Greek colony on the shores of the Kerch Strait. Greek city-colonies in the Crimea. Greek colonies in Crimea

Greek colonization on the shores of the Black Sea went, as mentioned above, in two ways. After repeated, but random expeditions of individual brave sailors, who first became acquainted with the conditions of navigation in the Black Sea and with its harbors (memories of these expeditions, clothed by Greek creative imagination in the form of a myth, were preserved in the epic of the Argonauts and in the part of the Odyssey dependent on this epic) , the systematic exploitation of Pontus Euxinus, as the Greeks called the Black Sea, begins, by Greek, mainly Asia Minor navigators. 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 these Greek cities the opportunity to develop broad activities, these trading posts and stations grow into real cities with ever-growing 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 state, the same process begins on the northern coast, and here, too, fish stations and trading posts initially appear, turning into real cities only from the 6th century. to R. Chr.
Greek navigators on the northern coast of the Black Sea chose mainly the mouths of the large South Russian rivers, which in their estuaries provided a sure haven for Greek ships and, at the same time, were extremely rich in large and expensive river fish. The same riches of fish were 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. It was in these two regions that the main colonial activity of the Greeks of Asia Minor was concentrated.
In the western part, Tiras arose at the mouth of the Dniester and Olvius at the Bug and Dnieper estuary, in the eastern part, where, along with Miletus, the colonizer of the western part of the northern coast of the Black Sea, Teos, Mytilene and Klazomena worked vigorously, more and more rich settlements appeared - Phanagoria , Germonassa, the port of Sindh and others 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 factories the nearest points convenient for fishing and trade. The colony of Panticapaeum is considered, for example, the city of Tanais that arose at the mouth of the Don.
All this huge colonial work in the west and east was done in a relatively short period of time, in the era of the magnificent flourishing of the Asia Minor coast - in the 7th and, especially, in the 6th century. to R. Chr.
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 thus concentrated in its harbor all the products that were rafted to the sea along the Dnieper and along the Bug. From it, as from a natural center, Greek cultural 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 difficult. The old culture was concentrated here mainly along the course of the Kuban, whose delta - 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 not very suitable for regular sailing; The sea coast of the Taman Peninsula does not have good harbors and therefore cannot serve as a center for all trade in the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov and the rivers flowing into it.
More convenient for navigation was the European coast of the Kerch Strait. Ancient Panticapaeum (now Kerch) both in antiquity and now was a natural center for stopping and reloading goods moving from the Sea of ​​Azov further along the Black Sea. The port of Feodosiya, on the other hand, was the best outlet to the sea for the works of the northern and northeastern parts of the Crimean steppe.
It is natural, therefore, that the dispute for superiority should have been between Taman Phanagoria, the best and most convenient port of the Kuban delta, Panticapaeum and Feodosia. He was predetermined in favor of Panticapaeum by the fact that. of primary importance for trade with Greece were not so much the products of the Crimea and the Kuban with Taman, but the Don and Azov fish, the products of cattle breeding of the Don steppes and those products of the Urals, Siberia and Turkestan, as well as central Russia, which went along the great eastern caravan route and in the mouths The Don first came into contact with the Mediterranean waterway. Naturally arising at the mouth of the Don, Tanais, the final point of this path, 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 that went from the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov to 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 urban acropolis (now the so-called Mithridates Mountain) fortified by nature, advanced into the sea, the comparative wealth of fresh water did not allow anyone to enter into successful competition with it.
The third less significant and less important group of Greek cities in southern Russia were Greek settlements on the southern and southwestern coast of Crimea. The mountainous southern coast of Crimea does not have convenient natural ports, nor does the steppe western coast of Crimea. On the other hand, the places near the Sevastopol Bay are exceptionally convenient for navigation, both the Sevastopol roadstead itself and the smaller and less protected bays adjacent to it, which are very suitable, however, for sailing and rowing ships. The Greeks could not use these harbors. In a long and dangerous voyage along the coast of the Crimea, Greek ships needed to have a place for a long and quiet stop. This is how Chersonese arose, originally, probably, as an Ionian sea station.
However, it must be taken into account that this station could and should have acquired an independent significance. First of all, all the products of the mountainous Crimea and the valleys associated with it were naturally sent here. The settlements along the western steppe coast of the Crimea were also naturally drawn to Chersonesos, first of all, Kerkinitida, located near the present Evpatoria. Finally, and most importantly, Sevastopol and the Crimea have always been connected with the opposite southern coast of the Black Sea, with its network of flourishing Greek colonies. It was extremely important for these colonies to have a harbor in the Crimea, since in this way they could get the products of the steppe Crimea they needed, mainly bread, in which they themselves were never particularly rich.
It is clear, therefore, 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, takes possession of the Ionian camp in the Crimea and sends its colony there, thus turning Chersonesos, which was insignificant earlier, into a large and relatively flourishing city, whose fates are closely connected with the fate of the rest of the Greek world on the northern coast of the Black Sea.
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, the group that we will call the Bosporus and which under This name was also known to the Greeks. Tiras and Olbia have always been and have remained isolated advanced posts of the Greek world, surrounded on all sides by a sea of ​​alien tribes, numerous and constantly fed from outside by a new influx of forces. It was beyond the power of the Greek world to create a strong isolated Hellenized Greek state 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 commercial fortified settlements inhabited by semi-Greek residents. The areas closest to Olbia were engaged in intensive agriculture. Olbia's trade went far to the north. Not to mention the fact that Greek products saturate the flourishing middle Dnieper region and Poltava region, the influence of these products is felt right up to the distant Kama region and, perhaps, even Western Siberia and Altai.
But its significance and activities have always depended entirely on its neighbors. As long as a strong Scythian kingdom existed, Olbia, dependent on it, could freely develop, enriching both itself and the Scythians. Its most brilliant period was the 6th century BC. BC, when Olbia directly transferred, under the protection of the Scythians, the products of the north to their homeland in Asia Minor, and the 4th century. BC, when she freed herself from the guardianship and trade oppression of the Athenian maritime power and again entered into a relationship with her mother, the resurgent Miletus. The Scythian kingdom at that time was still strong enough to provide Olbia with relative calm and peace.
The situation became more difficult in the 3rd century, when the crumbling Scythian power demanded more and more sacrifices from Olbia, unable to protect it from western and eastern newcomers who destroyed the Scythian state: Thracians, Celts, Sarmatians. This is clearly evidenced by a large Olbian inscription in honor of Protogenes, a prominent Olbian citizen, wealthy merchant, armater and exporter, like all prominent citizens of Olbia at that time, who more than once rescued Olbia from difficult situations related to the demands of her overlord and strayers approaching the walls of Olbia predators. He also helped Olbia in its defense, building towers and parts of the defensive wall at his own expense, and helped her out in food difficulties associated with the constant devastation of the areas that fed Olbia with bread.
In a different position were 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 time of the 2nd millennium has been under the strongest cultural influence of the East. The Cimmerians layered on this population. From the merger of these two elements, the tribes of Sinds, Meots, Sauromatians, Satarchees, in all likelihood, the Taurians, inhabiting the mountainous part of the Crimea, where they were driven out, were forced 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 increased more and more, as the focus of the Scythians shifted 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 stable settled way of life, were in constant trade relations with their southern and eastern neighbors and lived a relatively developed economic life of farmers, cattle breeders and fishermen.
The Greek colonies immediately found in them ready-made 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 richest Kuban delta.
Naturally, the time of the political upsurge of Taman was also the time of a major flourishing of the Greek colonies on the shores of the Kerch Strait and their intense influence on neighboring tribes. The necropolis of Panticapaeum, its first abundant minting of silver coins show that the end of the 6th and the beginning of the 5th century BC. were the era of the high rise 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 specifically 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 appears and a number of others near it smaller settlements. We see the same thing in Taman, where finds of ancient Ionian Greek dishes are not uncommon and the oldest burials of the necropolises of individual cities are the 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 S.-V. coast of the Mediterranean. sea, to Thrace and, especially, to the Black Sea coast. The main stimulus was to provide their ever-strengthening and developing industry with raw materials and their ever-increasing population with bread, the production of which, as we have seen, was primordial both in the valley of the Dnieper and the Bug and along the Kuban, and naturally captured in the south of Russia, as demand grew. , all large spaces.
The attraction of Athens to new places on the Black Sea coast is natural and understandable. On the largest grain market in Hellas - in Italy and Sicily - Athens met serious competition from the Dorians in general and Sparta in particular, and were by no means the masters of this market. Egypt, rich in bread, 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, the connection with which was the monopoly of the Ionian Greeks of Asia Minor, whose trade routes and business ties were now claimed, after the Persian wars, by Athens, which liberated, but also ruined them.
The creation by Athens of great naval power, the seizure of the straits and important trading posts 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 make a number of steps to strengthen and strengthen this dependency.
Among these decisive steps, the most serious was the occupation by Athens and the settlement by its armed colonists of a number of important points on the southern coast of the Black Sea. They did the same in the north.
Probably not having the opportunity to occupy the strong Panticapaeum, which was under the patronage of the Scythians, they captured the neighboring Nymphaeum, which had an excellent harbor and was associated with a number of neighboring Scythian and non-Scythian tribes of Crimea. They turned this minor city into a major trading harbor and an important center of exchange, thus creating strong competition for Panticapaeum. His complete trading independence is evidenced by his excellent, artistic silver, minted by him at that time.
The rich and extensive necropolis of the city, the richest burials of which date back to the 5th c. to R. Chr. It is characteristic that, along with the purely Greek burials of the Nymphaeum necropolis, we have a number of burial mounds with non-Greek or semi-Greek burials, that is, with the burials of the leaders of neighboring tribes, who were attracted to Nymphaeum by his cultural influence and constant trade relations. The composition of the richest Nymphaeum 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 casters of the 6th and 5th centuries. to R. Chr.
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 to the Ionian Theodosia, just as Nymphaeum was a competitor to Panticapaeum.
Athens also set a firm foot on Taman in the land of the most cultured of the Taman tribes - the Sinds. And here they created their urban center - Stratoclea, probably not a new foundation, but renaming and settling by their colonists one of the old settlements of Taman. To them, perhaps, the Sinds owe their state association and the Greek physiognomy that this association adopted, if this did not happen even earlier as a result of the settlement of the Taman coast with Greek colonies. This is evidenced by the unusually fine artistic silver coinage 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 back.
