and Taman to the Sea of ​​Azov and Kuban. The largest cities of the Bosporan Kingdom were on the Kerch Peninsula - the capital Panticapaeum (Kerch), Myrlikiy, Tiritaka, Nymphaeum, Kitey, Cimmeric, Feodosia, and on the Taman Peninsula - Phanagoria, Kepy, Hermonassa, Gorgipia.

Panticapaeum, an ancient city in Eastern Crimea, was founded in the first half of the 6th century BC. e. Greek immigrants from Miletus. The earliest archaeological finds in the city date from this period. The Greek colonists established good trade relations with the Crimean royal Scythians and even received a place to build a city with the consent of the Scythian king. The city was located on the slopes and at the foot of a rocky mountain, now called Mithridates. Grain supplies from the fertile plains of eastern Crimea quickly made Panticapaeum the main trading center in the region. The convenient location of the city on the shore of a large bay and a well-equipped trading harbor allowed this policy to quickly take control of the sea routes passing through the Kerch Strait. Panticapaeum became the main transit point for most of the goods brought by the Greeks for the Scythians and other local tribes. The name of the city probably translates as “fish route” - the Kerch Strait teeming with fish. He minted his own copper, silver and gold coins. In the first half of the 5th century BC. e. Panticapaeum united around itself the Greek city-colonies located on both banks of the Cimmerian Bosporus - Kerch Strait. The Greek city-states, who understood the need for unification for self-preservation and the implementation of their economic interests, formed the Bosporan kingdom. Soon after this, to protect the state from the invasion of nomads, a fortified rampart with a deep ditch was created, crossing the Crimean peninsula from the city of Tiritaka, located at Cape Kamysh-Burun, to the Sea of ​​​​Azov. In the 6th century BC. e. Panticapaeum was surrounded by a defensive wall.

Until 437 BC. e. The kings of the Bosphorus were the Greek Milesian dynasty of the Archeanactids, whose ancestor was Archeanact, an oikist of the Milesian colonists who founded Panticapaeum. This year, the head of the Athenian state, Pericles, arrived in Panticapaeum at the head of a squadron of warships, traveling with a large squadron around the Greek colonial cities to establish closer political and trade ties. Pericles negotiated grain supplies with the Bosporan king and then with the Scythians in Olbia. After his departure, the Bosporan kingdom was replaced by the Archeanactid dynasty of the local Hellenized Spartokid dynasty, possibly of Thracian origin, which ruled the kingdom until 109 BC. e.

In his biography of Pericles, Plutarch wrote: “Among the campaigns of Pericles, his campaign to Chersonesus was especially popular (Chersonese in Greek means peninsula - A.A.), who brought salvation to the Hellenes living there. Pericles not only brought with him a thousand Athenian colonists and strengthened the population of the cities with them, but also built fortifications and barriers across the isthmus from sea to sea and thereby prevented the raids of the Thracians, who lived in large numbers near Chersonea, and put an end to the continuous, difficult war, from which This land constantly suffered, being in direct contact with barbarian neighbors and filled with bandits of bandits, both border and located within its borders.”

King Spartok, his sons Satyr and Leukon together with the Scythians as a result of the war of 400 - 375 BC. e. with Heraclea Pontic, the main trade competitor was conquered - Theodosius and Sindica - the kingdom of the Sind people on the Taman Peninsula, located below the Kuban and Southern Bug. King of the Bosporus Perisad I, who reigned from 349 to 310 BC. e., from Phanagoria, the capital of the Asian Bosporus, conquered the lands of local tribes on the right bank of the Kuban and went further north, beyond the Don, capturing the entire Azov region. His son Eumelus managed, by building a huge fleet, to clear the Black Sea of ​​pirates who interfered with trade. In Panticapaeum there were large shipyards that also repaired ships. The Bosporan kingdom had a navy consisting of narrow and long fast-moving trireme ships, which had three rows of oars on each side and a powerful and durable ram at the bow. Triremes were usually 36 meters long, 6 meters wide, and the draft depth was about a meter. The crew of such a ship consisted of 200 people - oarsmen, sailors and a small detachment of marines. There were almost no boarding battles then; triremes rammed enemy ships at full speed and sank them. The trireme ram consisted of two or three sharp sword-shaped tips. The ships reached speeds of up to five knots, and with a sail - up to eight knots - approximately 15 kilometers per hour.

In the VI - IV centuries BC. e. The Bosporan kingdom, like Chersonesos, did not have a standing army; in the event of hostilities, troops were gathered from citizen militias armed with their own weapons. In the first half of the 4th century BC. e. in the Bosporan kingdom under the Spartokids, a mercenary army was organized, consisting of a phalanx of heavily armed hoplite warriors and light infantry with bows and darts. Hoplites were armed with spears and swords, and their protective equipment consisted of shields, helmets, bracers and leggings. The cavalry of the army consisted of the nobility of the Bosporan kingdom. At first, the army did not have a centralized supply; each horseman and hoplite was accompanied by a slave with equipment and food, only in IV BC. e. a convoy on carts appears, surrounding the soldiers during long stops.

Short description

BOSPORUS KINGDOM. CHERSONES. SARMATIANS, THE PONTIAN KINGDOM AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE CRIMEA

Greek colonization on the shores of the Black Sea proceeded, as mentioned above, in two ways. After repeated but random expeditions of individual brave sailors, who first became acquainted with the conditions of navigation on the Black Sea and its harbors (memories of these expeditions, clothed in the form of myth by Greek creative imagination, were preserved in the epic of the Argonauts and in the part of the Odyssey dependent on this epic) , the systematic exploitation of the Pontus Euxine, as the Greeks called the Black Sea, by Greek, mainly Asia Minor, navigators begins. In the 8th century the first trading posts and fishing stations appear on the southern coast; starting from the 7th century, when Persia begins to grow stronger, when it turns into a world power and gives the Greek cities the opportunity to develop extensive activities, these trading posts and stations grow into real cities with ever stronger and growing trade (Sinop, Amis, Trebizond, later Dorian Heraclea). In parallel with this, from the 7th century, i.e., from the time of the growth and strengthening of the Scythian power, the same process begins on the northern shore, and here, too, fishing stations and trading posts initially appeared, turning into real cities only from the 6th century. BC
Greek navigators on the northern shore of the Black Sea chose mainly the mouths of large southern Russian rivers, which in their estuaries provided faithful shelter for Greek ships and at the same time were extremely rich in large and expensive river fish. The same fish wealth was found in abundance on the shores of the Kerch Strait and on the coast of the Sea of ​​Azov, where there were a number of harbors convenient for Greek sailors. The main colonizing activities of the Greeks of Asia Minor were concentrated in these two areas.
In the western part, Tiras arose at the mouth of the Dniester and Olviy at the Bug and Dnieper estuaries, in the eastern part, where, along with Miletus, the colonizer of the western part of the northern coast of the Black Sea, Theos, Mytilene and Klazomenae worked energetically, increasingly rich settlements appeared - Phanagoria , Hermonassa, Sindh port, etc. on the eastern shore of the Kerch Strait, Feodosia, Nymphaeum and Panticapaeum, not to mention smaller cities, on the western. All these cities, in turn, populated with their trading posts the nearest points convenient for fishing and trade. For example, the city of Tanais, which arose at the mouth of the Don, is considered a colony of Panticapaeum.
