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Satyros II
Satyrus II ( grc, Σάτυρος, Satyros) was a son of Paerisades I and Spartocid king of the Bosporan Kingdom for 9 months in 310 BC. He was the elder brother of Eumelus and Prytanis. He was challenged and ultimately overthrown by Eumelus in the Bosporan Civil War. Reign and civil war When his father Paerisades died in 310 BC, Satyrus inherited the throne and government as he was the eldest son. Shortly after, his brother Eumelus fled to the lands of the Siraces, where he entered into an alliance with Aripharnes, king of the Siraces, and made a rival claim to the throne. As soon as Satyrus learned of this, he set out against his brother Eumelus with his army thus starting the Spartocid civil war. Satyrus' army had a total of 34,000 troops, a mixture of Greeks, Thracians, and Scythians. After cornering his younger brother, they fought the Battle of the River Thatis, which resulted in a strategic victory for Satyrus and demonstrated his suitability for the throne of his father. ...
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Paerisades I
Paerisades I ( el, Παιρισάδης) also known as Birisades, Pairisades, and Parysades was a Spartocid king of the Bosporan Kingdom from 342 to 310/9 BC. His father was Leukon I, a Bosporan king who was responsible for establishing and expanding the kingdom from a mere hegemony centred around the city of Panticapaeum to a large Hellenistic kingdom in the Cimmerian Bosporus. 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, and they had fo ...
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Prytanis Of Bosporus
Prytanis (Greek: Πρύτανης) was king of the Bosporan Kingdom from 310 to 309 BC. He was a son of Paerisades and the youngest brother of Satyros II and Eumelos. He was part of the Bosporan Civil War during 309 BC, between himself and his brothers, Eumelos having a claim to the throne and the backing of Aripharnes, king of the Siraces. Reign and defeat Not much is known about Prytanis prior to the civil war, but he was the youngest son of Paerisades, and thus last in line of succession, and sided with his eldest brother Satyros when Eumelos launched his rival claim for the throne. Upon Satyros' death, his mercenary captain Meniscus brought the body back to Panticapaeum through Gargaza. Here, Prytanis held a great funeral for his elder brother and quickly went to Gargaza, taking both the army and royal power. Eumelos sent envoys to Prytanis, but he ignored them and left a garrison in Gargaza so that he could quickly return to Panticapaeum Panticapaeum ( grc-gre, Παντ ...
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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 Bosporan Kingdom who were tyrants of Panticapaeum from 480 - 438 BC. The throne of the Bosporan kingdom was usurped by Spartokos I in 438 BC, from whom the dynasty is named after. Spartokos's descendants would continue to rule the Bosporus until 108 BC, in which it was briefly conquered by the invading Scythians led by Saumacus. The dynasty continued to repeat the names of succeeding princes, with the final Spartokos being named Spartokos V. The dynasty also had inter-marriages, notably the marriage of Komosarye and Paerisades I. The most famous known ruler is Leukon I, who expanded the kingdom beyond its boundaries, resisted the Scythians, and ruled for 40 years. History The Spartocids are thought to be of Thracian origin, and to have connecti ...
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Religion In Ancient Greece
Religious practices in ancient Greece encompassed a collection of beliefs, rituals, and mythology, in the form of both popular public religion and cult practices. The application of the modern concept of "religion" to ancient cultures has been questioned as anachronistic. The ancient Greeks did not have a word for 'religion' in the modern sense. Likewise, no Greek writer known to us classifies either the gods or the cult practices into separate 'religions'. Instead, for example, Herodotus speaks of the Hellenes as having "common shrines of the gods and sacrifices, and the same kinds of customs." Most ancient Greeks recognized the twelve major Olympian gods and goddesses—Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Ares, Aphrodite, Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus, Hermes, and either Hestia or Dionysus—although philosophies such as Stoicism and some forms of Platonism used language that seems to assume a single transcendent deity. The worship of these deities, and several others, wa ...
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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, centered in the present-day Strait of Kerch. It was the first truly 'Hellenistic' state, in the sense that a mixed population adopted the Greek language and civilization, under aristocratic consolidated leadership. Under the Spartocid dynasty, the aristocracy of the kingdom adopted a double nature of presenting themselves as Archon, ''archons'' to Greek subjects and as kings to barbarians, which some historians consider unique in ancient history.The Bosporan Kingdom became Roman Crimea, the longest surviving Roman client kingdom. The 1st and 2nd centuries AD saw a period of a new golden age of the Bosporan state. It was briefly incorporated as part of the Roman province of Moesia Inferior from 63 to 68 AD under Emperor Nero, before being ...
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Eumelus Of Bosporus
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 Prytanis. He and his brothers engaged in a conflict for the throne, which the eldest brother, Satyrus, had inherited from their father. Civil war Shortly after his brother Satyrus became ruler, Eumelus became a pretender to the throne with the backing of Aripharnes, a ruler of the Sarmatian tribe of Siraces from whom he solicited aid. When Satyrus learned of this, he immediately went after Eumelos with his army and crossed the River Thatis to wage war on his brother. Eumelus was defeated by him at the Battle of the River Thatis. He and Aripharnes were forced to retreat to Siracena. Satyrus and his army followed his brother to the city, but could not take it as it was surrounded by the River Thatis, leaving two heavily guarded entrances as the ...
