Kingdom of Bosporus Rheskuporis V w Roman Emperor Licinius I 321AD Coin i32014

Kingdom of Bosporus
Rheskuporis V – King: circa 304-342 A.D.
Bronze Stater 18mm (6.08 grams) Struck circa 321/322 A.D.
Reference: Sear GIC 5504; B.M>C.13.80,2
BACIΛЄVS PICKWΠOPI, His diademed and draped bust right, trident before.
Laureate and draped bust of Licninius right, Y before; beneath, HIX (=year 618=A.D. 321/2).

You are bidding on the exact 
item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime 
Guarantee of Authenticity. 

The Bosporan Kingdom (also known as the Kingdom of the Cimmerian 
Bosporus) was an ancient state located in eastern
Crimea and the
Taman Peninsula, on the shores of the Cimmerian 
Bosporus (now known as the
Strait of Kerch).

The Bosporan Kingdom was the longest surviving Roman
client kingdom. It was a
Roman province from 63 to 68, under Emperor
Nero. The 1st and 2nd centuries BCE saw a period of renewed golden 
age of the Bosporan state. In the end of the 2nd century, the King
Sauromates II inflicted a critical defeat to 
the Scyths and included all the territories of the Crimea in the structure of 
his state.

The prosperity of the Bosporan Kingdom was based on the export of wheat, fish 
and
slaves.The profit of the trade supported a 
class whose conspicuous wealth is still visible from newly discovered 
archaeological finds, excavated, often illegally, from numerous burial barrows 
known as
kurgans. The once-thriving cities of the 
Bosporan left extensive architectural and sculptural remains, while the kurgans 
continue to yield spectacular Greco-Sarmatian objects, the best examples of 
which are now preserved in the
Hermitage in
St. Petersburg. These include gold work, vases 
imported from 
Athens, coarse terracottas, textile fragments 
and specimens of
carpentry and
marquetry.

Early Greek colonies

Panticapaeum and other ancient Greek colonies along the north coast 
of the Black Sea

The whole area was dotted with Greek cities: in the west,
Panticapaeum (Kerch)-the 
most significant city in the region,
Nymphaeum and
Myrmekion; on the east
Phanagoria (the second city of the region),
Kepoi,
Germonassa,
Portus Sindicus and Gorgippia.

These
Greek colonies were originally settled by
Milesians in the 7th and 6th centuries BCE. 
Phanagoria (c. 540 BCE) was a colony of
Teos, and the foundation of Nymphaeum may have had a connection with
Athens; at least it appears to have been a 
member of the
Delian League in the 5th century.

Geography 
of the Bosporan Kingdom

The Bosporan Kingdom was centred around the straight between the
Black Sea and the
Sea of Azov.

Kings of 
Cimmerian Bosporan

See Also:
List of Kings of Cimmerian Bosporus

Archaeanactidae 
dynasty

According to Roman historian
Diodorus Siculus (xii. 31) the region was 
governed between 480 and 438 BCE by a line of kings called the
Archaeanactidae, probably a ruling family, usurped by a
tyrant called Spartocus (438 – 431 BCE), who 
was a 
Thracian.

Spartocid dynasty

Spartocus founded a dynasty which seems to have endured until c. 110 BCE, 
known as the
Spartocids. The Spartocids left many 
inscriptions, indicating that the earliest members of the house ruled under the 
titles of 
archons of the Greek cities and kings of 
various minor native tribes, notably the
Sindi (from central Crimea) and other branches 
of the 
Maeotae. Surviving material (texts, 
inscriptions and coins) do not supply enough information to reconstruct a 
complete chronology of kings of the region.