The strong cultural influence of the Greeks on the local tribes, which had already begun earlier (I will note, for example, one local burial containing a beautiful Rhodes vase of the beginning of the 6th century BC), is felt at this time with particular brightness. In the group of the so-called Seven-brother mounds in the Kuban delta, near st. Krymskaya we find several burials of the 5th century. BC Chr., the inventory of which is strikingly reminiscent of the inventory of the just mentioned Nymphaeum burial mounds. And here, next to things of undoubted Athenian origin, we find excellent works of Asia Minor workshops.
What were the relations between Athens and Panticapaeum at that time, we do not know. That heyday that we find in Nymphaeum and in the land of the Sinds in the 5th century. BC, we do not observe in Panticapaeum. There are no traces of Panticapaeum's dependence on Athens. It is characteristic, however, that just at that time a major political upheaval took place in Panticapaeum. The power, which until that time was in the hands of several leading clans, perhaps the descendants of the ancient founders of the colonies - the leaders (Anakts) of the migrating Milesians, whom our tradition probably calls by the invented name of the Archaanactides (descendants of the ancient Anakts), now falls into the hands of one tyrant, bearing the Thracian name of Spartok (in 438 - 7 BC) The Thracian name of 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 pointed out how strong the Thracian elements were in the ancient population of the Bosporus, Taman and the Azov region. Therefore, one can think that Spartok belonged to a local rich, wicked family, which became part of the sovereign families of Panticapaeum. With this assumption, it is clear why Spartocus and his descendants managed to firmly establish their power in Panticapaeum, uniting around it both the Greeks and the local native population.
The appearance in Panticapaeum of a strong unified power in the hands of its energetic and talented bearer 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 the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, without which the Greeks here, as in Olbia, would inevitably be only an instrument in the hands of the dominant Scythian tribe.
It is unlikely that the Bosporan tyranny appeared with the consent and with the assistance of Athens, rather it was created in opposition to their influence. One must think that its appearance was one of the reasons that caused, three years after its creation, sending by Athens in 435 - 4 BC. large sea 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 the strengthening of which, contrary to the wishes of Athens, the strengthening, which Athens could hardly prevent without further exertion of forces, was formidable for them. danger. As an ally and client, Panticapaeum, however, could have been an excellent support for Athenian commercial policy, a support that Athens could not afford from her weak colonies at Nymphaeum and Stratoclea. Let us remember that Athens faced serious difficulties in Greece and that the Bosporus was hundreds of miles away from the base of Athenian power.
Compensation for the Bosporus for this support of the commercial interests of Athens was naturally the patronage of Athens by the newly born Panticapaeum tyranny, which still felt far from strong (a number of exiles from Panticaeum sat nearby in Theodosius and were ready to return at the first opportunity), as well as assistance, in case possible, albeit unlikely, sharp clash with the Scythians. These could be, and probably were, the conditions set by Athens for Spartoc during the expedition of Pericles to the Black Sea.
Spartok could not but agree to these conditions, and as a result, those permanent and lasting 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 an unlimited right to export bread from Panticapaeum and was forced to agree to limit his right to free trade in bread: without permission from 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 Spartoc dynasty held on to 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 Bosporan state, consistently carried out by the successor of Spartok Satyr I (433/2 - 389/8 BC), and the son of the latter Leukon I (389/8 - 349/8 BC), and children and the successors of Leukon Spartok II (349/8 - 344/3 BC), and Perisad I (349/8 - 310/9 BC), were: strengthening their power on the European and Asian coast of the Kerch Strait, further strengthening of its independence in relation to the Scythians and the 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 a decisive maritime power in the Aegean.
The first task that Spartok's successor Satyr had already faced was the consolidation of all trade and, mainly, the trade in grain in the hands of the Bosporus. The question was not so much about the bread of Taman and Panticapaeum's own territory, but about the bread of the northern steppe Crimea, for which Feodosia was a natural export harbor. This bread was claimed not only by Athens with its counterpart Panticapaeum, but, as we have seen, the cities of the southern coast of the Black Sea also needed it, mainly the ever-growing Heraclea, which had already become a strong foot in Chersonesus and was trying to acquire a dominant influence in Feodosia. The result of this rivalry was the war of the Bosporus and Heraclea over Theodosius, which began under Satire and ended with Leukon joining Theodosius to the Bosporan state.
At the same time, Satyr, and then Levkon, succeeded, taking advantage of the defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War, to introduce their relations with Athens into a new direction. Through bribery, Satyr forced him to surrender to him the Athenian fortified colony in Nymphaeum, and then he and Levkon managed to insist before Athens on the right of free trade in Bosporan bread 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 highly probable that Phanagoria, the main trading center of Taman, 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 have independent abundant coinage in Phanagoria in the 4th - 3rd centuries. to R. Chr. we do not find the main monetary unit and on Taman are panticapaeum 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, already in the era of Athenian domination were strongly Hellenized and had a certain independence. A number of individual indications allow us to think that from ancient times they were drawn to the same urban center with the Greek and local population (first the port of Sind, then Gorgippia - now Anapa) and were under the control of their local dynasts, the same half-Thracians, half-Greeks, like the Bosporan tyrants perhaps even related to these latter. Under Levkon, the Sinds form part of his state, i.e., they recognize him as their king, along with other neighboring tribes, whose circle is expanding under the successors of Levkon. Whether this meant that these tribes were ruled from Panticapaeum, or one must think that the Bosporan dynast was their overlord, while each individual tribe was headed by its own local rulers, and it is quite clear. The second, however, is more likely. A number of indications tell us that the Sinds, in parallel with the Bosporan lords, had their own semi-Greek dynasty.
We have even less data to clarify the relationship of the Scythians to the emerging state, which was very unpleasant for them. The Scythians, however, undoubtedly, did not leave their claims to suzerainty over Panticapaeum. This can be confirmed by evidence of a fierce struggle against them by Perisad I.
More than a century passed from the time of the foundation of tyranny in the Bosporus to the end of the reign of Perisad I. The dominion of the Spartokid dynasty over the Bosporus bore fruit. The Bosporus turned into a strong and rather stable power, which developed huge trade with Greece, mainly with Athens. The main subject of export was bread, in any case, we hear about it most of all. But the products of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov were also of no small importance - its fish, cattle and slaves from the Don region, furs and goods that went 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 .
Somewhat weakened the economic growth and material prosperity of the Bosporus only those 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, internal confusion reigned in individual Hellenic states and the corrupting influence on the Greek life of Persia with its mighty material resources.
At the end of this period, however, the situation changes. The rise of Macedonia and the conquests of Alexander create the great world of Hellenism. The war of all against all temporarily stops, relative order sets in. But for the grain trade of Panticapaeum, this plus is covered by the minus associated with it: Egypt, which has opened up to world trade, and the areas rich in grain in Asia Minor, are its competitors and very strong competitors. It must be borne in mind, however, that if supply rises, then demand also rises, thanks to the growth and development of urban life throughout the face of the Hellenistic world.
In any case, IV century. to R. Chr. is a blessed time for Hellenism on the Black Sea. Safety at sea, supported by a strong Bosporan fleet, security of sales, freedom of trade create a high rise in material security for all the Greek cities of southern Russia, not only in the space of the Bosporus, but also outside it. For Olbia and Chersonesos IV c. to R. Chr. the same brilliant time as for the Bosporus.
Greek cities are built up, temples and porticos grow in them, theaters appear in some places; squares and temples are decorated with statues, sometimes of first-class Greek masters. In everyday life, a lot of imported Greek things of the best quality appear. In the cities themselves, Greek workshops successfully operate, serving mainly the external market. Writers and scientists, historians, rhetoricians, philosophers, poets appear in the largest centers, local myths are collected, and local historical legend is recorded. In the Bosporus, as we shall see below, a flourishing school of Torevgs is also 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 dead, as they are now. The inventory of the burials of rich people, the local aristocracy, is especially luxurious. Their majestic stone crypts under high mounds are filled with a rare selection of expensive and artistic items: the best Greek red-figure and multi-colored ceramics of the Attic workshops (see Table XII, 1), Eastern Greek colorful 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 technique, luxurious earrings, bracelets, diadems (see Table XII, 2, 3 and 4). The wonders of turning technology are the sarcophagi, in which the mortal remains of Panticapaeum and Taman nobles and their wives were buried. Superb turning work, enlivened by painting and inlay work in glass, bone and stone, 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 parts, the breadth of the construction scale and the height of construction equipment (see Table XI, 1, 2 and 3) These are vast, sometimes double, high rooms, built of monumental slabs, with long corridors, spectacularly covered with lancet ledge, dome-ledged or ducted semi-cylindrical vaults. In Taman, some crypts inside are plastered and painted in the same manner in which the walls of temples and public buildings were painted; in Panticapaeum, the painting was replaced, probably, with curtains and carpets covering the walls of the crypt.
It is unlikely that in the manner of covering the crypts with ledge vaults one should see deliberately supported archaism, the preservation of the old tradition of the Aegean, Mycenaean and Asia Minor tombs. The architects who built them were guided, I think, by other considerations - aesthetic and technical. The aesthetic impression of these ledge vaults is amazing, much stronger than the impression left by the box vaults, which invariably require painting or stucco molding combined with painting. Technically, the stepped vault satisfies all the requirements of a barrow structure with a colossal mass of earth pressing on the covering. It is no coincidence that the most monumental crypts of the Bosporus have come down to us in complete safety. Only those that were damaged by robbers and pulled apart 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 - the tombs of the ordinary citizenship of Panticapaeum and its neighbors, as well as the Greek cities of Taman. The rite of cremation, which persisted in the Bosporus, and only in rare cases was replaced by cremation, makes it possible to judge the way of life and prosperity of the mass of Bosporan citizenship. The impression is very instructive.
The burial rite and inventory are purely Greek. Dominates, as a funeral prop, the usual selection of things for the Hellenic, testifying to the role that the palestra and the lifestyle associated with it played in his life. The first place is occupied by vessels for oil, with which they rubbed the body, and sheared, with which they cleaned palestra sand and oil from the body. First of all, the Bosporan Greek needed these items even behind the grave, where he was supposed to continue his earthly life, the life of the Hellenic Palestrite (see Table XI, 4 - the frieze of the painted panticapaeum crypt of the 4th century BC with the image of a funerary palestric inventory: strigili, lekythos, ariballi, towels, diadems, bandages, wreaths).
