Greek colonies in Crimea. Names, history, life of Greek colonists in ancient times in Crimea. Greek city-states of Crimea Greek city-states in Crimea

The Cimmerians on the Crimean Peninsula were replaced by Scythian tribes who moved in the 7th century BC. e. from Asia and formed a new state in the steppes of the Black Sea region and part of the Crimea - Scythia, stretching from the Don to the Danube. They began a series of nomadic empires that successively replaced one another - the Sarmatians replaced the Scythians, the Goths and Huns - the Sarmatians, the Avars and the ancestors of the Bulgarians - the Huns, then the Khazars, Pechenegs and Cumans appeared and disappeared. The arriving nomads seized power in the Northern Black Sea region over the local population, which for the most part remained in place, assimilating some of the victors. A feature of the Crimean peninsula was multi-ethnicity - different tribes and peoples coexisted in Crimea at the same time. From the new owners, a ruling elite was created that controlled the bulk of the population of the Northern Black Sea region and did not try to change the existing way of life in the region. It was “the power of a nomadic horde over neighboring agricultural tribes.” Herodotus wrote about the Scythians: “No enemy who attacks them can either escape from them or capture them if they do not want to be open: after all, a people who has neither cities nor fortifications, who moves their dwellings from themselves, where everyone is a horse archer, where the means of living are obtained not from agriculture, but from cattle breeding, and homes are built on carts - how could such a people not be invincible and impregnable.”

The origin of the Scythians is not completely clear. Perhaps the Scythians were descendants of indigenous tribes who had long lived on the Black Sea coast or were several related Indo-European nomadic tribes of the North Iranian language group, assimilated by the local population. It is also possible that the Scythians appeared in the Northern Black Sea region from Central Asia, pushed out from there by stronger nomads. The Scythians from Central Asia could have reached the Black Sea steppes in two ways: through Northern Kazakhstan, the southern Urals, the Volga region and the Don steppes, or through the Central Asian interfluve, the Amu Darya River, Iran, Transcaucasia and Asia Minor. Many researchers believe that the dominance of the Scythians in the Northern Black Sea region began after 585 BC. e., after the Scythians captured the Ciscaucasia and Azov steppes.

The Scythians were divided into four tribes. In the Bug River basin there lived Scythian herders, between the Bug and the Dnieper there were Scythian farmers, to the south of them there were Scythian nomads, between the Dnieper and Don there were royal Scythians. The center of royal Scythia was the Konka River basin, where the city of Gerras was located. Crimea was also the territory of settlement of the most powerful Scythian tribe - the royal ones. This territory received the name Scythia in ancient sources. Herodotus wrote that Scythia is a square with sides that are 20 days' journey long.

Herodotus's Scythia occupied modern Bessarabia, Odessa, Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk regions, almost the entire Crimea, except for the lands of the Tauri - the southern coast of the peninsula, Podolia, Poltava region, part of the Chernigov lands, the territory of the Kursk and Voronezh regions, the Kuban region and the Stavropol region. The Scythians loved to roam the Black Sea steppes from the Ingulets rivers in the west to the Don in the east. Two Scythian burials of the 7th century BC were found in Crimea. e. – the Temir Mountain mound near Kerch and the mound near the village of Filatovka in the steppe Crimea. In northern Crimea in the 7th century BC. e. there was no permanent population.

The Scythian tribal association was a military democracy with a national assembly of personally free nomads, a council of elders and tribal leaders who made human sacrifices to the god of war together with the priests. The Scythian tribal union consisted of three groups, which were led by their kings with hereditary power, one of whom was considered the main one. The Scythians had a cult of the sword, there was a supreme male god, depicted on a horse, and a female deity - the Great Goddess or Mother of the Gods. The army consisted of a complete militia of all combat-ready Scythians, whose horses had a bridle and a saddle, which immediately gave an advantage in battle. Women could also be warriors. In a Scythian mound near the village of Shelyugi, Akimovsky district, Zaporozhye region, half a kilometer from the Molochansky estuary, the burial of six Scythian women warriors was discovered. Necklaces made of gold and glass beads, bronze mirrors, combs, bone and lead spindle whorls, iron spear and dart tips, and bronze arrowheads, apparently lying in quivers, were found in the mound. The Scythian cavalry was stronger than the famous Greek and Roman cavalry. The Roman historian of the 2nd century Arrian wrote about the Scythian horses: “At first it is difficult to disperse them, so you can treat them with complete contempt if you see how they are compared with a Thessalian, Sicilian or Peleponnesian horse, but for that they withstand any kind of work; and then you can see how that greyhound, tall and hot-tempered horse is exhausted, and this short and mangy horse first overtakes him, then leaves him far behind.” Noble Scythian warriors were dressed in armored or scaled sleeve shirts, sometimes in bronze helmets and greaves, and were protected by small quadrangular shields with slightly rounded corners of Greek workmanship. Scythian horsemen, armed with a bronze or iron sword and dagger and having a short bow with a double curvature that hit 120 meters, were formidable opponents. Ordinary Scythians made up light cavalry, armed with darts and spears, and short akinac swords. Subsequently, the majority of the Scythian army began to consist of infantry, formed from agricultural tribes subject to the Scythians. The weapons of the Scythians were mainly of their own production, manufactured in large metallurgical centers that produced bronze and later iron weapons and equipment - the Velsk settlement in the Poltava region, the Kamensk settlement on the Dnieper.

The Scythians attacked the enemy with lava in small detachments on horseback in several places at the same time and pretended to run away, luring him into a pre-prepared trap, where the enemy warriors were surrounded and destroyed in hand-to-hand combat. Bows played the main role in the battle. Subsequently, the Scythians began to use a horse-fist strike in the middle of the enemy formation, the tactics of starvation, “scorched earth.” Detachments of mounted Scythians could quickly make long journeys, using the herds following the army as provisions. Subsequently, the Scythian army was significantly reduced and lost its combat effectiveness. The Scythian army, successfully resisting in the 6th century BC. e. colossal army of the Persian king Darius I, at the end of the 2nd century BC. e. together with its allies the Roxolani, it was completely defeated by a seven thousand-strong detachment of hoplites of the Pontic commander Diaphantus.

Since the 70s of the 7th century BC. e. Scythian troops went on campaigns in Africa, the Caucasus, Urartu, Assyria, Media, Greece, Persia, Macedonia and Rome. 7th and 6th centuries BC e. - These are continuous raids of the Scythians from Africa to the Baltic Sea.

In 680 BC. e. The Scythians, through Dagestan, invaded the territory of the Albanian tribe (modern Azerbaijan) and devastated them. Under the Scythian king Partatua in 677 BC. e. There was a battle between the united army of the Scythians, Assyrians and Scolots with the army of the Medes, the remnants of the Cimmerians and Mannaeans, led by the military leader Kashtarita, during which Kashtarita was killed and his army was defeated. In 675 BC. e. The Scythian army of Partatua raided the lands of the Skolot tribes living on the right bank of the Dnieper and along the Southern Bug, which was repelled. From that time on, grads appeared on the lands of the ethnic Proto-Slavs - small fortified villages, the dwellings of the clan. After this, the Scythian army with Partatua and his son Madius carried out an invasion of Central Europe in two streams, during which, in a battle on the lands of ancient Germanic tribes near Lake Tolensee, the Scythians with King Partatua were almost completely destroyed, and the troops of Madius were stopped on the borders of the possessions of the Skolot tribes .

In 634 BC. e. The troops of the royal Scythians of Madia entered Western Asia along the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, defeated the Median army in a series of bloody battles, and in 626 almost captured the capital of Media - Ektabana. The military power of the Median kingdom was destroyed and the country was plundered. In 612 BC. e. The recovered Medes, together with King Cyaxares, who managed to conclude an alliance with the Scythians, captured Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. As a result of this war, Assyria as a kingdom ceased to exist.

The Scythian army with King Madius was in Western Asia from 634 to 605 BC. e. The Scythians plundered Syria, reaching the Mediterranean Sea, and imposed tribute on Egypt and the cities of Palestine. After a significant strengthening of Media, whose king Astyages poisoned almost all the Scythian military leaders at a feast, Madius turned his army to the Crimea, where the Scythians were returning after a twenty-eight year absence. However, having crossed the Kerch Strait, the Scythian army was stopped by detachments of rebellious Crimean slaves who dug a ditch on the Ak-Monai Isthmus, the narrowest point of the Kerch Peninsula. Several battles took place, and the Scythians had to return to the Taman Peninsula. Madiy, having gathered around himself significant forces of Scythian nomads, bypassed Lake Meotia - the Sea of ​​Azov - and broke into the Crimea through Perekop. During the fighting in Crimea, Madiy apparently died.

At the beginning of the 6th century BC. e. The Scythians, under King Ariant, finally conquered the kingdom of Urartu, and carried out constant invasions of the tribes inhabiting Eastern and Central Europe. The Scythians, having plundered the Middle Volga region, went to the basin of the Kama, Vyatka, Belaya and Chusovaya rivers and imposed tribute on the Kama region. The Scythians' attempt to cross the Ural Mountains into Asia was thwarted by nomadic tribes living in the Lik River basin and Altai. Returning to Crimea, Tsar Arant imposed tribute on the tribes living along the Oka River. The Scythian army fought through the Carpathian region along the Prut and Dnieper rivers into the area between the Oder and Elbe rivers. After a bloody battle near the Spree River, on the site of modern Berlin, the Scythians reached the coast of the Baltic Sea. However, due to the stubborn resistance of local tribes, the Scythians were unable to gain a foothold there. During the next campaign to the sources of the Western Bug, the Scythian army was defeated, and King Arianta himself died.

The conquests of the Scythians ended at the end of the 6th century BC. e., under the Scythian king Idanfirs. Peace reigned in the Northern Black Sea region for three hundred years.

The Scythians lived both in small villages and in cities surrounded by ramparts and deep ditches. Large Scythian settlements are known on the territory of Ukraine - Matreninskoye, Pastyrskoye, Nemirovskoye and Velskoye. The main occupation of the Scythians was nomadic cattle breeding. Their dwellings were wagons on wheels, they ate boiled meat, drank mare's milk, men dressed in casings, trousers and a caftan, tied with a leather belt, women - in sundresses and kokoshniks. Based on Greek designs, the Scythians made beautiful and varied pottery, including amphoras used to store water and grain. The dishes were made using a potter's wheel and decorated with scenes of Scythian life. Strabo wrote about the Scythians: “the Scythian tribe... was nomadic, ate not only meat in general, but especially horse meat, as well as kumis cheese, fresh and sour milk; the latter, prepared in a special way, serves as a delicacy for them. Nomads are warriors rather than robbers, but they still wage wars over tribute. Indeed, they transfer their land into the possession of those who want to cultivate it, and are content if they receive in return a certain agreed payment, and then a moderate one, not for enrichment, but only to satisfy the necessary daily needs of life. However, the nomads fight with those who do not pay them money. And in fact, if they were paid the rent for the land correctly, they would never start a war.”

In Crimea there are more than twenty Scythian burials of the 6th century BC. e. They were left along the route of the seasonal nomads of the royal Scythians on the Kerch Peninsula and in the steppe Crimea. During this period, Northern Crimea received a permanent Scythian population, but a very small one.

In the middle of the 8th century BC, the Greeks appeared in the Black Sea region and in the northeast of the Aegean Sea. The lack of arable land and metal deposits, political struggle in the city-states - Greek city-states, and an unfavorable demographic situation forced many Greeks to look for new lands for themselves on the coasts of the Mediterranean, Marmara and Black Seas. The ancient Greek tribes of the Ionians, who lived in Attica and in the region of Ionia on the coast of Asia Minor, were the first to discover a country with fertile land, rich nature, abundant vegetation, animals and fish, with ample opportunities for trade with local “barbarian” tribes. Only very experienced sailors, who were the Ionians, could sail the Black Sea. The carrying capacity of Greek ships reached 10,000 amphoras - the main container in which products were transported. Each amphora held 20 liters. Such a Greek merchant ship was discovered near the port of Marseille off the coast of France, which sank in 145 BC. e., 26 meters long and 12 meters wide.

The first contacts between the local population of the Northern Black Sea region and Greek sailors were recorded in the 7th century BC. e., when the Greeks did not yet have colonies on the Crimean Peninsula. In a Scythian burial ground on Mount Temir near Kerch, a painted Rhodian-Milesian vase of excellent workmanship, made at that time, was discovered. Residents of the largest Greek city-state of Miletus on the banks of the Euxine Pontus founded more than 70 settlements. Emporia - Greek trading posts - began to appear on the shores of the Black Sea in the 7th century BC. e., the first of which was Borysphenida at the entrance to the Dnieper estuary on the island of Berezan. Then in the first half of the 6th century BC. e. Olbia appeared at the mouth of the Southern Bute (Gypanis), Tiras appeared at the mouth of the Dniester, and Feodosia (on the shore of the Feodosian Gulf) and Panticapaeum (on the site of modern Kerch) appeared on the Kerch Peninsula. In the middle of the 6th century BC. e. in eastern Crimea, Nymphaeum (17 kilometers from Kerch near the village of Geroevka, on the shore of the Kerch Strait), Cimmerik (on the southern coast of the Kerch Peninsula, on the western slope of Mount Onuk), Tiritaka (south of Kerch near the village of Arshintsevo, on the shore of the Kerch Bay) arose ), Mirmekiy (on the Kerch Peninsula, 4 kilometers from Kerch), Kitey (on the Kerch Peninsula, 40 kilometers south of Kerch), Parthenium and Parthia (north of Kerch), in the western Crimea - Kerkinitida (on the site of modern Evpatoria ), on the Taman Peninsula - Hermonassa (on the site of Taman) and Phanagoria. A Greek settlement arose on the southern coast of Crimea, called Alupka. The Greek city-colonies were independent city-states, independent of their metropolises, but maintaining close trade and cultural ties with them. When sending colonists, the city or the leaving Greeks themselves chose from among themselves the leader of the colony - an oikist, whose main duty during the formation of the colony was to divide the territory of the new lands among the Greek colonists. On these lands, called hora, were the plots of the city's citizens. All rural settlements of the choir were subordinate to the city. Colonial cities had their own constitution, their own laws, courts, and minted their own coins. Their policy was independent of the policy of the metropolis. The Greek colonization of the Northern Black Sea region mainly occurred peacefully and accelerated the process of historical development of local tribes, significantly expanding the areas of distribution of ancient culture.

Around 660 BC e. It was founded by the Greeks at the southern mouth of the Bosporus of Byzantium, to preserve Greek trade routes. Subsequently, in 330, the Roman Emperor Constantine, on the site of the trading city of Byzantium, on the European shore of the Bosphorus Strait, founded the new capital of the state of Constantine - “New Rome”, which after some time began to be called Constantinople, and the Christian empire of the Romans - Byzantine.

After the defeat of Miletus by the Persians in 494 BC. e. The colonization of the Northern Black Sea region was continued by the Dorian Greeks. Coming from the ancient Greek city on the southern coast of the Black Sea, Heraclea Pontica at the end of the 5th century BC. e. on the southwestern coast of the Crimean peninsula was founded in the area of ​​​​modern Sevastopol, Chersonese Tauride. The city was built on the site of an already existing settlement, and at first there was equality among all the inhabitants of the city - Taurians, Scythians and Dorian Greeks.

By the end of the 5th century BC. e. Greek colonization of Crimea and the shores of the Black Sea was completed. Greek settlements appeared where there was the possibility of regular trade with the local population, which ensured the sale of Attic goods. Greek emporias and trading posts on the Black Sea coast quickly turned into large city-states. The main occupations of the population of the new colonies, which soon became Greco-Scythian, were trade and fishing, cattle breeding, agriculture, and crafts related to the production of metal products. The Greeks lived in stone houses. The house was separated from the street by a blank wall; all buildings were located around the courtyard. Rooms and utility rooms were illuminated through windows and doors facing the courtyard.

From about the 5th century BC. e. Scythian-Greek connections began to be established and rapidly develop. There were also Scythian raids on Greek Black Sea cities. The Scythians attacked the city of Myrmekiy at the beginning of the 5th century BC. e. During archaeological excavations it was discovered that some of the settlements that were located near the Greek colonies during this period were destroyed in fires. Perhaps that is why the Greeks began to strengthen their policies by erecting defensive structures. Scythian attacks may have been one of the reasons why the independent Greek Black Sea cities around 480 BC. e. united in a military alliance.

Trade, crafts, agriculture, and the arts developed in the Greek city-states of the Black Sea region. They exerted great economic and cultural influence on the local tribes, while simultaneously adopting all their achievements. Trade was carried out through Crimea between the Scythians, Greeks and many cities of Asia Minor. The Greeks took from the Scythians primarily bread grown by the local population under Scythian control, cattle, honey, wax, salted fish, metal, leather, amber and slaves, and the Scythians took metal products, ceramic and glassware, marble, luxury goods, cosmetics products, wine, olive oil, expensive fabrics, jewelry. Scythian-Greek trade relations became permanent. Archaeological data indicate that in the Scythian settlements of the V–III centuries BC. e. A large number of amphorae and ceramics of Greek production were found. At the end of the 5th century BC. e. The purely nomadic economy of the Scythians was replaced by a semi-nomadic one, the number of cattle in the herd increased, and as a result, transhumance cattle breeding appeared. Some of the Scythians settled on the ground and began to engage in hoe farming, planting millet and barley. The population of the Northern Black Sea region has reached half a million people.

Jewelry made of gold and silver, found in the former Scythia - in the Kul-Ob, Chertomlyk, Solokha mounds, are divided into two groups: one group of decorations with scenes from Greek life and mythology, and the other with scenes of Scythian life, apparently made according to Scythian orders and for the Scythians. It can be seen from them that Scythian men wore short caftans, belted with a wide belt, and trousers tucked into short leather boots. Women dressed in long dresses with belts and wore pointed hats with long veils on their heads. The dwellings of settled Scythians were huts with wicker reed walls coated with clay.

At the mouth of the Dnieper, beyond the Dnieper rapids, the Scythians built a stronghold - a stone fortress that controlled the water road “from the Varangians to the Greeks”, from the north to the Black Sea.

In 519–512 BC. e. The Persian king Darius I, during his campaign of conquest in Eastern Europe, was unable to defeat the Scythian army with one of the kings, Idanfirs. The huge army of Darius I crossed the Danube and entered the Scythian lands. There were much more Persians and the Scythians turned to the “scorched earth” tactic; they did not engage in an unequal battle, but went deep into their country, destroying wells and burning out grass. Having crossed the Dniester and the Southern Bug, the Persian army passed through the steppes of the Black Sea and Azov regions, crossed the Don and, unable to gain a foothold anywhere, went home. The company failed, although the Persians did not fight a single battle.

The Scythians formed an alliance of all local tribes, a military aristocracy began to emerge, a layer of priests and best warriors appeared - Scythia acquired the features of a state formation. At the end of the 6th century BC. e. joint campaigns of the Scythians and ethnic Proto-Slavs began. The Skolots lived in the forest-steppe zone of the Black Sea region, which allowed them to hide from the raids of nomads. The early history of the Slavs does not have precise documentary evidence; it is impossible to reliably cover the period of Slavic history from the 3rd century BC. e. until the 4th century AD e. However, it is safe to say that over the centuries the Proto-Slavs repelled one wave of nomads after another.