Satyrus (431 – 387 BCE), successor to Spartocus, 
established his rule over the whole region, adding
Nymphaeum to his kingdom and besieging
Theodosia, which was wealthy because, unlike 
other cities in the region, it had a port which was free of ice throughout the 
year, allowing it to trade grain with the rest of the Greek world, even in 
winter. Satyrus’ son
Leucon (387 – 347 BCE) would eventually take 
the city. He was succeeded jointly by his two sons, Spartocus II, and Paerisades; 
Spartocus died in 342, allowing Paerisades to reign alone until 310.^{[citation 
needed]} After Paerisades’ death, a civil war between 
his sons Satyrus and Eumelus was fought. Satyrus defeated his younger brother 
Eumelus at the
Battle of the River Thatis in 310 BCE but then 
was killed in battle, giving Eumelus the throne.^[3]

Eumelus’ successor was Spartocus III (303 – 283 BCE) and after him Paerisades 
II. Succeeding princes repeated the family names, so it is impossible to assign 
them a definite order. The last of them, however, Paerisades V, unable to make 
headway against increasingly violent attacks from nomadic tribes in the area, 
called in the help of
Diophantus, general of King
Mithridates VI of Pontus, leaving him his 
kingdom. Paerisades was killed by a
Scythian named Saumacus who led a rebellion 
against him.

The house of Spartocus was well known as a line of enlightened and wise 
princes^{[citation 
needed]}; although Greek opinion could not deny that 
they were, strictly speaking,
tyrants, they are always described as dynasts.^{[citation 
needed]} They maintained close relations with
Athens, their best customer for the Bosporan 
grain exports: Leucon I of Bosporus created privileges for Athenian ships at 
Bosporan ports. The Attic orators^[who?] 
make numerous references to this. In return the Athenians granted Leucon 
Athenian citizenship and made decrees in honour of him and his sons.

Mithridates VI

The northern Black sea shores of the Pontic Kingdom (actual Crimea 
and Kerch peninsula) shown as part of the empire of
Mithridates VI of Pontus.

After his defeat by Roman General
Pompey in 63 BCE, King
Mithridates VI of Pontus fled with a small army 
from 
Colchis (modern Georgia) over the Caucasus 
Mountains to 
Crimea and made plans to raise yet another army 
to take on the Romans. His eldest living son,
Machares, regent of Cimmerian Bosporus, was 
unwilling to aid his father, so Mithridates had Machares killed, acquiring the 
throne for himself. Mithridates then ordered the conscriptions and preparations 
for war. In 63 BCE,
Pharnaces, the youngest son of Mithridates, led 
a rebellion against his father, joined by Roman exiles in the core of 
Mithridates’s Pontic army. Mithridates VI withdrew to the citadel in
Panticapaeum, where he committed suicide. 
Pompey buried Mithridates VI in the rock-cut tombs of his ancestors in
Amasia, the capital of the
Kingdom of Pontus.

Roman client kingdom

After the death of Mithridates VI (63 BCE), Pharnaces II (63  – 47 BCE) 
suplicated to Pompey, and then tried to regain his dominion during Julius
Caesar’s Civil War, but was defeated by
Caesar at the
Zela and was later killed by his former 
governor and son-in-law
Asander.

Before the death of Pharnaces II, Asander had married Pharnaces II’s daughter
Dynamis. Asander and Dynamis were the ruling 
monarchs until
Caesar commanded a paternal uncle of Dynamis,
Mithridates II to declare war on the Bosporan 
Kingdom and claimed the kingship for himself. Asander and Dynamis were defeated 
by Caesar’s ally and went into political exile. However, after Caesar’s death in 
44 BCE, the Bosporan Kingdom was restored to Asander and Dynamis by Caesar’s 
great nephew and heir
Octavian. Asander ruled as an archon and later 
as king until his death in 17 BCE. After the death of Asander, Dynamis was 
compelled to marry a Roman
usurper called Scribonius, but the Romans under
Agrippa intervened and established
Polemon I of Pontus (16 – 8 BCE) in his place. 
Polemon married Dynamis in 16 BCE and she died in 14 BCE. Polemon ruled as king 
until his death in 8 BCE. After the death of Polemon,
Aspurgus, the son of Dynamis and Asander, 
succeeded Polemon.

Ruins of
Panticapaeum, modern
Kerch, the capital of the Bosporan 
Kingdom.

