Saulaces was a king of

Colchis In Greco-Roman geography, Colchis (; ) was an exonym for the Georgian polity of Egrisi ( ka, ეგრისი) located on the coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia. Its population, the Colchians are generally though ...

known from ''Naturalis Historia'' by the 1st-century Roman author

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

and identified by one hypothesis as a king mentioned on eight coins found on the eastern

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

coast.

Pliny

According to Pliny, Saulaces was a descendant of

Aeëtes Aeëtes (; , ; , ), or Aeeta, was a king of Colchis in Greek mythology. The name comes from the ancient Greek word (, "eagle"). Family Aeëtes was the son of Sun god Helios and the Oceanid Perseis, brother of Circe, Perses and Pasiphaë, ...

, a king of Colchis of the Argonautic fame. He was further claimed to have found rich gold and silver deposits in the land of the Suani and to have furnished his palace with golden and silver structures obtained on his conquest of

Sesostris Sesostris ( grc-gre, Σέσωστρις), also transliterated as Sesoösis, or Sesonchosis, is the name of a legendary king of ancient Egypt who, according to Herodotus, led a military expedition into parts of Europe. Tales of Sesostris are pro ...

, king of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

: Pliny's account of Saulaces and his victory over the Egyptians is uncorroborated by other written sources, but Sesostris' connection with Colchis was treated by many Classical authors, first by the 5th-century BC historian

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society ...

, who credited Sesostris with leading an expedition into

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

and transplanting a group of Egyptians to settle Colchis.

Martin Bernal Martin Gardiner Bernal (; 10 March 1937 – 9 June 2013) was a British scholar of modern Chinese political history. He was a Professor of Government and Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University. He is best known for his work ''Black Athena'', a ...

, who accepted the historicity of Sesostris' campaign, dated the event to the 1930s or 1920s BC.

Coinage

In the 19th century, Saulaces was identified by Alfred von Gutschmid on eight rare coins, five of which were acquired in West Georgia, near Sokhumi and in Vani. This interpretation was disputed since then. The Greek inscription on these coins is incomplete (ΒΑΣΙΛΕ... ΣΑΥ or ΣΑΥΜ). The coins are now in the collections located in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, and

Vani Vani ( ka, ვანი) is a town in Imereti region of a western Georgia, at the Sulori river (a tributary of the Rioni river), 41 km southwest from the regional capital Kutaisi. The town with the population of 3,744 (2014) is an administr ...

. In 1951, Davit Kapanadze also supported the Saulaces identification. The alternative hypothesis is that the coins attributed to Saulaces belonged to Saumacus, a

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 ...

, who seized power in 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, ...

108 BC. In particular, this was argued in 2013 by Giorgi Dundua. However, another such coin was also reported in 2007 as found in Crimea, near Theodosia. The inscription on it is complete, and reads "ΣΑΥΛΑΚΟΥ" in Greek, which supports the older Saulaces identification.Гаврилов А.В., Шонов И.В
Монета Савлака с укрепления Куру Баш близ Феодосии.
XIV Всероссийская нумизматическая конференция. – С.-Пб. 2007. С. 31-33 // (Russian) A. Gavrilov, I. Shonov, "A coin of Savlak from the fortress of Kuru Bash near Theodosia", Saint Petersburg, 2007 pp. 31-33

References

{{Reflist

Literature

* Zeev Wolfgang Rubinsohn. Saumakos: Ancient History, Modern Politics // Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte Bd. 29, H. 1 (1st Qtr., 1980), pp. 50-70 Kings of Colchis