All this enormous colonial work in the west and east was done in a relatively short period of time, during the era of magnificent prosperity of the Asia Minor coast - in the 7th and, especially, in the 6th century. BC
All these colonies did not form one whole. The entire past of the northern coast of the Black Sea and the geographical conditions of its individual parts sharply divided these colonies into two groups: western and eastern.
In the West, the leading role naturally belonged to the Milesian colony of Olbia, which was conveniently located in the Bug Estuary and thereby concentrated in its harbor all the products that were rafted to the sea along the Dnieper and the Bug. From it, as from a natural center, cultural Greek influences and works of Greek workshops moved along both named rivers, mainly along the Dnieper, where Greek influence met with the old prehistoric culture, which was discussed above.
The situation on the shores of the Kerch Strait was more complicated. The old culture here was concentrated mainly along the course of the Kuban, the delta of which - the Taman Peninsula (originally an island or, rather, a multi-island - Polynesia) would naturally play the role of Olbia in the west. But the Kuban delta is very complex, changeable and unsuitable for regular navigation; The sea coast of the Taman Peninsula does not have good harbors and therefore cannot serve as a center for all trade of the Sea of ​​​​Azov and the rivers flowing into it.
The European shore of the Kerch Strait was more convenient for navigation. Ancient Panticapaeum (now Kerch), both in ancient times and now, was a natural center for stopping and transshipping goods moving from the Sea of ​​Azov further along the Black Sea. The port of Feodosia, on the other hand, was the best access to the sea for the works of the northern and northeastern part of the steppe Crimea.
Naturally, therefore, the dispute for primacy had to go between Taman Phanagoria, the best and most convenient port of the Kuban delta, Panticapaeum and Feodosia. It was predetermined in favor of Panticapaeum by the fact that. The main importance for trade with Greece was not so much the products of the Crimea and Kuban with Taman, but the Don and Azov fish, cattle products of the Don steppes and those products of the Urals, Siberia and Turkestan, as well as central Russia, which went along the large eastern caravan route and in the estuaries The Don River came into contact with the Mediterranean waterway for the first time. Tanais, which arose naturally at the mouth of the Don, the final point of this route, could not play a decisive and independent role. This role naturally belonged to the one who would own the Kerch Strait and have the opportunity to release or not release goods moving from the Sea of ​​Azov into the wide waters of the Black Sea.
Of the cities near the Kerch Strait, the only one that combined all the advantages for owning the Kerch Strait was Panticapaeum. Its position at the narrowest point of the strait, its calm wide roadstead, the city acropolis fortified by nature extended into the sea (now the so-called Mount Mithridates), and the comparative wealth of fresh water did not allow anyone to enter into successful competition with it.
A third smaller and less important group of Greek cities in southern Russia were the Greek settlements on the southern and southwestern coast of the Crimea. The mountainous southern coast of Crimea does not have convenient natural ports, and neither does the steppe western coast of Crimea. But the places near the Sevastopol Bay are extremely convenient for navigation, both the Sevastopol roadstead itself and the neighboring smaller and less protected bays, which are, however, very suitable for sailing and rowing ships. The Greeks could not not use these harbors. During the long and dangerous voyage along the coast of Crimea, Greek ships needed a place for a long and quiet anchorage. This is how Chersonesus arose, initially, probably, as an Ionian maritime station.
We must, however, take into account that this station could and should have acquired independent significance. First of all, all the products of the mountainous Crimea and the valleys associated with it were naturally sent here. Settlements along the western steppe coast of Crimea were naturally drawn to Chersonesus, primarily Kerkinitida, located near present-day Evpatoria. Finally, and most importantly, Sevastopol and Crimea have always been connected with the opposite southern shore of the Black Sea, with its network of flourishing Greek colonies. Having a harbor in Crimea was extremely important for these colonies, since this way they could get the products they needed from the steppe Crimea, mainly bread, which they themselves were never particularly rich in.
It is therefore clear that one of the Greek colonies on the southern coast of the Black Sea - the Dorian Heraclea, at the moment of its especially magnificent prosperity, took possession of the Ionian site in the Crimea and sent its colony there, thereby turning the previously insignificant Chersonesus into a large and relatively prosperous city, the fate of which is closely connected with the fate of the rest of the Greek world on the northern Black Sea coast.
Of the three complexes of Greek settlements outlined above, the group of Greek cities near the Kerch Strait, which the Greeks called the Cimmerian Bosporus, a group that we will call Bosporus and which is under This name was also known to the Greeks. Tiras and Olbia have always been and remained isolated advanced posts of the Greek world, surrounded on all sides by a sea of ​​tribes alien to them, numerous and constantly fed from outside by a new influx of forces. The Greek world was unable to create a strong, isolated Hellenized Greek power here. True, Olbia had a powerful cultural influence on the population closest to it. The lower reaches of the Dnieper and Bug were covered with a number of small agricultural and trading fortified settlements inhabited by half-Greek inhabitants. The areas closest to Olbia began intensive farming. Olbia's trade went far to the north. Not to mention the fact that Greek products saturated the flourishing middle Dnieper region and Poltava region, the influence of these products affects all the way to the distant Kama region and, perhaps, even Western Siberia and Altai.
But its significance and activities always depended entirely on its neighbors. As long as there was a strong Scythian kingdom, Olbia, dependent on it, could freely develop, enriching both itself and the Scythians. Its especially brilliant period was the 6th century. BC, when Olbia directly transferred, under the protection of the Scythians, the products of the north to their Asia Minor homeland, and in the 4th century. BC, when she freed herself from the tutelage and trade oppression of the Athenian maritime power and again entered into contact with her mother, the revived Miletus. The Scythian kingdom at this time was still strong enough to provide Olbia with relative calm and peace.
The situation became more difficult in the 3rd century, when the collapsing Scythian state demanded more and more sacrifices from Olbia, unable to protect it from Western and Eastern aliens who were destroying the Scythian state: Thracians, Celts, Sarmatians. This is clearly evidenced by the large Olbian inscription in honor of Protogen, a prominent Olbian citizen, a wealthy merchant, armorer and exporter, like all prominent citizens of Olbia of that time, who more than once rescued Olbia from difficult situations related to the demands of its overlord and strays approaching the walls of Olbia predators. He also helped Olbia in its defense, constructing towers and parts of a defensive wall at his own expense, and also helped her out of food difficulties associated with the constant devastation of the areas that fed Olbia with grain.
The situation was different for the Greek colonies on the shores of the Kerch Strait. Let me remind you, first of all, that they found here not a barbarian, but a relatively cultured population, which since the 2nd millennium had been under the strongest cultural influence of the East. The Cimmerians layered on top of this population. From the merger of these two elements, the tribes of the Sinds, Maeotians, Sauromatians, Satarchaeans, and, in all likelihood, the Taurians, inhabiting the mountainous part of the Crimea, were created, and also, in all likelihood, the opposite coast of the Crimea, where they were driven out by the Scythians, who owned steppe Crimea, etc.
These tribes, although, as we have seen, were subject to the Scythians, nevertheless enjoyed comparative independence in the Scythian state, which increasingly increased as the focus of the Scythians moved more and more to the west and their main efforts were concentrated on the fight against the Thracians Balkan Peninsula.
They have long had a strong sedentary lifestyle, were in constant trade relations with their southern and eastern neighbors and lived a relatively developed economic life as farmers, cattle breeders and fishermen.
The Greek colonies immediately found in them ready customers for their goods and intermediaries in relations with the south and east. In them they could easily find support in defending their independence against the Scythians. The floodplains and swamps of Taman and the Sea of ​​Azov were reliable protection for the rich Kuban delta.