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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 sons were Satyros II, who claimed the kingdom by virtue of being the eldest, Eumelos, who was another claimant to the throne, and Prytanis, who engaged in battle later on in support of Satyros. Sources and dating The most important source on the conflict is provided by the '' Bibliotheca historica'', book 20 chapters 22 to 24, written more than 150 years after the fact by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (c. 90–30 BCE). It is not known exactly when the events narrated by Diodorus happened. The war has been variously dated as having occurred during 309–308 BCE (one year long), within the year 309 BCE, during 311–310 BCE or during 310–309 BCE. In part, the difficulty in determining the period stems from the uncertainty ab ...
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Siraces
The Siraces ( gr, Sirakoi, lat, Siraci, also ''Siraceni'' and ''Seraci'' ) were a hellenized Sarmatian tribe that inhabited Sarmatia Asiatica; the coast of Achardeus at the Black Sea north of the Caucasus Mountains, Siracena is mentioned by Tacitus as one of their settlements. They were said to be relatively small nation but with great morale. (bad link as of 20feb16, probably Brzezinski's book.) They were neighbours to the later enemy tribe of Aorsi. They migrated from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea region. By the late 4th century, they had occupied lands between the Caucasus mountains and the Don, becoming masters of the Kuban region. They were the first Sarmatian tribe to have contact with the Hellenic groups on the coast of the Black Sea. In 310–309 BC, their king Aripharnes took part in the Bosporan Civil War and lost at the battle of the River Thatis (a tributary of the Kuban river). In the 1st century BC during the rule of Pharnaces II of Pontus, King of Siraces Abe ...
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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, all three claimants to the throne, Satyros, Prytanis, and Eumelos sought Aripharnes to back them to the throne. Aripharnes then ordered each of the lads to hurl a javelin into their father's corpse. Satyros and Prytanis did so, but Eumelos refused. There, Aripharnes proclaimed Eumelos "King of the Cimmerians". He and Eumelos fought Satyrus at the Battle of River Thatis, but they were defeated by the numerically inferior Satyric army. Afterward, he retreated with Eumelos to his settlement Siracena. The settlement was besieged by Satyros and after a lengthy siege, he was mortally wounded. Meniscus, the mercenary captain in charge of Satyros's mercenaries, broke off the siege and took the body of Satyros to Panticapaeum Panticapaeum ( ...
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Battle Of The River Thatis
The Battle of the River Thatis was part of a succession dispute in the Bosporan Kingdom that was fought out during 310/309 BC. After the death of Paerisades I, his eldest son Satyros II became king. His brother Eumelus disputed Satyros II's right to the throne and gathered an army with his allies, the Siraces tribe. With his Scythian allies Satyrus met Eumelus in battle at the River Thatis, where Eumelus and the Siraces were defeated. Satyrus led his cavalry in a charge towards the centre of the line where Aripharnes, the king of the Siraces, was with his own cavalry and put them to flight. When he heard his mercenaries had fled from the fight with the right wing which was led by Eumelus, he attacked the enemy's right wing and broke their army. The defeat was not decisive: Eumelus and his allies escaped to the capital city of the Siraces, which was situated along the River Thatis. During the siege of that city Satyrus incurred many casualties and was mortally wounded himself. A ...
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Siege Of Siracena
The Siege of Siracena was a Bosporan siege led by Satyrus II and Meniscus on the fortified capital city of the Siraces, Siracena, that occurred in 309 BC during the First Bosporan Civil War. The Siraces were a hellenized Sarmatian tribe that had sided with Eumelos, a claimant to the Bosporan throne and a brother of Satyrus. Prelude Before the siege, the Bosporan army which had been composed of 34,000 troops (20,000 Scythian Infantry, 10,000 Scythian cavalry, 2,000 Thracians peltasts and 2,000 Greek mercenaries hoplites) had successfully defeated and routed Aripharnes and Eumelos, and the Siracen army of 42,000 (22,000 Infantry, 20,000 cavalry) during the Battle of the River Thatis. Satyros gave immediate chase to his younger brother, where he came up the Siracen capital city of Siracena which was heavily fortified and situated on that the river Thatis. Knowing that he could not take the city, he plundered the surrounding countryside and took on many prisoners. Siege Satyros II ha ...
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Scythia
Scythia (Scythian: ; Old Persian: ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) or Scythica (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ), also known as Pontic Scythia, was a kingdom created by the Scythians during the 6th to 3rd centuries BC in the Pontic–Caspian steppe. History Background Origins of the Scythians The Scythians originated in Central Asia possibly around the 9th century BC, and they arrived in the Caucasian Steppe in the 8th and 7th centuries BC as part of a significant movement of the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian Steppe. This movement started when another nomadic Iranian tribe closely related to the Scythians, either the Massagetae or the Issedones, migrated westwards, forcing the Early Scythians to the west across the Araxes river, following which the Scythians moved into the Caspian Steppe, where they conquered the territory of the Cimmerians, who were also a nomadic Iranian people closely related to the Scythians, and assimilated most of them while displacing the rest, before settling ...
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