In 496 BC. e. The united Scythian army passed through the lands of Greek cities located on both banks of the Hellespont (Dardanelles) and which at one time covered the campaign of Darius I to Scythia, and through the Thracian lands reached the Aegean Sea and Thracian Chersonese.

About fifty Scythian mounds of the 5th century BC were discovered on the Crimean peninsula. e., in particular the Golden Mound near Simferopol. In addition to the remains of food and water, arrowheads, swords, spears and other weapons, expensive weapons, gold items and luxury items were found. At this time, the permanent population of northern Crimea increased and in the 4th century BC. e. becomes very significant.

Around 480 BC e. the independent Greek city-states of Eastern Crimea united into a single Bosporan kingdom, located on both banks of the Cimmerian Bosporus - Kerch Strait. The Bosporan kingdom occupied the entire Kerch Peninsula and Taman to the Sea of ​​Azov and Kuban. The largest cities of the Bosporan Kingdom were on the Kerch Peninsula - the capital Panticapaeum (Kerch), Myrlikiy, Tiritaka, Nymphaeum, Kitey, Cimmeric, Feodosia, and on the Taman Peninsula - Phanagoria, Kepy, Hermonassa, Gorgipia.

Panticapaeum, an ancient city in Eastern Crimea, was founded in the first half of the 6th century BC. e. Greek immigrants from Miletus. The earliest archaeological finds in the city date from this period. The Greek colonists established good trade relations with the Crimean royal Scythians and even received a place to build a city with the consent of the Scythian king. The city was located on the slopes and at the foot of a rocky mountain, now called Mithridates. Grain supplies from the fertile plains of eastern Crimea quickly made Panticapaeum the main trading center in the region. The convenient location of the city on the shore of a large bay and a well-equipped trading harbor allowed this policy to quickly take control of the sea routes passing through the Kerch Strait. Panticapaeum became the main transit point for most of the goods brought by the Greeks for the Scythians and other local tribes. The name of the city probably translates as “fish route” - the Kerch Strait teeming with fish. He minted his own copper, silver and gold coins. In the first half of the 5th century BC. e. Panticapaeum united around itself the Greek city-colonies located on both banks of the Cimmerian Bosporus - Kerch Strait. The Greek city-states, who understood the need for unification for self-preservation and the implementation of their economic interests, formed the Bosporan kingdom. Soon after this, to protect the state from the invasion of nomads, a fortified rampart with a deep ditch was created, crossing the Crimean peninsula from the city of Tiritaka, located at Cape Kamysh-Burun, to the Sea of ​​​​Azov. In the 6th century BC. e. Panticapaeum was surrounded by a defensive wall.

Until 437 BC. e. The kings of the Bosphorus were the Greek Milesian dynasty of the Archeanactids, whose ancestor was Archeanact, an oikist of the Milesian colonists who founded Panticapaeum. This year, the head of the Athenian state, Pericles, arrived in Panticapaeum at the head of a squadron of warships, traveling with a large squadron around the Greek colonial cities to establish closer political and trade ties. Pericles negotiated grain supplies with the Bosporan king and then with the Scythians in Olbia. After his departure, the Bosporan kingdom was replaced by the Archeanactid dynasty of the local Hellenized Spartokid dynasty, possibly of Thracian origin, which ruled the kingdom until 109 BC. e.

In his biography of Pericles, Plutarch wrote: “Among the campaigns of Pericles, his campaign to Chersonesus (Chersonese in Greek means peninsula - A.A.), which brought salvation to the Hellenes living there, was especially popular. Pericles not only brought with him a thousand Athenian colonists and strengthened the population of the cities with them, but also built fortifications and barriers across the isthmus from sea to sea and thereby prevented the raids of the Thracians, who lived in large numbers near Chersonesos, and put an end to the continuous, difficult war, from which This land constantly suffered, being in direct contact with barbarian neighbors and filled with bandits of bandits, both border and located within its borders.”

King Spartok, his sons Satyr and Leukon, together with the Scythians as a result of the war of 400–375 BC. e. with Heraclea Pontic, the main trade competitor was conquered - Theodosius and Sindica - the kingdom of the Sind people on the Taman Peninsula, located below the Kuban and Southern Bug. King of the Bosporus Perisad I, who reigned from 349 to 310 BC. e., from Phanagoria, the capital of the Asian Bosporus, conquered the lands of local tribes on the right bank of the Kuban and went further north, beyond the Don, capturing the entire Azov region. His son Eumelus managed, by building a huge fleet, to clear the Black Sea of ​​pirates who interfered with trade. In Panticapaeum there were large shipyards that also repaired ships. The Bosporan kingdom had a navy consisting of narrow and long fast-moving trireme ships, which had three rows of oars on each side and a powerful and durable ram at the bow. Triremes were usually 36 meters long, 6 meters wide, and the draft depth was about a meter. The crew of such a ship consisted of 200 people - oarsmen, sailors and a small detachment of marines. There were almost no boarding battles then; triremes rammed enemy ships at full speed and sank them. The trireme ram consisted of two or three sharp sword-shaped tips. The ships reached speeds of up to five knots, and with a sail - up to eight knots - approximately 15 kilometers per hour.

In the VI–IV centuries BC. e. The Bosporan kingdom, like Chersonesos, did not have a standing army; in the event of hostilities, troops were gathered from citizen militias armed with their own weapons. In the first half of the 4th century BC. e. in the Bosporan kingdom under the Spartokids, a mercenary army was organized, consisting of a phalanx of heavily armed hoplite warriors and light infantry with bows and darts. Hoplites were armed with spears and swords, and their protective equipment consisted of shields, helmets, bracers and leggings. The cavalry of the army consisted of the nobility of the Bosporan kingdom. At first, the army did not have a centralized supply; each horseman and hoplite was accompanied by a slave with equipment and food, only in IV BC. e. a convoy on carts appears, surrounding the soldiers during long stops.

All the main Bosporan cities were protected by walls two to three meters thick and up to twelve meters high, with gates and towers up to ten meters in diameter. The walls of the cities were dry-built from large rectangular limestone blocks one and a half meters long and half a meter wide, fitted closely to each other. In the 5th century BC. e. Four kilometers west of Panticapaeum, a rampart was built, stretching from the south from the modern village of Arshintsevo to the Sea of ​​Azov in the north. A wide ditch was dug in front of the rampart. The second shaft was created thirty kilometers west of Panticapaeum, crossing the entire Kerch Peninsula from Lake Uzunla near the Black Sea to the Sea of ​​Azov. According to measurements taken in the mid-19th century, the width of the shaft at the base was 20 meters, at the top - 14 meters, height - 4.5 meters. The depth of the ditch was 3 meters, width - 15 meters. These fortifications stopped the raids of nomads on the lands of the Bosporan kingdom. The estates of the local Bosporus and Chersonesos nobility were built as small fortresses from large stone blocks, with high towers. The lands of Chersonese were also protected from the rest of the Crimean Peninsula by a defensive wall with six towers, about a kilometer long and 3 meters thick.

Both Perisad I and Eumelus repeatedly tried to seize the lands of the ethnic Proto-Slavs, but were repulsed. At this time, Eumelus, at the confluence of the Don into the Sea of ​​Azov, built the fortress-city of Tanais (near the village of Nedvigolovka at the mouth of the Don), which became the largest trade transshipment point in the Northern Black Sea region. The Bosporan kingdom in its heyday had a territory from Chersonesos to Kuban and to the mouth of the Don. The Greek population united with the Scythians, the Bosporan kingdom became Greco-Scythian. The main income came from trade with Greece and other Attic states. The Athenian state received half of the bread it needed - one million poods, timber, furs, leather - from the Bosporan kingdom. After the weakening of Athens in the 3rd century BC. e. The Bosporan kingdom increased trade turnover with the Greek islands of Rhodes and Delos, with Pergamum, located in the western part of Asia Minor, and the cities of the southern Black Sea region - Heraclea, Amis, Sinope.

The Bosporan kingdom had many fertile lands both in the Crimea and on the Taman Peninsula, which produced large grain harvests. The main arable tool was the plow.

The bread was harvested with sickles and stored in special grain pits and pithos - large clay vessels. Grain was ground in stone grain grinders, mortars and hand mills with stone millstones, found in large quantities during archaeological excavations in the eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula. Winemaking and viticulture, introduced by the ancient Greeks, were significantly developed, and a large number of orchards were planted. During the excavations of Myrmekia and Tiritaki, many wineries and stone presses were discovered, the earliest of which dates back to the 3rd century BC. e. The inhabitants of the Bosporan kingdom were engaged in cattle breeding - they kept a lot of poultry - chickens, geese, ducks, as well as sheep, goats, pigs, bulls and horses, which provided meat, milk, and leather for clothing. The main food of the common population was fresh fish - flounder, mackerel, pike perch, herring, anchovy, sultana, ram, salted in large quantities, exported from the Bosporus. Fish were caught with a seine and hooks.

Weaving and ceramic production, and the production of metal products have received great development - on the Kerch Peninsula there are large deposits of iron ore, which lies shallow. During archaeological excavations, a large number of spindles, spindle whorls, and weights suspended from threads were found, which served as the basis for tensioning them. Many items made of clay were discovered - jugs, bowls, saucers, bowls, amphoras, pithoi, roofing tiles. Ceramic water pipes, parts of architectural structures, and figurines were found. Many openers for plows, sickles, hoes, spades, nails, locks, weapons - spear and arrowheads, swords, daggers, armor, helmets, shields were excavated. In the Kul-Oba mound near Kerch, many luxury items were discovered, precious dishes, magnificent weapons, gold jewelry with animal images, gold plates for clothing, gold bracelets and hryvnias - hoops worn around the neck, earrings, rings, necklaces.

The second major Greek center of Crimea was Chersonesus, located in the southwestern part of the Crimean peninsula and has long been closely associated with Athens. Chersonesos was the closest city to both the steppe Crimea and the Asia Minor coast. This was crucial for its economic prosperity. Trade ties of Chersonese extended to the entire western and part of the steppe Crimea. Chersonese traded with Ionia and Athens, the cities of Asia Minor Heraclea and Sinope, and island Greece. The possessions of Chersonese included the cities of Kerkinitida, located on the site of modern Evpatoria, and Beautiful Harbor, near the Black Sea.

Residents of Chersonesus and the surrounding area were engaged in agriculture, viticulture and cattle breeding. During excavations of the city, millstones, stupas, pithos, tarapans - platforms for squeezing grapes, curved grape knives in the form of an arc were found. Pottery production and construction were developed. The highest legislative bodies in Chersonesos were the Council, which prepared decrees, and the People's Assembly, which approved them. In Chersonesus there was state and private ownership of land. On a Chersonesos marble slab of the 3rd century BC. e. The text of the act of sale of land plots by the state to private individuals has been preserved.

The greatest flourishing of the Black Sea city policies occurred in the 4th century BC. e. The city-states of the Northern Black Sea region become the main suppliers of bread and food for most cities in Greece and Asia Minor. From purely trading colonies they become trade and production centers. During the 5th and 4th centuries BC. e. Greek craftsmen produce many highly artistic products, some of which have general cultural significance. The whole world knows a golden plate with an image of a deer and an electric vase from the Kul-Oba mound near Kerch, a golden comb and silver vessels from the Solokha mound, and a silver vase from the Chertomlytsky mound. This is also the time of the highest rise of Scythia. Thousands of Scythian mounds and burials of the 4th century are known. All the so-called royal mounds, up to twenty meters high and 300 meters in diameter, date back to this century. The number of such mounds directly in Crimea is also increasing significantly, but there is only one royal one - Kul-Oba near Kerch.

In the first half of the 4th century BC. e. one of the Scythian kings, Atey, managed to concentrate supreme power in his hands and form a large state on the western borders of Great Scythia in the Northern Black Sea region. Strabo wrote: “Ataeus, who fought with Philip, son of Amyntas, seems to have dominated the majority of the local barbarians.” The capital of the kingdom of Atey was obviously a settlement near the city of Kamenka-Dneprovskaya and the village of Bolshaya Znamenka in the Zaporozhye region of Ukraine - Kamensky settlement. On the side of the steppe, the settlement was protected by an earthen rampart and a ditch; on the other sides there were steep Dnieper steeps and the Belozersky estuary. The settlement was excavated in 1900 by D. Ya. Serdyukov, and in the 30s and 40s of the 20th century by B. N. Grakov. The main occupation of the inhabitants was the production of bronze and iron tools, dishes, as well as agriculture and cattle breeding. The Scythian nobility lived in stone houses, farmers and artisans lived in dugouts and wooden buildings. There was active trade with the Greek policies of the Northern Black Sea region. The capital of the Scythians was the Kamensk settlement from the 5th to the 3rd centuries BC. e., and how the settlement existed until the 3rd century BC. e.

The power of the Scythian state of King Ataeus was thoroughly weakened by the Macedonian king Philip, the father of Alexander the Great.

Having broken the temporary alliance with Macedonia due to the reluctance to support the Macedonian army, the Scythian king Ataeus and his army, defeating the Macedonian allies of the Getae, captured almost the entire Danube delta. As a result of the bloodiest battle of the united Scythian army and the Macedonian army in 339 BC. e. King Atey was killed and his troops were defeated. The Scythian state in the northern Black Sea steppes collapsed. The reason for the collapse was not so much the military defeat of the Scythians, who a few years later destroyed the thirty thousand army of Zopyrnion, the commander of Alexander the Great, but the sharp deterioration of natural conditions in the Northern Black Sea region. According to archaeological data, during this period in the steppes the number of saigas and ground squirrels - animals living on abandoned pastures and lands unsuitable for livestock - increased significantly. Nomadic cattle breeding could no longer feed the Scythian population and the Scythians began to leave the steppes for river valleys, gradually settling on the ground. Scythian steppe burial grounds of this period are very poor. The situation of the Greek colonies in Crimea, which began to experience the Scythian onslaught, worsened. By the beginning of the 2nd century BC. e. Scythian tribes were located in the lower reaches of the Dnieper and the northern steppe part of the Crimean Peninsula, forming here under Tsar Skilur and his son Palak a new state entity with its capital on the Salgir River near Simferopol, which later became known as Scythian Naples. The population of the new Scythian state settled on the land and the majority were engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding. The Scythians began to build stone houses using the knowledge of the ancient Greeks. In 290 BC e. The Scythians created fortifications throughout the Perekop Isthmus. The Scythian assimilation of the Taurus tribes began, ancient sources began to call the population of the Crimean Peninsula “Tauro-Scythians” or “Scythotaurs,” who subsequently mixed with the ancient Greeks and Sarmato-Alans.

Sarmatians, Iranian-speaking nomadic pastoralists who were engaged in horse breeding, from the 8th century BC. e. lived in the territory between the Caucasus Mountains, Don and Volga. In the 5th–6th centuries BC. e. a large union of Sarmatian and nomadic Sauromatian tribes was formed, living since the 7th century in the steppe zones of the Urals and Volga region. Subsequently, the Sarmatian union constantly expanded at the expense of other tribes. In the 3rd century BC. e. the movement of the Sarmatian tribes towards the Northern Black Sea region began. Part of the Sarmatians - Siraks and Aorses - went to the Kuban region and the North Caucasus, another part of the Sarmatians in the 2nd century BC. e. three tribes - Iazyges, Roxolans and Sirmatians - reached the bend of the Dnieper in the Nikopol region and within fifty years populated the lands from the Don to the Danube, becoming the masters of the Northern Black Sea region for almost half a millennium. The penetration of individual Sarmatian detachments into the Northern Black Sea region along the Don-Tanais riverbed began in the 4th century BC. e.

It is not known for certain how the process of ousting the Scythians from the Black Sea steppes took place - military or peaceful means. Scythian and Sarmatian burials of the 3rd century BC have not been found in the Northern Black Sea region. e. The collapse of Great Scythia is separated from the formation of Great Sarmatia on the same territory by at least a hundred years.

Perhaps there was a great multi-year drought in the steppe, food for horses disappeared and the Scythians themselves left for fertile lands, concentrating in the river valleys of the Lower Don and Dnieper. There are almost no Scythian settlements of the 3rd century BC on the Crimean Peninsula. e., with the exception of the Aktash burial ground. During this period, Scythians did not yet populate the Crimean Peninsula en masse. Historical events that took place in the Northern Black Sea region in the 3rd–2nd centuries BC. e. practically not described in ancient written sources. Most likely, the Sarmatian tribes occupied free steppe territories. One way or another, but at the beginning of the 2nd century BC. e. The Sarmatians are finally established in the region and the process of “Sarmatization” of the Northern Black Sea region begins. Scythia becomes Sarmatia. About fifty Sarmatian burials of the 2nd–1st centuries BC were found in the Northern Black Sea region. e., of which 22 are north of Perekop. The burials of the Sarmatian nobility are known - Sokolov's Tomb on the Southern Bug, near Mikhailovka in the Danube region, near the village of Porogi, Yampolsky district, Vinnytsia region. Found in Porogi: an iron sword, an iron dagger, a powerful bow with bone plates, iron arrowheads, darts, a gold bracer plate, a ceremonial belt, a sword belt, waist plates, brooches, shoe buckles, a gold bracelet, a gold hryvnia, a silver cup , light clay amphorae and jug, gold temple pendants, gold necklace, silver ring and mirror, gold plaques. However, the Sarmatians did not occupy Crimea and visited there only sporadically. No Sarmatian monuments of the 2nd–1st centuries BC have been found on the Crimean Peninsula. e. The appearance of the Sarmatians in Crimea was peaceful and dates back to the second half of the 1st - beginning of the 2nd century BC. e. There are no traces of destruction in the found monuments of this period. Many Sarmatian names appear in the Bosporan inscriptions; the local population begins to use Sarmatian dishes with a polished surface and handles in the shape of animals. The army of the Bosporan kingdom began to use more advanced weapons of the Sarmatian type - long swords and pike-spears. Since the 1st century, Sarmatian tamga-like signs have been used on tombstones. Some ancient authors began to call the Bosporan kingdom Greco-Sarmatian. The Sarmatians settled throughout the Crimean Peninsula. Their burials remained in Crimea near the village of Chkalovo in the Nizhny Novgorod region, near the village of Netochny in the Dzhankoy region, near the regional centers of the Kirov and Sovetsky districts, near the villages of Ilyicheve in the Leninsky district, Kitay in the Saki region, and Konstantinovka in the Simferopol region. In the Nogaychik kugan near the village of Chervonoye, Nizhny Novgorod region, a large amount of gold jewelry was found - a gold hryvnia, earrings, bracelets. During excavations of Sarmatian burials, iron swords, knives, vessels, jugs, cups, dishes, beads, beads, mirrors and other jewelry were discovered. However, only one Sarmatian monument of the 2nd–4th centuries is known in Crimea - near the village of Orlovka, Krasnoperekopsk region. Obviously, this indicates that in the middle of the 3rd century there was a partial departure of the Sarmatian population from Crimea, perhaps to participate in the Gothic campaigns.