Weapons are much rarer in the tombs of this time. It is characteristic that weapons are least of all in the tombs of the Panticapaeum necropolis, much more on the periphery of the Bosporus and in the necropolises of the Taman Greek cities. There are many jewelry items in the women's tombs. Vessels are all imported from good Attic factories, sometimes vessels of the best craftsmen come across, sometimes signed. Often the so-called Phoenician colored glass. Everything speaks of the contentment of the population and its purely Greek appearance. True, the rare excellent tomb steles of the Bosporans and their tomb inscriptions confirm the same. The same approximate picture is repeated in Olbia and Chersonese; only monumental barrow burials are missing in these more democratic cities, although there are some analogies to them, at least in Olbia.
With the death of Perisad I, troubled and disturbing times begin in Panticapaeum. Immediately after the death of Perisad, an internecine war began between the three sons of Perisad, from which Eumel emerged victorious. Legitimate power belonged to Satyr II, Eumel's elder brother. Against him, Eumel raised the Taman tribe of Fateev. Satyr was supported by a mercenary army of Greeks and Thracians, that is, the usual Bosporan army, and the Scythians. The 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 for the first time a panticapaeum civil army appears; Until that time, the Bosporan tyrants rely solely on mercenaries.
The short reign of Eumelus was replaced by the reign of Spartok III (304/3 - 284/3 BC) and Perisad II (284/3 until approximately 252 BC). The reigns of these dynasts, who in general continued the old policy of the Spartocids, were not yet the time of the decline of the Bosporus. Economic conditions remained the same, trade developed and Panticapaeum grew rich. Athens continues to be the closest counterparty of the Bosporus, concluding at that time a real allied agreement with the Bosporus, its former vassal and agent for the purchase of bread, which indicates both the decline of Athens in this era of large Hellenistic monarchies, and the growth of the significance of the Bosporus. But, along with Athens, the kings of the Bosporus of this and the next period deal with the mighty Rhodes, and with Delos, and with Delphi, acting completely in the role of the rest, though minor, Hellenistic monarchs.
The well-being of citizens does not fall either. The tombs of this period are not poorer, although less numerous than the tombs of the earlier ones.
At that time, as mentioned above, Bosporan workshops lived an intensive life, making things from precious metals for the Scythian market. We have seen how their works fill the rich Scythian burials of this period. True, the height of their artistic achievements is gradually decreasing: the gold coin of the Bosporus of the 4th century. BC, which replaced the Ionian silver of the 6th and 5th centuries, with its striking heads of satyrs and silens, one of the best creations of ancient glyptics (see Table XII, 5, 6 and 7), is now being replaced by quite a dozen Hellenistic silver, formulaic, though second-rate (Table XII, 9).
The entire second half of the 3rd c. to R. Chr. filled in the Bosporus with a long series of dynastic and political unrest, from which only vague echoes have come down to us. It is not Spartokids who temporarily appear at the head of the state: the archon Hygienont, perhaps a protege of Panticapean citizenship, and some kind of king Akes, apparently the head of one of the Scythian or Meotian tribes who 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 c. to R. Chr. A number of dynasts appear, whom we know only from coins and inscriptions; they all bear the Thracian name Perisades. It is very likely that these are the last offspring of the house of Spartoc. Their coins, like those of Hygienont, are a slave copy, and a rather bad one at that, from the gold staters of Lysimachus, commander Alexander, founder of the short-lived Thracian kingdom (see Table XII, 8). The general appearance of these kings is that of minor Hellenistic monarchs; minor kings, like the kings of Bithynia, Pontus or Armenia, but of a lower rank. At their court and in their politics> as well as throughout the world of Hellenism of that time, a major role is played by the local subjects of these kings - the Scythians and Meots, as Hellenization more and more saturates the once purely Greek citizenship of the cities of the Bosporus 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 away. yielding, of course, to such powers as the cultural kingdom of Pergamon and not being able to withstand political rivalry not only with their Black Sea vis-à-vis - Bithynia and the ever-growing Pontus, but even with their closest neighbors - the Crimean Scythians.
History of Crimea II century. to R. Chr. stands under the sign of the revival of the power of the old Scythian state. Of course, the return of this power to its former role is out of the question. All the Kuban region, the Azov region, the Don region, the Dnieper region and the Pribuzh region left the hands of the Scythians forever, but the Scythians kept two pieces of their old territory. There continues to be a small Scythian kingdom in Dobruja and a larger Scythian power in the Crimea. Favorably prevailing 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 solder a strong power from separate tribes, the absence of any outside support from the Greek colonies of southern Russia allowed several energetic Scythian kings to re-solder a part of their decayed power and declare, supporting it with armed force, a claim to supremacy over the Crimea and the Greek cities of the northern coast up to Olbia. The Scythian Crimean state reached its apogee under Skilur in the first and second half of the 2nd century BC.
Whether the Scythians remained now the former military power of the nomads, we do not know. In any case, they had a large urban center in the Crimea near the present Simferopol. It is possible that we are dealing with a semi-Greek city that grew up among the Scythian semi-nomadic, semi-agricultural population, where Scythian kings also came from time to time.
The basis of the well-being of this Scythian state and the Greek Scythian capital was, of course, trade with the Greek world in grain and cattle. It is not surprising, therefore, that the kings of the Scythian state strive to gain power over the most important Greek ports. They probably managed to seize Kerkinitida on the western coast of the Crimea and even Olbia, whose rich armorers gave them the fleet and naval forces they needed to ensure their export 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 of Chersonese cultivated for vineyards, 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. Not without reason, during the last Perisad, one of the members of the Scythian royal family turns up in Panticapaeum, which, however, usually happened already at the end of the 4th and in the 3rd century. 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, the revival of the Scythian state, which probably began already in the 3rd century BC. BC, there is a constant Scythian danger that threatened Chersonesos, constant attacks on it by the Scythians and all sorts of efforts that Chersonesus makes to avert this danger from itself. A few random inscriptions from Chersonesus vividly depict this constant danger and the measures taken by Chersonesus to avert it. Chersonesus had few forces of his own, and he had to turn to stronger neighbors for help. While the Bosporus was strong, Chersonesus sought this help from him; but the Bosporus was weakening, more and more falling under Scythian influence, and the pressure of the Scythians became more energetic and persistent.
The natural protector of Chersonese was its metropolis - Heraclea. But she was no longer independent. She had to submit to the Pontic kings. He is trying to mobilize Chersonese 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 Rome already plays the role of lord and manager at that time, 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 state especially increased, the position of Chersonesos became critical. But at the same time, under the influence of the beginning ruin in Rome, the increasingly intensifying collapse of the Roman provincial administration and the first peals of the internal revolution in Italy, in the east, just on the southern coast of the Black Sea, the previously excluded possibility of the emergence of a strong power is created. A young, energetic and talented Pontic king, Mithridates VI Eupator, takes up the cause of its creation.
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 Rome closely observed, could not provide this base. The Pontic state - the basis of Mithridates' power - itself had an extremely mixed composition of the population, where, next to the Alarodians and Thracians, there were Semites and Iranians, and the general character of the culture underwent strong Iranianization 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, Sinope, Amis, Amasia, Trebizont, etc. This character of culture brought Pontus closer, mainly to Armenia, but also more with the Bosporus kingdom and in general the northern coast of the Black Sea, where we meet with the same combination and interpenetration of the population of Greek cities, with a purely Hellenic culture, and the tribes that inhabited the country, with an Iranian or Iranian culture.
Mithridates should have striven for an alliance and, if possible, subjugation of these two powers in order to create for himself the necessary nourishing base of both human material, and money and natural products. But Armenia was at that time a strong power, with which it was just as difficult to cope with, as with the neighbor of Pontus from the west - Bithynia, and which, moreover, was under the constant supervision of Rome.
Crimea was in a different position. Crimea was not in the sphere of influence of the Roman state and did not attract the attention of Roman politicians. Meanwhile, he could give Mithridates just what he needed: bread, cattle, skins, money and people, whose huge reserves, in the face of the Scythian, Meotian and Sarmatian tribes, the half-Iranian Mithridates, who considered himself belonging to the old Persian dynasty of the Achaemenids , could expect to use as allies and mercenaries.
On the other hand, the growth of the Scythian power, the danger that threatened Chersonese from the Scythians, and his requests for help directed to Mithridates created unusually favorable conditions for Mithridates to interfere in the affairs of the Crimea. Mithridates took full advantage of the opportunity that presented itself. In two expeditions, his generals Diophantus and Neoptolemos, having shown their strength to the Scythian state, led after the death of Skilur by his son Palak, and to the allies of the Scythian state, the Sarmatians-Roksolans, took possession of both Chersonese with all the Greek settlements subject to him, and the Bosporus with all its power and, finally, even Olbia with its territory.
This success extraordinarily strengthened Mithridates and gave him hope for the opportunity to begin a long and consistent work of uniting Asia Minor, and then the entire East under the leadership of Pontus, in spite of the resistance of Rome, torn apart by a civil war that flared up from 91 with a bright flame and lasted until 70 years. and even later, i.e. for more than 20 years.
This is not the place to recount the story of Mithridates' unsuccessful attempt to create a Greco-Eastern world 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 attached to them, his Black Sea power. Joining here, as in Asia Minor, initially to the Greek cities, Mithridates, however, quickly disappointed them in their hopes. The more he got involved in the war with Rome, the more he needed money and natural products, and the further he was forced 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 greater and greater displeasure, submitting only to force.
Along with this, Mithridates, who needed people for his army, became closer and closer to the Meots 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, with the help of Mithridates, to strengthen its primacy over the Iranians that were 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. On the other hand, Iranism apparently met Mithridates as a unifier and leader, despite the blows he had initially inflicted on the Scythians, and surrounded him with a long-held halo of a national leader.
It is therefore natural that the Greek cities of the Crimea, mainly the Bosporan kingdom, tried to use the moments of Mithridates' weakness to regain their independence, and when Mithridates, finally ousted from Asia Minor by Pompey, but who managed to escape to Panticapaeum and prevent Pompey from coming here, cooked here with all the tension forces a new campaign against the Roman state, this time through the steppes of southern Russia and along the Danube, they put up sharp resistance to him and, uniting with his son Farnak, got rid of the hated rapist, who brought them to almost complete ruin and betrayed them to the age-old enemies of Hellenism, the Iranians .
The death of Mithridates meant, however, submission to Rome. Farnak's attempt to provide 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: Farnak, like his father devoted to him, did not find support in the Greek cities of Crimea and died.
Since that time, 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 the person of Rome.
The era of Mithridates was a time of severe 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 an anvil, between the Scythians and Sarmatians, who were pressing from the east, and the resurgent power of the Thracians, united in the strong state of Birebista. Both those and others sought to take possession, and the latter, in the end, took possession of this important port and the key to the entire Dnieper and Pribuzhye.