Naturally, the time of Taman’s political rise was also a time of great prosperity for the Greek colonies on the shores of the Kerch Strait and their intense influence on neighboring tribes. The necropolis of Panticapaeum, its first abundant mints of silver coins show that the end of the 6th and beginning of the 5th century BC. were an era of high growth of this city, its greater economic and cultural prosperity. On the site of an old non-Greek settlement, perhaps associated with the coast of the Caucasus and especially with Colchis (the name Panticapaeum is not Greek; Greek, probably a very ancient legend connects its origin with the ancient dynasty of Colchis kings), a real Greek city arises and a number of others around it smaller settlements. We see the same in Taman, where finds of ancient Ionian Greek dishes are not uncommon and the oldest burials in the necropolises of individual cities are burials of the 6th and early 5th centuries.
The decisive moment in the history of the Bosporan Greek colonies and especially Panticapaeum was the victory of Athens over the Persians and the great interest of Athens in the north that appeared at that time. the Mediterranean coast. sea, to Thrace and, especially, to the Black Sea coast. The main incentive was to provide its ever-growing and developing industry with raw materials and its ever-increasing population with bread, the production of which, as we have seen, was native both in the valley of the Dnieper and Bug, and along the Kuban, and naturally took over in the south of Russia, as demand grew , all large spaces.
Athens' attraction to new places along the Black Sea coast is natural and understandable. At the largest grain market in Hellas - in Italy and Sicily - Athens faced serious competition from the Dorians in general and Sparta in particular and was by no means the masters of this market. Egypt, rich in grain, was in the hands of the Persians and could not be wrested from them by Athens even after the failure of the Persian campaigns against Greece. There remained the north, communication with which was a monopoly of the Ionian Greeks of Asia Minor, whose trade routes and business connections were now claimed, after the Persian wars, by Athens, which had liberated but also ruined them.
The creation of great sea power by Athens, the seizure of the straits and important trading points on the Thracian coast put the entire Black Sea region - both southern and northern - in complete and direct dependence on Athens and allowed Athens, without resistance from anyone, to do a series of steps to strengthen and strengthen this dependence.
Among these decisive steps, the most serious was the occupation of Athens and the settlement of a number of important points on the southern coast of the Black Sea with its armed colonists. They did the same in the north.
Probably not having the opportunity to occupy the strong Panticapaeum, which was under the protection of the Scythians, they captured the neighboring Nymphaeum, which had an excellent harbor and was connected with a number of neighboring Scythian and non-Scythian tribes of the Crimea. They turned this minor city into a large trading harbor and an important center of exchange, thereby creating strong competition for Panticapaeum. His complete trading independence is evidenced by his excellent, artistic silver, which he minted at this time.
The great cultural flourishing of Nymphaeum at this time, its wide trade connections and close relations with neighboring tribes is evidenced by the rich and extensive necropolis of the city, the richest burials of which date back to the 5th century. BC It is characteristic that, along with the purely Greek burials of the Nymphaean necropolis, we have a number of mounds with non-Greek or semi-Greek burials, that is, with the burials of the leaders of neighboring tribes who were attracted to the Nymphaeum by its cultural influence and constant trade ties. The composition of the items from the richest Nymphaean burials is very typical. Along with things imported from Athens, we also find a number of products from other workshops, for example, excellent Samian bronzes, wonderful works of famous Samian foundries. VI and V centuries. BC
It is interesting to note that, in addition to Nymphaeum, Athens probably created other settlements on the Crimean coast of the Kerch Strait. One of them, as the name shows, could be the city or village of Atheneon - a competitor of the Ionian Theodosius, just as Nymphaeum was a competitor of Panticapaeum.
Athens also established a strong foothold in Taman in the land of the most cultured of the Taman tribes - the Sinds. And here they created their urban center - Stratocleia, probably not a new foundation, but the renaming and settlement of one of the old settlements of Taman by their colonists. To them, perhaps, the Sinds owe their state unification and the Greek physiognomy that this unification assumed, if this did not happen even earlier as a result of the settlement of the Taman coast by Greek colonies. This is evidenced by the unusually fine artistic coinage of silver of the new state with a horse's head on one side, the name of the tribe and the figure of an Athenian owl on the reverse.
The strong cultural influence of the Greeks on the local tribes, which had already begun earlier (I note, for example, one local burial containing a beautiful Rhodian vase of the early 6th century BC) was felt with particular vividness at this time. In the group of the so-called Seven Brothers Kurgans in the Kuban delta near the station. Krymskaya we find several burials of the 5th century. BC, the inventory of which is strikingly similar to the inventory of the just mentioned Nymphaean mounds. And here, next to things of undoubted Athenian origin, we find excellent works of Asia Minor workshops.
We do not know what the relations between Athens and Panticapaeum were at this time. The flourishing that we find in Nymphea and in the land of the Sinds in the 5th century. BC, we do not observe it in Panticapaeum. There are no traces of Panticapaeum's dependence on Athens. It is characteristic, however, that just at this time a major political revolution took place in Panticapaeum. The power, which until this time was in the hands of several leading families, perhaps the descendants of the ancient founders of the colonies - the leaders (Anacts) of the migrating Milesians, whom our legend calls, probably by the invented name of Archeanactids (descendants of the ancient Anacts), now falls into the hands of one tyrant, bearing the Thracian name Spartok (in 438 - 7 BC) · The Thracian name Spartok does not necessarily imply that we are dealing with a Thracian - a native of the Balkan Peninsula, with the commander of a mercenary Thracian squad, as is usually assumed. I have already indicated how strong the Thracian elements were in the ancient population of the Bosporus, Taman and Azov region. One can therefore think that Spartok belonged to a local rich Greek family that became part of the sovereign families of Panticapaeum. With this assumption, it is clear why Spartok and his descendants managed to firmly establish their power in Panticapaeum, uniting both the Greeks and the local native population around it.
The emergence of a strong unified power in Panticapaeum in the hands of an energetic and talented holder was a decisive moment in the history of the eastern Greek Black Sea colonies. It created here a serious and decisive force, which, under favorable circumstances, could become a natural center for uniting around it all the Greeks of the Bosporus and Azov region, without which the Greeks here, as in Olbia, would inevitably have been only a tool in the hands of the dominant Scythian tribe.
It is unlikely that the Bosporan tyranny arose with the consent and assistance of Athens; rather, it was created in opposition to their influence. One must think that its appearance was one of those reasons that caused, three years after its creation, the sending by Athens in 435 - 4 BC. a large naval expedition under the command of Pericles to the Black Sea. This armed demonstration had the ultimate goal of impressing both the Black Sea Hellenes and the Scythians, showing them the strength of Athens and forcing them to accept unquestioningly the terms of the relationship dictated by Athens.
One of the objects of the Athenian naval demonstration was, undoubtedly, Panticapaeum, whose role in the maritime trade of the Black Sea could not but be clear to Athens and whose strengthening, contrary to the wishes of Athens, a strengthening that Athens could hardly prevent without further exertion of forces, was formidable for them danger. As an ally and client, Panticapaeum could, however, be an excellent support for Athenian trade policy, a support that its necessarily weak colonies at Nymphaeum and Stratocleia could not give Athens. Let us remember that Athens faced serious complications in Greece and that the Bosporus was located hundreds of miles from the base of Athenian power.
