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29-581: Spartokos's descendants would continue to rule the Bosporus until 108 BC, in which it was briefly conquered by the invading Scythians led by Saumacus and subsequently ruled by the Mithridatic and Tiberian-Julian dynasties . The dynasty continued to repeat the names of succeeding princes, with the final Spartokos being named Spartokos V. The dynasty also had intermarriages, notably the marriage of Komosarye and Paerisades I . The most famous known ruler

58-467: A decline due to numerous attacks from nomadic Scythian tribes in the subsequent centuries leading up to its fall. The last Spartocid rulers, Paerisades III , Kamasarye II Philoteknos , Paerisades IV and Paerisades V were under extreme pressure from Scythian attacks. Paerisades V, the last of his dynasty, offered his kingdom to Mithridates VI in exchange for the protection of his people and of himself. Diophantus , Mithridates's general, barely escaped

87-408: A larger force of Siracens had arrived at his location. Seeing his friend in danger, Satyrus rushed to his aid and fought valiantly, but was struck with a spear to his right shoulder and he was carried to camp. Satyrus died that night, and Meniscus gave up the siege and took his body back to Panticapaeum. Meniscus returned the body of his friend Satyrus to his younger brother Prytanis, who then assumed

116-594: A treaty she had with Satyros, before he betrayed her. Upon Satyros's death in 389 BC, Leukon engaged in the Battle of Labrytai which was a dynastic dispute between the original king of the Sindoi , Hekataios , and his son Oktamasades ending with a victory for Leukon and the exile of Oktamasades. Sometime after this, Leukon and Gorgippos became rulers of the Sindike Kingdom. Leukon then started 2 sieges of Theodisa,

145-701: Is Leukon I , who expanded the kingdom beyond its boundaries , resisted the Scythians , and ruled for 40 years. The Spartocids are thought to be of Thracian origin, and to have connections with the Odrysian dynasty, the rulers of the Thracian Odrysian Kingdom . Spartokos I is often thought to have been a Thracian mercenary who was hired by the Archaeanactids, and that he usurped the Archaeanactids in around 438 BC, becoming "king" of

174-617: Is derived from the Scythian endonym Skuδa , meaning lit.   ' archers ' which was derived from the Proto-Indo-European root skewd- , itself meaning lit.   ' shooter, archer ' . This name was semantically similar to the endonym of the Sauromatians, *Saᵘrumata , meaning "armed with throwing darts and arrows." From this earlier term Skuδa was derived: The Urartian name for

203-585: Is preferred by Scythologists such as Askold Ivantchik . Within this broad use, the Scythians proper who lived in the Pontic Steppes are sometimes referred to as Pontic Scythians . Modern-day anthropologists instead prefer using the term "Scytho-Siberians" to denote this larger cultural grouping of nomadic peoples living in the Eurasian steppe and forest steppe extending from Central Europe to

232-530: The 2nd in 365 BC, and the 3rd siege of the city in 360 BC, ultimately annexing the city into his dominions after a long with Heraclea Pontica with varying success. Paerisades I would marry his cousin, Komosarye, a daughter of Gorgippos and through this marriage, he would become king of the Sindians. He would also engage in a war against invading Scythian tribes, due to him refusing to pay them tribute. Paerisades also, at some point during his reign, took

261-789: The Battle of the River Thatis and later the Siege of Siracena , in which Satyros II lost his life. Eumelos, after defeating his elder brother Satyros, attempted to divide the kingdom with Prytanis, but the latter refused, leading to his eventual defeat near the Maeotic Lake and death at the Eumelos' hands. Under Eumelos's reign, the Bosporan Kingdom enjoyed much military success, purging the Black Sea of nearly all pirates, and

290-653: The Pontic Scythians , were an ancient Eastern Iranic equestrian nomadic people who had migrated during the 9th to 8th centuries BC from Central Asia to the Pontic Steppe in modern-day Ukraine and Southern Russia , where they remained established from the 7th century BC until the 3rd century BC. Skilled in mounted warfare , the Scythians replaced the Agathyrsi and the Cimmerians as

319-540: The 3rd century AD, last remnants of the Scythians were overwhelmed by the Goths , and by the early Middle Ages , the Scythians were assimilated and absorbed by the various successive populations who had moved into the Pontic Steppe. After the Scythians' disappearance, authors of the ancient, mediaeval, and early modern periods used their name to refer to various populations of the steppes unrelated to them. The name