The Sarmatian army consisted of tribal militia; there was no standing army. The main part of the Sarmatian army was heavy cavalry, armed with a long spear and an iron sword, protected by armor and at that time practically invincible. Ammianus Marcelinus wrote: “They travel through vast spaces when they are pursuing the enemy, or they run themselves, sitting on fast and obedient horses, and each one also leads a spare horse, one, and sometimes two, so that, changing from one to another, they can save the strength of the horses, and by giving rest, restore their vigor.” Later, Sarmatian heavily armed cavalry - cataphracts, protected by helmets and ringed armor, were armed with four-meter pikes and meter-long swords, bows and daggers. To equip such cavalry, well-developed metallurgical production and weaponry, which the Sarmatians had, were required. The cataphracts attacked with a powerful wedge, later called a “pig” in medieval Europe, cut into the enemy formation, cut it in two, overturned it and completed the rout. The blow of the Sarmatian cavalry was more powerful than the Scythian, and the long weapon was superior to the weapons of the Scythian cavalry. Sarmatian horses had iron stirrups, which allowed riders to sit firmly in the saddle. During their stays, the Sarmatians surrounded their camp with wagons. Arrian wrote that the Roman cavalry learned Sarmatian military techniques. The Sarmatians collected tribute and indemnities from the conquered settled population, controlled trade and trade routes, and engaged in military robbery. However, the Sarmatian tribes did not have centralized power; each acted on its own, and during the entire period of their stay in the Northern Black Sea region, the Sarmatians never created their own state.

Strabo wrote about the Roxolani, one of the Sarmatian tribes: “They wear helmets and armor made of rawhide oxhide, they wear wicker shields as a means of protection; They also have spears, a bow and a sword... Their felt tents are attached to the tents in which they live. Cattle graze around the tents, from which they feed on milk, cheese and meat. They follow the pastures, always taking turns choosing places rich in grass, in winter in the marshes near Maeotis, and in summer on the plains.”

In the middle of the 2nd century BC. e. The Scythian king Skilur upset and strengthened a city that had existed for a hundred years in the middle of the steppe Crimea and was called Scythian Naples. We know of three more Scythian fortresses of this period - Khabei, Palakion and Napite. Obviously these are the settlements of Kermenchik, located directly in Simferopol, Kermen-Kyr - 5 kilometers north of Simferopol, Bulganak settlement - 15 kilometers west of Simferopol and Ust-Alminskoye settlement near Bakhchisarai.

Scythian Naples under Skilura turned into a large trade and craft center, connected both with the surrounding Scythian cities and with other ancient cities of the Black Sea region. Apparently the Scythian leaders wanted to monopolize the entire Crimean grain trade, eliminating Greek intermediaries. Chersonesus and the Bosporan kingdom faced a serious threat of losing their independence.

The troops of the Scythian king Skilur captured Olvia, in the harbor of which the Scythians built a powerful galley fleet, with the help of which Skilur took the city of Tyre, a Greek colony at the mouth of the Dniester, and then Karkinita, the possession of Chersonesus, which gradually lost the entire northwestern Crimea. The Chersonese fleet tried to capture Olbia, which became the naval base of the Scythians, but after a large naval battle that was unsuccessful for them, it returned to its harbors. The Scythian ships also defeated the fleet of the Bosporan kingdom. After this, the Scythians, in long-term conflicts, cleared the Crimean coast for a long time from the Satarchean pirates, who literally terrorized the entire coastal population. After the death of Skilur, his son Palak began a war in 115 with Chersonese and the Bosporan kingdom, which lasted ten years.

Chersonesos, starting from the end of the 3rd – 2nd century BC. e. in alliance with the Sarmatian tribes, he constantly fought with the Scythians. Not relying on one's own strength in 179 BC. Chersonese concluded an agreement on military assistance with Pharnaces I, the king of Pontus, a state that arose on the southern coast of the Black Sea as a result of the collapse of the state of Alexander the Great. Pontus was an ancient region in the northern part of Asia Minor that paid tribute to the Persian kings. In 502 BC. e. The Persian king Darius I turned Pontus into his satrapy. From the second half of the 4th century BC. e. Pontus was part of the empire of Alexander the Great, after the collapse of which it became independent. The first king of the new state in 281 BC. e. Mithridates II declared himself from the Persian Achaemenid family, and in 301 BC. e. under Mithridates III the country received the name of the Kingdom of Pontus with its capital in Amasia. In the treaty of 179 BC. e., concluded by Pharnaces I with the Bithynian, Pergamon and Cappadocian kings, along with Chersonese, the Sarmatian tribes led by King Gatal are the guarantors of this agreement. In 183 BC. e. Pharnaces I conquered Sinope, a port city on the southern coast of the Black Sea, which became the capital of the Pontic Kingdom under Mithridates V Euergetes. From 111 BC e. Mithridates VI Eupator becomes king of the Pontic kingdom, having set his life goal to create a world monarchy.

After the first defeats from the Scythians, the loss of Kerkinitis and the Beautiful Harbor, and the beginning of the siege of the capitals, Chersonesus and the Bosporan kingdom turned to the king of Pontus, Mithridates VI Eupator, for help.

Mithridates in 110 BC e. sent a large Pontic fleet to the rescue with a landing force of six thousand hoplites - heavily armed infantrymen, under the command of Diophantus, the son of the noble Pontic Asclapiodorus and one of his best commanders. The Scythian king Palak, having learned about the landing of Diaphant's troops near Chersonesos, asked for help from the king of the Sarmatian tribe of the Roxolans, Tasia, who sent 50 thousand heavily armed cavalry. The battles took place in the mountainous regions of southern Crimea, where the Roxalan cavalry was unable to deploy its battle formations. The fleet and troops of Diophantus, together with the Chersonese detachments, destroyed the Scythian fleet and defeated the Scythians, who had besieged Chersonese for more than a year. The defeated Roksolans left the Crimean Peninsula.

The Greek geographer and historian Strabo wrote in his “Geography”: “The Roxolani even fought with the generals of Mithridates Eupator under the leadership of Tasius. They came to the aid of Palak, the son of Skilur, and were considered warlike. However, any barbarian nation and a crowd of lightly armed people are powerless against a properly formed and well-armed phalanx. In any case, the Roxolani, numbering about 50,000 people, could not resist the 6,000 people fielded by Diaphant, the commander of Mithridates, and were mostly destroyed.”

After this, Diophantus marched along the entire southern coast of Crimea and, with bloody battles, destroyed all the settlements and fortified points of the Tauri, including the main sanctuary of the Tauri - the goddess of the Virgin (Parthenos), located on Cape Parthenia near the Bay of Symbols (Balaklava). The remnants of the Taurians went to the Crimean Mountains. On their lands, Diaphant founded the city of Evpatoria (probably near Balaklava), a stronghold of Pontus in southern Crimea.

Having liberated Theodosia from the army of slaves besieging it, Diaphant defeated the Scythian army at Panticapaeum and ousted the Scythians from the Kerch Peninsula, taking the fortresses of Cimmeric, Tiritaku and Nymphaeum. After this, Diaphant with the Chersonesos and Bosporan troops marched into the steppe Crimea and took the Scythian fortresses of Naples and Khabaei after an eight-month siege. In 109 BC. e. Scythia, led by Polak, recognized the power of Pontus, losing everything conquered by Skilur. Diophantus returned to Sinope, the capital of Pontus, leaving garrisons in Evpatoria, Beautiful Harbor and Kerkinida.

A year later, the Scythian army of Palak, having gathered its strength, again began military operations with Chersonesus and the Bosporan kingdom, defeating their troops in several battles. Again Mithridates sent a fleet with Diaphant, who pushed the Scythians back to the steppe Crimea, destroyed the Scythian army in a general battle and occupied Scythian Naples and Habaea, during the assault of which the Scythian king Palak died. The Scythian state lost its independence. The following Scythian kings recognized the power of Mithridates VI of Pontus, gave him Olbia and Tyre, paid tribute and gave soldiers to his army.

In 107 BC. e. The rebellious Scythian population, led by Savmak, captured Panticapaeum, killing the Bosporan king Perisad. Diaphantus, who was conducting negotiations in the capital of the Bosporus on the transfer of power in the kingdom to Mithridates VI of Pontus, managed to leave for the city of Nymphaeum, located not far from Panticapaeum, and sailed by sea to Chersonesus, and from there to Sinope.

Within two months, Savmak's army completely occupied the Bosporan kingdom, holding it for a year. Savmak became the ruler of the Bosporus.

In the spring of 106 BC. e. Diaphantus with a huge fleet entered the Quarantine Bay of Chersonese Tauride, recaptured Feodosia and Panticapaeum from Savmak, capturing him himself. They were destroyed, and Diaphant's troops established themselves in the west of the Crimean Peninsula. Mithridates VI of Pontus became the master of almost all of Crimea, receiving from the population of the Crimean peninsula a huge amount of bread and silver in the form of tribute. Chersonesus and the Bosporan kingdom recognized the supreme power of Pontus. Mithridates VI became king of the Bosporan kingdom, incorporating Chersonesos into its composition, which retained self-government and autonomy. Pontic garrisons appeared in all the cities of southwestern Crimea, which were there until 89 BC. e.

The Pontic kingdom prevented the Romans from pursuing their policy of conquest in the east. Founded in the middle of the 8th century BC. e. small town at the end of the 1st century BC. e. became an empire, controlling vast territories. The Roman legions had clear management - ten cohorts, each of which was divided into three maniples, each consisting of two centuries. The legionnaire was dressed in an iron helmet, leather or iron armor, had a sword, a dagger, two darts and a shield. The soldiers were trained to thrust, which was most effective in close combat. The legion, which consisted of 6,000 soldiers and a detachment of cavalry, was the most powerful military formation of that time. In 89 BC. e. Five Mithridatic wars with Rome began. Almost all local tribes, including the Scythians and Sarmatians, took part in them on the side of Mithridates. During the First War of 89–84, the Bosporan kingdom was separated from the Pontic king, but in 80, his military leader Neoptolemus twice defeated the Bosporan army and returned the Bosporus to the rule of Mithridates. The son of Mithridates Mahar became king. During the third war in 65 BC. e. Roman troops, led by the commander Gnaeus Pompey, captured the main territory of the Pontic kingdom. Mithridates went to his Bosporan possessions in Crimea, which were soon blocked from the sea by the Roman fleet. The Roman fleet mainly consisted of triremes, biremes and liburnes, the main driving force of which, along with the sails, were oars arranged in several rows. The ships had rams with three points and powerful lifting ladders, which, during boarding, fell on top of the enemy ship and broke its hull. When boarding an enemy ship, the marines rushed along the ladder, which the Romans turned into a special branch of the army. The ships had heavy catapults that threw clay pots with a mixture of resin and saltpeter onto other ships, which could not be filled with water, but only covered with sand. The Roman squadron carrying out the blockade had orders to detain and execute all merchants traveling to the harbor of the Bosporan kingdom. Bosporan trade suffered great damage. The policy of Mithridates VI Eupator, aimed at strengthening the local tribes of the Northern Black Sea region, a large number of taxes imposed by the Pontic king, and the Roman blockade of the coast did not suit the highest nobility of Chersonesus and the Bosporan kingdom. An anti-Mithridates uprising took place in Phanagoria, spreading to Chersonesus, Feodosia, Nymphaeum and even to the army of Mithridates. In 63 BC. e. he committed suicide. The son of Mithridates Pharnaces II became the king of the Bosporus, who betrayed his father and actually organized and led the uprising. Pharnaces sent the body of his murdered father to Sinope to Pompey and expressed complete submission to Rome, for which he was left by the king of the Bosporus with the subordination of Chersonesus, which he ruled until 47 BC. e. The states of the Northern Black Sea region lost their political independence. Only the territory of the Tauri from Balaklava to Feodosia remained independent until the arrival of Roman military units on the Crimean peninsula.

In 63 BC. e. Pharnaces II concluded a treaty of friendship with the Roman Empire, receiving the title of “friend and ally of Rome,” given only after the king was recognized as the legitimate monarch. An ally of Rome was obliged to protect its borders, receiving in return money, the patronage of Rome and the right of self-government, without the right to conduct an independent foreign policy. Such an agreement was concluded with each new king of the Bosporus, since in Roman law there was no concept of hereditary royal power. Becoming king of the Bosporus, the next candidate necessarily received approval from the Roman emperor, for which he sometimes had to go to the capital of the empire, and the regalia of his power - a curule chair and a scepter. The Bosporan king Cotim I added two more to his name - Tiberius Julius, and all subsequent Bosporan kings mechanically added these two names to their own, creating the Tiberius Julius dynasty. The Roman government, in carrying out its policy in the Bosporus, relied, as elsewhere, on the Bosporan nobility, linking it with itself with economic and material interests. The highest civil positions in the kingdom were the governor of the island, the manager of the royal court, the chief bedroom officer, the king's personal secretary, the chief scribe, the head of reports; by the military - citizen strategist, navarch, chiliarch, lohag. The citizens of the Bosporan state were led by a polytarch. Around this period, a number of fortresses were built on the Bosporus, located in a chain at a distance of visual communication from each other - Ilurat, fortifications near the modern villages of Tosunovo, Mikhailovka, Semenovka, Andreevna Yuzhnaya. The thickness of the walls reached five meters, and a moat was dug around them. Fortresses were also built to protect the Bosporan possessions on the Taman Peninsula. Rural settlements of the Bosporan kingdom in the first centuries of our era were divided into three types. In the valleys there were unfortified villages consisting of houses separated from each other by private plots. In places convenient for the construction of fortifications, there were settlements whose houses did not have personal plots and were crowded one next to another. The rural villas of the Bosporan nobility were powerful fortified estates. On the shore of the Sea of ​​Azov near the village of Semenovka in the first centuries of our era there was a settlement that was most studied by archaeologists. The stone houses of the settlement had wooden floors and roofs made of wicker rods, coated with clay. Most of the houses were two-story, also covered with clay inside. On the first floors there were utility rooms, on the second floors there were living rooms. In front of the entrance to the house there was a courtyard lined with stone slabs, in which there was a room for livestock with a manger for hay, made of stone slabs placed on edge. The houses were heated by stone or brick stoves with an adobe top slab with edges curved upward. The floors of the houses were earthen, sometimes covered with planks. The inhabitants of the settlement were free landowners. During excavations of the settlement, weapons, coins and other items were found that the slaves could not have had. Also discovered were grain grinders, looms, clay vessels with food, religious figurines, locally made molded dishes, lamps, bone needles for knitting nets, bronze and iron hooks, cork and wooden floats, stone weights, twisted cord nets, small iron openers, scythes, sickles, grains of wheat, barley, lentils, millet, rye, wineries, winegrowing knives, grape seeds and seeds, ceramic dishes - containers for storing and transporting grain. Found coins, a red-glazed dish, amphorae, glass and bronze vessels indicate extensive trade ties between the Bosporan cities and towns.

During excavations, a large number of wineries were found, which indicates a large production of wine in the Bosporan kingdom. The 3rd century wineries excavated in Tiritaka are interesting. The wineries, measuring 5.5 by 10 meters, were located indoors and had three nearby pressing platforms, adjacent to which were three reservoirs for draining grape juice. On the middle platform, separated from the others by wooden partitions, there was a lever-screw press. The three tanks of each of the two wineries could hold about 6,000 liters of wine.

In the 50s of the 1st century in the Roman Empire, Caesar and Pompeii began a civil war. Pharnaces decided to restore the former kingdom of his father and in 49 BC. e. went to Asia Minor to regain the Pontic throne. Pharnaces II achieved significant success, but / August 2, 47 BC. e. In the battle near the city of Zela, the army of the Pontic king was defeated by the Roman legions of Julius Caesar, who wrote his famous words in a report to the Senate of Rome: “Veni, vidi, vici” - “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Pharnaces again submitted to Rome and was released back to his Crimean lands, where in an internecine struggle he was killed by the local leader Asander. Julius Caesar, who won the civil war, did not accept Asander and sent Mithridates of Pergamon to occupy the Bosporan Kingdom, who failed to do this and was killed. Asander married Pharnaces' daughter Dynamis in 41 BC. e. was declared king of the Bosporans. The previous order was gradually restored in the kingdom and a new economic boom began. The export of bread, fish, and livestock increased significantly. Wine in amphorae, olive oil, glass, red-glazed and bronze dishes, and jewelry were brought to the Bosporus. The main trading partners of the Bosporus were the cities of Asia Minor on the southern coast of the Black Sea. The Bosporan kingdom traded with the cities of the Mediterranean, the Volga region and the North Caucasus.

In 45–44 BC. e. Chersonese sends an embassy to Rome led by G. Julius Satyr, as a result of which he receives from Caesar eleutheria - “charter of freedom” - independence from the Bosporan kingdom. Chersonesus was declared a free city and began to obey only Rome, but this lasted only until 42 BC. e., when, after the assassination of Caesar, the Roman commander Antony deprived Chersonesus and other cities in the eastern part of the empire of eleutheria. Asander tries to capture Chersonesos, but is unsuccessful. In 25–24 BC. e. In Chersonesos, a new chronology is introduced, usually associated with the fact that the new Roman emperor Augustus granted the city the rights of autonomy granted to Greek cities in the east. At the same time, Augustus recognized Asander's rights to the Bosporan throne. Under pressure from Rome, another rapprochement between Chersonesus and the Bosporan kingdom begins.

In 16 BC. e. The economic and political rise of the Bosporan kingdom causes the displeasure of Rome; Asander is forced to leave the political arena and transfer his power to Dynamia, who soon married Scribonius, who seized power in the Bosporus. This was not agreed with the empire and Rome sent the Pontic king Polemon I to Crimea, who, in the fight against Scribonius, hardly established himself on the throne and ruled the Bosporan kingdom from 14 to 10 BC. e.

Aspurgus becomes the new husband of Dynamis and the king of the Bosporans. There are several known wars between the Bosporan kingdom and the Scythians and Taurians, as a result of which some of them were conquered. However, in the title of Aspurgus, when listing the conquered peoples and tribes, there are no Taurians and Scythians.

In 38, the Roman Emperor Caligula transferred the Bosporan throne to Polemon II, who was unable to establish himself on the Kerch Peninsula, and after the death of Caligula, the new Roman Emperor Claudius in 39 appointed Mithridates VIII, a descendant of Mithridates VI Eupator, as the Bosporan king. The brother of the new Bosporan king Cotis, sent by him to Rome, informed Claudius that Mithridates VIII was preparing for an armed rebellion against Roman power. Roman troops sent to the Crimean peninsula in 46 under the command of the legate of the Roman province of Moesia, which existed on the territory of modern Romania and Bulgaria, A. Didius Gallus, overthrew Mithridates VIII, who, after the departure of the Roman troops, tried to regain power, which required a new Roman military expedition to the Crimea. The legionnaires of G. Julius Aquila, sent from Asia Minor, defeated the troops of Mithridates VIII, captured him and took him to Rome. It was then, according to Tacitus, that off the southern coast of Crimea the Tauri captured several Roman ships returning home.