Compensation for the Bosporus for this support of the trade interests of Athens was naturally the patronage of Athens for the newly born Panticapaean tyranny, which still felt far from being strong (a number of exiles from Panticaiaeum sat nearby in Feodosia and were ready to return at the first opportunity), as well as assistance in case a possible, although unlikely, dramatic clash with the Scythians. These could have been, and probably were, the conditions set by Athens to Spartok during Pericles' expedition to the Black Sea.
Spartok could not help but agree to these conditions, and as a result, those permanent and strong relations began between Athens and the Bosporan tyranny, which determined the subsequent fate of the Greek colony on the shores of the Bosporus. Panticapaeum temporarily became a client and trading agent of Athens in the Black Sea, he had to guarantee Athens the unlimited right to export grain from Panticapaeum and was forced to agree to limit his right to free trade in grain: without the permission of Athens, Panticapaeum could not release a single grain of Black Sea bread to other ports of Greece .
But, thanks to the support of Athens, the Spartok dynasty stayed in the Bosporus and began a series of consistent actions to consolidate its power and develop its economic and political power. The main tasks of the Bosporus state, consistently carried out by Spartok’s successor Satyr I (433/2 - 389/8 BC), and the latter’s son Leukon I (389/8 - 349/8 BC), and children and Leukon's successors, Spartok II (349/8 - 344/3 BC), and Perisad I (349/8 - 310/9 BC), were: strengthening their power on the European and Asian shores of the Kerch Strait, further strengthening of its independence in relation to the Scythians and gradual emancipation from pressure from Athens, while maintaining, however, close and friendly relations with this powerful power, which, despite military failures in the fight against Sparta and the failure of its great power policy, continued to be the decisive naval force in the Aegean Sea.
The first task that faced Spartok's successor, Satyr, was to strengthen all trade and, mainly, the grain trade in the hands of the Bosporus. The question was not so much about the grain of Taman and Panticapaeum’s own territory, but rather about the grain of the northern steppe Crimea, the natural export harbor for which was Feodosia. This grain was claimed not only by Athens and its counterpart Panticapaeum; it was also needed, as we have seen, by the cities of the southern coast of the Black Sea, mainly by the ever-growing Heraclea, which had already established a strong foothold in Chersonesos and was trying to gain primacy in Theodosius. The result of this rivalry was the war between Bosporus and Heraclea over Theodosius, which began under Satyr and ended by Leukon with the annexation of Theodosius to the Bosporan state.
At the same time, Satyrus, and then Leukon, managed, taking advantage of the defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War, to introduce their relations with Athens in a new direction. By bribery, Satyr forced the Athenian fortified colony in Nymphaeum to be surrendered to him, and then he and Leukon managed to insist on the right of free trade in grain from the Bosporus not only with Athens, but also with other Greek cities, guaranteeing, however, Athens special and very valuable privileges.
It is more difficult to understand the relationship of the Bosporan dynasts to the cities and peoples of Taman. It is very likely that the main trading center of Taman, Phanagoria, was not part of the Bosporan state. But it was surrounded by a number of Taman tribes subject to the Bosporus and, of course, was not completely independent. It is not for nothing that we had abundant independent minting of coins in Phanagoria in the 4th - 3rd centuries. BC We do not find and the main monetary unit in Taman is Panticapaean gold, silver and copper.
The question of the relationship of the Bosporus to the local tribes that inhabited Taman is very difficult. The Sinds, as we have seen, were already strongly Hellenized during the reign of Athens and had a certain independence. A number of individual indications suggest that from ancient times they were drawn to the same urban center with the Greek and local population (first the Sind port, then Gorgippia - now Anapa) and were under the control of their local dynasts, the same half-Thracians, half-Greeks as the Bosporan tyrants , maybe even related to these latter. Under Leukon, the Sinds formed part of his power, that is, they recognized him as their king, along with other neighboring tribes, the circle of which was expanding under Leukon's successors. Whether this meant that these tribes were ruled from Panticapaeum, or whether one must think that the Bosporan dynast was their overlord, while each individual tribe was headed by its own local rulers, is quite clear. The second, however, is more likely. A number of indications tell us that the Sinds, in parallel with the Bosporan rulers, had their own semi-Greek dynasty.
We have even less data to understand the attitude of the Scythians towards the emerging power, which was very unpleasant for them. The Scythians, however, undoubtedly did not abandon their claims to suzerainty over Panticapaeum. This can be confirmed by evidence of the fierce struggle of Perisada I against them.
More than a century passed from the founding of tyranny in the Bosporus to the end of the reign of Perisad I. The rule of the Spartokid dynasty over the Bosporus bore fruit. The Bosporus turned into a strong and fairly durable power that developed huge trade with Greece, mainly with Athens. The main export item was bread, or at least that is what we hear about most. But the products of the Sea of ​​Azov were also of no small importance - its fish, livestock and slaves from the Don region, furs and goods coming from the far East to the mouth of the Don, where, as mentioned above, a large trading settlement arose - Tanais, also dependent on the Bosporus .
The economic growth and material prosperity of the Bosporus were somewhat weakened only by the confused political relations that reigned in Hellas after the fall of the hegemony of Athens: constant wars that undermined maritime trade and gradually turned into an anarchic and disorderly clash between the leading forces of Hellas, and internal confusion that reigned in individual Hellenic states and the corrupting influence on Greek life in Persia with its powerful material resources.
At the end of this period, however, the situation changes. The growth of Macedonia and Alexander's conquests create the great world of Hellenism. The war of all against all temporarily ceases, and relative order comes. But for the grain trade of Panticapaeum, this plus is covered by the associated minus: Egypt, which has opened up to world trade, and the grain-rich areas in Asia are its competitors and very strong competitors. It must be taken into account, however, that if supply increased, then demand also increased, thanks to the growth and development of urban life throughout the Hellenistic world.
In any case, the 4th century. BC is a blessed time for Hellenism on the Black Sea. Safety at sea, supported by a strong Bosporan fleet, security of sales, and freedom of trade create a high rise in material security for all Greek cities in southern Russia, not only in the Bosporus, but also outside it. For Olbia and Chersonesos of the 4th century. BC the same brilliant time as for Bosporus.
Greek cities are being built up, temples and porticos are growing in them, and theaters are appearing in some places; squares and temples are decorated with statues, sometimes of first-class Greek masters. A lot of imported Greek things of better quality appear in everyday life. In the cities themselves, Greek workshops operate successfully, serving mainly the external market. In the largest centers, their own writers and scientists, historians, rhetoricians, philosophers, poets appear, local myths are collected, local historical traditions are recorded. In the Bosporus, as we will see below, its own flourishing school of toregovs is being created. All this is clearly reflected, first of all, in the necropolis.
Never before have so many expensive, sometimes artistic things been placed in the grave with the deceased as now. The grave goods of rich people and the local aristocracy are especially luxurious. Their majestic stone crypts under high mounds are filled with a rare selection of expensive and artistic things: the best Greek red-figure and multi-colored ceramics from Attic workshops (see Table XII, 1), Eastern Greek variegated glass, an excellent set of Greek, especially Asia Minor jewelry, gems and carved stones with the names of famous masters, the finest necklaces of amazing technology, luxurious earrings, bracelets, tiaras (see plate XII, 2, 3 and 4). The wonders of turning technology are the sarcophagi in which the mortal remains of Panticapaean and Taman nobles and their wives rested. Superb turning work, enlivened by painting and inlays of glass, bone and stones, makes these sarcophagi one of a kind monuments of the artistic industry.