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348-675: The Asiatic side of the kingdom, specifically in Sindia, the former capital of the Sindike Kingdom, and renaming it Gorgippia , probably after himself. The Spartocid rulers seem have jointly ruled with their sons and brothers. Leukon's sons, Spartokos II and Paerisades I, jointly ruled until Spartokos's death five years into his reign. This can also be seen with Paerisades's own children, Satyros II and Gorgippis II, both of whom co-ruled their father. This same pattern can be seen decades later, with Spartokos IV and Leukon II reign's. The Spartocids were

377-511: The Bosporan Kingdom, then only a few cities, such as Panticapaeum . Spartokos was succeeded by his son, Satyros I , who would go on to conquer many cities around Panticapaeum such as Nymphaeum and Kimmerikon . Satyros's son, Leukon I, would go to conquer and expand the kingdom beyond boundaries his father ever thought of. Leukon would also engage in wars against the Ixomatae , Sindoi , and Heracleans . His brother, Gorgippos, would rule from

406-578: The Hellenistic period, authors such as Hecataeus of Miletus however sometimes extended the designation "Scythians" indiscriminately to all steppe nomads and forest steppe populations living in Europe and Asia, and used it to also designate the Saka of Central Asia. Early modern scholars tended to follow the lead of the Hellenistic authors in extending the name "Scythians" into a general catch-all term for

435-547: The Iranic pastoralist nomads who lived in the steppes of Central Asia and East Turkestan in the 1st millennium BC. The Late Babylonian scribes of the Achaemenid Empire used the name "Cimmerians" to designate all the nomad peoples of the steppe, including the Scythians and Saka. Siege of Siracena The Siege of Siracena was a Bosporan siege led by Satyrus II and Meniscus on the fortified capital city of

464-670: The Scythians might have been Išqigulu ( 𒆳𒅖𒆥𒄖𒇻 ). Due to a sound change from /δ/ ( / ð / ) to / l / commonly attested in East Iranic language family to which Scythian belonged, the name Skuδa evolved into Skula , which was recorded in ancient Greek as Skōlotoi ( Σκωλοτοι ), in which the Greek plural-forming suffix -τοι was added to the name. The name of the 5th century BC king Scyles ( Ancient Greek : Σκυλης , romanized :  Skulēs ) represented this later form, Skula . The name "Scythians"

493-476: The Siracen army of 42,000 (22,000 Infantry, 20,000 cavalry) during the Battle of the River Thatis . Satyrus gave immediate chase to his younger brother, where he came up the Siracen capital city of Siracena which was heavily fortified and situated on that the river Thatis. Knowing that he could not take the city, he plundered the surrounding countryside and took on many prisoners. Satyrus had his men cut through

522-671: The Siraces, Siracena , that occurred in 309 BC during the First Bosporan Civil War. The Siraces were a hellenized Sarmatian tribe that had sided with Eumelos, a claimant to the Bosporan throne and a brother of Satyrus. Before the siege, the Bosporan army which had been composed of 34,000 troops (20,000 Scythian Infantry, 10,000 Scythian cavalry, 2,000 Thracians peltasts and 2,000 Greek mercenaries hoplites ) had successfully defeated and routed Aripharnes and Eumelos, and

551-648: The dominant power on the western Eurasian Steppe in the 8th century BC. In the 7th century BC, the Scythians crossed the Caucasus Mountains and frequently raided West Asia along with the Cimmerians. After being expelled from West Asia by the Medes , the Scythians retreated back into the Pontic Steppe in the 6th century BC, and were later conquered by the Sarmatians in the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC. By

580-456: The leading figures of the Bosporan wars of expansion , a series of conflicts and sieges that occurred from 438 BC to around 350 BC, just before the death of Leukon. These wars resulted in the death of Satyros I and Metrodoros and a perhaps the brother of Satyros, Seleukos. Satyros died in the 1st siege of Theodosia in 389 BC] and Metrodoros was killed by Tirgatao as he was her hostage under

