Panticapaeum ( grc-gre, Παντικάπαιον , from

Scythian The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...

, "fish-path") was an

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

city on the eastern shore of

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

, which the Greeks called

Taurica The recorded history of the Crimean Peninsula, historically known as ''Tauris'', ''Taurica'' ( gr, Ταυρική or Ταυρικά), and the ''Tauric Chersonese'' ( gr, Χερσόνησος Ταυρική, "Tauric Peninsula"), begins around the ...

. The city lay on the western side of the

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 f ...

, and was founded by Milesians in the late 7th or early 6th century BC, on a hill later named

Mount Mithridat Mount Mithridat is a large hill located in the center of Kerch, a city on the eastern Kerch Peninsula of Crimea. It is in elevation. From the top of Mount Mithridat a scenic view spreads across the Strait of Kerch and the city of Kerch. Someti ...

. Its ruins now lie in the modern city of

Kerch Kerch ( uk, Керч; russian: Керчь, ; Old East Slavic: Кърчевъ; Ancient Greek: , ''Pantikápaion''; Medieval Greek: ''Bosporos''; crh, , ; tr, Kerç) is a city of regional significance on the Kerch Peninsula in the east of t ...

Early existence

During the first centuries of the city's existence, imported Greek articles predominated:

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...

(see

Kerch Style The Kerch style , also referred to as Kerch vases, is an archaeological term describing vases from the final phase of Attic red-figure pottery production. Their exact chronology remains problematic, but they are generally assumed to have been produ ...

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...

s, and metal objects, probably from workshops in

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...

Corinth Corinth ( ; el, Κόρινθος, Kórinthos, ) is the successor to an ancient city, and is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part o ...

Samos Samos (, also ; el, Σάμος ) is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the -wide Mycale Strait. It is also a separate ...

, and

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

. 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

ware. Local potters imitated the

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

bowls known as the

Gnathia ''Gnathia'' is a genus of isopod crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapoda, decapods, ostracoda, seed shrimp, branchiopoda, branchiopods, argulidae, fish lice, krill, rem ...

style as well as relief wares— Megarian bowls. The city minted silver coins from the 5th century BC and gold and bronze coins from the 4th century BC.Sear, David R. (1978). ''Greek Coins and Their Values ''. Volume I: Europe (pp. 168-169). Seaby Ltd., London. At its greatest extent it occupied . The Hermitage and

Museums contain material from the site, which is still being excavated. Pan compilation

Fifth to first centuries BC

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

Archaeanactids The Archaeanactids (Greek: Αρχαιανακτίδαι) were a Greek dynasty of the Kingdom of Bosporus that ruled in 480–438 BC. The presumed founder, Archaeanax, was probably a strategos of a league of city-states in the Cimmerian Bosporus, ...

and then of the

Spartocids The Spartocids () or Spartocidae was the name of a Hellenized Thracian dynasty that ruled the Hellenistic Kingdom of Bosporus between the years 438–108 BC. They had usurped the former dynasty, the Archaeanactids, a Greek dynasty of the Bospor ...

, dynasties of

Thracian The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied t ...

kings of

Bosporus The Bosporus Strait (; grc, Βόσπορος ; tr, İstanbul Boğazı 'Istanbul strait', colloquially ''Boğaz'') or Bosphorus Strait is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul in northwestern T ...

, and was hence itself sometimes called Bosporus. Its economic decline in the 4th–3rd centuries BC was the result of the

Sarmatian The Sarmatians (; grc, Σαρμαται, Sarmatai; Latin: ) were a large confederation of Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian peoples, Iranian Eurasian nomads, equestrian nomadic peoples of classical ant ...

conquest of the steppes and the growing competition of

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

grain.

Mithridates

Scythians shooting with bows Kertch antique Panticapeum Ukrainia 4th century BCE

The last of the

Paerisades V Paerisades V ( el, Παιρισάδης) was the son of Paerisades III and Kamasarye Philoteknos. He was last Spartocid ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom and ruled from 125 to c. 109 BC after the death of his brother Paerisades IV Philometor. With hi ...

, apparently left his realm to

Mithridates VI Mithridates or Mithradates VI Eupator ( grc-gre, Μιθραδάτης; 135–63 BC) was ruler of the Kingdom of Pontus in northern Anatolia from 120 to 63 BC, and one of the Roman Republic's most formidable and determined opponents. He was an e ...

Eupator, king of

Pontus Pontus or Pontos may refer to: * Short Latin name for the Pontus Euxinus, the Greek name for the Black Sea (aka the Euxine sea) * Pontus (mythology), a sea god in Greek mythology * Pontus (region), on the southern coast of the Black Sea, in modern ...

. This transition was arranged by one of Mithridates's generals,

Diophantus Diophantus of Alexandria ( grc, Διόφαντος ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς; born probably sometime between AD 200 and 214; died around the age of 84, probably sometime between AD 284 and 298) was an Alexandrian mathematician, who was the aut ...

, who earlier had been sent to Taurica to help local Greek cities against

Palacus Palacus or Palakus was the king of Crimean Scythia who succeeded his father, Skilurus. Resuming the latter's war against Mithridates the Great, he attempted to besiege Chersonesos but was defeated by Pontic forces under Diophantus. Enlisting th ...

of the Scythian kingdom in Crimea. The mission did not go smoothly: Paerisades was murdered by

Scythians The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved f ...

led by Saumacus, and Diophantus escaped to return later with reinforcements to suppress the revolt (c. 110 BC). Half of a century later, Mithridates took his life in Panticapaeum, when, after his defeat in a

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

against

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, his son and heir Pharnaces and citizens of Panticapaeum turned against him.

References

External links

Perseus Digital LibraryIconicarchive Photo GalleryDecree honoring Diophantos
general of the Pontic king Mithridates VI

{{Tourist attractions in Crimea Bosporan Kingdom Milesian colonies in Crimea Kerch Peninsula Kerch Populated places established in the 1st millennium BC Archaeological sites in Ukraine Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Crimea

Early existence

Fifth to first centuries BC

Mithridates

References

Further reading

External links