Everything about Panticapaeum totally explained
Panticapaeum (
Greek: Παντικάπαιον), present-day
Kerch: an important
Greek city and port in
Taurica (Tauric Chersonese), situated on a hill (Mt.
Mithridates) on the western side of the
Cimmerian Bosporus, founded by
Milesians in the late 7th–early 6th century BC.
In the 5th–4th centuries BC, the city became the residence first of the
Archaeanactids and then of the
Spartocids, dynasties of
Greek kings of
Bosporus, and was hence itself sometimes called Bosporus. Its economic decline in the 4th–3rd centuries BC was the result of the
Sarmatian conquest of the steppes and the growing competition of
Egyptian grain. The last of the
Spartocids,
Paerisades V, apparently left his realm to
Mithridates VI Eupator, king of
Pontus.
This transition was arranged by one of Mithridates's generals, a certain
Diophantus, who earlier was sent to Taurica to help local Greek cities against
Palacus of
Lesser Scythia. The takeover didn't go smoothly: Paerisades was murdered by
Scythians led by
Saumacus,
Diophantus escaped to return later with reinforcements and to suppress the revolt (c. 110 BC).
Half of a century later, Mithridates himself took his life in Panticapaeum, when, after his defeat in a
war against
Rome, his own son and heir
Pharnaces and citizens of Panticapaeum turned against him. In 63 BC the city was partly destroyed by an earthquake. Raids by the
Goths and the
Huns furthered its decline, and it was incorporated into the
Byzantine state under
Justin I in the early 6th century AD.
During the first centuries of the city's existence, imported Greek articles predominated:
pottery (see
Kerch Style),
terracottas, and metal objects, probably from workshops in
Rhodes,
Corinth,
Samos, and
Athens. Local production, imitated from the models, was carried on at the same time. Athens manufactured a special type of bowl for the city, known as
Kerch ware. Local potters imitated the
Hellenistic bowls known as the
Gnathia style as well as relief wares—
Megarian bowls. The city minted silver coins from the mid 6th century BC and from the 1st century BC gold and bronze coins. The
Hermitage and
Kerch Museums contain material from the site, which is still being excavated.
Bibliography
- Noonan, Thomas S. "The Origins of the Greek Colony at Panticapaeum", American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 77, No. 1. (1973), pp. 77–81.
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