The Crimean Peninsula (at the time known as Taurica) was under partial control of the Roman Empire during the period of 47 BC to c. 340 AD. The territory under Roman control mostly coincided with the Bosporan Kingdom (although under Nero, from 62 to 68 AD; it was briefly attached to the Roman Province of Moesia Inferior). Rome lost its influence in Taurica in the mid third century AD, when substantial parts of the peninsula fell to the Goths, but at least nominally the kingdom survived until the 340s AD. The Eastern Roman Empire, the eastern part of the Roman Empire that survived the loss of the western part of the empire, later regained Crimea under Justinian I. The Byzantine Empire controlled portions of the peninsula well into the Late Middle Ages.
Rome started to dominate the Crimea peninsula (then called Taurica) in the 1st century BC. The initial area of their penetration was mainly in eastern Crimea (Bosporus kingdom) and in the western Greek city of Chersonesos.[1] The interior was only nominally under Roman rule.[2]
In ancient times Crimea was known as "Chersonesus Taurica", from the name of the Tauri, who were descendants of the Cimmerians. Many Greek colonists settled in Taurica: their most renowned colony was Chersonesos. In 114 BC the Bosporus kingdom accepted the overlordship of Mithridates VI Eupator, king of Pontus, as a protection from tribes of Scythians. For nearly five centuries after the defeat of Mithridates by the Roman Pompey, Crimea was under the suzerainty of Rome.
The main Roman settlement was Charax, a castrum probably built around 60–65, and the main naval Roman base was in Chersonesos.[3]
When the Romans arrived at Taurica, they set up their camp and built a fortress and a temple of Jupiter Dolichenus on the coast of the harbor of Balaklava, then called Symbolon Limen.[4]
Tiberius Julius Aspurgus (8BC – 38) founded a line of Bosporan Kings which endured with some interruptions until 341. Originally called Aspurgus, he adopted the Roman names "Tiberius Julius" because he received Roman citizenship and enjoyed the patronage of the first two Roman Emperors, Augustus and Tiberius. All of the following kings adopted these two Roman names followed by a third name, mostly of Pontic, Thracian or Sarmatian origin. Bosporan kings struck coinage throughout the kingdom period, which included gold staters bearing portraits of the respective Roman Emperors.
In 67, Emperor Nero prepared a military expedition to conquer for Rome all the northern shores of the Black Sea from the Caucasus to what is now Romania-Moldova-Ukraine, but his death stopped the project. For this reason he probably put Taurica under direct Roman rule and created the Charax castrum.[5] He extended the Roman province of Lower Moesia to Tyras, Olbia and Taurica (the peninsula of Crimea).
Taurica enjoyed a relative golden period under Roman leadership during the 2nd century AD, with huge commerce of wheat, clothing, wine and slaves.
The prosperous merchant-towns (of Taurica), permanently in need of military protection amidst a flux of barbaric peoples, held to Rome as the advanced posts to the main army....(during that century) Roman troops were stationed in the peninsula, perhaps a division of the Pontic fleet, certainly a detachment of the Moesian army, (other garrisons in Panticapaeum and Chersonesos); their presence even in small numbers showed to the barbarians that the dreaded legionary stood behind (the Bosporanum Regnum).[6]
The region was temporarily conquered by the Goths in 250. The last client king of the Roman Empire in Taurica was Tiberius Julius Rhescuporis VI, who died in 342. Rhescuporis seems to have minted coins as late as 341, indicating that there was some extent of political control over the remnants of the kingdom at this point. The remnants of the Bosporan kingdom were finally swept away with the invasion of the Huns in 375/6.
When in 62–66 AD the Roman garrisons were installed in Taurica, Charax became one of their strongholds. The Romans built a fortress and stationed a sub-unit (vexillatio) of the "Ravenna squadron". Charax was a very important strategic point, because it allowed the Romans to establish control over the navigation along the Crimean coast.
The military camp was fully developed under Vespasian with the intention of protecting Chersonesos and other Bosporean trade emporiums from the Scythians.[8] By the end of the 1st century, the Roman forces were evacuated from the Crimea peninsula.
Several decades later the camp was restored by a vexillatio of the Legio I Italica: it hosted a detachment of the Legio XI Claudia at the end of the 2nd century. In this century, new stone walls were added to the fortress and a new Roman road was built, connecting Charax to Chersonesos.[9]
The camp was abandoned by the Romans at the end of the 3rd century.
The Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire) re-established Roman control of the region under Emperor Justinian I (r.527–565).
In the 6th century, probably at the end of the reign of Justinian I, the status of Roman Crimea changed. Taurica became the Province of Chersonesos, which also included Bosporos and the southern coast of Crimea.
This enlargement of Byzantine Taurica resulted in the elevation of the ranks of its governors. In the second half of the 6th century, the military and civil authorities in the region were entrusted to the military deputy, "doux Chersonos".
Furthermore, the city of Chersonnesos was used by the Romans as a place of banishment: St. Clement of Rome died there in exile in 99 AD, having first preached the Gospel in the region. Another exile, the Emperor Justinian II, spent the years c.695 to c.703 there - after he returned to power (in 705) he allegedly destroyed the city in revenge.
Most of Roman Crimea fell under Khazar overlordship in the late 7th century.
In the mid-8th century the Khazars put down the rebellious Crimean Goths and their city, Doros (modern Mangup), was occupied. A Khazar tudun (ruler) was resident at Chersonesos already in 690, despite the fact that this town was nominally subject to the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine emperors controlled the southern shores of the Crimea peninsula (the theme of Cherson) until the 13th century. Control then passed to the Empire of Trebizond, one of the successor states to the Byzantine Empire after the sack of Constantinople in 1204. Another offshoot, the Crimea-based Principality of Theodoro, endured from the 14th century until 1475, when the Ottoman Empire conquered it.[12]
Many series of Roman coins survive from the 1st century BC to about 300, and also some from the Byzantine period.[13]
Joseph Coleman Carter; Glenn Randall Mack, eds. (2003). Crimean Chersonesos: city, chora, museum, and environs. University of Texas at Austin. Institute of Classical Archaeology. ISBN978-0-9708879-2-4.