The Bosporan Kingdom of Aspurgus was a
client state of the
Roman Empire, protected by Roman garrisons. 
Aspurgus (8 BCE – 38 CE) founded a dynasty of kings which endured with a couple 
of interruptions until 341 CE. Aspurgus adopted the Imperial Roman names 
“Tiberius Julius” when he received
Roman citizenship and enjoyed the patronage of 
the first two
Roman Emperors,
Augustus and
Tiberius. All of the following kings adopted 
these two Roman names followed by a third name, of
Thracian (Kotys, Rhescuporis or Rhoemetalces) 
or local origin (such as Sauromates, Eupator, Ininthimeus, Pharsanzes, Synges, 
Terianes, Theothorses or Rhadamsades).

The Roman client kings of the dynasty had descended from King
Mithridates VI of Pontus and his first wife,
his sister Laodice, through Aspurgus. The kings 
adopted a new calendar (the “Pontic Era”) introduced by Mithridates VI, starting 
with 297 BCE to date their coins. Bosporan kings struck coinage throughout its 
period as a client state, which included gold
staters bearing portraits of both the Roman 
emperor and Bosporan king. Like the Roman, Bosporan coinage became increasingly 
debased during the 3rd century. The coinage makes their lineages fairly clear to 
historians, though scarcely any events from their reigns are recorded.

The Bosporan Kingdom covered the eastern half of Crimea and the Taman 
peninsula, and extended along the east coast of the
Maeotian marshes to
Tanais at the mouth of the
Don in the north-east, a great market for trade 
with the interior.

Throughout the period there was perpetual war with the native tribes of
Scythians and
Sarmatians, and in this the Bosporan Kingdom 
was supported by its Roman suzerains, who lent the assistance of garrisons and 
fleets.^{[citation 
needed]}

In 62 CE for reasons unknown, Roman emperor
Nero deposed the Bosporan king
Cotys I.^[4] 
It is possible that Nero wanted to minimise the power of local client rulers and 
wanted the Bosporans to be subsumed into the Roman empire. The Bosporan Kingdom 
was incorporated as a part of the Roman province of
Moesia Inferior from 63 to 68.^{[citation 
needed]} In 68, the new Roman emperor
Galba restored the Bosporan Kingdom to
Rhescuporis I, the son of Cotys I.^{[citation 
needed]}

The balance of power amongst local tribes was severely disturbed by
westward migration in the 3rd-4th centuries. In 
the 250s CE, the 
Goths and
Borani were able to seize Bosporan shipping and 
even raid the shores of
Anatolia.^[5]

With the coins of the last king
Rhescuporis VI in 341, constructing a 
chronology becomes very difficult. The kingdom was probably finally overrun by 
the 
Huns, who defeated the nearby
Alans in 375/376 and moved rapidly westwards 
towards the Roman empire.

Byzantine period

A few centuries after the Hunnic invasion, the Bosporan cities enjoyed a 
revival, under
Byzantine (and Bulgarian) protection. 
Phanagoria was the capital of old “Great Bulgaria”. From time to time Byzantine 
officers built fortresses and exercised authority at Bosporus, which constituted 
an 
archbishopric.

They also held Ta Matarcha on the eastern side of the strait, a town which in 
the 10th and 11th centuries became the seat of the
Kievan Rus principality of
Tmutarakan, which in turn gave way to
Tatar domination.

Following the
Diaspora, and aided by the
Khazars,
Judaism emerged in the region, and Jewish 
communities developed in some of the cities of the region (especially
Tanais). The Jewish or Thracian influence on 
the region may have inspired the foundation of a cult to the “Most High God,” a 
distinct regional cult which emerged in the 1st century CE, which professed 
monotheism without being distinctively Jewish or Christian.

Coinage of 
the Bosporan Kingdom

Although considered somewhat exotic prior to the demise of the Soviet Union 
in the early 1990s, Bosporan coins are now well known on the international coin 
markets, hinting at the quantities produced. Several large series were produced 
by Bosporan cities from the 5th century BCE, particularly in
Panticapaeum. Gold staters of Panticapaeum 
bearing 
Pan’s head and a griffin are especially 
remarkable for their weight and fine workmanship.

There are coins with the names of the later Spartocids and a complete series 
of dated
solidi issued by the later or
Achaemenian dynasty. In them may be noticed the 
swift degeneration of the gold solidus through silver and
potin to bronze.ronze.