The cultural resistance of the Greeks also weakened. Even before, it was difficult for them to keep their pure Greek appearance. The necropolises of those Greek cities that from time immemorial have been in especially close contact with the local population, like Nymphaeum on the European side, Gorgippia on the Asian side, have long provided samples of burials of a mixed Iranian-Greek culture. Now the Iranian element, already in the era of the last Spartocids, more and more saturating the Greek cities, got the opportunity of 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 civil war of Rome, completely stopped.
And here, therefore, due to the special conditions of development, we meet with a phenomenon common to the entire east of the era of late Hellenism. Behind the Greek shell, even in the Greek centers, local elements begin to emerge more and more, changing all the foundations of political, economic, social, cultural and religious life.
The Bosporan power of the Spartokids, which existed for more than three centuries and successfully fulfilled during this time its mission of an 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 formation.
In terms of its external political structure, the ruling city of the state - Panticapaeum did not differ in any significant way from the usual city-state of Hellas. Its distinctive feature is only the fact that for centuries a transitional form of government for most Greek city-states, a military tyranny based on a mercenary army, was retained here.
This long existence of tyranny requires an explanation. To exist for three centuries, holding on only by violence and relying only on the swords of mercenaries, the essentially monarchical form of government, clothed in the shell of Hellenic democracy, of course, could not. Undoubtedly, its existence and its strength were due to other deeper reasons that created its strong support in the population.
The main reason was the original social structure of the Bosporan, predominantly, trading power, whose well-being depended, first of all, on the security of the correct exchange with the Greek world on the one hand and with the world of Iranian and semi-Iranian tribes, partly part of the Bosporan state, partly neighbors with it. , with another. In this respect, the Bosporus most closely resembles the Semitic Carthage, which performed the same mission, under somewhat different conditions, on the shores of Africa.
The difference in the position of Carthage and the Bosporus was that the well-being of the Bosporus was largely connected with the existence of the Scythian kingdom, which provided the Bosporus with the possibility of 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 gave him his relationship to Athens, the first - the community 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 was in the nature 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 magistrates-archons vested with exclusive supreme power. For the tribes of the Crimea and Taman, they are their supreme kings, providing them with their independence, insubordination to the Scythians, support for the Hellenic world and the possibility of a wide world exchange.
But even for the Greek citizens of the cities of the Bosporan state, the leading sole power was a necessity that ensured their existence. Their national traditions did not allow them to see the king in their supreme magistrate, but, as their archon, they were ready to give the head of state unlimited powers, since their material well-being depended on it.
The Greeks of the cities of the Bosporus kingdom, as far as we can judge from the meager data we have, were mainly exporters and armorers, owners of sea vessels on the one hand, owners of large trading offices that maintained constant contact with neighboring tribes, and intermediary merchants with another. The citizens of the Bosporus, as far as one can judge, preferred to engage in the second, the first - a risky and difficult business - 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 masters could not supply to them.
Finally, the farmers, landlords, who exploited the territories closest to the Greek cities, which they cultivated by the hands of the local population as hired workers, sometimes by the hands of slaves, most often by the hands of the enslaved population, who became to them in the same relationship as helots to the Spartans, were of no small importance, penesti to the Thessalian nobility, subjugated mariandins 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 basis for assuming the existence of a significant number of the working proletariat. The merchant fleet with its army of rowers, as has been repeatedly attested, was not local, the loaders, in all likelihood, were recruited from those slaves that Panticapaeum successfully traded and who were supplied to them by neighboring nomads who were always at war.
This prosperous Greek population was primarily and mainly interested in the fact that the authorities would provide them with a calm and secure existence, would involve them less in military duties and would guarantee them the possibility of unhindered communication with neighboring tribes and with the Greek world.
The Bosporan tyranny fully 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, gave her a sufficient number of mercenaries, in case of need she resorted to alliances with her neighbors and to contingents of vassals. The Bosporus tyrants received a permanent squad, expensive, but well-armed and technically trained, from Greece. From there, they mainly got people for their navy.
For all this, only funds were needed. These funds were given by the same trade with Greece, mainly grain. There is no doubt that the archons and kings of the Bosporus themselves were the largest exporters of grain. Attic speakers also tell us about this - Aeschines, Isocrates, Demosthenes. This is also attested to by a number of inscriptions.
Large incomes gave them both import and export duties, 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 bread. And this has been proven to us over and over again.
On these foundations, the power of the Spartokids was held and held firmly. From time to time they had to resort to the military assistance of citizenship, to create a Greek army from the Bosporan Greeks, but this, obviously, was a transient phenomenon, and the foundations of the Bosporus system remained, in general, the same until the last days of the existence of the dynasty.
The culture of Panticapaeum and the Bosporan state in general has already been discussed many times above. I pointed to the purely Greek appearance of the urban population, which only towards the end of the Spartocid regime was imbued with Iranian elements. I also spoke about the fact that in the IV and III centuries. to R. Chr. Panticapaeum is by no means only a warehouse for Greek and Asia Minor goods, but has its own rather independent cultural life, forming 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 a type of monumental structures under the burial mounds.
But the creativity of the Bosporan artists is even more pronounced in local works made of precious metals (the specialty of the Bosporan masters), the development of which was caused by the greed for gold and silver crafts of their Scythian and Meotian neighbors. The starting point for characterizing their creativity in this regard are the coins of the Bosporus, in the local origin of which there can be no doubt. Silver coinage of the 6th and 5th centuries. keeps within the framework of the general Ionic template and is not of particular interest. But the beginning of gold minting, coinciding with the era of trade independence of the Bosporus, with the reign of Levkon I and his successors, and the silver accompanying this gold, is original in nature and testifies to the high artistic achievements of the Panticapaeum 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 face, 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 wrong etymology of the name of the city on behalf 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 the meager literary tradition has not preserved for us. Clearer turnovers. The Iranian, Persian phiphon with a dart in its mouth and an ear of wheat under its feet (Fig. 64 and 65) ingeniously 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 griffin of Apollo and under it the Don sturgeon (Fig. 63) - clearly indicates the ideas associated with the Greeks with Panticapaeum; here one hears echoes of the legend about the Apollonian Hyperboreans, about the Arimaspians fighting griffins for the gold of the East - in a word, about all those myths that ascertained the northern and eastern connections of Panticapaeum, which were considered and were a direct or indirect source of his extraordinary wealth. One of the real sources of this wealth figures right there; these are weighty Don sturgeons, valued by the whole | river world. The same meaning, perhaps, has the head of a bull on silver.
But even more interesting are these coins from an artistic point of view. The coins of Panticapaeum are rightfully considered one of the highest achievements of ancient glyptics. The subtlety and elegance of modeling, the energy of expression, the boldness of the interpretation of the head are almost truly inimitable and original, although they reflect the common features of Greek art of that time. But the idealized realism of the ugly, but beautiful and attractive by their ugliness heads of satyrs and silens is especially captivating. There can be no doubt that the Panticapaeum 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 craving for realism is the main feature of Panticapaeum toreutics. With great force, it is once again reflected in the silver of the 3rd-2nd centuries. BC, in a magnificent realistic, emphatically realistic image of a local steppe horse grazing in the steppe (Fig. 67). Next to the formulaic, devoid of any power, flat and graceful head of Apollo on the main side of this coin, the image of the horse stands out for its rough but strong realism. The decline of Panticapaeum in the middle and end of the II century. nowhere is it more clear than on coins. The creativity of the old gold of Panticapaeum is replaced by a template and slavish copy of the most salable 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 neighboring Scythians. Here it is extremely instructive to compare the gold items from Solokha with somewhat, but a little more, late items from Kul-Oba and the Voronezh barrow (Plate IX, 8) and then with items from Chertomlyk and Karagodeuashkh. The now famous golden comb of Solokha (Pl. XIII, 1) in general gives the usual plot of equestrian combat, especially close to M. Asia, in the usual classical composition. The only thing in which it differs from contemporary Asia Minor sculptures, living in the traditions of already academic Athenian art, is even greater everyday realism than in Asia Minor in the interpretation of weapons, clothing, horse harness, accurately copied from reality. There is less realism in the depiction of faces, in the types of combatants, although the craving for realism is visible here too.
We observe the same, to an even greater extent, on the gilded silver vessel from Solokha (Plate XII, 3), which gives the usual, well-executed hunting scene, so typical of Asia Minor Greek art. Even more interesting, the one overlaid with silver burns with a battle scene between two types of local steppe dwellers - on foot and on horseback (Plate 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 period. Mounted archers give a rougher interpretation of the face of the bearded silenus of coins, their young companion is the young satyr of Panticapaeum gold and silver familiar to us. Two foot opponents of the described fighters of the same camp are approaching 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 satire, art goes to a strikingly subtle transfer not so much of trifles as of the main character trait of the depicted barbarians. But one involuntarily recalls the northern Celts or the Thracians, or some kindred tribes.
A step forward was made in the things of Kul-Oba (Plate IX, 1 and 2) and the Voronezh kurgan (Plate IX, 3). Everyday realism has remained the same, but we see two new features. An idealized type of the Scythian is emerging in art, just as the same type was simultaneously formed in literature. Along with this, there is a tendency towards greater expression, towards the transfer of the expression of suffering and pathos - and here we come to the future features of Pergamene pathetic art. This is especially clear on the scene of the dental operation and the bandaging of the wounded leg on the famous Kul-Ob electric vessel.
The last stage is the amazing horses of Chertomlyk (Plate 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 movement. Moreover, despite the difficulties that seemed to the master the need to give a narrow frieze of a vase, he managed to make one feel the spaciousness and expanse of the steppes, the enthusiasm and revelry of the wild steppe herd.
Somewhat later ritual scenes of Karagodeuashkh are also interesting (Plate X, 1 and 2). Here before us is no longer purely Greek art. On the rhyton (Plate X, 1) we have an Iranian type and scheme, on the headdress plate (Plate X, 2) an interesting Greek composition, but purely oriental solemnity and ritualism of the central monumental figure, her attendants and two male figures in the foreground - a young noble Scythian and an eunuch-enarey, a servant of the goddess, in women's clothing and with her round sacred bowl in her hand. The real east seeps into the world of Hellenic creativity, influencing Hellas and preparing the future flourishing, however, not in the steppes of Scythia, but in Sasanian Persia, the revival of Iranian art.
We see that Panticapaeum had its own epoch of creativity, having contributed something to the treasury of Greek art, and the new that he gave, he owed to his neighborhood with the Iranian world and his connection with the great oriental art. It will continue to carry out the same mission in the next stage of its historical development.