The new Bosporan king in 49 was the son of Aspurgus and the Thracian princess Cotis I, with whom a new Dynasty began, no longer having Greek roots. Under Cotis I, foreign trade of the Bosporan kingdom began to recover in large volumes. The main goods were grain, traditional for the Northern Black Sea region, both locally produced and delivered from the Azov region, as well as fish, livestock, leather and salt. The largest seller was the Bosporan king, and the main buyer was the Roman Empire. Roman merchant ships had up to twenty meters in length and up to six in width, a draft of up to three meters and a displacement of up to 150 tons. The holds could hold up to 700 tons of grain. Very large ships were also built. Olive oil, metals, building materials, glassware, lamps, and art objects were brought to Panticapaeum for sale to all the tribes of the Northern Black Sea region.

From this period, the Roman Empire controlled the entire Black Sea coast, except Colchis. The Bosporan king became subordinate to the governor of the Roman Asia Minor province of Bithynia, and the southwestern part of the Crimean peninsula, together with Chersonesos, was subordinated to the legate of Moesia. The cities of the Bosporan kingdom and Chersonesus were satisfied with this situation - the Roman Empire ensured the development of the economy and trade, and protected them from nomadic tribes. The Roman presence on the Crimean peninsula ensured the economic flourishing of the Bosporan kingdom and Chersonese at the beginning of our era.

Chersonese was on the side of Rome during all the Roman-Bosporan wars, for participation in which it received from the empire the right to mint gold coins. At this time, ties between Rome and Chersonesus strengthened significantly.

In the middle of the 1st century, the Scythians became active again on the Crimean Peninsula. On the western coast, in the steppe and foothills of Crimea, a large number of Scythian settlements fortified with stone walls and ditches, inside which there were stone and brick houses, were discovered. Around the same time, the Sarmatian tribe of Alans, who called themselves Irons, created a union of Iranian-speaking tribes that settled in the Northern Black Sea region, the Azov region and the Caucasus Mountains. From there, the Alans began to raid Transcaucasia, Asia Minor, and Media. Josephus Flavius ​​in “The Jewish War” writes about the terrible invasion of the Alans on Armenia and Media in 72, calling the Alans “Scythians living near Tanais and Lake Meotia.” The Alans made a second invasion of the same lands in 133. The Roman historian Tacitus writes about the Alans that they were not united under a single authority, but were subordinate to the khans, who acted independently of each other and quite independently entered into alliances with the sovereigns of the southern countries, who sought their help in hostile clashes among themselves. The testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus is also interesting: “Almost all of them are tall and beautiful, their hair is brown; they are menacing with the fierce gaze of their eyes and fast, thanks to the lightness of their weapons... The Alans are a nomadic people, they live in wagons covered with bark. They do not know agriculture, they keep a lot of livestock and mainly a lot of horses. The need to have permanent pastures causes them to wander from place to place. From early childhood they get used to riding horses; they are all dashing riders and walking is considered a disgrace among them. The limits of their nomads are Armenia and Media on one side, and the Bosporus on the other. Their occupation is robbery and hunting. They love war and danger. They take scalps from killed enemies and decorate the bridles of their horses with them. They have no temples, no houses, no huts. They think of the god of war and worship him in the form of a sword planted in the ground. All Alans consider themselves noble and do not know slavery in their midst. In their way of life they are very similar to the Huns, but their morals are somewhat softer.” On the Crimean Peninsula, nomads were interested in the foothills and southwestern Crimea, the Bosporan kingdom, which was experiencing economic and political growth. A large number of Sarmato-Alans and Scythians mixed and settled in the Crimean cities. In the steppe Crimea, Alans appeared only sporadically, without assimilating with the Scythian population. In 212, on the southeastern coast of Crimea, probably the Alans built the fortress of Sugdeya (present-day Sudak), which became the main Alan port on the Crimean peninsula. Alans lived in Crimea during the Tatar-Mongol period. The Alanian bishop Theodore, who in 1240 took holy orders and was heading from the residence of the Patriarch of Constantinople, which was at that time in Nicaea to the Transcaucasian Alans through Chersonesos and Bosporus, wrote in a letter to the Patriarch of Constantinople: “Near Kherson the Alans live as much of their own free will as at the request of the Kherson residents, like some kind of fence and security.” Sarmatian-Alanian burial grounds were found near Sevastopol, Bakhchisarai, in Scythian Naples, in the area between the Belbek and Kacha rivers.

In the second half of the 1st century, almost all Scythian fortresses were renovated. The Sarmatians and Scythians began to seriously threaten the independence of Chersonesos. The city turned to its superiors, the legate of the Roman province of Moesia, for help.

In 63, ships of the Moesian squadron appeared in the harbor of Chersonese - Roman legionnaires arrived in the city under the command of the governor of Moesia, Tiberius Plautius Silvanus. Having driven the Scythian-Sarmatian tribes back from Chersonesos, the Romans took military action in the northwestern and southwestern Crimea, but they failed to gain a foothold there. No ancient monuments of the 1st century have been discovered in these areas. The Romans controlled Chersonesos with adjacent territories and the southern coast of Crimea to Sudak.

The main base of Rome and then the Byzantine Empire in Crimea became Chersonesus, which received a permanent Roman garrison.

On Cape Ai-Todor, near Yalta, in the first century the Roman fortress Charax was built, which became a strategic stronghold of Rome on the southern coast of Crimea. The fortress was constantly home to a Roman garrison of soldiers from the 1st Italian and 11th Claudian legions. Kharaks, who controlled the coast from Ayu-Dag to Simeiz, had two defense belts, ammunition depots and water reserves in a cemented nymphaeum, which made it possible to withstand prolonged attacks. Stone and brick houses were built inside the fortress, there was a water supply system, and there was a sanctuary of the Roman gods. The camp of the Roman legionnaires was also located near Balaklava - near Simbolon Bay. The Romans also built roads in Crimea, in particular the road through the Shaitan-Merdven pass - the “Devil's Staircase”, the shortest route from the mountainous Crimea to the southern coast, located between Kastropol and Melas. Roman warships for some time destroyed the coastal pirates, and the soldiers destroyed the steppe robbers.

At the end of the 1st century, Roman troops were withdrawn from the Crimean Peninsula. Subsequently, depending on the political situation in the region, Roman garrisons periodically appeared in both Chersonesos and Charax. Rome has always closely monitored the situation developing on the Crimean Peninsula. The southwestern Crimea remained with the Scythians and Sarmatians, and Chersonesus successfully established trade relations with the Scythian capital Naples and the local settled population. Grain trade increases significantly; Chersonesus supplies a significant part of the cities of the Roman Empire with bread and food.

During the reign of the Bosporan kings Sauromates I (94–123) and Kotis II (123–132), several Scythian-Bosporan wars took place, in which the Scythians were defeated, not least due to the fact that the Romans again provided military assistance to the Bosporan kingdom and Chersonesos at their request. The Roman Empire under Kotis again gave supreme power in the Crimea to the Bosporan kingdom and Chersonesos once again found itself dependent on Panticapaeum. Roman military units were stationed in the Bosporan kingdom for some time. Two stone tombstones of a centurion of the Thracian cohort and a soldier of the Cypriot cohort were excavated in Kerch.

In 136, a war between the Romans and the Alans, who came to Asia Minor, began, and Tauro-Scythian troops besieged Olbia, from which they were driven back by the Romans. In 138, Chersonese received from the empire the “second eleutheria”, which at that time no longer meant the complete independence of the city, but only gave it the right of self-government, the right to dispose of its land and, obviously, the right of citizenship. At the same time, to protect Chersonese from the Scythians and Sarmatians, a thousand Roman legionnaires appeared in the Chersonese fortress, five hundred in the fortress of Charax, and ships of the Moesian squadron appeared in the harbor. In addition to the centurion, who led the Roman garrison, in Chersonesus there was a military tribune of the I Italian Legion, who led all the Roman troops in Taurica and Scythia. In the south-eastern part of the Chersonese settlement, in the city citadel, the foundation of barracks, the remains of the house of the Roman governor and the baths - baths of the Roman garrison, built in the middle of the 1st century, were discovered. Archaeological excavations have attested to Roman monuments of the 1st and 2nd centuries on the northern side of Sevastopol, near the Alma River, Inkerman and Balaklava, near Alushta. In these places there were Roman fortified posts, whose task was to guard the approaches to Chersonesus, control the population of the southern and southwestern part of Crimea and protect Roman ships sailing along the southern part of the Crimean peninsula along the sea route that ran from Olbia to the Caucasus. In addition to guard duty, the legionnaires were engaged in agriculture on lands specially allocated for this purpose and various crafts -

foundry, pottery, production of bricks and tiles, as well as glassware. Remains of manufacturing workshops have been discovered in almost all Roman settlements in Crimea. Roman troops were also supported at the expense of the Tauride cities. Roman traders and artisans appeared in Crimea. In addition to the legionnaires, predominantly of Thracian ethnic origin, members of their families and retired veterans lived in Chersonesos. The stable, calm situation made it possible to significantly increase foreign trade in grain and food, which greatly improved the economic situation of Chersonesos.

After the defeat of the Scythians, the Roman garrisons left the Crimean peninsula, apparently to protect the Danube borders of the empire.

In 174, Tiberius Yuri Sauromat II became king of the Bosporan kingdom. During the period of his reign, the Bosporan kingdom expanded and strengthened its borders. According to an inscription of 193, found in Tanais, Sauromat II “conquered the neighboring Scythian tribes and annexed Taurica by treaty.” The Black Sea was cleared of pirates. From the beginning of the 3rd century, the trade turnover of the Bosporus with the cities of the southern Black Sea region increased, city fortifications and temples were built and renovated. In the Bosporus inscription, King Reskuporid III of Bosporus, who reigned from 210 to 227, is called the king of “the whole Bosporus and Tauro-Scythians,” and in the Scythian burial grounds burials were discovered, performed without observing the usual ritual, as if hastily. Perhaps these are the burial places of the dead defenders of Scythian settlements. The Scythian burial grounds themselves disappeared in the middle of the 3rd century, but monuments characteristic of Germanic tribes appeared. Perhaps these are Gothic burials, although written sources do not say anything about the presence of the Goths on the Crimean Peninsula during this period. One way or another, the Scythian ethnic group in Crimea ceased to exist in the 3rd century. Eastern and steppe Crimea became part of the Bosporus Kingdom, southern and southwestern Crimea were controlled by the Romans.

At the end of the 3rd century, Rome began to withdraw its troops from Crimea. With the legionnaires, the Roman population began to leave the Crimean peninsula.

During the period of the Roman Empire's protectorate over Chersonesus, it became so strong economically, especially in agricultural terms, that it was able to defend its political and economic freedom during the Great Migration of Peoples in the 4th and 5th centuries. A favorable geographical location, constant sales of viticulture products, fish and salt, and developed crafts ensured the stability of the Chersonese economy, and, consequently, the ability to maintain a strong army and have powerful defensive structures. The Bosporan kingdom, which managed to defend its statehood during the Sarmatian period on the Crimean Peninsula, fell under the blows of new nomadic waves from the east and left the historical scene.

The Goths and Huns severed ties between Chersonesos and the Bosporus kingdom with the Roman Empire, but during the reign of Justinian I, the Roman Empire, now Byzantine, again strengthened on the Crimean peninsula.