The crypts themselves are not inferior to the burial inventory in terms of the harmony of the parts, the breadth of the construction scope and the height of the construction equipment (see Table XI, 1, 2 and 3). These are vast, sometimes double, high rooms, made of monumental slabs, with long leading into them corridors, spectacularly covered with pointed, stepped, domed-stepped or box semi-cylindrical vaults. In Taman, some crypts inside were plastered and painted in the same manner in which the walls of temples and public buildings were painted; in Panticapaeum, the painting was probably replaced by canopies and carpets covering the walls of the crypt.
It is unlikely that in the manner of covering the crypts with stepped vaults one should see consciously supported archaism, the preservation of the old tradition of the Aegean, Mycenaean and Asia Minor tombs. The architects who built them were guided, it seems to me, by other considerations - aesthetic and technical. The aesthetic impression of these stepped vaults is amazing, much stronger than the impression left by box vaults, which certainly require painting or plaster modeling combined with painting. Technically, the stepped vault satisfies all the requirements of an under-mound structure with a colossal mass of earth pressing on the roof. It is no coincidence that the most monumental crypts of the Bosporus have reached us completely intact. Only those that were damaged by robbers and taken away by modern vandals after their discovery by archaeologists were destroyed.
No less indicative, however, are the ordinary, ordinary tombs: earthen pits covered with boards, slabs or tiles, the walls of which are sometimes lined with tiles, slabs or mud bricks - tombs of ordinary citizens of Panticapaeum and its neighbors, as well as the Greek cities of Taman. The ritual of corpse deposition, which was retained in the Bosporus, only in rare cases being replaced by cremation, makes it possible to judge the life and wealth of the mass of Bosporan citizens. The impression is very instructive.
The burial rite and grave goods are purely Greek. The usual selection of things for a Hellene dominates as funeral props, testifying to the role that the palaestra and the way of life associated with it played in his life. The first place is occupied by vessels for oil, which were used to rub the body, and shears, which were used to clean palestra sand and oil from the body. These objects, first of all, were needed by the Bosporan Greek beyond the grave, where he was supposed to continue his earthly life, the life of a Hellenic Palestrite (see Table XI, 4 - frieze of a painted Panticapaean crypt of the 4th century BC with an image of a funerary palestric equipment: shearlings, lekythos, aryballae, towels, tiaras, headbands, wreaths).
Weapons are much less common in tombs of this time. It is characteristic that the least number of weapons is in the tombs of the Panticapaean necropolis, much more on the periphery of the Bosporus and in the necropolises of the Taman Greek cities. There is a lot of jewelry in women's tombs. The vessels are all imported from good Attic factories; sometimes you come across vessels from the best craftsmen, sometimes signed. Often so-called Phoenician colored glass. Everything speaks of the contentment of the population and its purely Greek appearance. The same is confirmed, however, by the rare, excellent tombstone steles of the Bosporans and their tombstone inscriptions. Approximately the same picture is repeated in Olbia and Chersonesus; only monumental mound burials are absent in these more democratic cities, although there are some analogies to them, at least in Olbia.
With the death of Perisad I, troubled and alarming times begin in Panticapaeum. Immediately after the death of Perisad, an internecine war began between the three sons of Perisad, from which Eumelus emerged victorious. Legitimate power belonged to Satyr II, the elder brother of Eumelus. Eumelus raised the Tamanian tribe of Fatei against him. Satyr was supported by a mercenary army of Greeks and Thracians, that is, the usual Bosporan army, and the Scythians. Victory went to Eumelus, who also broke the resistance of the third brother Prytanis. As a usurper, Eumelus was forced to make great concessions to the citizenship of Panticapaeum. One must think that under him the Panticapaean civilian army appeared for the first time; Until this time, the Bosporan tyrants relied exclusively on mercenaries.
The short reign of Eumelus was followed by the reign of Spartok III (304/3 - 284/3 BC) and Perisades II (284/3 to approximately 252 BC). The reigns of these dynasts, who generally continued the old policy of the Spartokids, were not yet the time of the decline of the Bosporus. Economic conditions remained the same, trade developed and Panticapaeum grew richer. The closest counterparty of Bosporus continues to be Athens, which at this time concluded a real alliance agreement with Bosporus, its former vassal and agent for the purchase of grain, which indicates both the decline of Athens in this era of the emerging large Hellenistic monarchies, and the growth of the importance of Bosporus. But, along with Athens, the kings of the Bosporus of this and the next period deal with the mighty Rhodes, and Delos, and Delphi, acting completely in the role of the rest, albeit secondary, Hellenistic monarchs.
The well-being of citizens does not fall either. The tombs of this period are no poorer, although less numerous than the tombs of earlier ones.
At this time, as mentioned above, the Bosporan workshops, which produced things from precious metals for the Scythian market, lived an intensive life at this time. We have seen how their works fill the rich Scythian burials of this period. True, the height of their artistic achievements is gradually decreasing: a gold coin of the Bosporus of the 4th century. BC, which replaced the Ionian silver of the 6th and 5th centuries, with its amazing heads of satyrs and sileni, one of the best creations of ancient glyptics (see plate XII, 5, 6 and 7), is now replaced by quite a dozen Hellenistic silver, stereotyped, albeit second-rate (Table XII, 9).
The entire second half of the 3rd century. BC filled in the Bosporus with a long series of dynastic and political unrest, from which only vague echoes have reached us. It is not the Spartokids who temporarily appear at the head of the state: Archon Hygienon, perhaps a protege of Panticapaean citizenship, and some king Aces, apparently the head of one of the Scythian or Maeotian tribes that claimed to lead the life of the Bosporus.
Even more vague is the legend about the last years of the independent existence of the Bosporus, Fr. first three quarters of the 2nd century. BC A number of dynasts appear, whom we know only from coins and inscriptions; they all bear the Thracian name Perisada. It is very likely that these are the last scions of the house of Spartok. Their coins, like those of Hygienont, are a slave copy, and a rather poor one at that, of the gold staters of Lysimachus, the general of Alexander, the founder of the short-lived Thracian kingdom (see plate XII, 8). The general appearance of these kings is that of minor Hellenistic monarchs; secondary kings, like the kings of Bithynia, Pontus or Armenia, but of a lower rank. At their court and in their politics, as in the entire world of Hellenism at that time, a major role was played by the local subjects of these kings - the Scythians and Maeotians, who, as Hellenization progressed, more and more imbued the once purely Greek citizenship of the cities of the Bosporan kingdom.
The Spartokid dynasty was living out its last days. But she continued to fulfill her traditional mission, supplying the Hellenic world with bread and raw materials. Therefore, the material well-being of the Bosporus, although falling, still remains at the general level of the semi-Greek Hellenistic powers of that time, far from it. inferior, of course, to such powers as the cultural kingdom of Pergamon and unable to withstand political rivalry not only with its Black Sea vis-à-vis - Bithynia and the ever-growing Pontus, but even with its closest neighbors - the Crimean Scythians.
History of Crimea II century. BC stands under the sign of the revival of the power of the old Scythian power. Of course, there can be no talk of returning this power to its former role. All of the Kuban region, the Azov region, the Don region, the Dnieper region and the Buge region left the hands of the Scythians forever, but the Scythians retained two pieces of their old territory. A small Scythian kingdom continues to exist in Dobrudja and a larger Scythian power in Crimea. Favorable conditions: the absence of any leading force in the north, the weakness of Macedonia, the defeat of Thrace under the corrupting influence of the Celtic conquerors, the inability of the Sarmatians to weld a strong power from individual tribes, the absence of any outside support from the Greek colonies of southern Russia allowed several energetic Scythian kings again welded together part of their decayed power and, supporting it with armed force, declared a claim to supremacy over the Crimea and the Greek cities of the northern coast up to Olbia. The Scythian Crimean power reached its apogee under Skilur in the first and second half of the 2nd century BC.