Fornasier, Jochen; Böttger, Burkhard (2002). Das Bosporanische Reich: der Nordosten des Schwarzen Meeres in der Antike. ISBN978-3-8053-2895-1.
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 63 to 68 AD 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.
Greek Crimea concerns the ancient Greek settlements on the Crimean Peninsula. Greek city-states first established colonies along the Black Sea coast of Crimea in the 7th or 6th century BC. Several colonies were established in the vicinity of the Kerch Strait, then known as the Cimmerian Bosporus. The density of colonies around the Cimmerian Bosporus was unusual for Greek colonization and reflected the importance of the area. The majority of these colonies were established by Ionians from the city of Miletus in Asia Minor. By the mid-1st century BC the Bosporan Kingdom became a client state of the late Roman Republic, ushering in the era of Roman Crimea during the Roman Empire.
Polemon I Pythodoros was the Roman Client King of Cilicia, Pontus, Colchis and the Bosporan Kingdom. Polemon was the son and heir of Zenon and possibly Tryphaena. Zenon and Polemon adorned Laodicea with many dedicated offerings.
Gepaepyris was a Thracian princess, and a Roman Client Queen of the Bosporan Kingdom, the longest known surviving Roman Client Kingdom. She ruled in AD 37/38–39.
Asander, named Philocaesar Philoromaios was a Roman client king of the Bosporan Kingdom. He was of Greek and possibly of Persian ancestry. Not much is known of his family and early life. He started his career as a general under Pharnaces II, the king of the Bosporus. According to some scholars, Asander took as his first wife a woman called Glykareia, known from one surviving Greek inscription, "Glykareia, wife of Asander".
Tiberius Julius Aspurgus Philoromaios was a prince and Roman client king of the Bosporan Kingdom.
Tiberius Julius Mithridates Philogermanicus Philopatris, also known as Mithridates III of the Bosporus, was a Roman client king of the Bosporus.
Tiberius Julius Cotys I Philocaesar Philoromaios Eusebes, also known as Cotys I of the Bosporus, was a Roman client king of the Bosporan Kingdom.
Rhescuporis I, often alternatively enumerated as Rhescuporis II, was a Roman client king of the Bosporan Kingdom.
Dynamis, nicknamed Philoromaios, was a Roman client queen of the Bosporan Kingdom during the Late Roman Republic and part of the reign of Augustus, the first Roman Emperor. Dynamis is an ancient Greek name which means the “powerful one”. She was a monarch of Iranian and Greek Macedonian ancestry. She was the daughter of King Pharnaces II of Pontus and his Sarmatian wife. She had an older brother called Darius and a younger brother called Arsaces. Her paternal grandparents had been the monarchs of the Kingdom of Pontus, Mithridates VI of Pontus and his first wife Laodice, who was also his sister. Dynamis married three times. Her husbands were Asander, a certain Scribonius and Polemon I of Pontus. According to Rostovtzeff, she also had a fourth husband, Aspurgos.
Sauromates I was a Roman client king of the Bosporan Kingdom.
Tiberius Julius Sauromates II Philocaesar Philoromaios Eusebes, also known as Sauromates II (Greek: Τιβέριος Ἰούλιος Σαυρομάτης Β΄ Φιλοκαῖσαρ Φιλορωμαῖος Eὐσεβής, Philocaesar Philoromaios Eusebes, the epithets meaning "friend of Caesar, friend of Rome, pious one," was a Roman client king of the Bosporan Kingdom. His coins are known from the period 172–210, probably accounting for his entire reign.
Rhescuporis V, also transliterated as Rheskuporis or Rheskouporis, was the king of the Bosporan Kingdom, a Roman client state, from 240 to 276. The reign of Rhescuporis V overlaps with those of several other Bosporan kings; Pharsanzes (253–254), Sauromates IV (276) and Teiranes (276–278). It is unclear what their relationships and status were relative to each other and if they were co-rulers or rival contenders for the throne.
Sauromates IV was a Roman client king of the Bosporan Kingdom. Like the other late Bosporan kings, Sauromates IV is known only from coinage, which means his relationship to the other kings is unknown, as are details of his accession and reign. His coins are known only from 276, when he apparently co-ruled with Rhescuporis V and Teiranes. It is possible that he was a son of Rhescuporis V.
Rhescuporis VI, also transliterated as Rheskuporis or Rheskouporis and sometimes known as Rhescuporis the Last, is the last well-known king of the Bosporan Kingdom, a Roman client state, and the last known representative of its ancient Tiberian-Julian ruling dynasty. Little is known of the background and reign of Rhescuporis VI; he began his tenure as king through either co-rule or competition with his predecessor Rhadamsades until 322. Rhescuporis VI reign came to an end around 341, when he might have been overthrown by the Sarmatians or Alans, groups which at the time were becoming increasingly influential and powerful in Crimea.
Sextus Julius Cotys III was the Sapaean Roman client king of eastern Thrace from 12 to 18 AD.
Eunice was the queen of the Bosporan Kingdom by marriage to King Cotys I. She appears to have been regent during the minority of her son Rhescuporis I in 68–69.
The Tiberian-Julian dynasy was the third and last dynasty of the kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus. The members of it bare the names Tiberius Julius before their names, on behalf of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. The first member of the family is Tiberius Julius Aspurgus.
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