Greek colonization on the shores of the Black Sea proceeded, as mentioned above, in two ways. After repeated but random expeditions of individual brave sailors, who first became acquainted with the conditions of navigation on the Black Sea and its harbors (memories of these expeditions, clothed in the form of myth by Greek creative imagination, were preserved in the epic of the Argonauts and in the part of the Odyssey dependent on this epic) , the systematic exploitation of the Pontus Euxine, as the Greeks called the Black Sea, by Greek, mainly Asia Minor, navigators begins. In the 8th century the first trading posts and fishing stations appear on the southern coast; starting from the 7th century, when Persia begins to grow stronger, when it turns into a world power and gives the Greek cities the opportunity to develop extensive activities, these trading posts and stations grow into real cities with ever stronger and growing trade (Sinop, Amis, Trebizond, later Dorian Heraclea). In parallel with this, from the 7th century, i.e., from the time of the growth and strengthening of the Scythian power, the same process begins on the northern shore, and here, too, fishing stations and trading posts initially appeared, turning into real cities only from the 6th century. BC
Greek navigators on the northern shore of the Black Sea chose mainly the mouths of large southern Russian rivers, which in their estuaries provided faithful shelter for Greek ships and at the same time were extremely rich in large and expensive river fish. The same fish wealth was found in abundance on the shores of the Kerch Strait and on the coast of the Sea of ​​Azov, where there were a number of harbors convenient for Greek sailors. The main colonizing activities of the Greeks of Asia Minor were concentrated in these two areas.
In the western part, Tiras arose at the mouth of the Dniester and Olviy at the Bug and Dnieper estuaries, in the eastern part, where, along with Miletus, the colonizer of the western part of the northern coast of the Black Sea, Theos, Mytilene and Klazomenae worked energetically, increasingly rich settlements appeared - Phanagoria , Hermonassa, Sindh port, etc. on the eastern shore of the Kerch Strait, Feodosia, Nymphaeum and Panticapaeum, not to mention smaller cities, on the western. All these cities, in turn, populated with their trading posts the nearest points convenient for fishing and trade. For example, the city of Tanais, which arose at the mouth of the Don, is considered a colony of Panticapaeum.
All this enormous colonial work in the west and east was done in a relatively short period of time, during the era of magnificent prosperity of the Asia Minor coast - in the 7th and, especially, in the 6th century. BC
All these colonies did not form one whole. The entire past of the northern coast of the Black Sea and the geographical conditions of its individual parts sharply divided these colonies into two groups: western and eastern.
In the West, the leading role naturally belonged to the Milesian colony of Olbia, which was conveniently located in the Bug Estuary and thereby concentrated in its harbor all the products that were rafted to the sea along the Dnieper and the Bug. From it, as from a natural center, cultural Greek influences and works of Greek workshops moved along both named rivers, mainly along the Dnieper, where Greek influence met with the old prehistoric culture, which was discussed above.
The situation on the shores of the Kerch Strait was more complicated. The old culture here was concentrated mainly along the course of the Kuban, the delta of which - the Taman Peninsula (originally an island or, rather, a multi-island - Polynesia) would naturally play the role of Olbia in the west. But the Kuban delta is very complex, changeable and unsuitable for regular navigation; The sea coast of the Taman Peninsula does not have good harbors and therefore cannot serve as a center for all trade of the Sea of ​​​​Azov and the rivers flowing into it.
The European shore of the Kerch Strait was more convenient for navigation. Ancient Panticapaeum (now Kerch), both in ancient times and now, was a natural center for stopping and transshipping goods moving from the Sea of ​​Azov further along the Black Sea. The port of Feodosia, on the other hand, was the best access to the sea for the works of the northern and northeastern part of the steppe Crimea.
Naturally, therefore, the dispute for primacy had to go between Taman Phanagoria, the best and most convenient port of the Kuban delta, Panticapaeum and Feodosia. It was predetermined in favor of Panticapaeum by the fact that. The main importance for trade with Greece was not so much the products of the Crimea and Kuban with Taman, but the Don and Azov fish, cattle products of the Don steppes and those products of the Urals, Siberia and Turkestan, as well as central Russia, which went along the large eastern caravan route and in the estuaries The Don River came into contact with the Mediterranean waterway for the first time. Tanais, which arose naturally at the mouth of the Don, the final point of this route, could not play a decisive and independent role. This role naturally belonged to the one who would own the Kerch Strait and have the opportunity to release or not release goods moving from the Sea of ​​Azov into the wide waters of the Black Sea.
Of the cities near the Kerch Strait, the only one that combined all the advantages for owning the Kerch Strait was Panticapaeum. Its position at the narrowest point of the strait, its calm wide roadstead, the city acropolis fortified by nature extended into the sea (now the so-called Mount Mithridates), and the comparative wealth of fresh water did not allow anyone to enter into successful competition with it.
A third smaller and less important group of Greek cities in southern Russia were the Greek settlements on the southern and southwestern coast of the Crimea. The mountainous southern coast of Crimea does not have convenient natural ports, and neither does the steppe western coast of Crimea. But the places near the Sevastopol Bay are extremely convenient for navigation, both the Sevastopol roadstead itself and the neighboring smaller and less protected bays, which are, however, very suitable for sailing and rowing ships. The Greeks could not not use these harbors. During the long and dangerous voyage along the coast of Crimea, Greek ships needed a place for a long and quiet anchorage. This is how Chersonesus arose, initially, probably, as an Ionian maritime station.
We must, however, take into account that this station could and should have acquired independent significance. First of all, all the products of the mountainous Crimea and the valleys associated with it were naturally sent here. Settlements along the western steppe coast of Crimea were naturally drawn to Chersonesus, primarily Kerkinitida, located near present-day Evpatoria. Finally, and most importantly, Sevastopol and Crimea have always been connected with the opposite southern shore of the Black Sea, with its network of flourishing Greek colonies. Having a harbor in Crimea was extremely important for these colonies, since this way they could get the products they needed from the steppe Crimea, mainly bread, which they themselves were never particularly rich in.
It is therefore clear that one of the Greek colonies on the southern coast of the Black Sea - the Dorian Heraclea, at the moment of its especially magnificent prosperity, took possession of the Ionian site in the Crimea and sent its colony there, thereby turning the previously insignificant Chersonesus into a large and relatively prosperous city, the fate of which is closely connected with the fate of the rest of the Greek world on the northern Black Sea coast.
Of the three complexes of Greek settlements outlined above, the group of Greek cities near the Kerch Strait, which the Greeks called the Cimmerian Bosporus, a group that we will call Bosporus and which is under This name was also known to the Greeks. Tiras and Olbia have always been and remained isolated advanced posts of the Greek world, surrounded on all sides by a sea of ​​tribes alien to them, numerous and constantly fed from outside by a new influx of forces. The Greek world was unable to create a strong, isolated Hellenized Greek power here. True, Olbia had a powerful cultural influence on the population closest to it. The lower reaches of the Dnieper and Bug were covered with a number of small agricultural and trading fortified settlements inhabited by half-Greek inhabitants. The areas closest to Olbia began intensive farming. Olbia's trade went far to the north. Not to mention the fact that Greek products saturated the flourishing middle Dnieper region and Poltava region, the influence of these products affects all the way to the distant Kama region and, perhaps, even Western Siberia and Altai.
But its significance and activities always depended entirely on its neighbors. As long as there was a strong Scythian kingdom, Olbia, dependent on it, could freely develop, enriching both itself and the Scythians. Its especially brilliant period was the 6th century. BC, when Olbia directly transferred, under the protection of the Scythians, the products of the north to their Asia Minor homeland, and in the 4th century. BC, when she freed herself from the tutelage and trade oppression of the Athenian maritime power and again entered into contact with her mother, the revived Miletus. The Scythian kingdom at this time was still strong enough to provide Olbia with relative calm and peace.
The situation became more difficult in the 3rd century, when the collapsing Scythian state demanded more and more sacrifices from Olbia, unable to protect it from Western and Eastern aliens who were destroying the Scythian state: Thracians, Celts, Sarmatians. This is clearly evidenced by the large Olbian inscription in honor of Protogen, a prominent Olbian citizen, a wealthy merchant, armorer and exporter, like all prominent citizens of Olbia of that time, who more than once rescued Olbia from difficult situations related to the demands of its overlord and strays approaching the walls of Olbia predators. He also helped Olbia in its defense, constructing towers and parts of a defensive wall at his own expense, and also helped her out of food difficulties associated with the constant devastation of the areas that fed Olbia with bread.
The situation was different for the Greek colonies on the shores of the Kerch Strait. Let me remind you, first of all, that they found here not a barbarian, but a relatively cultured population, which since the 2nd millennium had been under the strongest cultural influence of the East. The Cimmerians layered on top of this population. From the merger of these two elements, the tribes of the Sinds, Maeotians, Sauromatians, Satarcheans, and, in all likelihood, the Taurians, inhabiting the mountainous part of the Crimea, were created, and also, in all likelihood, the opposite coast of the Crimea, where they were driven out by the Scythians, who owned steppe Crimea, etc.
These tribes, although, as we have seen, were subject to the Scythians, nevertheless enjoyed comparative independence in the Scythian state, which increasingly increased as the focus of the Scythians moved more and more to the west and their main efforts were concentrated on the fight against the Thracians Balkan Peninsula.
They have long had a strong sedentary lifestyle, were in constant trade relations with their southern and eastern neighbors and lived a relatively developed economic life as farmers, cattle breeders and fishermen.
The Greek colonies immediately found in them ready customers for their goods and intermediaries in relations with the south and east. In them they could easily find support in defending their independence against the Scythians. The floodplains and swamps of Taman and the Sea of ​​Azov were reliable protection for the rich Kuban delta.
Naturally, the time of Taman’s political rise was also a time of great prosperity for the Greek colonies on the shores of the Kerch Strait and their intense influence on neighboring tribes. The necropolis of Panticapaeum, its first abundant mints of silver coins show that the end of the 6th and beginning of the 5th century BC. were an era of high growth of this city, its greater economic and cultural prosperity. On the site of an old non-Greek settlement, perhaps associated with the coast of the Caucasus and especially with Colchis (the name Panticapaeum is not Greek; Greek, probably a very ancient legend connects its origin with the ancient dynasty of Colchis kings), a real Greek city arises and a number of others around it smaller settlements. We see the same in Taman, where finds of ancient Ionian Greek dishes are not uncommon and the oldest burials in the necropolises of individual cities are burials of the 6th and early 5th centuries.
The decisive moment in the history of the Bosporan Greek colonies and especially Panticapaeum was the victory of Athens over the Persians and the great interest of Athens in the north that appeared at that time. the Mediterranean coast. sea, to Thrace and, especially, to the Black Sea coast. The main incentive was to provide its ever-growing and developing industry with raw materials and its ever-increasing population with bread, the production of which, as we have seen, was native both in the valley of the Dnieper and Bug, and along the Kuban, and naturally took over in the south of Russia, as demand grew , all large spaces.
Athens' attraction to new places along the Black Sea coast is natural and understandable. At the largest grain market in Hellas - in Italy and Sicily - Athens faced serious competition from the Dorians in general and Sparta in particular and was by no means the masters of this market. Egypt, rich in grain, was in the hands of the Persians and could not be wrested from them by Athens even after the failure of the Persian campaigns against Greece. There remained the north, communication with which was a monopoly of the Ionian Greeks of Asia Minor, whose trade routes and business connections were now claimed, after the Persian wars, by Athens, which had liberated but also ruined them.
The creation of great sea power by Athens, the seizure of the straits and important trading points on the Thracian coast put the entire Black Sea region - both southern and northern - in complete and direct dependence on Athens and allowed Athens, without resistance from anyone, to do a series of steps to strengthen and strengthen this dependence.
Among these decisive steps, the most serious was the occupation of Athens and the settlement of a number of important points on the southern coast of the Black Sea with its armed colonists. They did the same in the north.
Probably not having the opportunity to occupy the strong Panticapaeum, which was under the protection of the Scythians, they captured the neighboring Nymphaeum, which had an excellent harbor and was connected with a number of neighboring Scythian and non-Scythian tribes of the Crimea. They turned this minor city into a large trading harbor and an important center of exchange, thereby creating strong competition for Panticapaeum. His complete trading independence is evidenced by his excellent, artistic silver, which he minted at this time.
The great cultural flourishing of Nymphaeum at this time, its wide trade connections and close relations with neighboring tribes is evidenced by the rich and extensive necropolis of the city, the richest burials of which date back to the 5th century. BC It is characteristic that, along with the purely Greek burials of the Nymphaean necropolis, we have a number of mounds with non-Greek or semi-Greek burials, that is, with the burials of the leaders of neighboring tribes who were attracted to the Nymphaeum by its cultural influence and constant trade ties. The composition of the items from the richest Nymphaean burials is very typical. Along with things imported from Athens, we also find a number of products from other workshops, for example, excellent Samian bronzes, wonderful works of famous Samian foundries. VI and V centuries. BC
It is interesting to note that, in addition to Nymphaeum, Athens probably created other settlements on the Crimean coast of the Kerch Strait. One of them, as the name shows, could be the city or village of Atheneon - a competitor of the Ionian Theodosius, just as Nymphaeum was a competitor of Panticapaeum.
Athens also established a strong foothold in Taman in the land of the most cultured of the Taman tribes - the Sinds. And here they created their urban center - Stratocleia, probably not a new foundation, but the renaming and settlement of one of the old settlements of Taman by their colonists. To them, perhaps, the Sinds owe their state unification and the Greek physiognomy that this unification assumed, if this did not happen even earlier as a result of the settlement of the Taman coast by Greek colonies. This is evidenced by the unusually fine artistic coinage of silver of the new state with a horse's head on one side, the name of the tribe and the figure of an Athenian owl on the reverse.
The strong cultural influence of the Greeks on the local tribes, which had already begun earlier (I note, for example, one local burial containing a beautiful Rhodian vase of the early 6th century BC) was felt with particular vividness at this time. In the group of the so-called Seven Brothers Kurgans in the Kuban delta near the station. Krymskaya we find several burials of the 5th century. BC, the inventory of which is strikingly similar to the inventory of the just mentioned Nymphaean mounds. And here, next to things of undoubted Athenian origin, we find excellent works of Asia Minor workshops.
We do not know what the relations between Athens and Panticapaeum were at this time. The flourishing that we find in Nymphea and in the land of the Sinds in the 5th century. BC, we do not observe it in Panticapaeum. There are no traces of Panticapaeum's dependence on Athens. It is characteristic, however, that just at this time a major political revolution took place in Panticapaeum. The power, which until this time was in the hands of several leading families, perhaps the descendants of the ancient founders of the colonies - the leaders (Anacts) of the migrating Milesians, whom our legend calls, probably by the invented name of Archeanactids (descendants of the ancient Anacts), now falls into the hands of one tyrant, bearing the Thracian name Spartok (in 438 - 7 BC) · The Thracian name Spartok does not necessarily imply that we are dealing with a Thracian - a native of the Balkan Peninsula, with the commander of a mercenary Thracian squad, as is usually assumed. I have already indicated how strong the Thracian elements were in the ancient population of the Bosporus, Taman and Azov region. One can therefore think that Spartok belonged to a local rich Greek family that became part of the sovereign families of Panticapaeum. With this assumption, it is clear why Spartok and his descendants managed to firmly establish their power in Panticapaeum, uniting both the Greeks and the local native population around it.
The emergence of a strong unified power in Panticapaeum in the hands of an energetic and talented holder was a decisive moment in the history of the eastern Greek Black Sea colonies. It created here a serious and decisive force, which, under favorable circumstances, could become a natural center for uniting around it all the Greeks of the Bosporus and Azov region, without which the Greeks here, as in Olbia, would inevitably have been only a tool in the hands of the dominant Scythian tribe.
It is unlikely that the Bosporan tyranny arose with the consent and assistance of Athens; rather, it was created in opposition to their influence. One must think that its appearance was one of those reasons that caused, three years after its creation, the sending by Athens in 435 - 4 BC. a large naval expedition under the command of Pericles to the Black Sea. This armed demonstration had the ultimate goal of impressing both the Black Sea Hellenes and the Scythians, showing them the strength of Athens and forcing them to accept unquestioningly the terms of the relationship dictated by Athens.
One of the objects of the Athenian naval demonstration was, undoubtedly, Panticapaeum, whose role in the maritime trade of the Black Sea could not but be clear to Athens and whose strengthening, contrary to the wishes of Athens, a strengthening that Athens could hardly prevent without further exertion of forces, was formidable for them danger. As an ally and client, Panticapaeum could, however, be an excellent support for Athenian trade policy, a support that its necessarily weak colonies at Nymphaeum and Stratocleia could not give Athens. Let us remember that Athens faced serious complications in Greece and that the Bosporus was located hundreds of miles from the base of Athenian power.
Compensation for the Bosporus for this support of the trade interests of Athens was naturally the patronage of Athens for the newly born Panticapaean tyranny, which still felt far from being strong (a number of exiles from Panticaiaeum sat nearby in Feodosia and were ready to return at the first opportunity), as well as assistance in case a possible, although unlikely, dramatic clash with the Scythians. These could have been, and probably were, the conditions set by Athens to Spartok during Pericles' expedition to the Black Sea.
Spartok could not help but agree to these conditions, and as a result, those permanent and strong relations began between Athens and the Bosporan tyranny, which determined the subsequent fate of the Greek colony on the shores of the Bosporus. Panticapaeum temporarily became a client and trading agent of Athens in the Black Sea, he had to guarantee Athens the unlimited right to export grain from Panticapaeum and was forced to agree to limit his right to free trade in grain: without the permission of Athens, Panticapaeum could not release a single grain of Black Sea bread to other ports of Greece .
But, thanks to the support of Athens, the Spartok dynasty stayed in the Bosporus and began a series of consistent actions to consolidate its power and develop its economic and political power. The main tasks of the Bosporus state, consistently carried out by Spartok’s successor Satyr I (433/2 - 389/8 BC), and the latter’s son Leukon I (389/8 - 349/8 BC), and children and Leukon's successors, Spartok II (349/8 - 344/3 BC), and Perisad I (349/8 - 310/9 BC), were: strengthening their power on the European and Asian shores of the Kerch Strait, further strengthening of its independence in relation to the Scythians and gradual emancipation from pressure from Athens, while maintaining, however, close and friendly relations with this powerful power, which, despite military failures in the fight against Sparta and the failure of its great power policy, continued to be the decisive naval force in the Aegean Sea.
The first task that faced Spartok's successor, Satyr, was to strengthen all trade and, mainly, the grain trade in the hands of the Bosporus. The question was not so much about the grain of Taman and Panticapaeum’s own territory, but rather about the grain of the northern steppe Crimea, the natural export harbor for which was Feodosia. This grain was claimed not only by Athens and its counterpart Panticapaeum; it was also needed, as we have seen, by the cities of the southern coast of the Black Sea, mainly by the ever-growing Heraclea, which had already established a strong foothold in Chersonesos and was trying to gain primacy in Theodosius. The result of this rivalry was the war between Bosporus and Heraclea over Theodosius, which began under Satyr and ended by Leukon with the annexation of Theodosius to the Bosporan state.
At the same time, Satyrus, and then Leukon, managed, taking advantage of the defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War, to introduce their relations with Athens in a new direction. By bribery, Satyr forced the Athenian fortified colony in Nymphaeum to be surrendered to him, and then he and Leukon managed to insist on the right of free trade in grain from the Bosporus not only with Athens, but also with other Greek cities, guaranteeing, however, Athens special and very valuable privileges.
It is more difficult to understand the relationship of the Bosporan dynasts to the cities and peoples of Taman. It is very likely that the main trading center of Taman, Phanagoria, was not part of the Bosporan state. But it was surrounded by a number of Taman tribes subject to the Bosporus and, of course, was not completely independent. It is not for nothing that we had abundant independent minting of coins in Phanagoria in the 4th - 3rd centuries. BC We do not find and the main monetary unit in Taman is Panticapaean gold, silver and copper.
The question of the relationship of the Bosporus to the local tribes that inhabited Taman is very difficult. The Sinds, as we have seen, were already strongly Hellenized during the reign of Athens and had a certain independence. A number of individual indications suggest that from ancient times they were drawn to the same urban center with the Greek and local population (first the Sind port, then Gorgippia - now Anapa) and were under the control of their local dynasts, the same half-Thracians, half-Greeks as the Bosporan tyrants , maybe even related to these latter. Under Leukon, the Sinds formed part of his power, that is, they recognized him as their king, along with other neighboring tribes, the circle of which was expanding under Leukon's successors. Whether this meant that these tribes were ruled from Panticapaeum, or whether one must think that the Bosporan dynast was their overlord, while each individual tribe was headed by its own local rulers, is quite clear. The second, however, is more likely. A number of indications tell us that the Sinds, in parallel with the Bosporan rulers, had their own semi-Greek dynasty.
We have even less data to understand the attitude of the Scythians towards the emerging power, which was very unpleasant for them. The Scythians, however, undoubtedly did not abandon their claims to suzerainty over Panticapaeum. This can be confirmed by evidence of the fierce struggle of Perisada I against them.
More than a century passed from the founding of tyranny in the Bosporus to the end of the reign of Perisad I. The rule of the Spartokid dynasty over the Bosporus bore fruit. The Bosporus turned into a strong and fairly durable power that developed huge trade with Greece, mainly with Athens. The main export item was bread, or at least that is what we hear about most. But the products of the Sea of ​​Azov were also of no small importance - its fish, livestock and slaves from the Don region, furs and goods coming from the far East to the mouth of the Don, where, as mentioned above, a large trading settlement arose - Tanais, also dependent on the Bosporus .
The economic growth and material prosperity of the Bosporus were somewhat weakened only by the confused political relations that reigned in Hellas after the fall of the hegemony of Athens: constant wars that undermined maritime trade and gradually turned into an anarchic and disorderly clash between the leading forces of Hellas, and internal confusion that reigned in individual Hellenic states and the corrupting influence on Greek life in Persia with its powerful material resources.
At the end of this period, however, the situation changes. The growth of Macedonia and Alexander's conquests create the great world of Hellenism. The war of all against all temporarily ceases, and relative order comes. But for the grain trade of Panticapaeum, this plus is covered by the associated minus: Egypt, which has opened up to world trade, and the grain-rich areas in Asia are its competitors and very strong competitors. It must be taken into account, however, that if supply increased, then demand also increased, thanks to the growth and development of urban life throughout the Hellenistic world.
In any case, the 4th century. BC is a blessed time for Hellenism on the Black Sea. Safety at sea, supported by a strong Bosporan fleet, security of sales, and freedom of trade create a high rise in material security for all Greek cities in southern Russia, not only in the Bosporus, but also outside it. For Olbia and Chersonesos of the 4th century. BC the same brilliant time as for Bosporus.
Greek cities are being built up, temples and porticos are growing in them, and theaters are appearing in some places; squares and temples are decorated with statues, sometimes of first-class Greek masters. A lot of imported Greek things of better quality appear in everyday life. In the cities themselves, Greek workshops operate successfully, serving mainly the external market. In the largest centers, their own writers and scientists, historians, rhetoricians, philosophers, poets appear, local myths are collected, local historical traditions are recorded. In the Bosporus, as we will see below, its own flourishing school of toregovs is being created. All this is clearly reflected, first of all, in the necropolis.
Never before have so many expensive, sometimes artistic things been placed in the grave with the deceased as now. The grave goods of rich people and the local aristocracy are especially luxurious. Their majestic stone crypts under high mounds are filled with a rare selection of expensive and artistic things: the best Greek red-figure and multi-colored ceramics from Attic workshops (see Table XII, 1), Eastern Greek variegated glass, an excellent set of Greek, especially Asia Minor jewelry, gems and carved stones with the names of famous masters, the finest necklaces of amazing technology, luxurious earrings, bracelets, tiaras (see plate XII, 2, 3 and 4). The wonders of turning technology are the sarcophagi in which the mortal remains of Panticapaean and Taman nobles and their wives rested. Superb turning work, enlivened by painting and inlays of glass, bone and stones, makes these sarcophagi one of a kind monuments of the artistic industry.
The crypts themselves are not inferior to the burial inventory in terms of the harmony of the parts, the breadth of the construction scope and the height of the construction equipment (see Table XI, 1, 2 and 3). These are vast, sometimes double, high rooms, made of monumental slabs, with long leading into them corridors, spectacularly covered with pointed, stepped, domed-stepped or box semi-cylindrical vaults. In Taman, some crypts inside were plastered and painted in the same manner in which the walls of temples and public buildings were painted; in Panticapaeum, the painting was probably replaced by canopies and carpets covering the walls of the crypt.
It is unlikely that in the manner of covering the crypts with stepped vaults one should see consciously supported archaism, the preservation of the old tradition of the Aegean, Mycenaean and Asia Minor tombs. The architects who built them were guided, it seems to me, by other considerations - aesthetic and technical. The aesthetic impression of these stepped vaults is amazing, much stronger than the impression left by box vaults, which certainly require painting or plaster modeling combined with painting. Technically, the stepped vault satisfies all the requirements of an under-mound structure with a colossal mass of earth pressing on the roof. It is no coincidence that the most monumental crypts of the Bosporus have reached us completely intact. Only those that were damaged by robbers and taken away by modern vandals after their discovery by archaeologists were destroyed.
No less indicative, however, are the ordinary, ordinary tombs: earthen pits covered with boards, slabs or tiles, the walls of which are sometimes lined with tiles, slabs or mud bricks - tombs of ordinary citizens of Panticapaeum and its neighbors, as well as the Greek cities of Taman. The ritual of corpse deposition, which was retained in the Bosporus, only in rare cases being replaced by cremation, makes it possible to judge the life and wealth of the mass of Bosporan citizens. The impression is very instructive.
The burial rite and grave goods are purely Greek. The usual selection of things for a Hellene dominates as funeral props, testifying to the role that the palaestra and the way of life associated with it played in his life. The first place is occupied by vessels for oil, which were used to rub the body, and shears, which were used to clean palestra sand and oil from the body. These objects, first of all, were needed by the Bosporan Greek beyond the grave, where he was supposed to continue his earthly life, the life of a Hellenic Palestrite (see Table XI, 4 - frieze of a painted Panticapaean crypt of the 4th century BC with an image of a funerary palestric equipment: shearlings, lekythos, aryballae, towels, tiaras, headbands, wreaths).
Weapons are much less common in tombs of this time. It is characteristic that the least number of weapons is in the tombs of the Panticapaean necropolis, much more on the periphery of the Bosporus and in the necropolises of the Taman Greek cities. There is a lot of jewelry in women's tombs. The vessels are all imported from good Attic factories; sometimes you come across vessels from the best craftsmen, sometimes signed. Often so-called Phoenician colored glass. Everything speaks of the contentment of the population and its purely Greek appearance. The same is confirmed, however, by the rare, excellent tombstone steles of the Bosporans and their tombstone inscriptions. Approximately the same picture is repeated in Olbia and Chersonesos; only monumental mound burials are absent in these more democratic cities, although there are some analogies to them, at least in Olbia.
With the death of Perisad I, troubled and alarming times begin in Panticapaeum. Immediately after the death of Perisad, an internecine war began between the three sons of Perisad, from which Eumelus emerged victorious. Legitimate power belonged to Satyr II, the elder brother of Eumelus. Eumelus raised the Tamanian tribe of Fatei against him. Satyr was supported by a mercenary army of Greeks and Thracians, that is, the usual Bosporan army, and the Scythians. Victory went to Eumelus, who also broke the resistance of the third brother Prytanis. As a usurper, Eumelus was forced to make great concessions to the citizenship of Panticapaeum. One must think that under him the Panticapaean civilian army appeared for the first time; Until this time, the Bosporan tyrants relied exclusively on mercenaries.
The short reign of Eumelus was followed by the reign of Spartok III (304/3 - 284/3 BC) and Perisades II (284/3 to approximately 252 BC). The reigns of these dynasts, who generally continued the old policy of the Spartokids, were not yet the time of the decline of the Bosporus. Economic conditions remained the same, trade developed and Panticapaeum grew richer. The closest counterparty of Bosporus continues to be Athens, which at this time concluded a real alliance agreement with Bosporus, its former vassal and agent for the purchase of grain, which indicates both the decline of Athens in this era of the emerging large Hellenistic monarchies, and the growth of the importance of Bosporus. But, along with Athens, the kings of the Bosporus of this and the next period deal with the mighty Rhodes, and Delos, and Delphi, acting completely in the role of the rest, albeit secondary, Hellenistic monarchs.
The well-being of citizens does not fall either. The tombs of this period are no poorer, although less numerous than the tombs of earlier ones.
At this time, as mentioned above, the Bosporan workshops, which produced things from precious metals for the Scythian market, lived an intensive life at this time. We have seen how their works fill the rich Scythian burials of this period. True, the height of their artistic achievements is gradually decreasing: a gold coin of the Bosporus of the 4th century. BC, which replaced the Ionian silver of the 6th and 5th centuries, with its amazing heads of satyrs and sileni, one of the best creations of ancient glyptics (see plate XII, 5, 6 and 7), is now replaced by quite a dozen Hellenistic silver, stereotyped, albeit second-rate (Table XII, 9).
The entire second half of the 3rd century. BC filled in the Bosporus with a long series of dynastic and political unrest, from which only vague echoes have reached us. It is not the Spartokids who temporarily appear at the head of the state: Archon Hygienon, perhaps a protege of Panticapaean citizenship, and some king Aces, apparently the head of one of the Scythian or Maeotian tribes that claimed to lead the life of the Bosporus.
Even more vague is the legend about the last years of the independent existence of the Bosporus, Fr. first three quarters of the 2nd century. BC A number of dynasts appear, whom we know only from coins and inscriptions; they all bear the Thracian name Perisada. It is very likely that these are the last scions of the house of Spartok. Their coins, like those of Hygienont, are a slave copy, and a rather poor one at that, of the gold staters of Lysimachus, the general of Alexander, the founder of the short-lived Thracian kingdom (see plate XII, 8). The general appearance of these kings is that of minor Hellenistic monarchs; secondary kings, like the kings of Bithynia, Pontus or Armenia, but of a lower rank. At their court and in their politics, as in the entire world of Hellenism at that time, a major role was played by the local subjects of these kings - the Scythians and Maeotians, who, as Hellenization progressed, more and more imbued the once purely Greek citizenship of the cities of the Bosporan kingdom.
The Spartokid dynasty was living out its last days. But she continued to fulfill her traditional mission, supplying the Hellenic world with bread and raw materials. Therefore, the material well-being of the Bosporus, although falling, still remains at the general level of the semi-Greek Hellenistic powers of that time, far from it. inferior, of course, to such powers as the cultural kingdom of Pergamon and unable to withstand political rivalry not only with its Black Sea vis-à-vis - Bithynia and the ever-growing Pontus, but even with its closest neighbors - the Crimean Scythians.
History of Crimea II century. BC stands under the sign of the revival of the power of the old Scythian power. Of course, there can be no talk of returning this power to its former role. All of the Kuban region, the Azov region, the Don region, the Dnieper region and the Buge region left the hands of the Scythians forever, but the Scythians retained two pieces of their old territory. A small Scythian kingdom continues to exist in Dobrudja and a larger Scythian power in Crimea. Favorable conditions: the absence of any leading force in the north, the weakness of Macedonia, the defeat of Thrace under the corrupting influence of the Celtic conquerors, the inability of the Sarmatians to weld a strong power from individual tribes, the absence of any outside support from the Greek colonies of southern Russia allowed several energetic Scythian kings again welded together part of their decayed power and, supporting it with armed force, declared a claim to supremacy over the Crimea and the Greek cities of the northern coast up to Olbia. The Scythian Crimean power reached its apogee under Skilur in the first and second half of the 2nd century BC.
We do not know whether the Scythians are still the former military power of nomads. In any case, they had a large urban center in Crimea near present-day Simferopol. It is possible that we are dealing with a half-Greek city that grew up among a Scythian half-nomadic, half-agricultural population, where Scythian kings also visited from time to time.
The basis for the well-being of this Scythian state and the Greek Scythian capital was, of course, trade with the Greek world in grain and livestock. It is no wonder, therefore, that the kings of the Scythian state strive to gain power over the most important Greek ports. They probably managed to capture Kerkinitis on the western coast of Crimea and even Olbia, whose rich armatures gave them the fleet and naval forces they needed to ensure their removal from the robberies of the Crimean pirates.
But this, of course, was not enough for them. They were attracted by the excellent harbor and the beautiful territory cultivated for vineyards of Chersonesus, which made it possible to enter into direct relations with the southern coast of the Black Sea. It is very likely that they tried to strengthen their influence in the Bosporus through diplomatic relations and marriage alliances. It is not for nothing that at the last Perisade one of the members of the Scythian royal family ends up in Panticapaeum, which, however, usually happened already at the end of the 4th and 3rd centuries. BC, as shown by the large Scythian tombs in the immediate vicinity of Panticapaeum and Nymphaeum among the tombs of the Greek population of these cities.
In connection with this revival of the Scythian power, which probably began already in the 3rd century. BC, there is a constant Scythian danger that threatened Chersonese, constant attacks on it by the Scythians and all sorts of efforts that Chersonese makes to ward off this danger. Several random inscriptions from Chersonese vividly depict to us this constant danger and the measures taken by Chersonese to avert it. Chersonese had few forces of its own, and he had to turn to stronger neighbors for help. While the Bosporus was strong, Chersonese sought its help; but the Bosporus weakened, falling more and more under Scythian influence, and the pressure of the Scythians became more energetic and persistent.
The natural protector of Chersonesus was its metropolis - Heraclea. But she was no longer independent. She had to submit to the Pontic kings. Tries to mobilize Chersonesos and the northern neighbors of the Scythians - the Sarmatians. Since all this is intertwined with the history of the Hellenistic kingdoms of Asia Minor, where the role of master and manager at this time was already played by Rome, it is natural that from time to time the imperious hand of Rome reaches out to Chersonesos.
In the second half of the 2nd century, when the power of the Scythian Crimean power especially increased, the position of Chersonese became critical. But at the same time, under the influence of the beginning devastation in Rome, the increasingly intensifying collapse of the Roman provincial administration and the first rumbles of the internal revolution in Italy, in the east, just on the southern shore of the Black Sea, the previously excluded possibility of the emergence of a strong power is created. The young, energetic and talented Pontic king Mithridates VI Eupator takes up the task of creating it.
To implement his plan - to create, in contrast to Rome, a strong eastern power - he needed, first of all, a base. Asia Minor, whose life was closely watched by Rome, could not provide this base. The Pontic state - the basis of the power of Mithridates - itself had an extremely mixed population, where, next to the Alarodians and Thracians, there were Semites and Iranians, and the general character of the culture was strongly Iranianized and resembles the culture of neighboring Armenia. Let us not forget that the basis of the economic and cultural life of the country with this composition of the population was the Greek cities, gradually deprived of freedom by the Pontic kings - Heraclea, Sinop, Amis, Amasia, Trebizond, etc. This character of culture brought Pontus closer, mainly, to Armenia, but also more so with the Bosporan kingdom and in general the northern coast of the Black Sea, where we encounter the same connection and interpenetration of the population of Greek cities, with a purely Hellenic culture, and the tribes inhabiting the country, with an Iranian or Iranizing culture.
Mithridates should have strived for an alliance and, if possible, subjugation of these two powers in order to create for himself the necessary supply base of both human material, money and natural products. But Armenia was at that time a strong power, which was just as difficult to deal with as Pontus’s neighbor to the west, Bithynia, and which, moreover, was under constant surveillance by Rome.
Crimea was in a different situation. Crimea was not in the sphere of influence of the Roman power and did not attract the attention of Roman politicians. Meanwhile, he could give Mithridates exactly what he needed: bread, cattle, leather, money and people, huge reserves of which, in the person of the Scythian, Maeotian and Sarmatian tribes, the half-Iranian Mithridates, who considered himself to belong to the old Persian dynasty of the Achaemenids , could count on being used as allies and mercenaries.
On the other hand, the growth of the Scythian power, the danger threatening Chersonesos from the Scythians, and his requests for help directed to Mithridates created unusually favorable conditions for Mithridates’ intervention in the affairs of the Crimea. Mithridates took full advantage of the opportunity that presented itself. In two expeditions, his commanders Diophantus and Neoptolemus, showing their strength to the Scythian power, led after the death of Skilur by his son Palak, and to the allies of the Scythian power, the Sarmatians-Roxolans, took possession of both Chersonesos with all the Greek settlements subject to him, and the Bosporus with all its power and, finally, even Olbia with its territory.
This success unusually strengthened Mithridates and gave him hope of the opportunity to begin a long and consistent work of unifying Asia Minor, and then the entire east under the leadership of Pontus, in defiance of the resistance of Rome, torn apart by a civil war that flared up in 91 with a bright flame and lasted until 70 and even later, that is, for more than 20 years.
This is not the place to relate the story of Mithridates' failed attempt to create a world Greco-Eastern state. It is important for us to point out that the starting point of Mithridates in his struggle with Rome and his last reserve in this struggle were his Crimean and Caucasian possessions annexed to them, his Black Sea power. Having joined here, as well as in Asia Minor, initially to the Greek cities, Mithridates, however, quickly disappointed them in their hopes. The more he became involved in the war with Rome, the more he needed money and natural products, and the further he was driven out of Asia Minor by the Romans, the more the Greek cities of the northern coast of the Black Sea became suppliers of these resources. The Greek cities bore this heavy burden placed on them with more and more displeasure, submitting only to force.
Along with this, Mithridates, who needed people for his army, became closer and closer to the Maeotians who were once subordinate to the Bosporus, with his enemies - the Scythians and Sarmatians, entering into marriage alliances with their dynasts - both personally and through his numerous sons and daughters - and political treaties. Hellenism, just when it hoped, through Mithridates, to strengthen its primacy over the Iranians pressing on it, was in danger of being completely absorbed by Iran, which by that time had already managed to significantly change the previously pure Greek appearance of the population of the Greek cities of the Black Sea region. On the other hand, Iran obviously met Mithridates as a unifier and leader, despite the blows he initially inflicted on the Scythians, and surrounded him with a long-lasting aura of a national leader.
It is natural, therefore, that the Greek cities of Crimea, mainly of the Bosporan kingdom, tried to use the moments of Mithridates’ weakness to regain their independence and, when Mithridates, who was finally ousted from Asia Minor by Pompey, but managed to flee to Panticapaeum and not allow Pompey here, prepared here with all the tension forces a new campaign against the Roman power, this time through the steppes of southern Russia and along the Danube, they offered him sharp resistance and, uniting with his son Pharnaces, got rid of the hated rapist, who had brought them to almost complete ruin and betrayed them to the centuries-old enemies of Hellenism, the Iranians .
The death of Mithridates, however, meant submission to Rome. Pharnaces’ attempt to ensure his Pontic-Crimean kingdom not a vassal, but an independent existence, taking advantage of Caesar’s temporary failures in Alexandria, ended in a cruel defeat: Pharnaces, like his father devoted to him, did not find support for himself in the Greek cities of Crimea and died.
From this time on, a new era began in the life of Crimea - the era of subordination to Rome and a new rise of the Hellenic element, which found active and constant support in Rome.
The era of Mithridates was a time of difficult trials for the Black Sea Greeks. The era of their complete independence is over. The original form of supreme power developed by the Bosporus, i.e., the combination in one person of the supreme magistrate of the Greek cities - the archon and the king of the Iranian and semi-Iranian tribes, connected with the Greek cities by personal union, was finally replaced by a purely monarchical power of the Greek-Eastern type. The material well-being of the Greek cities was undermined, and Olbia especially suffered, finding itself after the death of Mithridates between a rock and a hard place, between the Scythians and Sarmatians pressing from the east, and the revived power of the Thracians, united into the strong power of Birebista. Both of them sought to take possession, and the latter, in the end, took possession of this important port and the key to the entire Dnieper and Buge regions.
The cultural resistance of the Greeks also weakened. Even earlier it was difficult for them to maintain their pure Greek appearance. The necropolises of those Greek cities that from time immemorial had a particularly close connection with the local population, like Nymphaeum on the European side, Gorgippia on the Asian side, have long provided examples of burials of mixed Iranian-Greek culture. Now the Iranian element, which already in the era of the last Spartokids increasingly saturated the Greek cities, was able to unhindered penetration into the Greek population of the cities, especially since the influx of new forces from Hellas, exhausted and bleeding in the throes of the Roman civil war, completely ceased.
And here, therefore, due to the special conditions of development, we encounter a phenomenon common to the entire east of the late Hellenistic era. Behind the Greek shell, even in Greek centers, local elements begin to emerge more and more, changing all the foundations of political, economic, social, cultural and religious life.
The Bosporan state of the Spartokids, which existed for more than three centuries and during this time successfully fulfilled its mission as the advanced post put forward by Hellenism in the sea of ​​Iranian and Thracian tribes and peoples, is an unusually original and interesting political and social entity.
In terms of its external political structure, the leading city of the power, Panticapaeum, did not differ in any significant way from the ordinary city-state of Hellas. Its only distinctive feature is that for centuries the transitional form of government for most Greek city-states - military tyranny, based on mercenary troops - has been maintained here.
This long existence of tyranny requires an explanation. Of course, the essentially monarchical form of government, clothed in the shell of Hellenic democracy, could not survive for three centuries, maintaining itself only by force and relying only on the swords of mercenaries. There is no doubt that its existence and its strength were due to other deeper reasons that created its strong support among the population.
The main reason was the original social structure of the Bosporan, primarily a trading power, the welfare of which depended, first of all, on ensuring proper exchange with the Greek world on the one hand and with the world of Iranian and semi-Iranian tribes, partly part of the Bosporan power, partly neighboring it , with another. In this respect, the Bosporus most closely resembles Semitic Carthage, which fulfilled the same mission, under slightly different conditions, on the shores of Africa.
The difference in the position of Carthage and Bosporus was that the well-being of Bosporus was largely connected with the existence of the Scythian kingdom, which provided Bosporus with the opportunity for successful trade with its neighbors. Complete subordination to the Scythians, however, was by no means in the interests of the Bosporus.
In order to be able to maintain good relations with the Scythians without completely submitting to them, the Bosporus had to have support both in the population of its state and in support from outside. The second was given to him by his relationship with Athens, the first was the commonality of his interests with his strongly Hellenized closest neighbors, for whom the suzerainty of the Bosporus was more profitable and convenient than submission to the Scythians, especially since this suzerainty had the character of a personal union and did not deprive individual tribes of the opportunity to live their own ordinary life under the control of their local kings, dynasts and princes.
This explains the dual nature of the Bosporan tyranny. For the Greek population, they are the magistrates-archons vested with exclusive supreme power. For the tribes of Crimea and Taman, they are their supreme kings, providing them with their independence, non-subordination to the Scythians, support of the Hellenic world and the possibility of wide world exchange.
But even for the Greek citizens of the cities of the Bosporan power, personal leadership was a necessity that ensured their existence. Their national traditions did not allow them to see a king in their supreme magistrate, but, as their archon, they were ready to give the head of the state unlimited powers, since their material well-being depended on it.
The Greeks of the cities of the Bosporan kingdom, as far as we can judge from the meager data available to us, were mainly exporters and armatures, owners of sea vessels on the one hand, owners of large trading offices that maintained constant contact with neighboring tribes, and intermediary traders with another. The citizens of the Bosporus, as far as one can judge, preferred to do the latter; the first, a risky and difficult task, they provided to the citizens of other Greek cities of Asia Minor and Hellas, for whom the products delivered to them by the Bosporus were a matter of vital necessity.
Along with this, there were a considerable number of artisans and artists who worked for the foreign market and created those specific items that Greek and Asia Minor craftsmen could not supply them with.
Finally, of considerable importance were the farmers, landowners, who exploited the territories closest to the Greek cities, which they cultivated with the hands of the local population, as hired workers, sometimes with the hands of slaves, most often with the hands of the enslaved population, who became to them in the same relationship as the helots to the Spartans, the Penestes to the Thessalian nobility, the conquered Mariandines to the Heracleans.
In general, the Greek population of the Bosporus, even excluding the particularly wealthy aristocracy closely associated with the supreme power, was a population of wealthy merchants, artisans and landowners. There is no reason to assume the existence of a significant number of working proletariat. The merchant fleet with its army of oarsmen, as has been repeatedly attested, was not local; the loaders, in all likelihood, were recruited from those slaves that Panticapaeum successfully traded and which were supplied to them by neighboring nomads who were always at war.
This wealthy Greek population was primarily and mainly interested in the government providing them with a calm and secure existence, involving them less in military duties and guaranteeing them the opportunity for unhindered communication with neighboring tribes and the Greek world.
The Bosporan tyranny completely ensured this order of things for the Greek population. She did not need an army of citizens; it was rather dangerous for her. The local population, especially the warlike Thracians, provided her with a sufficient number of mercenaries; in case of need, she resorted to alliances with neighbors and contingents of vassals. The Bosporan tyrants received a permanent squad, expensive, but well armed and technically trained, from Greece. It was from there that they mainly obtained people for their navy.
For all this, only funds were needed. These funds were provided by the same trade with Greece, mainly grain. There is no doubt that the largest exporters of grain were the archons and kings of the Bosporus themselves. Attic speakers - Aeschines, Isocrates, Demosthenes - also tell us about this. This is also attested to by a number of inscriptions.
Both import and export duties gave them large incomes, especially when the Bosporus managed to get rid of the heavy hand of Athens. Finally, there is no doubt that the Spartokids and their relatives were also the largest landowners, whose lands provided a very significant amount of grain. And this has been witnessed to us repeatedly.
On these foundations the power of the Spartokids rested and remained firmly in place. From time to time they had to resort to military assistance from citizenship, to create a Greek army from the Bosporan Greeks, but this, obviously, was a transitory phenomenon, and the foundations of the Bosporan system remained, in general, the same until the last days of the dynasty.
The culture of Panticapaeum and the Bosporan Empire in general has already been discussed several times above. I pointed out the purely Greek appearance of the urban population, which only became permeated with Iranian elements towards the end of Spartocid rule. I also said that in the 4th and 3rd centuries. BC Panticapaeum is by no means just a storage place for Greek and Asia Minor goods, but has its own rather independent cultural life and is developing into one of the centers of Hellenic cultural creativity.
I have already spoken about the original funerary architecture of the Panticapaeans and the Bosporans in general, about their undoubted creativity in the development of certain archaic forms, associated with the difficult task of creating the type of monumental structures under burial mounds.
But the creativity of Bosporan artists is even more clearly reflected in local works made of precious metals (the specialty of Bosporan craftsmen), the development of which was caused by the greed for crafts made from gold and silver of their Scythian and Meotian neighbors. The starting point for characterizing their work in this regard are the coins of the Bosporus, the local origin of which cannot be doubted. Silver coinage of the 6th and 5th centuries. keeps within the framework of the general Ionian template and is not of particular interest. But the beginning of the coinage of gold, coinciding with the era of trade independence of the Bosporus, with the reign of Leukon I and his successors, and the silver accompanying this gold, is original in nature and testifies to the high artistic achievements of the Panticapaean Greek masters. The very choice of types is interesting, especially the heads of the bearded and beardless Silea and Satyr in profile and almost in full frontal view, one way or another connected with the legends about the past of Panticapaeum and the past of the ruling dynasty (Fig. 63, 64 and 65). The usual explanation - the incorrect etymology of the city's name from the name of the Greek god Pan - does not satisfy me much. I do not see any undoubted grounds for calling the deity depicted on the coins of Panticapaeum Pan. It seems that we are dealing here with some kind of tradition, the traces of which have not been preserved by the meager literary tradition. Clearer turns. The Iranian, Persian phiphon with a dart in its mouth and an ear under its feet (Fig. 64 and 65) brilliantly symbolizes the semi-Iranian military power of Panticapaeum, based on its economic power, the basis of which was the grain trade. Another common type - the Greek Apollonian griffin and below it the Don sturgeon (Fig. 63) - clearly indicates the ideas associated with Panticapaeum among the Greeks; here you can hear echoes of the legend about the Apollonian Hyperboreans, about the Arimaspians fighting with griffins for the gold of the East - in a word, about all those myths that stated the northern and eastern connections of Panticapaeum, which were considered and were the direct or indirect source of its extraordinary wealth. One of the real sources of this wealth appears right there; These are weighty Don sturgeons, valued throughout the river world. The head of a bull on silver may have the same meaning.
But these coins are even more interesting from an artistic point of view. The coins of Panticapaeum are rightly considered one of the highest achievements of ancient glyptics. The subtlety and grace of the modeling, the energy of expression, and the boldness of the interpretation of the head are almost truly inimitable and original, although they reflect the general features of Greek art of that time. But what is especially captivating is the idealized realism of the ugly, but beautiful and attractive in their ugliness heads of satyrs and sileni. There can be no doubt that the Panticapaean masters were influenced not only by the Greek originals, who set themselves the same goals, but also by the observation of the main features of the barbarian types, so familiar to Panticapaeum from daily observation.
The desire for realism is the main property of Panticapaean toreutics. It manifests itself with great force once again in the silver of the third and second centuries. BC, in a magnificent realistic, emphatically realistic depiction of a local steppe horse grazing in the steppe (Fig. 67). Next to the formulaic, powerless, flat, graceful head of Apollo on the main side of this coin, the image of the horse stands out for its rough but powerful realism. Decline of Panticapaeum in the middle and end of the 2nd century. nowhere is it clearer than on coins. The creativity of the old gold of Panticapaeum is replaced by a stereotyped and slavish copy of the most popular coin of that time - the gold staters of Lysimachus (Fig. 66).
The same features of Panticapaeum artistic creativity are also manifested in a huge, ever-increasing series of artistic works produced in the workshops of Panticapaeum for the neighboring Scythians. Here it is extremely instructive to compare the gold items from Solokha with somewhat, but slightly later, items from Kul-Oba and the Voronezh mound (Table IX, 8) and then with items from Chertomlyk and Karagodeuashkh. The now famous golden comb of Solokha (Table XIII, 1) generally gives the usual plot of equestrian combat, especially close to M. Asia, in the usual classical composition. The only way it differs from contemporary Asia Minor sculptures, which live in the traditions of already academic Athenian art, is an even greater everyday realism than in Asia Minor in the interpretation of weapons, clothing, horse harness, exactly copied from reality. There is less realism in the depiction of faces and in the types of fighters, although the desire for realism is visible here too.
We see the same thing, to an even greater extent, on a gilded silver vessel from Solokha (Table XII, 3), which gives an ordinary, well-executed hunting scene, so typical of Asia Minor Greek art. Even more interesting, overlaid with silver, it burns with a battle scene between two types of local steppe inhabitants - on foot and on horseback (Table XII, 1). And here the realism of the costume and weapons is complete. The types of faces, however, remind us of the Panticapaeum coins of the same time. Horse archers give a rougher interpretation of the face of the bearded silenus of the coins, their young companion is the familiar young satyr of Panticapaean gold and silver. The two foot opponents of the described fighters from the same camp also approach the same type. But here we already see the first glimpses of the trend that in Pergamon art gives us eternal images of the Celts. From the type of satyr, art moves to an amazingly subtle rendering not so much of trifles as of the main character traits of the depicted barbarians. We do not know which barbarians were depicted by the Panticapaean artist who worked for the king buried in Solokha. But you involuntarily remember the northern Celts or Thracians or some tribes related to them.
A step forward was made in the artifacts of Kul-Oba (Table IX, 1 and 2) and the Voronezh mound (Table IX, 3). Everyday realism remains the same, but we see two new features. An idealized type of Scythian is emerging in art, just as the same type simultaneously emerged in literature. Along with this, there is a tendency towards greater expression, towards conveying an expression of suffering and pathos - and here we come to the future features of Pergamon pathetic art. This is especially clear in the scene of dental surgery and bandaging of a wounded leg on the famous Kul-Ob electric vessel.
The last stage is the amazing horses of Chertomlyk (Table IX, 4 and 5). They are older, thinner and more artistic than the horse of the coin mentioned above. The horses are realistic in their structure and strikingly artistic in their movement. Moreover, despite the difficulties that seemed to the master to give a narrow frieze of a vase, he managed to make one feel the spaciousness and breadth of the steppes, the enthusiasm and revelry of a wild steppe herd.
The somewhat later ritual scenes of Karagodeuashkh are also interesting (Table X, 1 and 2). Here we are no longer looking at purely Greek art. On the rhyton (Plate X, 1) we have an Iranian type and design, on the plate of the headdress (Plate X, 2) an interesting Greek composition, but purely Eastern solemnity and ritualism of the central monumental figure, her servants and two male figures in the foreground - a young noble Scythian and enarean eunuch, a servant of the goddess, in women's clothing and with her round sacred cup in his hand. The true East seeps into the world of Hellenic creativity, influencing Hellas and preparing the future flowering, however, not in the steppes of Scythia, but in Sasanian Persia, of the revival of Iranian art.
We see that Panticapaeum had its own era of creativity, contributing something to the treasury of Greek art, and what new it contributed was due to its proximity to the Iranian world and its connection with the great Oriental art. He will continue to carry out the same mission in the next stage of his historical development.