The first civilized people who settled in the Crimean lands were the ancient Greeks, or Hellenes. It was this people that made such a contribution to the development of the entire human civilization that cannot be overestimated. The influence of the ancient Greeks on the development of our peninsula is also enormous.

The main reason for the resettlement of this people in the territory of the Northern Black Sea region was the search for conditions for a normal life by poor citizens. The metropolis was overpopulated, food and land were no longer enough for all free citizens, which gave rise to such a phenomenon as mass colonization. This movement belongs to the 7th-6th centuries BC - the archaic era in the history of Ancient Greece. The first two waves of colonization touched the lands close to Greece. The colonizers of the third wave crossed the Pont Euxinus (the ancient Greek name for the Black Sea, translated as "Hospitable Sea") and discovered fertile lands, an abundance of animals, birds, and fish. Being seafarers, the Greek settlers appreciated the local harbors and bays.

The first settlers who managed to create their own colonies on the territory of the Crimea were Greek-Ionians and Greek-Dorians. It was they who, after some time, having united other colonies around themselves, created two states - the Cimmerian Bosporus and Tauric Chersonesus.

The first city founded by the Hellenes in the Crimea was Panticapaeum - the current Kerch. The appearance of this city is attributed to the turn of the 7th-6th centuries BC. A little later, in the 6th century BC, Theodosius was built, on the Crimean coast of the Kerch Strait, the agricultural towns of Tiritaka, Partheny, Porfmiy, Mirmekiy appeared. The main inhabitants of these Hellenistic settlements were the inhabitants of the western coast of Asia Minor (mainly from the Ionian city of Miletus) and the cities of the Aegean Sea.

Very quickly, the colonists are establishing their economic life: agriculture, cattle breeding, fishing and hunting are developing; various crafts are born - construction, jewelry, metalworking, weaving, ceramics; the appearance of surpluses of food and goods makes it possible to establish trade with the mother country and barter in kind with neighboring tribes. Already in the middle of the VI century BC, its own coin was minted in Panticapaeum, a little later - in other cities.

Gradually, the colonies, increasing in territory and in the number of inhabitants, become cities and turn into small state policies. Their centers in the east of Crimea were Panticapaeum, Theodosius and Nymphaeum.

The threat of attack from barbarian tribes, economic interests became the reason for the unification of most of the cities of the Kerch Strait. The new state that arose as a result of such a union was called the Cimmerian Bosporus. The first mention of this state belongs to the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, who named the time of his birth - about 480 BC. This state not only expands, but also becomes ethnically diverse: in addition to the Greeks, it is inhabited by Scythians, Taurians, and on the other side of the Kerch Strait - Sinds and Meots.

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Everything that the Greeks achieved in their historical homeland is widely used in the Crimea. Urban planning, architecture, painting, philosophy, education, lawmaking, medicine, literature, theater, sports, a high level of development of agriculture and crafts - all this finds fertile ground on the Crimean land for application and distribution. Most likely, the Cimmerian Bosporus also included a settlement located on the site of the present Old Crimea. Numerous archaeological finds of Hellenistic origin, Panticapaeum coins confirm this assumption.

At the end of the 4th century AD, after the invasion of the Huns, the Bosporus had to recognize their supremacy, and in the 6th century, the heir of the fallen Roman Empire - Byzantium - subjugated these lands to itself.

In the southwestern part of the Crimea, there was another Hellenistic state - Tauric Chersonese. Its center was Chersonese (now Sevastopol), which was founded in the second half of the 5th century BC. colonists from Heraclea Pontica - a Dorian city on the southern coast of the Black Sea. The constant threat of attack from neighboring Taurians forced the settlers to quickly turn Chersonese into a fortress city. The social and economic development of the Chersonesians follows a scenario very similar to the development of their fellow countrymen, who settled the Crimean lands a little earlier - the Bosporans. For a short time, Chersonesus was even under the Bosporan protectorate. In the 2nd-3rd centuries AD, Chersonese became the center of the Roman military occupation in the Crimea. The city did not suffer from the Huns, as it was outside their conquering routes. At the end of the 5th century, Chersonese became part of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Almost simultaneously with the appearance of the Scythians in the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region, in the 7th century. BC e. Greek colonization of the eastern and southern coasts of Crimea, the western and northwestern coasts of the Sea of ​​Azov and some regions of the Northern Black Sea region begins, mainly along the Dnieper-Bug estuaries.

Meotida, as the ancient Greeks called the Sea of ​​Azov and Pontus Euxinus (Black Sea), attracted them with the richness of fish, mild climate and convenient bays for ships.

Apparently, not all Greeks lived well in their homeland. Some were oppressed by rich and noble landowners; others were prevented from doing crafts and trading their products; the third - were involved in rebellions and in protests against their masters, the peasants suffered from lack of land, so they had to seek refuge outside their homeland, in remote lands, and they moved to the Crimea, the Northern Black Sea region.

The metropolis of the first Greek colonists of the Crimea was Miletus, which itself was a Greek colony on the Black Sea coast in Asia Minor. Then settlers began to arrive from other cities of Asia Minor - Heracles, Meot and Teos. And even later, the authorities of the metropolis began to send their guilty citizens here from Athena and other Greek cities.

Initially, the Greeks founded small coastal settlements, such as trading posts, and engaged in trade and exchange business with the local population, attracting them with bright fabrics, unknown objects, and women's jewelry.

It is unlikely that the local population met them enthusiastically. The first colonists in the Crimea had to meet with the Taurians, who inhabited the coastal strip at that time. Many Taurians felt the danger that threatened them and did not want to voluntarily part with their land, so the meetings of the first colonizers sometimes ended tragically. Therefore, when living on the sea coast of the Crimea and the Northern Black Sea region, the Greeks at first, for security purposes and to prevent unnecessary clashes with the local population, did not move far from the sea coast. In addition, in order to interest the natives, they resorted to cunning; at the first stage, trade was carried out with some benefit for them, which lulled their vigilance and gained confidence.

Trade exchange gradually grew, the local population got used to the merchants who arrived from across the sea, and, not seeing the danger, they began to treat their settlements calmly.

Over the centuries, these small settlements with moorings for small merchant ships began to grow into larger ones and eventually powerful fortress cities were formed from them. They settled mainly in the mouths of large rivers or in convenient sea bays. At different times over the centuries, such large colonial cities arose: at the mouth of the Bug - Olvia, at the mouth of the Dniester - Tyre, at the mouth of the Don - Tanape, and on the site of modern Kerch - Pantikopey, opposite Panticapaeum through the strait on the Taman Peninsula - Phanagoria. Almost simultaneously with Panticapaeum on the eastern coast of Crimea - Feodosia, somewhat later Mirmekia, Mimphei, Nymphaeum, Taritaka, Chimeric and a number of smaller cities.

In the west of Crimea, Chersonesos arises, not far from modern Evpatoria - Kirkinitada, which has become a transshipment trading base with the metropolis in the west of Crimea.

All these cities became the main Greek colonies and centers of trade, the development of crafts and the spread of ancient culture.

Each of them arose at different times and each went down in history in its own way.

Panticapaeum, Theodosius, Olbia arose in the VI century. BC, Kerkinitida (Evpatoria) - at the turn of the 6th and 5th centuries. The founding of these cities dates back to the period when the Greek merchants from Miletus began to actively develop the coast of the Crimea and the Northern Black Sea region. Growing, these cities turned into city-states, and their relationship with the metropolis began to take shape as a partnership, and they became less dependent on it.

PANTIKAPEI - founded by the Greeks, immigrants from Miletus, the largest city of Asia Minor at that time. It is believed that Panticapaeum also had a prehistory. Even the name of the city indicates this, it is not of Greek origin at all. It is believed that in one of the ancient local dialects it means "fish way". Under the name "Panticapeum" the city was known twenty-six centuries ago, but existed as a small settlement much earlier. Now the city of Kerch stands in its place. Before that, depending on under whose authority it was, it was called the Bosporus, Cherkio, Korchev, Cherzeti.

During its existence, this city was an intermediary transshipment base between Scythia and Greece, a center of international trade in the waters of the eastern coast of Crimea, a fortress that held back and repulsed the onslaught of nomads, was the capital of the Bosporan kingdom, or simply a seedy provincial town.

But at the same time, it always remained the center of the Kerch Peninsula, and everything that happened on this peninsula was connected with this city.