We do not know whether the Scythians are still the former military power of nomads. In any case, they had a large urban center in Crimea near present-day Simferopol. It is possible that we are dealing with a half-Greek city that grew up among a Scythian half-nomadic, half-agricultural population, where Scythian kings also visited from time to time.
The basis for the well-being of this Scythian state and the Greek Scythian capital was, of course, trade with the Greek world in grain and livestock. It is no wonder, therefore, that the kings of the Scythian state strive to gain power over the most important Greek ports. They probably managed to capture Kerkinitis on the western coast of Crimea and even Olbia, whose rich armatures gave them the fleet and naval forces they needed to ensure their removal from the robberies of the Crimean pirates.
But this, of course, was not enough for them. They were attracted by the excellent harbor and the beautiful territory cultivated for vineyards of Chersonesus, which made it possible to enter into direct relations with the southern coast of the Black Sea. It is very likely that they tried to strengthen their influence in the Bosporus through diplomatic relations and marriage alliances. It is not for nothing that at the last Perisade one of the members of the Scythian royal family ends up in Panticapaeum, which, however, usually happened already at the end of the 4th and 3rd centuries. BC, as shown by the large Scythian tombs in the immediate vicinity of Panticapaeum and Nymphaeum among the tombs of the Greek population of these cities.
In connection with this revival of the Scythian power, which probably began already in the 3rd century. BC, there is a constant Scythian danger that threatened Chersonese, constant attacks on it by the Scythians and all sorts of efforts that Chersonese makes to ward off this danger. Several random inscriptions from Chersonese vividly depict to us this constant danger and the measures taken by Chersonese to avert it. Chersonese had few forces of its own, and he had to turn to stronger neighbors for help. While the Bosporus was strong, Chersonese sought its help; but the Bosporus weakened, falling more and more under Scythian influence, and the pressure of the Scythians became more energetic and persistent.
The natural protector of Chersonesus was its metropolis - Heraclea. But she was no longer independent. She had to submit to the Pontic kings. Tries to mobilize Chersonesos and the northern neighbors of the Scythians - the Sarmatians. Since all this is intertwined with the history of the Hellenistic kingdoms of Asia Minor, where the role of master and manager at this time was already played by Rome, it is natural that from time to time the imperious hand of Rome reaches out to Chersonesos.
In the second half of the 2nd century, when the power of the Scythian Crimean power especially increased, the position of Chersonese became critical. But at the same time, under the influence of the beginning devastation in Rome, the increasingly intensifying collapse of the Roman provincial administration and the first rumbles of the internal revolution in Italy, in the east, just on the southern shore of the Black Sea, the previously excluded possibility of the emergence of a strong power is created. The young, energetic and talented Pontic king Mithridates VI Eupator takes up the task of creating it.
To implement his plan - to create, in contrast to Rome, a strong eastern power - he needed, first of all, a base. Asia Minor, whose life was closely watched by Rome, could not provide this base. The Pontic state - the basis of the power of Mithridates - itself had an extremely mixed population, where, next to the Alarodians and Thracians, there were Semites and Iranians, and the general character of the culture was strongly Iranianized and resembles the culture of neighboring Armenia. Let us not forget that the basis of the economic and cultural life of the country with this composition of the population was the Greek cities, gradually deprived of freedom by the Pontic kings - Heraclea, Sinop, Amis, Amasia, Trebizond, etc. This character of culture brought Pontus closer, mainly, to Armenia, but also more so with the Bosporan kingdom and in general the northern coast of the Black Sea, where we encounter the same connection and interpenetration of the population of Greek cities, with a purely Hellenic culture, and the tribes inhabiting the country, with an Iranian or Iranizing culture.
Mithridates should have strived for an alliance and, if possible, subjugation of these two powers in order to create for himself the necessary supply base of both human material, money and natural products. But Armenia was at that time a strong power, which was just as difficult to deal with as Pontus’s neighbor to the west, Bithynia, and which, moreover, was under constant surveillance by Rome.
Crimea was in a different situation. Crimea was not in the sphere of influence of the Roman power and did not attract the attention of Roman politicians. Meanwhile, he could give Mithridates exactly what he needed: bread, cattle, leather, money and people, huge reserves of which, in the person of the Scythian, Maeotian and Sarmatian tribes, the half-Iranian Mithridates, who considered himself to belong to the old Persian dynasty of the Achaemenids , could count on being used as allies and mercenaries.
On the other hand, the growth of the Scythian power, the danger threatening Chersonesos from the Scythians, and his requests for help directed to Mithridates created unusually favorable conditions for Mithridates’ intervention in the affairs of the Crimea. Mithridates took full advantage of the opportunity that presented itself. In two expeditions, his commanders Diophantus and Neoptolemus, showing their strength to the Scythian power, led after the death of Skilur by his son Palak, and to the allies of the Scythian power, the Sarmatians-Roxolans, took possession of both Chersonesos with all the Greek settlements subject to him, and the Bosporus with all its power and, finally, even Olbia with its territory.
This success unusually strengthened Mithridates and gave him hope of the opportunity to begin a long and consistent work of unifying Asia Minor, and then the entire east under the leadership of Pontus, in defiance of the resistance of Rome, torn apart by a civil war that flared up in 91 with a bright flame and lasted until 70 and even later, that is, for more than 20 years.
This is not the place to relate the story of Mithridates' failed attempt to create a world Greco-Eastern state. It is important for us to point out that the starting point of Mithridates in his struggle with Rome and his last reserve in this struggle were his Crimean and Caucasian possessions annexed to them, his Black Sea power. Having joined here, as well as in Asia Minor, initially to the Greek cities, Mithridates, however, quickly disappointed them in their hopes. The more he became involved in the war with Rome, the more he needed money and natural products, and the further he was driven out of Asia Minor by the Romans, the more the Greek cities of the northern coast of the Black Sea became suppliers of these resources. The Greek cities bore this heavy burden placed on them with more and more displeasure, submitting only to force.
Along with this, Mithridates, who needed people for his army, became closer and closer to the Maeotians who were once subordinate to the Bosporus, with his enemies - the Scythians and Sarmatians, entering into marriage alliances with their dynasts - both personally and through his numerous sons and daughters - and political treaties. Hellenism, just when it hoped, through Mithridates, to strengthen its primacy over the Iranians pressing on it, was in danger of being completely absorbed by Iran, which by that time had already managed to significantly change the previously pure Greek appearance of the population of the Greek cities of the Black Sea region. On the other hand, Iran apparently met Mithridates as a unifier and leader, despite the blows he initially inflicted on the Scythians, and surrounded him with a long-lasting aura of a national leader.
It is natural, therefore, that the Greek cities of Crimea, mainly of the Bosporan kingdom, tried to use the moments of Mithridates’ weakness to regain their independence and, when Mithridates, who was finally ousted from Asia Minor by Pompey, but managed to flee to Panticapaeum and not allow Pompey here, prepared here with all the tension forces a new campaign against the Roman power, this time through the steppes of southern Russia and along the Danube, they offered him sharp resistance and, uniting with his son Pharnaces, got rid of the hated rapist, who had brought them to almost complete ruin and betrayed them to the centuries-old enemies of Hellenism, the Iranians .
