Paerisades I ( el, Παιρισάδης) also known as Birisades, Pairisades, and Parysades was a Spartocid king of the

Bosporan Kingdom The Bosporan Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus (, ''Vasíleio toú Kimmerikoú Vospórou''), was an ancient Greco-Scythian state located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus, ...

from 342 to 310/9 BC. His father was

Leukon I Leucon I of Bosporus ( gr, Λευκὼν, Leukon, lived c. 410-349 BC) also known as Leuco, was a Spartocid ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom who ruled from 389 to 349 BC. He was arguably the greatest ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom. He was the son o ...

, a Bosporan king who was responsible for establishing and expanding the kingdom from a mere hegemony centred around the city of

Panticapaeum Panticapaeum ( grc-gre, Παντικάπαιον , from Scythian , "fish-path") was an ancient Greek city on the eastern shore of Crimea, which the Greeks called Taurica. The city lay on the western side of the Cimmerian Bosporus, and was found ...

to a large

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 ...

kingdom in 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 ...

Reign

Paerisades was born to Leukon and a mother perhaps named Theodosia, although this is still unknown as there is no evidence of her being his mother. He was co-regent with Spartokos II when he ascended the throne, ruling as a governor over the minor parts of the kingdom, such as Theodosia, due to him not being the eldest. Paerisades became sole ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom after his elder brother Spartokos died in 342 BC after ruling for five years, from 347 to 342 BC. At some point during his reign, Paerisades possibly married his cousin Komosarye, a daughter of his uncle

Gorgippos Gorgippus ( grc, Γοργιππος, Gorgippos) was a son of Satyrus I and was a Spartocid joint ruler with his brother Leucon (389–349 BCE) of the Bosporan Kingdom. He situated himself on the Asiatic side of the kingdom, in Gorgippia where h ...

, and they had four sons: Satyros II, likely named after his grandfather Satyros I,

Eumelos Eumelus of Bosporus (, fl. 309–304 BC) was a Spartocid ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom and a son of Paerisades. Eumelus was the brother of Satyrus II (not to be confused with his great-grandfather, Satyrus I, another Bosporan ruler) and Prytani ...

, Gorgippos II, also perhaps named after Komosarye's father and Paerisades' uncle, and Prytanis. Also he had the daughter Akis. Through this marriage, he became king of the Sindians. Paerisades may have had the epithet "Epiphanes", which means "god-manifest", or perhaps "Theos", meaning "god", due to his people often praising him as divine and honouring him as a god. In combat, Paerisades wore three outfits for three occasions. He wore one outfit when reviewing his troops, another when he was in battle, and lastly, he wore one when he was forced to flee from battle. He did this so that when he was reviewing his troops, he'd be known by everyone; when he was in combat, he wouldn't be known by the enemy; and when he was forced to flee, nobody would know it was him. He was also an active military leader, possibly taking

Tanais Tanais ( el, Τάναϊς ''Tánaïs''; russian: Танаис) was an ancient Greek city in the Don river delta, called the Maeotian marshes in classical antiquity. It was a bishopric as Tana and remains a Latin Catholic titular see as Tana ...

and subjugating many tribes around the

Maeotic Swamp The Maeotic Swamp was the name formerly given to the swampy land surrounding the Strait of Kerch, which joins the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and A ...

and expanding the kingdom more than his father did in the Bosporan Expansion Wars, as well as waging war against the

Scythians 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 ...

at some point during his reign.

Death

Paerisades died in 310/09 BC, having ruled around 38 years as Bosporan king. Upon his death, Satyros II, Prytanis, and

engaged in the

Bosporan Civil War The Bosporan Civil War was a war of succession that happened in the Bosporan Kingdom somewhere between 311 and 308 BCE and lasted for about a year. The casus belli was the death of archon Paerisades I, whose sons disputed the succession. These ...

because Eumelos had a claim to throne and was allied to

Aripharnes Aripharnes (fl. 310–309 BC) or Arypharnasha the Thataean was ruler of the Sarmatian tribe of Siraces and took part in the First Bosporan Civil War of 310-309 between king Satyros II and his brother Eumelos, a pretender to the throne. At first, ...

while Satyros would not stand for it and waged war against his brother. The victor, Eumelos, greatly expanded the kingdom during his short five-year reign.

References

{{Hellenistic rulers Rulers of the Bosporan Kingdom 4th-century BC rulers Spartocid dynasty