THEODOSIA. There are several different assumptions about the beginning of the city, most of them are similar to legends. One of them says: in the VI century. BC. Milesian merchants sailed on ships to the shores of the Crimea. At sea, they were caught by a strong storm and heavy ships loaded with goods were thrown by the wind like chips. Desperate merchants lost all hope of salvation and prepared for death, and suddenly, the ships were thrown into a cozy sunny bay, where there was no storm, and the houses of a small village were white on the high shore. Not believing their salvation, the joyful merchants raised their hands to heaven and shouted: “Oh, Theodosius!”, Which in Greek meant: “Oh, given by God!” This enthusiastic cry remained the new name of a small village on a high bank, which was previously called Ardavda.

The merchants who landed founded their colony here, calling it Feodosia. The convenient location of the city on the shore of a saving bay, on a busy trade route, quickly promoted Feodosia to the number of major ports in the world. The city with its grandeur and luxury began to compete with the best ancient cities in the world.

According to Strabo, the port could accommodate up to 100 ships. Only wheat was exported through this port annually up to 22,500 tons.

KERKINITIDA is a city of the ancient Greek colonizers, it was founded by them on the territory of a convenient bay, in the west of the Crimean peninsula, therefore, soon after its foundation, it became a transshipment base for Greek merchants with the metropolis.

On the western outskirts of the city of Evpatoria, near the children's sanatorium "Seagull", the remains of an ancient settlement founded by the Greeks have been preserved. It is believed that at the end of the VI - the beginning of the V centuries. BC. during the Greek colonization of the western coast of Crimea, the ancient city of Kerkinitida arose on this site. It became a major port that traded with Athens, Sinop, Rhodes and the Crimean cities of Chersonesus Panticapaeum. The first written reports about him belong to Hecateus of Miletus, then they are mentioned by Herodotus, Ptolemy, Arrian.

On the territory of the settlement, archaeologists discovered unique works of ancient masters - a bronze sculpture of an Amazon and a bas-relief of Hercules, which speak of the high culture of the ancient inhabitants of Kerkinitida. In the IV century. BC. the city became part of the agricultural chora (district) of ancient Chersonese.

OLVIYA was founded on the banks of the Dnieper-Bug estuary. Archaeologists found its remains near the village of Parutino, south of the city of Nikolaev.

During the excavations of all the above cities, the remains of residential quarters, defensive walls, towers, gates, burials, many household items and women's jewelry were found. In addition, during the excavations of Olbia, the remains of temples, workshops of artisans, the remains of baths and agora were found.

KIMMERIK - also founded in the 5th century. BC. on the southern coast of the Kerch Strait, named after the Cimmerian Bosporus. It was a connecting port with the Taman Peninsula of the Caucasus. Remains of defensive walls, houses, and outbuildings have been found.

TANAIS - founded in the first quarter of the III century. BC e. at the mouth of the Don River. This is confirmed by the excavations of the Nedvigovsky settlement by the Nizhne-Donskaya archaeological expedition of the Ukrainian SSR. Many amphorae, earthenware vessels for wine and grain, roofing tiles with the marks of craftsmen were found. These finds make it possible to draw a conclusion about the economic and commercial connection of Tanais with the cities of the Bosporan kingdom and the metropolis.

The descendants of the founders of these cities, modern Greeks, can be proud of the courage and selflessness of their ancestors, who founded new lands - the coasts of the Crimea and the Northern Black Sea coast, bringing them closer to the culture of ancient Hellas, which at that time stood at a high level of world civilization. During colonization, they were more humane and tolerant of the local population, compared to other conquerors.

Hellenic civilization spread not only among the subject, but also neighboring peoples and, above all, among the Scythians.

From the first years after the settlement of the Greek merchants, the Greeks-discoverers in the Crimea and the Northern Black Sea region, they immediately began to enter into trade contacts with the early Scythians who appeared from the East. Initially, they treated the Scythians arrogantly, considering them "barbarians", investing in this word a concept meaning "a person with incomprehensible speech." Moreover, the Greeks referred to the “barbarians” everyone who did not speak their language and led a lifestyle that, in their opinion, was less cultured than they were.

But centuries passed and the attitude towards the Scythians changed, also because many of them took from the Greeks what was useful and what they considered “cultural” for themselves, thus enriching their lives with samples of Greek culture, thereby raising their rating in the face of the Greeks . In addition, it was profitable to trade with them, mediating with the war-ravaged Athens.

Grain, animal skins, wool, honey, fish, timber were bought from them at a cheap price, but they were sold to the metropolis at a higher price. The Scythians were sold beautiful weapons, various household items, items for decorating Scythian dwellings, painted vases, grape wine, olive oil - and much more, without which the Scythians, having entered the stage of a higher culture, could no longer do, bought in Greece much cheaper.

Having entered into closer contact with the Scythians, Greek merchants began to penetrate far to the north with their goods, covering the lands of modern Kiev, Poltava and Kharkov regions. For example, the remains of Greek temples were found in the Lubyansk region: Dionysus, Apollo, Artemis, which indicates that there were already many Greek colonists in these parts.

During archaeological excavations in Scythia, the remains of settlements and burial grounds find coins of Greek Black Sea cities, Greek painted dishes for grain, wine and oil, decorations made by Greek craftsmen. This indicates that the peoples who lived here, acquiring goods from the Greeks, gained culture from them, learned the art of Greek masters, and various crafts. Some tribes completely switched to their customs, adopted their religious beliefs.

All Greek city-colonies were built according to the model and, as it were, according to the tradition of the metropolis. They were small in area, compact city-polises (city-states). These were a kind of small independent republics with a center in the city and cultivated fields around, which provided the city with food. This reflects the Greek peculiarity, expressed in dislike for large kingdoms and empires.

Each city-polis lived on its own, but in cases when they were threatened by a serious danger from the outside, they united to jointly repel the enemy.

Bosporan kingdom

Temporary associations of colonial cities more than once ensured their victory over a strong and insidious enemy, but life predicted the need for closer rallying and unification of individual cities into a single kingdom.

In 480 BC on the initiative of the ruling elite of Panticapaeum, a large slave-owning state arose, named after the Cimmerian Bosporus strait - the Bosporan kingdom. It was named so because the lands on both sides of this strait were under the rule of an educated state.

Of the Meotian tribes, the largest were the Sinds, who settled on the northeastern coast of the Black Sea and the Taman Peninsula. In the V-IV centuries. BC. it created an independent state of Sindika, which also included the Dandaria and Doskhi tribes.

However, the state of Sindika did not last long, when the Bosporan kingdom was formed, it became part of it.

The Greek cities, having united in a single state, could already resist external, stronger enemies - the tribes of wild nomads and the Scythians, who were pressing from the east and north, and to some extent, dictate their conditions to them.

The first rulers of the Bosporan kingdom were from the Archaeanactid dynasty, who were in power from 480 to 438. BC. Initially, the rulers, in imitation of Athens, bore the republican title - archon, and later began to call themselves kings. Little is known about the rule of this dynasty and its kings, except that they were the creators of the Bosporus kingdom with a slave-owning form of government.

In 438 BC, as a result of a coup d'etat, the Spartokid dynasty came to power, the first king from which was Spartok I, the organizer of the coup.

The Spartokid dynasty was of Thracian origin, from the local Hellenic nobility, but immigrants from Thrace. Spartok I, having become king, created the royal guard, staffed mainly by the Thracians.

The most prominent statesmen of this dynasty, who called themselves kings, whose names have been preserved by history, except for Spartok I (438-433 BC), were Satyr, Levkon I (399-369 BC) , Perisad I, Persis I and his son Eumel, who reigned on the throne as a result of strife.

Life on the very edge of the ancient world was still tense and restless for the Bosporus kingdom and took place in constant struggle with the militant nomadic Scythians who settled in the Crimea and the Taurians. Especially this tension intensified after the Sarmatians appeared in the Northern Black Sea region, who pressed the Scythians and began to directly threaten the Bosporan kingdom. Therefore, having united in a single state, it was easier for them to organize defense: build defensive structures, erect walls, ramparts, ditches, maintain military garrisons.

The unification of various ethnic groups into a single state contributed to their cultural and economic rapprochement, served as an impetus for the development of handicraft production in cities, agriculture and animal husbandry in rural areas, and increased trade with neighbors, distant countries, including with the metropolis.

An active period of ethnic and cultural rapprochement of the Bosporan kingdom began. This rapprochement was especially noted between the Greeks and the Scythians. Mixed, so-called Hellenic-Scythian settlements began to form.

This period in the history of the Bosporus kingdom is well confirmed by archaeological finds. Archaeological research of the Crimea began shortly after its conquest by Russia. The first excavations were made in Kerch in 1816-1817, which gave a lot of new information about the history of the Crimea and the Northern Black Sea region. This was followed by excavations of other ancient cities and kurgans of the Crimea. Based on these finds, found during excavations at the site of ancient Panticapaeum, Chersonesus, Olbia and other cities of the Bosporan kingdom, one can judge the high culture of this period, as well as the relationship of the peoples of the Bosporan kingdom, their trade, economic and cultural relations with the outside world.

An equally important discovery was made during the excavations of the ancient Bosporan city of Mimfeya, south of Kerch, in 1982, multicolored plaster was discovered, which had fallen off the wall of one of the sanctuaries built in the first half of the 3rd century BC. BC. On the plaster, decorated with transverse bright yellow and red stripes in the center, various inscriptions have been preserved, among which there are lengthy texts concerning the gods Aphrodite and Apollo - the patrons of the seas. There are also many different drawings on the fresco, which are dominated by sailing ships. The inscriptions reflect aspects of the private and public life of the ancient Nymphaeum during the reign of Perisad II. The main place in the fresco is occupied by a warship - a trireme, a vessel with three tiers of oars, called "Isis", named so, as seen in honor of the goddess Isis.

There is reason to believe that the ship was a diplomatic ship that delivered Egyptian ambassadors to the Bosporus to discuss some important issues of trade between Egypt and the Bosporus and to strengthen friendly relations with the Bosporan kingdom.