The death of Mithridates, however, meant submission to Rome. Pharnaces’ attempt to ensure his Pontic-Crimean kingdom not a vassal, but an independent existence, taking advantage of Caesar’s temporary failures in Alexandria, ended in a cruel defeat: Pharnaces, like his father devoted to him, did not find support for himself in the Greek cities of Crimea and died.
From this time on, a new era began in the life of Crimea - the era of subordination to Rome and a new rise of the Hellenic element, which found active and constant support in Rome.
The era of Mithridates was a time of difficult trials for the Black Sea Greeks. The era of their complete independence is over. The original form of supreme power developed by the Bosporus, i.e., the combination in one person of the supreme magistrate of the Greek cities - the archon and the king of the Iranian and semi-Iranian tribes, connected with the Greek cities by personal union, was finally replaced by a purely monarchical power of the Greek-Eastern type. The material well-being of the Greek cities was undermined, and Olbia especially suffered, finding itself after the death of Mithridates between a rock and a hard place, between the Scythians and Sarmatians pressing from the east, and the revived power of the Thracians, united into the strong power of Birebista. Both of them sought to take possession, and the latter, in the end, took possession of this important port and the key to the entire Dnieper and Buge regions.
The cultural resistance of the Greeks also weakened. Even earlier it was difficult for them to maintain their pure Greek appearance. The necropolises of those Greek cities that from time immemorial had a particularly close connection with the local population, like Nymphaeum on the European side, Gorgippia on the Asian side, have long provided examples of burials of mixed Iranian-Greek culture. Now the Iranian element, which already in the era of the last Spartokids increasingly saturated the Greek cities, was able to unhindered penetration into the Greek population of the cities, especially since the influx of new forces from Hellas, exhausted and bleeding in the throes of the Roman civil war, completely ceased.
And here, therefore, due to the special conditions of development, we encounter a phenomenon common to the entire east of the late Hellenistic era. Behind the Greek shell, even in Greek centers, local elements begin to emerge more and more, changing all the foundations of political, economic, social, cultural and religious life.
The Bosporan state of the Spartokids, which existed for more than three centuries and during this time successfully fulfilled its mission as the advanced post put forward by Hellenism in the sea of ​​Iranian and Thracian tribes and peoples, is an unusually original and interesting political and social entity.
In terms of its external political structure, the leading city of the power, Panticapaeum, did not differ in any significant way from the ordinary city-state of Hellas. Its only distinctive feature is that for centuries the transitional form of government for most Greek city-states - military tyranny, based on mercenary troops - has been maintained here.
This long existence of tyranny requires an explanation. Of course, the essentially monarchical form of government, clothed in the shell of Hellenic democracy, could not survive for three centuries, maintaining itself only by force and relying only on the swords of mercenaries. There is no doubt that its existence and its strength were due to other deeper reasons that created its strong support among the population.
The main reason was the original social structure of the Bosporan, primarily a trading power, the welfare of which depended, first of all, on ensuring proper exchange with the Greek world on the one hand and with the world of Iranian and semi-Iranian tribes, partly part of the Bosporan power, partly neighboring it , with another. In this respect, the Bosporus most closely resembles Semitic Carthage, which fulfilled the same mission, under slightly different conditions, on the shores of Africa.
The difference in the position of Carthage and Bosporus was that the well-being of Bosporus was largely connected with the existence of the Scythian kingdom, which provided Bosporus with the opportunity for successful trade with its neighbors. Complete subordination to the Scythians, however, was by no means in the interests of the Bosporus.
In order to be able to maintain good relations with the Scythians without completely submitting to them, the Bosporus had to have support both in the population of its state and in support from outside. The second was given to him by his relationship with Athens, the first was the commonality of his interests with his strongly Hellenized closest neighbors, for whom the suzerainty of the Bosporus was more profitable and convenient than submission to the Scythians, especially since this suzerainty had the character of a personal union and did not deprive individual tribes of the opportunity to live their own ordinary life under the control of their local kings, dynasts and princes.
This explains the dual nature of the Bosporan tyranny. For the Greek population, they are the magistrates-archons vested with exclusive supreme power. For the tribes of Crimea and Taman, they are their supreme kings, providing them with their independence, non-subordination to the Scythians, support of the Hellenic world and the possibility of wide world exchange.
But even for the Greek citizens of the cities of the Bosporan power, personal leadership was a necessity that ensured their existence. Their national traditions did not allow them to see a king in their supreme magistrate, but, as their archon, they were ready to give the head of the state unlimited powers, since their material well-being depended on it.
The Greeks of the cities of the Bosporan kingdom, as far as we can judge from the meager data available to us, were mainly exporters and armatures, owners of sea vessels on the one hand, owners of large trading offices that maintained constant contact with neighboring tribes, and intermediary traders with another. The citizens of the Bosporus, as far as one can judge, preferred to do the latter; the first, a risky and difficult task, they provided to the citizens of other Greek cities of Asia Minor and Hellas, for whom the products delivered to them by the Bosporus were a matter of vital necessity.
Along with this, there were a considerable number of artisans and artists who worked for the foreign market and created those specific items that Greek and Asia Minor craftsmen could not supply them with.
Finally, of considerable importance were the farmers, landowners, who exploited the territories closest to the Greek cities, which they cultivated with the hands of the local population, as hired workers, sometimes with the hands of slaves, most often with the hands of the enslaved population, who became to them in the same relationship as the helots to the Spartans, the Penestes to the Thessalian nobility, the conquered Mariandines to the Heracleans.
In general, the Greek population of the Bosporus, even excluding the particularly wealthy aristocracy closely associated with the supreme power, was a population of wealthy merchants, artisans and landowners. There is no reason to assume the existence of a significant number of working proletariat. The merchant fleet with its army of oarsmen, as has been repeatedly attested, was not local; the loaders, in all likelihood, were recruited from those slaves that Panticapaeum successfully traded and which were supplied to them by neighboring nomads who were always at war.
This wealthy Greek population was primarily and mainly interested in the government providing them with a calm and secure existence, involving them less in military duties and guaranteeing them the opportunity for unhindered communication with neighboring tribes and the Greek world.
The Bosporan tyranny completely ensured this order of things for the Greek population. She did not need an army of citizens; it was rather dangerous for her. The local population, especially the warlike Thracians, provided her with a sufficient number of mercenaries; in case of need, she resorted to alliances with neighbors and contingents of vassals. The Bosporan tyrants received a permanent squad, expensive, but well armed and technically trained, from Greece. It was from there that they mainly obtained people for their navy.
For all this, only funds were needed. These funds were provided by the same trade with Greece, mainly grain. There is no doubt that the largest exporters of grain were the archons and kings of the Bosporus themselves. Attic speakers - Aeschines, Isocrates, Demosthenes - also tell us about this. This is also attested to by a number of inscriptions.
Both import and export duties gave them large incomes, especially when the Bosporus managed to get rid of the heavy hand of Athens. Finally, there is no doubt that the Spartokids and their relatives were also the largest landowners, whose lands provided a very significant amount of grain. And this has been witnessed to us repeatedly.
On these foundations the power of the Spartokids rested and remained firmly in place. From time to time they had to resort to military assistance from citizenship, to create a Greek army from the Bosporan Greeks, but this, obviously, was a transitory phenomenon, and the foundations of the Bosporan system remained, in general, the same until the last days of the dynasty.
