Bithynian Era
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Bithynian Era
The Bosporan era (BE or AB), also called the Bithynian era, Pontic era or Bithyno-Pontic era, was a calendar era (year numbering) used from 149 BC at the latest until at least AD 497 in Asia Minor and the Black Sea region. It originated in the Bithynian Kingdom and was also used in the Pontic Kingdom and, for the longest time, in the Bosporan Kingdom. The calendar era begins with the assumption of the royal title by Zipoetes I of Bithynia in October 297 BC (in the Gregorian calendar), which marks the start of its year one.Jakob Munk Højte, "From Kingdom to Province: Reshaping Pontos after the Fall of Mithridates VI", in Tønnes Bekker-Nielsen (ed.), ''Rome and the Black Sea Region: Domination, Romanisation, Resistance'' (Aarhus University Press, 2006), 15–30. The Bosporan year began at the autumnal equinox. The earliest evidence for the use of the Bithynian era is some coins dating from 149/8 BC, when Nicomedes II overthrew his father, Prusias II. Since earlier Bithynian coi ...
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Pontic Coinage
Pontic coinage probably began during reign of Mithridates II of Pontus. Early Pontic coinage imitated coinage with Alexander the Great's portraits. Later coinage is well known for its high decree of realism in portraits of the Pontic kings who were proud of their Iranian ancestry. Pontic coin portraitry developed isolated from wider Hellenistic tradition. However, Mithridates V and his son Mithridates VI partially abandoned oriental influences in the coin portraitry. Pontic mints experimented with new materials for coinage. Pure copper and brass were used in mints during reign of Mithridates VI. His brass coinage are the earliest known coins made from brass. His rule and wars resulted in a wide expansion in number of mints and struck coinage. Earlier Pontic coinage attributable to prior rulers is very rare. Pontic coinage managed to gain a wide acceptance within eastern Mediterranean region. Evolution of Pontic coinage Prior to the Kingdom of Pontus, the Pontic region had auto ...
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Calendar Eras
A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physical record (often paper) of such a system. A calendar can also mean a list of planned events, such as a court calendar or a partly or fully chronological list of documents, such as a calendar of wills. Periods in a calendar (such as years and months) are usually, though not necessarily, synchronized with the cycle of the sun or the moon. The most common type of pre-modern calendar was the lunisolar calendar, a lunar calendar that occasionally adds one intercalary month to remain synchronized with the solar year over the long term. Etymology The term ''calendar'' is taken from , the term for the first day of the month in the Roman calendar, related to the verb 'to call out', referring to the "calling" of the new moon when it was first se ...
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Rhescuporis VI
Rhescuporis VI ( el, Τιβέριος Ἰούλιος Ῥησκούπορις, translit=Tiberios Ioulios Rheskoúporis), also transliterated as Rheskuporis or Rheskouporis and sometimes known as Rhescuporis the Last, is the last well-known king of the Bosporan Kingdom (), a Roman client state, and the last known representative of its ancient Tiberian-Julian ruling dynasty. Little is known of the background and reign of Rhescuporis VI; he began his tenure as king through either co-rule or competition with his predecessor Rhadamsades until 322. Rhescuporis VI reign came to an end around 341, when he might have been overthrown by the Sarmatians or Alans, groups which at the time were becoming increasingly influential and powerful in Crimea. Reign The last known member of the Tiberian-Julian dynasty, Rhescuporis VI's reign can be dated precisely through numismatic (coins) and archaeological data, which places him as ruling from 314 to 341. His reign overlaps with the other Bosporan ...
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Aspurgus
Tiberius Julius Aspurgus Philoromaios ( el, Τιβέριος Ἰούλιος Ἀσποῦργoς Φιλορωμαῖος, fl. second half of 1st century BC and first half of 1st century AD; died 37/38) was a prince and Roman client king of the Bosporan Kingdom. History The name Aspurgus is of Iranian origin, derived from ''aspa'' (horse) and ''aspabara'' (horseman). Aspurgus was born to Asander, ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom and Dynamis. He was the maternal grandchild to the previous Roman client king of the Bosporan and Pontus, Pharnaces II and his Sarmatian wife. In 17 BC, Asander died of voluntary starvation from despair at the age of 93 because he witnessed his troops desert him for the Roman usurper, Scribonius. Scribonius pretended to be a relative of Dynamis, so he could seize Asander's throne and become king. Dynamis was forced to marry Scribonius. The Roman statesman Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa discovered Scribonius’ deception and intervened, appointing Polemon I of Pon ...
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Dynamis (Bosporan Queen)
Dynamis, nicknamed Philoromaios ( el, Δύναμις Φιλορωμαῖος, ''Dynamis, friend of Rome'', c. 67 BC – AD 8), was a Roman client queen of the Bosporan Kingdom during the Late Roman Republic and part of the reign of Augustus, the first Roman Emperor. Dynamis is an ancient Greek name which means the “powerful one”.Mayor, The Poison King, p. 345. She was a monarch of Iranian and Greek Macedonian ancestry. She was the daughter of King Pharnaces II of Pontus and his Sarmatian wife. She had an older brother called Darius and a younger brother called Arsaces. Her paternal grandparents had been the monarchs of the Kingdom of Pontus, Mithridates VI of Pontus and his first wife Laodice, who was also his sister. Dynamis married three times. Her husbands were Asander, a certain Scribonius and Polemon I of Pontus. According to Rostovtzeff, she also had a fourth husband, Aspurgos. Life Marriage with Asander In 47 BC king Pharnaces II put Asander in charge of his Bospora ...
