PANTIKAPAION as CAESAREA for Augustus 14BC Bosporus Ancient Greek Coin i53431

Item: i53431

Authentic Ancient 

Coin of:

Greek city of 

Bronze ‘8 Units’ 22mm (8.45 grams) Struck circa 14-12 B.C.
Reference: MacDonald 274/2; Anokhin 322a; RPC I 1936
Draped bust of Aphrodite Apatura right, wearing kalathos and veil.
KA – ΣΑ / ΡΕ – ΩΝ either side of scepter 
with pomegranate flower at the top; denomination mark H in field below to right; 
pellet in field below to left.

The city of Pantikapaion adopted 
the name of Caesarea after Agrippa under the orders of Augustus intervened in 
the politics of the Bosporan kingdom in support of Polemo I. Phanagoria was 
renamed to Agrippia in honor of Agrippa. Even though that coins with these names 
were struck for only a few years, it is likely that the cities were known by 
those names for a long time.

The chief deity of the whole 
Bosporan kingdom was no doubt Aphrodite Urania: the centre of her worship was on 
the east side of the strait where she had a temple in Phanagoria and one called 
the Apatourou on the south side of Lake Corocondamitis: after this sanctuary she 
is described in inscriptions as Αpatourias or more often Apatorou Medousa [Minns 
1913 p. 618].

 You are bidding on the exact item pictured, 

Authenticity.

Panticapaeum (Greek: 

Παντικάπαιον, Pantikápaion), present-day

Kerch
: an 

important

Greek
 

city and port in Taurica

(Tauric Chersonese), situated on a hill (Mt.

Mithridates

) on the western side of the

Cimmerian Bosporus

, founded by

Milesians
in 

the late 7th–early 6th century BC.

In the 5th–4th centuries BC, the city became the residence first of the

Archaeanactids

and then of the

Spartocids
, 

dynasties of

Greek
 

kings of

Bosporus

, and was hence itself sometimes called Bosporus. Its economic 

decline in the 4th–3rd centuries BC was the result of the

Sarmatian
 

conquest of the steppes and the growing competition of

Egyptian

grain. The last of the

Spartocids
,

Paerisades V

, apparently left his realm to

Mithridates VI

Eupator, king of

Pontus
.

This transition was arranged by one of Mithridates’s generals, a certain

Diophantus

, who earlier was sent to Taurica to help local Greek cities 

against Palacus
 

of

Lesser Scythia

. The takeover didn’t go smoothly: Paerisades was murdered by

Scythians
 

led by

Saumacus

,

Diophantus

escaped to return later with reinforcements and to suppress the 

revolt (c. 110 BC).

Half of a century later, Mithridates himself took his life in Panticapaeum, 

when, after his defeat in a

war

against

Rome
, 

his own son and heir

Pharnaces

and citizens of Panticapaeum turned against him. In 63 BC the city 

was partly destroyed by an earthquake. Raids by the

Gothss
and the

Huns furthered its 

decline, and it was incorporated into the

Byzantine

state under

Justin I
in 

the early 6th century AD.

During the first centuries of the city’s existence, imported Greek articles 

predominated: pottery

Kerch 

Style), terracottas

, and metal objects, probably from workshops in

Rhodes
,

Corinth
,

Samos
, 

and Athens
. 

Local production, imitated from the models, was carried on at the same time. 

Athens manufactured a special type of bowl for the city, known as

Kerch
ware. Local 

potters imitated the

Hellenistic

bowls known as the

Gnathia

style as well as relief wares—Megarian 

bowls. The city minted silver coins from the mid 6th century BC and from the 1st 

century BC gold and bronze coins. The

Hermitage

and Kerch

Museums contain material from the site, which is still being 

excavated.

 Bibliography

• Noonan, Thomas S.

  “The Origins of the Greek Colony at Panticapaeum”,

  American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 77, No. 1. (1973), pp. 77–81.