Under the rule of the kings from the Spartokid dynasty, the borders of the state were significantly expanded to the east and west, its political and international position was strengthened, crafts, art, and trade were further developed. Under them, the Bosporan kingdom maintained a well-armed and trained army. Many neighboring cities and peoples were captured and conquered.

Under Leukon I, Feodosia was annexed, which had a convenient location on a busy trade route, and at that time was one of the major ports in the world. Ships of not only Greek merchants, but also many other, even very distant countries, entered it with their goods. Theodosia competed with the best cities of the ancient world with the luxury and splendor of architecture. All this attracted the attention of the rulers of the Bosporus kingdom. Levkon I, seeing in the face of Theodosius a serious rival and a dangerous competitor, decided to put an end to this. In 393 BC he seized by force a prosperous policy and annexed it to his state.

Under the Spartokids, a large and strong navy was created, with the help of which Pontus Euxinus (Black Sea) was cleared of pirates who attacked ships plying between the ports of the Bosporan kingdom and Hellas.

After that, the Bosporan kingdom not only continued the trade tradition of city-states, but also intensified trade exchange with the metropolis. Levkon I encouraged this trade in every possible way, but especially in bread. His decree is known, which prescribes, first of all, to load Greek ships and not to tax them. Strabo testifies: King Leukon sent 2,100,000 medimns of grain to Athens (medimn is 51.5 liters). In addition to bread, furs, animal skins, honey, wax, fish, domestic animals and cheap labor were sent to the metropolis - slaves captured in battles with local and neighboring tribes.

In difficult circumstances for the mother country, the Spartokids helped her, but they themselves, if necessary, resorted to her help. A profitable partnership has developed.

Under the Spartokids, the Bosporus kingdom reached great prosperity and power, especially its capital Panticapaeum. Having close ties with the metropolis and other cities and states of the ancient world, it was not inferior to them in beauty and architectural design. The center of the city was a 90 m high mountain, later named Mount Mithridates in honor of the late King Mithridates VI. A city was built around this mountain. As at present, the mountain was surrounded by streets - terraces with retaining walls-crepes. At the top, surrounded by powerful walls, stood the Acropolis - the upper city. On the northern slope, a building was built for the city authorities - Prytane. Panticapaeum had good water supply and sewerage. In fact, at that time Panticapaeum became the political and economic center of the Crimea and the Northern Black Sea region.

The cultural flourishing of Panticapaeum is evidenced by finds during archaeological research. The frescoes of the Stasovsky crypt (as archaeologists called it) on the northern slope of the mountain depict battle scenes showing the battles of the Bosporans with the Taurians and Sarmatians.

Of particular interest is the fresco of the famous tomb of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and fertility of the Hellenic world. This is an outstanding monument of painting of that era. It was badly damaged during the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945).

Having reached the apogee in the development of military power, the Bosporan rulers began to have ambitious plans: to unite all the Black Sea peoples under their rule.

But this was not destined to come true. First of all, because the cities that became part of the Bosporus kingdom remained as before policies (city-states). They recognized the central authority of Panticapaeum, but retained their self-government and even administrative and economic isolation. The rulers of these cities were not inclined to participate in the military adventures of the kings. In this sense, the Bosporus kingdom was more a union of isolated cities than a monarchical state.

The Bosporan kings achieved military power, but they could not achieve the political unity of the city-states, and such a city as Chersonesos completely separated itself from them into an independent republic.

This was the first and main obstacle to the implementation of the aggressive plans of the Spartokids.

The second obstacle was that over the Bosporan kingdom hung a constant threat of invasion from the Sarmatians, who had seized the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region and came close to the Crimea.

The third obstacle was the appearance on the southern coast of the Black Sea and Asia Minor of a stronger Hellenic state - the Pontic kingdom, whose rulers had the same aggressive plans.

To all this, it must be added that the fulfillment of the predatory desires of the Spartokids was hindered by constant skirmishes with the Taurians, Scythians, who formed their own state in the steppe part of the Crimea, and Chersonese, who did not want to be subordinate to the Bosporus kingdom.

Agora - among the ancient Greeks - the people's assembly, as well as the square where it took place. On the sides of the agora, temples, state buildings, porticos with trading shops were built. (author's note)

Archon - in ancient Greece - the highest official in Athens. (author's note)

Isis - in ancient Greek mythology - the goddess of heaven, earth and hell - the wife of Ovaris. (author's note)

Panticaley Khankai(Greek Παντικάπαιον) founded on the site of modern Kerch by immigrants from Miletus at the end of the 7th century BC. e., at the time of its heyday 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 by the standards of the Northern Black Sea region building 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 Spartokids, there was a temple in honor of Aphrodite and Dionysus. The whole city was eventually surrounded by a powerful system of stone fortifications, surpassing the Athenian one. In the vicinity of the city there was a necropolis, which differed from the necropolises of other Hellenic cities. In addition to the earth burials common at that time for the Hellenes, the necropolis of Panticapaeum consisted of long chains of mounds stretching along the roads from the city to the steppe. On the south side, the city is bordered by the most significant range of mounds, today called Yuz-Oba - one hundred hills. Representatives of the barbarian nobility - Scythian leaders, who exercised a military-political protectorate over the city, were buried under their mounds. The barrows still make up one of the most striking sights of the Kerch environs. The most popular are such as Kul-Oba, Melek-Chesmensky, Golden 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) the ancient Greek colonists founded a number of independent city-states (polises) that amounted to in the 40s. 6th century BC e. military confederation. The purpose of the interpolis 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 since the end of the 40s. 6th century BC e. Panticapaeum minted its own silver coin, and from the last third of the 70s. 4th 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 B.C. e. Kaffa was presumably 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. The economic prosperity was the reason for the outbreak of war between Theodosius and the Bosporus. In 380 BC. e. The troops of King Levkon I annexed Theodosius to the Bosporan kingdom. As part of the ancient Bosporus, Feodosia was the largest trading port of the Northern Black Sea region. Merchant ships with grain departed from here. The fortified center of Theodosia - the acropolis - was located on the Quarantine Hill.
The city was destroyed by the Huns in the 4th century AD. e.
Chersonese Tauride, or simply Chersonese (ancient Greek Χερσόνησος - ἡ χερσόνησος) is a polis founded by the ancient Greeks on the Herakleian Peninsula on the southwestern coast of Crimea. Now the Kherson 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. Chersonese was a Greek colony founded in 529/528. BC e. natives of Heraclea Pontica, 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 Chersonese, archaeologists have found a significant number of shards (fragments) of archaic black-figure ceramics, which date back to no later than the 6th century BC. e.
A little over a hundred years after the founding of Chersonesus, its territory already occupied the entire space of the peninsula lying between Karantinnaya and Pesochnaya bays (translated from Greek, “Chersonesos” means a peninsula, and the Hellenes called Taurica (country of Tauris) the southern coast of Crimea).

10. Socio-political life and state structure of Chersonese.
State institution
The bulk of the free population of Chersonese were Greeks, while 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 proxenia there, has a patronymic Σκοθα;. The same person, apparently, is named in the act on the sale of land (ΙΡΕ I 2, 403). Thus, some persons from the native population not only lived in Chersonese, but also enjoyed civil rights in it. Whether this was an exception or, conversely, a mass phenomenon, it is difficult to say. In any case, there is no doubt that Chersonesos was closely connected with the local population, and did not stand isolated from it.
The ruling class in Chersonesos was made up of slave owners: landowners, workshop owners, merchants, as well as small peasants and artisans. Slaves descended from the native population were the oppressed and exploiting class; “Slave owners and slaves are the first major division into classes.” Savmaka is convincing evidence that the Scythians were exploited by the Greeks.
During the period under review Chersonese was a democratic republic. The forms of state bodies and the general nature of the state structure of Chersonesus have much in common with the state structure of Heraclea and its metropolis - Megara. 1 The main source for studying the state structure of Chersonese are epigraphic monuments - inscriptions on marble slabs. Valuable documents are inscriptions issued on behalf of the state: honorary decrees, proxenia, treaties, acts, etc. One of the most important monuments of Chersonese is an oath dating back to the end of the 4th - beginning of the 3rd century. BC e. (IPE I 2 , 401). Until now, it has been generally accepted that the oath is an oath taken by young men who have reached the age of majority - ephebes, who subsequently receive the rights of citizenship, that the oath lists all the duties that every citizen had to observe. 2 Acad. S. A. Zhebelev 3 believes that all citizens of the state should have taken the oath after the attempt to overthrow democracy was liquidated. This new understanding of the text of the oath gives us the opportunity to learn about the class struggle that took place in Hersemes in a fairly early period, which makes the oath an even more valuable monument.
Political life
Despite the fact that the state system of Chersonesos 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 at the expense of the results of their labor. As follows from the honorary decrees and dedicatory inscriptions of Chersonesus, the actual power in the state is gradually transferred 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 has always been closely connected with the religious. Temples stood out in the architectural decoration of the city. Unfortunately, as a result of subsequent reconstructions and redevelopment of the urban area, all the ancient temples were destroyed and not preserved. However, we know from honorary inscriptions that there were several temples in the city. The main shrine of Chersonesos since the 4th century BC. e. became the sanctuary of the Virgin with a temple and a statue of this deity. In general, the religious life of the city of 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 not far from Chersonese, on Cape Feolent or on the Lighthouse 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. The Temple of the Virgin was in Chersonese itself.

