PANTIKAPAION in TAURIC CHERSONESOS 250BC Bull Plow Ancient Greek Coin i38355

Item: i38355

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Greek city of
Pantikapaion
in
Tauric Chersonesos

Bronze 11mm (1.84 grams) Struck circa 250-150 B.C.
Reference: MacDonald 140; SNG BM Black Sea –; HGC 7, 142
Bull
’s head facing slightly right .
ΠAN, Grain ear and plow.

 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

Goths
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.