609-657: The limits of the Chinese Zhou Empire, and of which the Pontic Scythians proper were only one section. These various peoples shared the use of the "Scythian triad," that is of distinctive weapons, horse harnesses and the "Animal Style" art. The term "Scytho-Siberian" has itself in turn also been criticised since it is sometimes used broadly to include all Iron Age equestrian nomads, including those who were not part of any Scythian or Saka. The scholars Nicola Di Cosmo and Andrzej Rozwadowski instead prefer

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638-2640: The rebellion led by Saumacus, a possible Scythian and Paerisades V's adoptive heir. Paerisades V died in Panticapaeum at Saumacus' hands, ending Spartocid rule in the Cimmerian Bosporus. The following genealogy is based upon Ferdinand Justi, Iranisches Namenbuch , (Marburg, Berlin, 1884), (Heidelsheim, 1963), p. 400: [REDACTED] Scythians West Asia (7th–6th centuries BC) Akkadian (in West Asia) Median (in West Asia) Phrygian (in West Asia) Urartian (in West Asia) Thracian (in Pontic Steppe) Ancient Greek (in Pontic Steppe) Proto-Slavic language (in Pontic Steppe) Ancient Mesopotamian religion (in West Asia) Urartian religion (in West Asia) Phrygian religion (in West Asia) Ancient Iranic religion (in West Asia) Thracian religion (in Pontic Steppe) Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Scythians ( / ˈ s ɪ θ i ə n / or / ˈ s ɪ ð i ə n / ) or Scyths ( / ˈ s ɪ θ / , but note Scytho- ( / ˈ s aɪ θ ʊ / ) in composition) and sometimes also referred to as

667-482: The strategic city of Tanais near the Don River and added several other nomadic tribes to his dominions. The Spartocids would engage in a civil war among each other in about 309 BC, after the death of Paerisades I. The dynastic dispute would include Satyros II who was the eldest, and inherited the throne, Prytanis, and Eumelos, who had a claim to the throne. The war was carried into 2 large engagements, starting with

696-513: The term "Scythian" has however been criticised for lumping together various heterogeneous populations belonging to different cultures, and therefore leading to several errors in the coverage of the various warrior-nomadic cultures of the Iron Age-period Eurasian Steppe. Therefore, the narrow use of the term "Scythian" as denoting specifically the people who dominated the Pontic Steppe between the 7th and 3rd centuries BC

725-560: The trees that surrounded the easiest entry way of the city for a total of 4 days, although on the third day, they began to experience missile fire and arrows from the Siracens on the city's walls, they could not fight back as the woods were too thick and could not see who was firing at them, or from where. On the fourth day, they were able to reach the wall and enter the city. As soon as he made it through, Meniscus fought with great valor and boldness against his enemies, but had to retreat once

754-490: The use of the term "Early Nomadic" for the broad designation of the Iron Age horse-riding nomads. While the ancient Persians used the name Saka to designate all the steppe nomads and specifically referred to the Pontic Scythians as Sakā tayaiy paradraya ( 𐎿𐎣𐎠 𐏐 𐎫𐎹𐎡𐎹 𐏐 𐎱𐎼𐎭𐎼𐎹 ; lit.   ' the Saka who dwell beyond the (Black) Sea ' ), the name "Saka" is used in modern scholarship to designate

783-404: The various equestrian warrior-nomadic cultures of the Iron Age-period Eurasian Steppe following the discovery in the 1930s in the eastern parts of the Eurasian steppe of items forming the "Scythian triad," consisting of distinctive weapons, horse harnesses, and objects decorated in the "Animal Style" art, which had until then been considered to be markers of the Scythians proper. This broad use of

812-554: Was initially used by ancient authors to designate specifically the Iranic people who lived in the Pontic Steppe between the Danube and the Don rivers. In modern archaeology, the term "Scythians" is used in its original narrow sense as a name strictly for the Iranic people who lived in the Pontic and Crimean Steppes, between the Danube and Don rivers, from the 7th to 3rd centuries BC. By

841-573: Was large enough to rival the state of Lysimachus , one of Alexander 's powerful generals. Eumelos's son, Spartokos III , was then able to re-establish their trade agreements with Athens and was the first Spartocid ruler to assume the title of " basileus ". His son, or nephew, Paerisades II, was unexpectedly active in diplomacy between the kingdoms of the Diadochi, being mentioned as sending ambassadors to Ptolemy II and doing cup offerings with Antigonus II at Delos . The Bosporan Kingdom entered into

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