Bosporus or Pantikapæum. Princes of Bosporusrelations between Bosporus. among the chief divine or heroic persons to whom they addressed their prayers'. Amidst Grecian life, thus degraded and verging towards its extinction, and stripped even of the purity of living speech— the thread of imaginative and traditional sentiment thus continues without suspension or abatement. Respecting Bosporus or Pantikapæum (for both names denote the same city, though the former name often comprehends the whole annexed dominion), founded by Milesian settlers on the European side of the Kimmerian Bosporus (near Kertsch), we first hear, about the period when Xerxes was repulsed from Greece (480-479 B.c.). It was the centre of a dominion including Phanagoria, Kepi, Hermonassa, and other Greek cities on the Asiatic side of the strait; and is said to have been governed by what seems to have been an oligarchy-called the Archæanaktidæ, for fortytwo years (480-438 B.c.). After them we have a series of princes standing out individually by name, and succeeding each Athens and other in the same family. Spartokus I. was succeeded by Seleukus; next comes Spartokus II.; then Satyrus I. (407-393 B.C.); Leukon (393-353 B.C.); Spartokus III. (353-348 B.C.); Parisades I. (348-310 B.C.); Satyrus II., Prytanis, Eumelus (310-304 B.C.); Spartokus IV. (304-284 B.C.); Parisades II. During the reigns of these princes, 1 See Inscriptions, Nos. 2076, 2077, ap. Boeckh; and Arrian's Periplus of the Euxine, ap. Geogr. Minor. p. 21, ed. Hudson. 3 Diodor. xii. 31. 2 Strabo, vii. p. 310. See Mr. Clinton's Appendix on the Kings of Bosporus-Fast. Hellen. App. c. 13. p. 280, &c.; and Boeckh's Commentary on the same subject, Inscript. Græc. part xi. p. 91 seq. CHAP. XCVIII.] GREEKS OF BOSPORUS. 649 a connexion of some intimacy subsisted between Athens and Bosporus; a connexion not political, since the Bosporanic princes had little interest in the contentions about Hellenic hegemony-but of private intercourse, commercial interchange, and reciprocal good offices. The eastern corner of the Tauric Chersonesus, between Pantikapæum and Theodosia, was well-suited for the production of corn; while plenty of fish, as well as salt, was to be had in or near the Palus Mæotis. Corn, salted fish and meat, hides, and barbaric slaves in considerable numbers, were in demand among all the Greeks round the Egean, and not least at Athens, where Scythian slaves were numerous'; while oil and wine, with other products of more southern regions, were acceptable in Bosporus and the other Pontic ports. This important traffic seems to have been mainly carried on in ships and by capital belonging to Athens and other Egæan maritime towns; and must have been greatly under the protection and regulation of the Athenians, so long as their maritime empire subsisted. Enterprising citizens of Athens went to Bosporus (as to Thrace 1 Polybius (iv. 38) enumerates the principal articles of this Pontic trade; among the exports τά τε δέρματα καὶ τὸ τῶν εἰς τὰς δουλείας ἀγομένων σωμάτων πλῆθος, &c., where Schweighhäuser has altered δέρματα το θρέμματα, seemingly on the authority of one MS. only. I doubt the propriety of this change, as well as the fact of any large exportation of live cattle from the Pontus; whereas the exportation of hides was considerable: see Strabo, xi. p. 493. The Scythian public slaves or policemen of Athens are well known. Ekúlaiva also is the name of a female slave (Aristoph. Lysistr. 