11. Bosporus kingdom. State structure and socio-economic life. Savmak's uprising
Bosporan kingdom (or the Bosporus, the Kingdom of Vospor (N. M. Karamzin), the Vospor tyranny) is 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 expanded along the eastern coast of Meotida (Sea of ​​Azov) to the mouth of the Tanais (Don). From the end of the 2nd century BC. e. within the Kingdom of Pontus. From the end of the 1st century BC e. post-Hellenistic state dependent on Rome. Became part of Byzantium in the 1st half. 6th century Known from Greco-Roman historians. After the middle of the 7th century BC, Greek settlers appeared on the northern coast 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 apoikias - independent policies (free civil groups ). Greek colonies were founded in the region of the Cimmerian Bosporus (Kerch Strait), where there was no permanent local population. There was a permanent population in the Crimean mountains, where the tribes of Taurus lived, the Scythians periodically roamed the steppes, semi-nomadic Meots and Sind farmers lived around the Kuban River. At first, the colonies did not experience pressure from the barbarians, their population was very small, and there were no defensive walls near the settlements. Around the middle of the VI century. BC e. fires were recorded at some small monuments, including Myrmekia, Porthmia and Torik, after which small fortified acropolises appeared on the first two of them. Conveniently located, having a good trading harbor and therefore having reached a significant level of development, Panticapaeum, one must think, became the center around which the Greek cities of both banks of the Kerch Strait united in an interpolis union. At present, an opinion has appeared that initially he managed to unite around him only nearby small towns, and on the other side of the strait, the center was founded in the 3rd quarter. 6th century BC e. Phanagoria. Around 510 BC e. In Panticapaeum, the temple of Apollo of the Ionic order was built. 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 the political one, how it was organized, who was a member 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 Bosporus kingdom was at different stages of socio-economic development and social relations. The slave-owning mode of production reigned here, in connection with which society was divided into free and forced 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. Bosporan rulers and large landowners were the owners and administrators of the land. There was state and private ownership of land. In the Bosporus state lived 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 the land and mainly bore the burden of duties in favor of the state and the local aristocracy. In addition, the peasants were obliged to participate in the militia during the attack of nomadic tribes on the Bosporus kingdom. The lowest rung of the social ladder was traditionally occupied by slaves, divided into private and public. 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 the labor of slaves in agricultural holdings, where they mainly grew bread for sale.

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

The city-states that became part of the Bosporus kingdom had a certain autonomy, their own self-government bodies (people's assemblies, city councils, elected positions). But already on the verge of a new era, the Bosporan kings become sole rulers, possessors, who call themselves "kings of kings" (with the addition of new tribes to the state, the title of head of state - king - was added to their ethnic name). in the Bosporus, the tendency towards the centralization of power intensified, accompanied by the formation of a complex state-bureaucratic structure with the royal administration at the head.

Savmaka uprising
The uprising of the Scythians in the Bosporus state in 107 BC. e. It broke out in Panticapaeum during negotiations with Diophantus on the transfer of power by the Bosporan king Perisad V to the Pontic king Mithridates VI Eupator (See Mithridates VI Eupator). Perisades was killed by Savmakos, and Diophantus fled to Chersonese. The rebels took possession of the entire European part of the Bosporus. In S. century. participated Scythian populationconsisting of dependent peasants, artisans, slaves. 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 domination, tried to establish a regime of firm power, transferring it to Mithridates VI. The rebel leader Savmak became the ruler of the Bosporus. The system that was established during the reign of Savmak, which lasted about a year, is unknown. After a long preparation, Mithridates VI sent a large punitive expedition of Diophantus to Sinop. In the Crimea, it included the Chersonese detachments. The troops of Diophantus took Theodosius, passed the Kerch Peninsula and captured Panticapeum. S. v. was suppressed, Savmak was captured, and the Bosporus state came under the rule of Mithridates VI.

Slavs in the Crimea.

The Slavs appeared in the 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 III-VIII 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 the Tepsel hill (near the current urban-type settlement of Planersky), it was found that Slavic settlements existed there for a long time, which arose in the 12th-13th centuries. The church, opened on a hill, is close in its plan to the churches of Kievan Rus, and the oven excavated in one of the dwellings resembles ancient Russian ones. The same can be said about the ceramics found during excavations. The remains of ancient Russian churches have been found in various regions of the peninsula, most of them are located in the eastern Crimea. Fresco paintings and plaster, judging by the fragments found in these ruins, are close to similar material in Kyiv cathedrals of the 11th-12th centuries.
Written sources testify that the Crimea at the beginning of the 9th century. falls into the sphere of influence of the ancient Russian princes. For example, the life of Stefan of Surozh tells that in the first quarter of the 9th century. the Russian prince Bravlin attacked the Crimea, captured Kherson, Kerch and Sudak (some historians consider this episode semi-legendary).
In the middle of the XI century. the ancient Rus begin to settle in the Sea of ​​Azov, take possession of the Greek city of Tamatarkha, the later Tmutarakan, the capital of the future Old Russian principality. Sources give reason to believe that by the middle of the X 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, Prince Igor of Kyiv installed his governor in the Crimea, near the Kerch Strait, ousting the Khazars from there. It is difficult to accurately establish the boundaries of the possession of Russian lands in the Crimea during this period. But the text of the agreement concluded by Igor with Byzantium after the unsuccessful campaign against Constantinople in 945 testifies to the increased influence of the Rus in the Crimea: the country does not submit to you,” i.e., the prince of Kyiv. By this treaty, Basantia sought to limit the influence of the Russian princes in the Crimea, using the defeat of the Rus in 945. By the same treaty, the Kyiv prince undertook to protect the Korsun land from the black Bulgarians, which was possible only 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 the Crimea, especially in the period 962-971. Only the unsuccessful campaign of Svyatoslav in Bulgaria forced him to promise the Byzantine emperor not to claim "neither the power of Korsun, and there are many of their cities, nor the country of Bolgar." But this was a temporary retreat of Russia in the 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 Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov. Thanks to this treaty, Kievan Rus received access to the Black Sea and strengthened the Tmutarakan principality dependent on it. After the Korsun campaign, the city of Bospor with the district was attached to this principality, which received the Russian name Korchev (from the word "korcha" - a forge, the current Kerch).
Throughout the 11th century The Tmutarakan principality, including its lands on the Crimean peninsula, belonged to Ancient Russia. At the end of the XI century. mentions of Tmutarakan disappear from the annals, but, obviously, even before the middle of the 12th century. The Kerch Peninsula and Taman were Russian. In the second half of the XII century. The Tmutarakan principality fell under the blows of the Polovtsy, who roamed the Northern Black Sea region.
The fact that the lands on the Kerch Peninsula belonged to the Kyiv princes is evidenced by a number of written sources. Idrisi called the Kerch Strait “the mouth of the Russian River” and even knew a city in this region with the name “Russia” (it can be assumed that this is the Russian Korchevo, which, according to a Byzantine source in 1169, was called “Russia” for some time). On the medieval European and Asian maps of Crimea, many names of cities have been preserved, indicating a long and long stay on the peninsula of the Rus: “Cosal di Rossia”, “Rossia”, “Rossofar”, “Rosso”, “Rosika” (near Evpatoria), etc.
The Polovtsian, and then the Mongol-Tatar invasion cut off the Crimea from Kievan Rus for a long time.

13.Tmutarakan principality. Political structure, socio-economic life.
In the history of the ancient Russian semi-enclave on the shores of the Kerch Strait - the Tmutarakan principality - there are a lot of gaps. For example, the first mention of him in Russian chronicles is in 988, when the Kyiv 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 Kyiv princes, and the time when this happened, remain subject of controversy 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 capture of the Kyiv prince Vladimir Korsun (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 nomadic raids.
A lot of reliable information about the Tmutarakan principality has been preserved. It can be said with certainty 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, the modern village of Taman). Probably, the Tmutarakan principality also belonged to some parts of the coast of the Eastern Azov region, where rich fisheries have long been located.
The inhabitants of the coasts of the Kerch Strait were engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding, they caught fish, which abounded in the waters of the Azov and Black Seas. Crafts flourished in the cities, especially pottery. But the most important occupation of the inhabitants of the principality, located at the crossroads 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, who settled in the cities and villages of the Turkic nomads, including the Khazars, Jewish merchants and artisans, as well as people from the Caucasus, primarily Zikhs and Alans. Over time, a noticeable Slavic layer also appeared, represented by princely people, combatants, merchants, artisans and clergymen.
The city of Tmutarakan was the seat of the head of the Zikh diocese, which was directly subordinate to the Patriarch of Constantinople. Known are the lead seals of Archbishop Anthony, who headed the diocese in the middle of the 11th century.
Prince Mstislav was a very energetic ruler. According to The Tale of Bygone Years, in 1022 he went on a campaign against the Kasogs. They stepped forward to meet him. They were led by Prince Rededya. Both princes had a strong constitution and were distinguished by their strength, therefore they agreed to resolve the dispute by a duel 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) subject to him, opposed his brother Yaroslav and fought for the throne of Kyiv. Having defeated Yaroslav, he received half of Russia with its capital in Chernigov. Soon Mstislav leaves Tmutarakan, which is now controlled by his proxies.
Later, Prince Gleb ruled here, known for measuring the distance from Tmutarakan to Korchevo on ice in 1068 and immortalizing this event with an inscription on the famous Tmutarakan stone found on Taman at the end of the 18th century. For some time, Rostislav Vsevolodovich reigned here, hiding from the Kyiv language. He was poisoned by the Greeks at the instigation of Grand Duke Svyatoslav. Here and later, outcast princes more than once found refuge.
The most famous Tmutarakan prince was Oleg Svyatoslavich (baptized Michael). He first arrived in Tmutarakan in 1078 and, like Rostislav, hid here from his enemies. Having suffered a defeat in the struggle for the Chernigov reign, he was betrayed by the Polovtsy, captured by the "goats" 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: “Lord help Michael, archon of Matrakha, Zikhia and all Khazaria” has been preserved. An active and successful politician, Oleg reigns in Tmutarakan for eleven years, but closely follows the events in Kyiv, dreaming of taking the throne of Chernigov. 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 fulfilled his dream - he established himself in Chernigov. After this event, Tmutarakan is no longer mentioned in the annals 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 granted by the Virgin Mary over Rededey, 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 Russia of that time, an associate of St. Theodosius of the Caves. Nikon's influence on the spiritual and cultural life of Kievan Rus cannot be overestimated. Nikon lived in Tmutarakan for a long time and sometimes carried out diplomatic missions for the townspeople. Probably, it was here that he began to create a new chronicle code, which he completed already in Kyiv.
After the termination of the ancient Russian reign in Tmutarakan, Russian people continued to live on Taman for a long time, and the Russian language was used here even in the middle of the 13th century.

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