Panticalei Khankai(Greek Παντικάπαιον) founded on the site of modern Kerch by immigrants from Miletus at the end of the 7th century BC. e., in its heyday it occupied about 100 hectares. The Acropolis was located on a mountain called today Mithridates. The main patron deity of Panticapaeum from the founding of the settlement was Apollo, and it was to him that the main temple of the acropolis was dedicated. The construction of the oldest and most grandiose building, by the standards of the Northern Black Sea region, of the Temple of Apollo Ietra was completed by the end of the 6th century. BC e. In addition, later, next to the palace of the Spartokids, there was a temple in honor of Aphrodite and Dionysus. Over time, the entire city was surrounded by a powerful system of stone fortifications, superior to that of Athens. In the vicinity of the city there was a necropolis, which differed from the necropolises of other Hellenic cities. In addition to the usual ground burials for Hellenes at that time, the necropolis of Panticapaeum consisted of long chains of mounds stretching along the roads from the city to the steppe. On the southern side, the city is bordered by the most significant ridge of mounds, today called Yuz-Oba - a hundred hills. Buried under their mounds were representatives of the barbarian nobility - the Scythian leaders who exercised military-political protectorate over the city. The mounds still constitute one of the most striking attractions in the vicinity of Kerch. The most popular of them are Kul-Oba, Melek-Chesmensky, Zolotoy and especially the famous Tsarsky.
The history of Panticapaeum as a city began at the end of the 7th century BC. e., when on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus (Kerch Strait) ancient Greek colonists founded a number of independent city-states (polises) that formed in the 40s. VI century BC e. military confederation. The goal of the intercity union was to confront the indigenous population - the Scythians. Panticapaeum was the largest, most powerful and probably the first. This is indicated by the fact that already from the late 40s. VI century BC e. Panticapaeum minted its own silver coin, and from the last third of the 70s. IV century BC e. - and gold.
City of Feodosia was founded by Greek colonists from Miletus in the 6th century BC. e. The ancient name of the city was Kaffa, mentioned during the time of Emperor Diocletian (284-305).
From 355 BC. e. Kaffa was supposedly part of the Bosporan kingdom. According to some estimates, ancient Kaffa was the second most important city in the European part of the Bosporan kingdom with a population of 6-8 thousand people. Economic prosperity was the reason for the outbreak of war between Feodosia and Bosporus. In 380 BC. e. The troops of King Leukon I annexed Feodosia to the Bosporan kingdom. As part of the ancient Bosporus, Feodosia was the largest trading port in the Northern Black Sea region. Trade ships with grain departed from here. The fortified center of Feodosia - the acropolis - was located on Quarantine Hill.
The city was destroyed by the Huns in the 4th century AD. e.
Chersonese Tauride, or simply Chersonesus (ancient Greek Χερσόνησος - ἡ χερσόνησος) is a polis founded by the ancient Greeks on the Heraclean Peninsula on the southwestern coast of Crimea. Nowadays the Khersones settlement is located on the territory of the Gagarinsky district of Sevastopol. For two thousand years, Chersonesus was a major political, economic and cultural center of the Northern Black Sea region, where it was the only Dorian colony. Chersonesos was a Greek colony founded in 529/528. BC e. came from Heraclea Pontus, located on the Asia Minor coast of the Black Sea. It is located in the southwestern part of Crimea, near the bay, which is currently called Karantinnaya. In the earliest layers of Chersonesus, archaeologists found a significant number of shards (fragments) of archaic black-figure ceramics, which date back no later than the 6th century BC. e.
A little over a hundred years after the founding of Chersonese, its territory already occupied the entire space of the peninsula lying between the Karantinnaya and Pesochnaya bays (translated from Greek “Chersonese” means peninsula, and the Hellenes called the southern coast of Crimea Tavrika (the country of the Taurians).

