 |
| Battle of Lake Maeotis | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Siraces | Bosporan Kingdom | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Eumelos Aripharnes(?) | Prytanis  | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Low | High | ||||||
The Battle of Lake Maeotis was a military engagement of the Spartocid civil war that took place in winter of 309 BC near the Maeotic Lake. It was fought between the forces of Prytanis I, who succeeded his late brother Satyros II, and the pretender Eumelos who had recently killed Satyros II at Siracena. [1] [2]
Satyros II had been killed at Siracena while besieging the town with Aripharnes and Eumelos inside. [3] After his death, the mercenary commander Meniscus, took Satyros' body to Gargaza and gave it to Prytanis, the younger brother of Satyros and Eumelos. He buried his brother after taking the throne. Then Prytanis left a garrison in Gargaza and returned to Panticapaeum to secure his position [4] while Eumelos and Aripharnes quickly took Gargaza. [5] Shortly after, Prytanis took the field against his brother but was quickly cornered and defeated. [6]
The Bosporan Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus, was an ancient Greco-Scythian state located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus, centered in the present-day Strait of Kerch. It was the first truly 'Hellenistic' state, in the sense that a mixed population adopted the Greek language and civilization, under aristocratic consolidated leadership. Under the Spartocid dynasty, the aristocracy of the kingdom adopted a double nature of presenting themselves as archons to Greek subjects and as kings to barbarians, which some historians consider unique in ancient history. The Bosporan Kingdom became the longest surviving Roman client kingdom. The 1st and 2nd centuries AD saw a period of a new golden age of the Bosporan state. It was briefly incorporated as part of the Roman province of Moesia Inferior from AD 63 to 68 under Emperor Nero, before being restored as a Roman client kingdom. At the end of the 2nd century AD, King Sauromates II inflicted a critical defeat on the Scythians and included all the territories of the Crimean Peninsula in the structure of his state.
The Spartocids or Spartocidae was the name of a Hellenized Thracian dynasty that ruled the Hellenistic Kingdom of Bosporus between the years 438–108 BC. They had usurped the former dynasty, the Archaeanactids, who were tyrants of Panticapaeum from 480 to 438 BC. The throne of the Bosporan Kingdom was usurped by Spartokos I in 438 BC, after whom the dynasty is named.
The Battle of the River Thatis was part of a succession dispute in the Bosporan Kingdom that was fought out during 310/309 BC. After the death of Paerisades I, his eldest son Satyros II became king. His brother Eumelus disputed Satyros II's right to the throne and gathered an army with his allies, the Siraces tribe. With his Scythian allies Satyrus met Eumelus in battle at the River Thatis, where Eumelus and the Siraces were defeated. Satyrus led his cavalry in a charge towards the centre of the line where Aripharnes, the king of the Siraces, was with his own cavalry and put them to flight. When he heard his mercenaries had fled from the fight with the right wing which was led by Eumelus, he attacked the enemy's right wing and broke their army.
Leucon I of Bosporus also known as Leuco, was a Spartocid ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom who ruled from 389 to 349 BC. He was arguably the greatest ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom.
Aripharnes or Arypharnasha the Thataean was king of the Sarmatian tribe of Siraces and took part in the First Bosporan Civil War of 310-309 between king Satyros II and his brother Eumelos, a pretender to the throne.
Gorgippus was a son of Satyrus I and was a Spartocid joint ruler with his brother Leucon of the Bosporan Kingdom. He situated himself on the Asiatic side of the kingdom, in Gorgippia where he ruled until, presumably, his death in 349 BCE.
Eumelus of Bosporus was a Spartocid ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom and a son of Paerisades. Eumelus was the brother of Satyrus II and Prytanis.
Siracena is the alleged capital settlement or village of the tribe of Siraces, a powerful, hellenized Sarmatian tribe on the steppe. It was ruled by the kings of the Siraces, most notably Aripharnes, who engaged in the Bosporan Civil War of 309 BC.
The Siege of Siracena was a Bosporan siege led by Satyrus II and Meniscus on the fortified capital city of the Siraces, Siracena, that occurred in 309 BC during the First Bosporan Civil War. The Siraces were a hellenized Sarmatian tribe that had sided with Eumelos, a claimant to the Bosporan throne and a brother of Satyrus.
The Bosporan Civil War was a war of succession that happened in the Bosporan Kingdom somewhere between 311 and 308 BCE and lasted for about a year. The casus belli was the death of archon Paerisades I, whose sons disputed the succession. These sons were Satyros II, who claimed the kingdom by virtue of being the eldest, Eumelos, who was another claimant to the throne, and Prytanis, who engaged in battle later on in support of Satyros.
The Bosporan Kingdom waged a series of wars of expansion in the Cimmerian Bosporus and the surrounding territories from around 438 BC until about 355 BC. Bosporan expansion began after Spartokos I, the first Spartocid took power and during his seven-year reign, established an aggressive expansionist foreign policy that was followed by his successors.
The siege of Theodosia in c. 360 BC was the third and final siege by the Bosporan Kingdom under Leukon I against the city of Theodosia, a probable colony of Heraclea Pontica, who had aided the city in two previous sieges.
Paerisades I also known as Birisades, Pairisades, and Parysades was a Spartocid king of the Bosporan Kingdom from 342 to 310/9 BC.
Satyrus II was a son of Paerisades I and Spartocid king of the Bosporan Kingdom for 9 months in 310 BC. He was the elder brother of Eumelus and Prytanis. He was challenged and ultimately overthrown by Eumelus in the Bosporan Civil War.
Prytanis was king of the Bosporan Kingdom from 310 to 309 BC. He was a son of Paerisades and the youngest brother of Satyros II and Eumelos. He was part of the Bosporan Civil War during 309 BC, between himself and his brothers, Eumelos having a claim to the throne and the backing of Aripharnes, king of the Siraces.
Paerisades II or Parysades was king of the Bosporan Kingdom from 284 to 245 BC. He may have been a son of either Spartokos III, or Satyros II.
Spartocus III was king of the Bosporan Kingdom from 304 to 284 BC. He succeeded to the throne after the death of his father Eumelus in a carriage accident.
The Battle of Labrytae was a battle around 380 BC that occurred nearly directly after Octamasades usurped the Sindian throne from his father Hecataeus and attacked and took the city of Labrytae, presumably a city under Bosporan rule. Leukon, the ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom, had made war upon Oktamasades on behalf of Hekataios, who was a vassal of the Bosporans prior to his removal from the throne.
The Bosporan–Heracleote War was a long and enduring conflict between the states of Heraclea Pontica and the Bosporan Kingdom. It lasted decades, but ended after the Bosporans finally conquered the city-state of Theodosia in around 360 BCE.
The Bosporan–Sindian War was a war between the Sindike Kingdom and its allied tribes against the Bosporan Kingdom in the 4th century BC. The war took place amidst the wars of expansion and took the life of the brother of Leukon and Gorgippos, Metrodoros.
Satyrus is killed
When Prytanis took the field against him, near the Maeotic Lake
Satyrus is killed while attacking Aripharnes
he did not heed him but he left a garrison in Gargaza and returned to Panticapaeum in order to secure the royal prerogatives for himself.
Eumelus with the co-operation of the barbarians captured Gargaza and several of the other cities and villages.
Eumelus defeated his brother in battle and after shutting him up in the isthmus near the Maeotic Lake