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Cimmerian Bosporus
The Kerch Strait, uk, Керченська протока, crh, Keriç boğazı, ady, Хы ТӀуалэ is a strait in Eastern Europe. It connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, separating the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea in the west from the Taman Peninsula of Russia's Krasnodar Krai in the east. The strait is to wide and up to deep. The most important harbor, the Crimean city of Kerch, gives its name to the strait, formerly known as the Cimmerian Bosporus. It has also been called the Straits of Yenikale after the Yeni-Kale fortress in Kerch. Taman, the most important settlement on the Taman Peninsula side of the strait, sits on Taman Bay, which is separated from the main Kerch Strait by the Chushka Spit to the north and the former Tuzla Spit to the south; the Tuzla Spit is now Tuzla Island, connected to the Taman Peninsula by a 2003 Russian-built dam, and to mainland Crimea by the Crimean Bridge opened in 2018. A major cargo port is under construction near Tama ...
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Pharnaces II
Pharnaces II of Pontus ( grc-gre, Φαρνάκης; about 97–47 BC) was the king of the Bosporan Kingdom and Kingdom of Pontus until his death. He was a monarch of Persian and Greek ancestry. He was the youngest child born to King Mithridates VI of Pontus from his first wife, his sister Queen Laodice. He was born and raised in the Kingdom of Pontus and was the namesake of his late double great grandfather Pharnaces I of Pontus. After his father was defeated by the Romans in the Third Mithridatic War (73–63 BC) and died in 63 BC, the Romans annexed the western part of Pontus, merged it with the former Kingdom of Bithynia and formed the Roman province of Bithynia and Pontus. The eastern part of Pontus remained under the rule of Pharnaces as a client kingdom until his death. Rebellion against his father Pharnaces II was raised as his father's successor and treated with distinction. However, we know little of his youth from ancient writers and find him first mentioned after M ...
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Macedonian Calendar
The Ancient Macedonian calendar is a lunisolar calendar that was in use in ancient Macedon in the It consisted of 12  synodic lunar months (i.e. 354 days per year), which needed intercalary months to stay in step with the seasons. By the time the calendar was being used across the Hellenistic world, seven total ''embolimoi'' (intercalary months) were being added in each 19 year Metonic cycle. The names of the ancient Macedonian Calendar remained in use in Syria even into the Christian era. Names The names of the Macedonian months, just like most of the names of Greek months, are derived from feasts and related celebrations in honor of the Greek gods. Most of them combine a Macedonian dialectal form with a clear Greek etymology (e.g Δῐός from Zeus; Περίτιος from Heracles Peritas (“Guardian”) ; Ξανδικός/Ξανθικός from Xanthos, “the blond” (probably a reference to Heracles); Άρτεμίσιος from Artemis etc.) with the possible ...
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Bithynia Et Pontus
Bithynia and Pontus ( la, Provincia Bithynia et Pontus, Ancient Greek ) was the name of a Roman province, province of the Roman Empire on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). It was formed during the late Roman Republic by the amalgamation of the former kingdoms of Bithynia (made a province by Rome 74 BC) and Kingdom of Pontus, Pontus (annexed to Bithynia 63 BC). The amalgamation was part of a wider conquest of Anatolia and its reduction to Roman provinces. In 74 BC, Bithynia was willed to Rome by Nicomedes IV of Bithynia in the hope that Rome would defend it against its old enemy, Pontus. Due to the influence of a Xenia (Greek), guest-friend of Nicomedes, Julius Caesar, then a young man, and an impassioned speech by the deceased king's sister, Nysa (daughter of Nicomedes III of Bithynia), Nysa before the Senate, the gift was accepted. Rome was divided into two parties, the Populares, party of the "people," and the Optimates, party of the "best." The guest-friendsh ...
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Third Mithridatic War
The Third Mithridatic War (73–63 BC), the last and longest of the three Mithridatic Wars, was fought between Mithridates VI of Pontus and the Roman Republic. Both sides were joined by a great number of allies dragging the entire east of the Mediterranean and large parts of Asia (Asia Minor, Greater Armenia, Northern Mesopotamia and the Levant) into the war. The conflict ended in defeat for Mithridates, ending the Pontic Kingdom, ending the Seleucid Empire (by then a rump state), and also resulting in the Kingdom of Armenia becoming an allied client state of Rome. Background In 120 BC, Mithridates V, the king of Pontus was poisoned by unknown figures. The conspirators were probably working for his wife Laodice. In his will Mithridates V left the kingdom to the joint rule of Laodice, Mithridates VI and Mithridates Chrestus. Both of her sons were underage and Laodice retained all power as regent.Mayor, ''The Poison King: the life and legend of Mithradates, Rome's deadlies ...
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Paphlagonia
Paphlagonia (; el, Παφλαγονία, Paphlagonía, modern translit. ''Paflagonía''; tr, Paflagonya) was an ancient region on the Black Sea coast of north-central Anatolia, situated between Bithynia to the west and Pontus to the east, and separated from Phrygia (later, Galatia) by a prolongation to the east of the Bithynian Olympus. According to Strabo, the river Parthenius formed the western limit of the region, and it was bounded on the east by the Halys River. ''Paphlagonia'' was said to be named after Paphlagon, a son of the mythical Phineus.Eustath. ad Horn. II. ii. 851, ad Dion. Per. 787; Steph. B. t.v.; Const. Porph. de Them. i. 7. Geography The greater part of Paphlagonia is a rugged mountainous country, but it contains fertile valleys and produces a great abundance of hazelnuts and fruit – particularly plums, cherries and pears. The mountains are clothed with dense forests, notable for the quantity of boxwood that they furnish. Hence, its coasts were occupied by ...
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