10. Socio-political life and government structure of Chersonesus.
State authority
The bulk of the free population of Chersonesos were Greeks, and the Greeks were Dorians. This is indicated by epigraphic monuments, which, until the first centuries of our era, were written in the Doric dialect. The characteristic features of the latter is the use of: α instead of y, for example in the words δάμος-δ-^ιος, βουλά, -βοολή, Χερσόνασος instead of Χερσόνησος, etc.
But, along with the Greeks, Tauris and Scythians lived in Chersonesus. Scythian names are found on amphora handles and in epigraphic monuments (ΙΡΕ I 2, 343). One of the Chersonese ambassadors in Delphi, who received proxy there, has the patronymic Σκοθα;. The same person is apparently named in the act of sale of land (ΙΡΕ I 2, 403). Thus, some people from the native population not only lived in Chersonesos, but also enjoyed civil rights there. It is difficult to say whether this was an exception or, on the contrary, a mass phenomenon. In any case, there is no doubt that Chersonesus was closely connected with the local population, and did not stand isolated from it.
The ruling class in Chersonesos were slave owners: landowners, workshop owners, traders, as well as small peasants and artisans. The oppressed and exploited class were the slaves who came from the native population; “Slave owners and slaves are the first major division into classes.” 1 In addition, the Scythian population, who lived on the territory belonging to Chersonesus, was dependent on Chersonese. The revolt of the Scythians under the leadership Savmaka is convincing evidence that the Scythians were exploited by the Greeks.
During the period under review, there was a democratic republic in Chersonesos. The forms of government bodies and the general nature of the state structure of Chersonesos have much in common with the state structure of Heraclea and its metropolis - Megara. 1 The main source for studying the state structure of Chersonesos are epigraphic monuments - inscriptions on marble slabs. Valuable documents are inscriptions issued on behalf of the state: honorary decrees, proxies, treaties, acts, etc. One of the most important monuments of Chersonesus is the oath dating back to the end of the 4th - beginning of the 3rd century. BC e. (IPE I 2, 401). Until now, it was generally accepted that the oath represented an oath that was taken by young men who had reached the age of majority - ephebes, who then received the rights of citizenship, that the oath listed all the duties that every citizen had to observe. 2 Academician S. A. Zhebelev 3 believes that all citizens of the state had to take the oath after the attempt to overthrow democracy was eliminated. This new understanding of the text of the oath gives us the opportunity to learn about the class struggle that took place in Hersemes at a fairly early period, which makes the oath an even more valuable monument.
Political life
Despite the fact that the political system of Chersonesus was called “democracy”, the leading role in the political life of the city is gradually passing into the hands of representatives of the most prosperous part of the population. Participation in public administration was not paid and therefore was practically inaccessible to those who lived only from the results of their labor. As follows from the honorary decrees and dedicatory inscriptions of Chersonese, actual power in the state gradually passes to several families, and the Chersonese democracy, as in Olbia, becomes a democracy only for a small circle of wealthy citizens.
Political life in the ancient city was always closely connected with religious life. Temples stood out in the architectural decoration of the city. Unfortunately, as a result of subsequent reconstructions and redevelopment of the city area, all the ancient temples were destroyed and were not preserved. However, we know from honorary inscriptions that there were several temples in the city. The main shrine of Chersonesos from the 4th century BC. e. became a sanctuary of the Virgin with a temple and a statue of this deity. In general, the religious life of the city at that time was rich and varied. At the head of the official pantheon, judging by the oath of citizens, were Zeus, Gaia, Helios and Virgo. In addition to the temple in the city near Chersonesus, on Cape Feolent or on the Mayachny Peninsula, there was another temple of the Virgin. In this temple, according to ancient Greek legends, the priestess was Iphigenia, the daughter of the leader of the Trojan campaign of the Greeks, Agamemnon, who was sacrificed by him. There was a temple to the Virgin in Chersonesos itself.

11.Bosporan kingdom. Government structure and socio-economic life. Uprising of Savmak
Bosporan Kingdom (or Bosporus, Vosporan kingdom (N.M. Karamzin), Vosporan tyranny) - an ancient state in the Northern Black Sea region on the Cimmerian Bosporus (Kerch Strait). The capital is Panticapaeum. Formed around 480 BC. e. as a result of the unification of Greek cities on the Kerch and Taman peninsulas, as well as the entry of Sindiki. Later it was expanded along the eastern shore of Meotida (Sea of ​​Azov) to the mouth of the Tanais (Don). From the end of the 2nd century BC. e. as part of the Pontic kingdom. From the end of the 1st century. BC e. post-Hellenistic state dependent on Rome. Became part of Byzantium in the 1st half. VI century Known from Greco-Roman historians. After the middle of the 7th century BC, Greek settlers appeared on the northern shore of the Black Sea, and by the beginning of the second quarter of the 6th century BC. e. develop a significant part of the coast, with the exception of the southern coast of Crimea. The first colony in this area was the Taganrog settlement, founded in the second half of the 7th century BC, located in the area of ​​​​modern Taganrog. Most likely, the colonies were founded as apoikia - independent policies (free civil groups ). Greek colonies were founded in the area of ​​the Cimmerian Bosporus (Kerch Strait), where there was no permanent local population. There was a permanent population in the Crimean Mountains, where the Taurian tribes lived, Scythians periodically roamed the steppes, and semi-nomadic Meotians and Sindian farmers lived around the Kuban River. At first, the colonies did not experience pressure from the barbarians, their population was very small, and the settlements had no defensive walls. Around the middle of the 6th century. BC e. Fires were recorded at some small monuments, including Myrmekia, Porthmia and Thorik, after which small fortified acropolises appeared on the first two of them. Conveniently located, possessing a good trading harbor and therefore having reached a significant level of development, Panticapaeum, presumably, became the center around which the Greek cities of both banks of the Kerch Strait united into an intercity union. Currently, an opinion has emerged that initially he managed to unite only nearby small towns around himself, and on the other side of the strait, the center founded in the 3rd quarter became the center. VI century BC e. Phanagoria. Around 510 BC e. The temple of Apollo of the Ionic order was built in Panticapaeum. Apparently, on behalf of the sacred union of cities that arose around the temple, a coin with the legend “ΑΠΟΛ” was issued. Whether this union was equal to a political one, how it was organized, who was part of it is unknown. There is a hypothesis linking the issue of these coins with Phanagoria.

Socio-economic life
The population of large territories of the Bosporan kingdom was at different stages of socio-economic development and social relations. The slave-owning mode of production reigned here, and therefore society was divided into free and bonded people. The ruling elite included the royal family and its entourage, officials of the central and local government apparatus, shipowners, slave traders, owners of land plots, craft workshops, wealthy merchants, representatives of the tribal and military nobility, and priests. The owners and managers of the land were Bosporan rulers and large landowners. There was state and private ownership of land. The Bosporan state was inhabited by free citizens of average income who did not have slaves, foreigners, as well as free communal peasants (Pelata). The latter were the main payers of taxes in kind for the right to use land and primarily bore the burden of duties in favor of the state and the local aristocracy. In addition, peasants were obliged to participate in the militia during the attack of nomadic tribes on the Bosporan kingdom. The low level of the social ladder was traditionally occupied by slaves, divided into private and state. The work of state slaves was mainly used in the construction of public buildings and defensive structures. In tribal organizations, slavery was domestic, patriarchal. Local aristocrats widely used slave labor on agricultural farms, where they mainly grew bread for sale.

State structure
According to the historical type, the Bosporan kingdom was a slave state, like the city-states that were part of it. In terms of the form of government, it was one of the varieties of despotic monarchy. From the beginning of its formation, the Bosporan kingdom was an aristocratic republic, headed from 483 BC. stood the clan of Archenaktidiv. From the middle of the 5th century. (438 BC) power passed to the Spartokid dynasty, which ruled here for three centuries. The Spartokids for a long time styled themselves archons of the Bosporus and Feodosia, and called themselves kings after the vassal barbarian peoples. Already from the III Art. BC. The double title disappears, the rulers call themselves kings (the Bosporan kings retained the title of archons in the 1st century BC only in relation to Panticapaeum).

The city-states that became part of the Bosporan kingdom had a certain autonomy and their own bodies of self-government (people's assemblies, city councils, elected positions). But already on the verge of a new era, the Bosporan kings became sole rulers, owners who called themselves “kings of kings” (with the accession of new tribes to the state, the title of head of state - king - was added to their ethnic name). In the 1st-3rd centuries AD. In the Bosporus, the tendency towards centralization of power intensified, accompanied by the formation of a complex state-bureaucratic structure with the tsarist administration at its head.

