Gorgippus

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Gorgippus
King of Bosporus
Reign389–349 BCE
Predecessor Satyrus I
SuccessorSpartocus II and Paerisades I
King of Sindoi
Reign389–349 BCE
Predecessor Hecataeus
SuccessorComosarye I
Bornc.410 BCE
Bosporan Kingdom
Died349 BCE (aged 40+)
Bosporan Kingdom
Issue
  • Comosarye I
  • Satyrus III
  • Ambrocus(?)
House Spartocid
FatherSatyrus I

Gorgippus (Ancient Greek : Γοργιππος, romanized: Gorgippos) was a son of Satyrus I [1] and was a Spartocid joint ruler with his brother Leucon (389–349 BCE) of the Bosporan Kingdom. [2] He situated himself on the Asiatic side of the kingdom, in Gorgippia where he ruled until, presumably, his death in 349 BCE.

Wars of Expansion

Gorgippus was a prominent figure of the Bosporan Wars of Expansion, after he became joint-ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom alongside his brother Leukon upon the death of their father Satyros I. He seems to have ended the war his father had unsuccessfully began with queen Tirgatao of the Maeotians, who had been wronged by Satyrus earlier on in diplomatic relations with Hecataeus. [3] Additionally, he seems to have renamed Sindia, the capital of the Sindike Kingdom, to Gorgippia, after himself. [4]

In a speech against the Athenian orator Demosthenes, Gorgippus was described as one of the "detested tyrants", alongside Paerisades I and Satyrus I [5] for whom Demosthenes had erected statues in Athens due to his grandfather's relation with the Spartocids. The same speech claimed that Demosthenes received a thousand bushels of grain from Gorgippus annually. [6]

Gorgippus' daughter, Comosarye, may have been of Sindian descent. She married her cousin Paerisades I, a son of Leucon and later ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom. [7]

Related Research Articles

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, a Greek dynasty of the Bosporan Kingdom who were tyrants of Panticapaeum from 480 - 438 BC. The throne of the Bosporan kingdom was usurped by Spartokos I in 438 BC, after whom the dynasty is named.

Satyrus I was the Spartocid ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom from 432 BC to 389 BC. During his rule he built upon the expansive foreign policy of his father, Spartocus I. He conquered Nymphaion, became involved in the political developments of the neighbouring Sindike kingdom and laid siege to the city of Theodosia, which was a serious commercial rival because of its ice-free port and proximity to the grain fields of eastern Crimea.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leucon II</span> King of the Bosporan Kingdom

Leucon II of Bosporus, also known as Leuco, seems to have been the second son of Paerisades II and a Spartocid ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom in 240 BC.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bosporan Civil War</span> Civil War in Bosporian Kingdom

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bosporan wars of expansion</span> The Bosporan Kingdoms wars of expansion 438–355 BCE

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.

Paerisades I also known as Birisades, Pairisades, and Parysades was a Spartocid king of the Bosporan Kingdom from 342 to 310/9 BC.

Hecataeus was the king of the Ancient Circassians (Sindians) throughout the reigns of both Satyrus I and Leucon I of the Bosporan Kingdom.

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.

Paerisades III was a son of Leukon II and Alkathoe, he also succeeded his brother Spartokos V as Spartocid king of the Bosporan Kingdom from 180 to 150 BC. He co-ruled with Kamasarye II.

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.

Camasarye II Philoctenus or Comosarye was a daughter of Spartocus V and a Spartocid queen of the Bosporan Kingdom from 180-160/150 BC. She was the wife of her cousin Paerisades III and a granddaughter of Leucon II. She co-ruled with Paerisades III.

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.

Sopaios or Sopaeus or Sinopeus was a powerful Bosporan minister to Satyros I, the father of queen Theodosia, and father-in-law to Leukon I.

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.

Spartocus I was the founder and first ruler of the Spartocid dynasty in the Bosporan Kingdom. He usurped the former rulers of the Bosporus, the Archaeanactids, after being a mercenary under their command sometime in 438 BC.

Octamasades was briefly a king of the Scythian tribe of the Sindians and a son of Hecataeus and Tirgatao. He usurped the throne from his father some time in 383 BC after his failed war against Octamasades' mother, Tirgatao.

References

  1. Polyaenus. Strategems 55.1. Satyrus died in the midst of an unsuccessful war; leaving his son Gorgippus to succeed him in the throne.
  2. Kinzl, Konrad H. (11 January 2010). A Companion to the Classical Greek World. Wiley. p. 145. ISBN   9781444334128 . Retrieved 26 January 2017. Although Satyros seems to have been succeeded jointly by his sons Leukon I and Gorgippos...
  3. Polyaenus. Strategems 55.1. He renounced his father's proceedings, and sued for peace, which she granted on payment of a tribute, and put and end to the war.
  4. Brill Reference. October 2006. and was officially named after the Spartocid Gorgippus after its integration into the Bosporus Kingdom.
  5. Against Demosthenes. 10 October 2022. Was it for nothing he procured brazen statues to Berisades and Satyrus, and Gorgippus, those detested tyrants
  6. Against Demosthenes. 10 October 2022. from whom he annually receives a thousand bushels of corn,
  7. D. E. W. Wormell (1946). "Studies in Greek tyranny—II. Leucon of Bosporus". Hermathena (68): 49–71. JSTOR   23037564. when the joining of the two nations had been symbolized in the marriage of Comosarye and Paerisades, he took the title "king of sindi"