The culture of Panticapaeum and the Bosporan Empire in general has already been discussed several times above. I pointed out the purely Greek appearance of the urban population, which only became permeated with Iranian elements towards the end of Spartocid rule. I also said that in the 4th and 3rd centuries. BC Panticapaeum is by no means just a storage place for Greek and Asia Minor goods, but has its own rather independent cultural life and is developing into one of the centers of Hellenic cultural creativity.
I have already spoken about the original funerary architecture of the Panticapaeans and the Bosporans in general, about their undoubted creativity in the development of certain archaic forms, associated with the difficult task of creating the type of monumental structures under burial mounds.
But the creativity of Bosporan artists is even more clearly reflected in local works made of precious metals (the specialty of Bosporan craftsmen), the development of which was caused by the greed for crafts made from gold and silver of their Scythian and Meotian neighbors. The starting point for characterizing their work in this regard are the coins of the Bosporus, the local origin of which cannot be doubted. Silver coinage of the 6th and 5th centuries. keeps within the framework of the general Ionian template and is not of particular interest. But the beginning of the coinage of gold, coinciding with the era of trade independence of the Bosporus, with the reign of Leukon I and his successors, and the silver accompanying this gold, is original in nature and testifies to the high artistic achievements of the Panticapaean Greek masters. The very choice of types is interesting, especially the heads of the bearded and beardless Silea and Satyr in profile and almost in full frontal view, one way or another connected with the legends about the past of Panticapaeum and the past of the ruling dynasty (Fig. 63, 64 and 65). The usual explanation - the incorrect etymology of the city's name from the name of the Greek god Pan - does not satisfy me much. I do not see any undoubted grounds for calling the deity depicted on the coins of Panticapaeum Pan. It seems that we are dealing here with some kind of tradition, the traces of which have not been preserved by the meager literary tradition. Clearer turns. The Iranian, Persian phiphon with a dart in its mouth and an ear under its feet (Fig. 64 and 65) brilliantly symbolizes the semi-Iranian military power of Panticapaeum, based on its economic power, the basis of which was the grain trade. Another common type - the Greek Apollonian griffin and below it the Don sturgeon (Fig. 63) - clearly indicates the ideas associated with Panticapaeum among the Greeks; here you can hear echoes of the legend about the Apollonian Hyperboreans, about the Arimaspians fighting with griffins for the gold of the East - in a word, about all those myths that stated the northern and eastern connections of Panticapaeum, which were considered and were the direct or indirect source of its extraordinary wealth. One of the real sources of this wealth appears right there; These are weighty Don sturgeons, valued throughout the river world. The head of a bull on silver may have the same meaning.
But these coins are even more interesting from an artistic point of view. The coins of Panticapaeum are rightly considered one of the highest achievements of ancient glyptics. The subtlety and grace of the modeling, the energy of expression, and the boldness of the interpretation of the head are almost truly inimitable and original, although they reflect the general features of Greek art of that time. But what is especially captivating is the idealized realism of the ugly, but beautiful and attractive in their ugliness heads of satyrs and sileni. There can be no doubt that the Panticapaean masters were influenced not only by the Greek originals, who set themselves the same goals, but also by the observation of the main features of the barbarian types, so familiar to Panticapaeum from daily observation.
The desire for realism is the main property of Panticapaean toreutics. It manifests itself with great force once again in the silver of the third and second centuries. BC, in a magnificent realistic, emphatically realistic depiction of a local steppe horse grazing in the steppe (Fig. 67). Next to the formulaic, powerless, flat, graceful head of Apollo on the main side of this coin, the image of the horse stands out for its rough but powerful realism. Decline of Panticapaeum in the middle and end of the 2nd century. nowhere is it clearer than on coins. The creativity of the old gold of Panticapaeum is replaced by a stereotyped and slavish copy of the most popular coin of that time - the gold staters of Lysimachus (Fig. 66).
The same features of Panticapaeum artistic creativity are also manifested in a huge, ever-increasing series of artistic works produced in the workshops of Panticapaeum for the neighboring Scythians. Here it is extremely instructive to compare the gold items from Solokha with somewhat, but slightly later, items from Kul-Oba and the Voronezh mound (Table IX, 8) and then with items from Chertomlyk and Karagodeuashkh. The now famous golden comb of Solokha (Table XIII, 1) generally gives the usual plot of equestrian combat, especially close to M. Asia, in the usual classical composition. The only way it differs from contemporary Asia Minor sculptures, which live in the traditions of already academic Athenian art, is even greater everyday realism than in Asia Minor in the interpretation of weapons, clothing, horse harness, exactly copied from reality. There is less realism in the depiction of faces and in the types of fighters, although the desire for realism is visible here too.
We see the same thing, to an even greater extent, on a gilded silver vessel from Solokha (Table XII, 3), which gives an ordinary, well-executed hunting scene, so typical of Asia Minor Greek art. Even more interesting, overlaid with silver, it burns with a battle scene between two types of local steppe inhabitants - on foot and on horseback (Table XII, 1). And here the realism of the costume and weapons is complete. The types of faces, however, remind us of the Panticapaeum coins of the same time. Horse archers give a rougher interpretation of the face of the bearded silenus of the coins, their young companion is the familiar young satyr of Panticapaean gold and silver. The two foot opponents of the described fighters from the same camp also approach the same type. But here we already see the first glimpses of the trend that in Pergamon art gives us eternal images of the Celts. From the type of satyr, art moves to an amazingly subtle rendering not so much of trifles as of the main character traits of the depicted barbarians. We do not know which barbarians were depicted by the Panticapaean artist who worked for the king buried in Solokha. But you involuntarily remember the northern Celts or Thracians or some tribes related to them.
A step forward was made in the artifacts of Kul-Oba (Table IX, 1 and 2) and the Voronezh mound (Table IX, 3). Everyday realism remains the same, but we see two new features. An idealized type of Scythian is emerging in art, just as the same type simultaneously emerged in literature. Along with this, there is a tendency towards greater expression, towards conveying an expression of suffering and pathos - and here we come to the future features of Pergamon pathetic art. This is especially clear in the scene of dental surgery and bandaging of a wounded leg on the famous Kul-Ob electric vessel.
The last stage is the amazing horses of Chertomlyk (Table IX, 4 and 5). They are older, thinner and more artistic than the horse of the coin mentioned above. The horses are realistic in their structure and strikingly artistic in their movement. Moreover, despite the difficulties that seemed to the master to give a narrow frieze of a vase, he managed to make one feel the spaciousness and breadth of the steppes, the enthusiasm and revelry of a wild steppe herd.
The somewhat later ritual scenes of Karagodeuashkh are also interesting (Table X, 1 and 2). Here we are no longer looking at purely Greek art. On the rhyton (Plate X, 1) we have an Iranian type and design, on the plate of the headdress (Plate X, 2) an interesting Greek composition, but purely Eastern solemnity and ritualism of the central monumental figure, her servants and two male figures in the foreground - a young noble Scythian and enarean eunuch, a servant of the goddess, in women's clothing and with her round sacred cup in his hand. The true East seeps into the world of Hellenic creativity, influencing Hellas and preparing the future flowering, however, not in the steppes of Scythia, but in Sasanian Persia, of the revival of Iranian art.
We see that Panticapaeum had its own era of creativity, contributing something to the treasury of Greek art, and what new it contributed was due to its proximity to the Iranian world and its connection with the great Oriental art. He will continue to carry out the same mission in the next stage of his historical development.