Savmak uprising
Scythian uprising in the Bosporus state in 107 BC. e. It flared up in Panticapaeum during negotiations with Diophantus on the transfer of power from the Bosporan king Perisad V to the Pontic king Mithridates VI Eupator (See Mithridates VI Eupator). Perisad was killed by Savmak, and Diophantus fled to Chersonesos. The rebels took possession of the entire European part of the Bosporus. In the N. century. The Scythian population, consisting of dependent peasants, artisans, and slaves, participated. S.v. prevented the implementation of a political deal, with the help of which the slave-owning elite of the Bosporus, trying to find a way out of the acute crisis and maintain their class dominance, tried to establish a regime of firm power, transferring it into the hands of Mithridates VI. The rebel leader Savmak became the ruler of Bosporus. The system established during the reign of Savmak, which lasted about a year, is unknown. After lengthy preparation, Mithridates VI sent a large punitive expedition of Diophantus to Sinope. In Crimea, Chersonesus detachments were included in it. Diophantus' troops took Feodosia, crossed the Kerch Peninsula and captured Panticapaeum. S.v. was suppressed, Savmak was captured, and the Bosporan state came under the rule of Mithridates VI.

Slavs in Crimea.

The Slavs appeared in Crimea in the first centuries of our era. Some historians associate their appearance on the peninsula with the so-called great migration of peoples of the 3rd-8th centuries. n. e. The most expressive traces of Slavic culture identified by archaeologists date back to the times of Kievan Rus. For example, during excavations on Tepsel Hill (near the current urban-type settlement of Planerskoye), it was discovered that Slavic settlements existed there for a long time, arose in the 12th-13th centuries. The temple opened on the hill is close in its plan to the temples of Kievan Rus, and the oven excavated in one of the dwellings resembles those of ancient Russia. The same can be said about the ceramics found during excavations. The remains of ancient Russian churches have been identified in various regions of the peninsula, most of them are located in eastern Crimea. Fresco paintings and plaster, judging by the fragments found in these ruins, are close to similar material from Kyiv cathedrals of the 11th-12th centuries.
Written sources indicate that Crimea was still at the beginning of the 9th century. falls into the sphere of influence of the ancient Russian princes. For example, the life of Stephen of Sourozh says that in the first quarter of the 9th century. Russian prince Bravlin attacked Crimea, captured Kherson, Kerch and Sudak (some historians consider this episode semi-legendary).
In the middle of the 11th century. The ancient Rus begin to settle in the Azov region, take possession of the Greek city of Tamatarcha, and the later Tmutarakan - the capital of the future ancient Russian principality. Sources give reason to believe that by the middle of the 10th century. the power of the Kyiv princes extended to part of the lands in the Crimea and, above all, to the Kerch Peninsula.
In 944, the Kiev prince Igor installed his governor in the Crimea, near the Kerch Strait, displacing the Khazars from there. It is difficult to accurately establish the boundaries of ownership of Russian lands in Crimea during this period. But the increased influence of the Rus in Crimea is evidenced by the text of the agreement concluded by Igor with Byzantium after an unsuccessful campaign against Constantinople in 945: “And about the Korsun country: there are so many cities in that part, but the princes of Rus do not have power... and that the country does not submit to you,” that is, to the prince of Kiev. By this treaty, Vazantium sought to limit the influence of the Russian princes in Crimea, taking advantage of the defeat of the Rus in 945. By the same treaty, the Kiev prince pledged to defend the Korsun land from the Black Bulgarians, which was only possible if Igor retained a certain territory in the eastern part of the Crimea or on Taman, where at that time the future Tmutarakan principality was taking shape.
Igor's son Svyatoslav managed to strengthen the influence of the Kyiv princes in Crimea, especially in the period 962-971. Only Svyatoslav’s unsuccessful campaign in Bulgaria forced him to promise the Byzantine emperor not to claim “neither the power of Korsun, and as many of their cities as possible, nor the country of Bulgaria.” But this was a temporary retreat of Rus' in Crimea. Svyatoslav's son Vladimir carried out a campaign against Korsun in 988 and captured the city.
Byzantium had to sign an agreement with the Kyiv prince, which recognized his possessions in the Crimea and the Azov region. Thanks to this agreement, Kievan Rus gained access to the Black Sea and strengthened the Tmutarakan principality, which was dependent on it. After the Korsun campaign, the city of Bosporus and its district were annexed to this principality, which received the Russian name Korchev (from the word “korcha” - forge, present-day Kerch).
Throughout the XI century. The Tmutarakan principality, including its lands on the Crimean Peninsula, belonged to Ancient Rus'. At the end of the 11th century. mentions of Tmutarakan disappear from the chronicle, but, obviously, even before the middle of the 12th century. The Kerch Peninsula and Taman were Russian. In the second half of the 12th century. The Tmutarakan principality fell under the blows of the Polovtsians, who roamed the Northern Black Sea region.
A number of written sources indicate that the lands on the Kerch Peninsula belonged to the Kyiv princes. Idrisi called the Kerch Strait “the mouth of the Russian River” and even knew a city in this region with the name “Russia” (We can assume that this is the Russian Korchev, which, according to a Byzantine source in 1169, was called “Russia” for some time). On medieval European and Asian maps of Crimea, many names of cities were preserved, indicating the long and long stay of the Rus on the peninsula: “Cosal di Rossia”, “Russia”, “Rossofar”, “Rosso”, “Rosika” (near Evpatoria), etc.
The Polovtsian and then the Mongol-Tatar invasion cut off Crimea from Kievan Rus for a long time.

13. Principality of Tmutarakan. Political structure, socio-economic life.
There are still many gaps in the history of the ancient Russian semi-enclave on the shores of the Kerch Strait - the Tmutarakan Principality. For example, the first mention of it in Russian chronicles appears in 988, when the Kiev prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich sent his young son Mstislav to reign in Tmutarakan, but the circumstances under which these lands came into the possession of the Kiev princes, and the time when this happened, remain a subject of debate among modern historians. It is not known for certain who owned these lands before the arrival of the Russians. We do not know the exact boundaries of the Tmutarakan land and the time when Tmutarakan ceased to be a Russian principality.
According to one version, the Tmutarakan table was captured by Svyatoslav during a campaign against the Khazars back in 965-966. According to another, these lands, during the seizure by the Kyiv prince Vladimir Korsuni (medieval Kherson, modern Sevastopol), were granted by the Byzantines to the Russian prince for the obligation to protect the Crimean possessions of the empire from raids by nomads.
A lot of reliable information about the Tmutarakan principality has been preserved. It is safe to say that its territory included the Kerch Peninsula with the city of Korchev (Greek Bosporus, modern Kerch) and the Taman Peninsula, where the capital of the principality was the city of Tmutarakan (Greek Tamatarkha, Matrakha, modern village of Taman). Probably, the Tmutarakan principality also owned some sections of the coast of the Eastern Azov region, where rich fisheries had long been located.
Residents of the coasts of the Kerch Strait were engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding, and caught fish, which abounded in the waters of the Azov and Black Seas. Crafts flourished in the cities, primarily pottery production. But the most important occupation of the inhabitants of the principality, located at the intersection of trade routes, was trade, which brought great income to the townspeople and the state.
The population of the principality was motley. Many Greeks lived here, settled in the cities and villages of Turkic nomads, including the Khazars, Jewish merchants and artisans, as well as people from the Caucasus, primarily the Zikhs and Alans. Over time, a noticeable Slavic layer appeared, represented by princely people, warriors, merchants, artisans and clergy.
The city of Tmutarakan was the seat of the head of the Zikh diocese, which reported directly to the Patriarch of Constantinople. Lead seals of Archbishop Anthony, who headed the diocese in the middle of the 11th century, are known.
Prince Mstislav was a very energetic ruler. According to the Tale of Bygone Years, in 1022 he set out on a campaign against the Kasogs. They came out to meet him. They were led by Prince Rededya. Both princes had a strong build and were distinguished by their strength, so they agreed to resolve the dispute by combat, so as not to destroy my people. According to the customs of that time, they fought without weapons, and only the winner had the right to kill the vanquished. The victory went to Mstislav. According to the agreement, the Tmutarakan prince received land, power over the Kasogs, property and the family of the vanquished.
The very next year, Mstislav, relying on his squad, the Kasogs and Khazars (inhabitants of the principality) subordinate to him, opposed his brother Yaroslav and fought for the Kiev throne. Having defeated Yaroslav, he received half of Rus' with its capital in Chernigov. Soon Mstislav leaves Tmutarakan, which is now controlled by his proxies.
Later, Prince Gleb ruled here, famous for measuring the distance from Tmutarakan to Korchev along the ice in 1068 and immortalizing this event with an inscription on the famous Tmutarakan stone, found in Taman at the end of the 18th century. For some time, Rostislav Vsevolodovich reigned here, hiding from the Kyiv government. He was poisoned by the Greeks at the instigation of Grand Duke Svyatoslav. Here and later, rogue princes more than once found refuge.
The most famous Tmutarakan prince was Oleg Svyatoslavich (baptized Mikhail). He first arrived in Tmutarakan in 1078 and, like Rostislav, hid here from his enemies. Having been defeated in the struggle for the reign of Chernigov, he was betrayed by the Polovtsians, captured by the “Kozars” in Tmutarakan and handed over to the Byzantines. His fate was determined by the change of power in Constantinople. Under the patronage of the new emperor of Byzantium, a lead seal with the image of the same archangel and the Greek inscription was preserved: “Lord help Michael, archon of Matrakha, Zikhia and all Khazaria.” An active and successful politician, Oleg has reigned in Tmutarakan for eleven years, but closely follows the events in Kyiv, dreaming of taking the Chernigov throne. And after the death in 1093 of the last of the Yaroslavichs - Vsevolod, realizing that the new Grand Duke Vladimir Monomakh was still weak, in 1094, with his allies - the Polovtsian khans, he realized his dream - he established himself in Chernigov. After this event, Tmutarakan is no longer mentioned in the chronicles as a Russian possession.
The history of the Russian church is also closely connected with Tmutarakan. In addition to the church built by Mstislav in the name of the Mother of God, in gratitude for the victory over Rededya granted by the Virgin Mary, a Russian monastery was founded here near the city.
Its founder was the monk Nikon, known as one of the first Russian chroniclers and spiritual pillars of Rus' at that time, an associate of St. Theodosius of Pechersk. Nikon's influence on the spiritual and cultural life of Kievan Rus cannot be overestimated. Nikon lived for a long time in Tmutarakan and sometimes carried out diplomatic assignments for the townspeople. It was probably here that he began to create a new chronicle, which he completed in Kyiv.
After the end of the Old Russian reign in Tmutarakan, Russian people continued to live in Taman for a long time, and the Russian language was used here even in the middle of the 13th century.

The first colonies of the Hellenes (as the ancient Greeks called themselves) were founded in Crimea as a result of the Great Greek Colonization - the settlement of the inhabitants of mainland Greece in the basins of the Mediterranean and Black Seas.

Since the middle of the 8th century BC, on the coasts of the Black, Marmara and Mediterranean seas, the Greeks have been looking for new lands for themselves, who were forced to look for a better life by the political struggle in the city-states (city-states), the lack of arable land and deposits. Visiting the northern shores of the Black Sea, the Hellenes called it the “Inhospitable Sea”; it is quite possible that they were frightened by the hostility of the Scythians, perhaps by the “cold” climate. The first contacts of the Hellenic Greeks with the local population occurred in the 7th century BC. It was at this time that a painted Rhodian vase of remarkable work was made, which was discovered in a Scythian burial ground near Kerch. The Ionian tribes, experienced sailors, were the first to discover a country with fertile soil, abundant vegetation, fish, game, and enormous opportunities for trade with local “barbarians.” They had good ships: 26 meters long, 12 meters wide. Each ship could accommodate 10,000 amphorae in which food was transported (one amphora = 20 liters).

It cannot be said that the Greek colonists “went into the unknown.” Long before the start of colonization, their ships visited the northern shores of the Black Sea, which they called Pont Aksinsky, that is, the “Inhospitable Sea.” Probably, the Hellenes were frightened by the relatively cold climate and the hostility of the local inhabitants - the Tauri and Scythians. However, after a few colonies were founded here, and lively trade began with the local residents, the sea was renamed Pont Euxine, that is, the “Hospitable Sea.”

The first Greek settlers in Crimea were residents of the largest Greek city - the state of Miletus. Their attention was attracted by the areas along the shores of the Kerch Strait. Here, on the site of modern Kerch, the Milesians founded a city called Panticapaeum. According to legend, the Scythian king ceded the land for the founding of the city to the Greeks. Probably, the Scythians were interested in developing trade with the Greeks, and therefore did not interfere with the latter organizing colonies.

During the 6th century BC, the Greek cities of Tiritaka (south of Kerch near the village of Arshintsevo, on the shores of the Kerch Bay), Kitey (on the Kerch Peninsula, 40 kilometers south of Kerch), Kimmerik (on the southern shore of the Kerch Gulf) appeared on the Kerch Peninsula peninsula, on the western slope of Mount Onuk), Mirmekiy (on the Kerch Peninsula, 4 kilometers from Kerch) and others, which later formed the Bosporan state.

A number of cities were founded on the opposite shore of the Kerch Strait (Bosporus). From the point of view of the ancients, this strait separated Europe and Asia, therefore the lands on its eastern shore were called the “Asian Bosporus”. The largest city of the Asian Bosporus was Phanagoria, named after the oikist (leader of the settlers) Phanagoras.

In addition, the Milesians founded more than 70 settlements on the banks of the Euxine Pontus. Emporia - Greek trading posts - began to appear on the shores of the Black Sea in the 7th century BC, the first of which was Borysphenida at the entrance to the Dnieper estuary on the island of Berezan.

Then, in the first half of the 6th century BC, Olbia appeared at the mouth of the Southern Bug (Gipanis), at the mouth of the Dniester - Tiras, and on the Kerch Peninsula - Panticapaeum (on the site of modern Kerch) and further towards Meganom the city of Feodosia (on the shore of the Gulf of Feodosia) . By the way, this is the only city in Crimea that has retained its name from antiquity to the present day.

Residents of the Bosporan cities soon launched the so-called " secondary colonization" - now they themselves founded numerous rural settlements along the shores of the Bosporus Strait.

At the end of the 6th century BC, Kerkinitida appeared in western Crimea, on the site of modern Evpatoria.

In the southwest, on the Heraclean Peninsula, the inhabitants of Heraclea Pontus (a city on the southern shore of the Black Sea) and Delos (a city on the island of the same name in the Aegean Sea) founded Tauric Chersonesus in the area of ​​modern Sevastopol. The city was built on the site of an already existing settlement and among all the inhabitants of the city - Taurians, Scythians and Dorian Greeks, at first there was even equality, but later the titular Greek nation emerged.

By the end of the 5th century BC, the Greek colonization of Crimea and the shores of the Black Sea was completed. Greek settlements appeared where there was the possibility of regular trade with the local population, which ensured the sale of Attic goods.

From about the 5th century BC, Scythian-Greek connections began to be established and rapidly developed. There were also raids and military campaigns of the Scythians on the Greek Black Sea cities. The Scythians attacked the city of Myrmekiy at the beginning of the 5th century BC. During archaeological excavations it was discovered that some of the settlements that were located near the Greek colonies during this period were destroyed in fires. Perhaps that is why the Greeks began to strengthen their policies by erecting defensive structures. Scythian attacks may have been one of the reasons why the independent Greek Black Sea cities united in a military alliance around 480 BC...

In the first half of the 5th century BC, Panticapaeum united around itself the Greek city-colonies located on both banks of the Cimmerian Bosporus - Kerch Strait. The Greek city-states, who understood the need for unification for self-preservation and the implementation of their economic interests, formed the Bosporan kingdom.

The Bosporan kingdom occupied the entire Kerch Peninsula and Taman to the Sea of ​​Azov and Kuban. (The largest cities were on the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea - the capital Panticapaeum (Kerch), Mirlikiy, Tiritaka, Nymphaeum, Kitey, Cimmerik, Feodosia, and on the Taman Peninsula - Phanagoria, Kepy, Hermonassa, Gorgypia.)

During its heyday as the capital of the Bosporus Kingdom, Panticapaeum occupied an area of ​​about 100 hectares. The city had a convenient harbor, was surrounded by a defensive wall already in the 6th century BC, and was located on the slopes of Mount Mithridates (modern name). At the top of the mountain there was an acropolis with temples and public buildings.

In Panticapaeum there were large shipyards that also repaired ships. The Bosporan kingdom had a navy consisting of narrow and long fast-moving trireme ships, which had three rows of oars on each side and a powerful and durable ram at the bow.

Triremes were usually 36 meters long, 6 meters wide, and the draft depth was about a meter. The crew of such a ship consisted of 200 people - oarsmen, sailors and a small detachment of marines. There were almost no boarding battles then; triremes rammed enemy ships at full speed and sank them. The trireme ram consisted of two or three sharp sword-shaped tips. The ships reached speeds of up to five knots, and with a sail - up to eight knots - approximately 15 kilometers per hour.

The main income came from trade with Greece and other Attic states. The Athenian state received half of the bread it needed - one million pounds, timber, furs, leather - from the Bosporan kingdom. In the 1st - 2nd centuries AD Panticapaeum remained a major craft and trade center, but gradually the city fell into decay.

In the 3rd century AD, the kingdom became the target of attacks by barbarian tribes (Goths, Gelurs, Borans and others). The final blow to the kingdom was dealt by the invasion of the Huns, who destroyed the Bosporan cities and destroyed the Bosporan state at the end of the 4th century.

The most famous political figure of ancient Crimea was the Pontic king Mithridates VI Eupator (120 - 63 BC). The power of his state was such that it posed a threat even to the all-powerful Roman Empire. Having inherited a small kingdom from his father (located on the southern shore of the Black Sea), he expanded it through conquests and temporarily weakened Roman rule in the eastern provinces of the empire.

In 107 BC, the Bosporan king Perisad renounced power in favor of Mithridates. Having gained power over the Bosporan state, the Pontic king further strengthened his power. Chersonesus and the Bosporan kingdom gave him bread and money, and the northeastern barbarians, including the Scythians, replenished his army.

Having ultimately been defeated in the wars with Rome, Mithridates fled to Panticapaeum. Here he prepared for a new campaign against the Romans. But the blockade of the cities of Taurica by the Romans had an unfavorable effect on their position. Uprisings began. The king’s son, Pharnaces, decided to take advantage of this to take the much-coveted throne.

In 63 BC, Mithridates, abandoned by everyone in his Panticapaeum palace, after unsuccessful attempts to poison himself, ordered a Celt slave to stab himself with a sword. In memory of this event, Mount Mithridates, dominating Kerch, received its name.

15 years after the death of his father, Pharnaces, who became king in the Bosporus, undertook a successful trip to the Caucasus to Colchis and further to Cappadocia. He decided to restore the former kingdom of his father and in 49 BC he went to Asia Minor to regain the Pontic throne.

Pharnaces II achieved significant success, but on August 2, 47 BC, in the battle of the city of Zela, the army of the Pontic king was defeated by the Roman legions of Julius Caesar, who wrote his famous words in a report to the Senate of Rome: “Veni, vidi, vici” - “I came, I saw” , won". Pharnaces again submitted to Rome and was sent back to his Crimean lands, where in an internecine struggle he was killed by the local leader Asander.

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