184). Exúons, for the name of a slave, occurs as early as Theognis, v. 826. Some of the salted preparations from the Pontus were extravagantly dear; Cato complained of a κεράμιον Ποντικῶν ταρίχων as sold for 300 drachmæ (Polyb. xxxi. 24). Nymphæum among the tributary the Athe -here it passed under the Bosporanic princes. and the Thracian Chersonesus), to push their fortunes; merchants from other cities found it advantageous to settle as resident strangers or metics at Athens, where they were more in contact with the protecting authority, and obtained readier access to the judicial tribunals. It was probably during the period preceding the great disaster at Syracuse in 413 B.C., that Athens first acquired her position as a mercantile centre for the trade with the Euxine; which we afterwards find her retaining, even with reduced power, in the time of Demosthenes. How strong was the position enjoyed by Athens in Bosporus, during her unimpaired empire, we cities under may judge from the fact, that Nymphæum (south nian empire of Pantikapæum, between that town and Theodosia) was among her tributary towns, and paid a talent annually', Not until the misfortunes of Athens in the closing years of the Peloponnesian war, did Nymphæum pass into the hands of the Bosporanic princes; betrayed (according to Eschines) by the maternal grandfather of Demosthenes, the Athenian Gylon; who however probably did nothing more than obey a necessity rendered unavoidable by the fallen condition of Athens. We thus see that Nymphæum, in the midst of the Bosporanic dominion, was not only a member of the Athenian empire, but also contained influential Athenian citizens, engaged in the corn Η Harpokration and Photius, v. Νυμφαίον—from the ψηφίσματα cole lected by Kraterus. Compare Boeckh, in the second edition of his Staatshaushaltung der Athener, vol. ii. p, 658. Æschines adv. Ktesiph. p. 78. c. 57. See my last preceding Vol. XI. Ch. lxxxvii. p. 369. CHAP. XCVIII.] CONNEXION OF ATHENS WITH BOSPORUS. 651 trade. Gylon was rewarded by a large grant of land at Kepi-probably other Athenians of Nymphæum were rewarded also by the Bosporanic prince; who did not grudge a good price for such an acquisition. We find also other instances,both of Athenian citizens sent out to reside with the prince Satyrus,-and of Pontic Greeks who, already in correspondence and friendship with various individual Athenians, consign their sons to be initiated in the commerce, society, and refinements of Athens'. Such facts attest the correspondence and intercourse of that city, during her imperial greatness, with Bosporus. Alliance and reci procal good offices Leukon, The Bosporanic prince Satyrus was in the best relations with Athens, and even seems to have had authorised representatives there to enforce his re- between quests, which met with very great attention, Satyrus, He treated the Athenian merchants at Bosporus with &c. and equity and even favour, granting to them a preference in the export of corn when there was enough for all3. His son Leukon not only con not 1 Lysias, pro Mantitheo, Or. xvi. s. 4; Isokrates (Trapezitie.), Or. xvii. s. 5. The young man, whose case Isokrates sets forth, was sent to Athens by his father Sopæus, a rich Pontic Greek (s. 52) much in the confidence of Satyrus. Sopæus furnished his son with two ship-loads of corn, and with money besides-and then despatched him to Athens apa kaT ἐμπορίαν καὶ κατὰ θεωρίαν. Isokrates, Trapez. s. 5, 6. Sopæus, father of this pleader, had incurred the suspicions of Satyrus in the Pontus, and had been arrested; upon which Satyrus sends to Athens to seize the property of the son, to order him home,-and if he refused, then to require the Athenians to deliver him up—ἐπιστέλλει δὲ τοῖς ἐνθάδε ἐπιδημοῦσιν ἐκ τοῦ Πόντου τά τε χρήματα παρ ̓ ἐμοῦ κομίσασθαι, &c. 3 Isokrates, Trapezit. s. 71. Demosthenes also recognizes favours from Satyrus-Kaì avròs (Leukon) κaì oi πрóуovoι, &c. (adv. Leptin. p. 467). the Athe nians. Imtrade munities of granted to the Athe nians. tinued the preference to Athenian exporting ships, but also granted to them remission of the export duty (of one-thirtieth part), which he exacted from all other traders. Such an exemption is reckoned as equivalent to an annual present of 13,000 medimni of corn (the medimnus being about 1 bushel); the total quantity of corn brought from Bosporus to Athens in a full year being 400,000 medimni'. It is easy to see moreover that such a premium must have thrown nearly the whole exporting trade into the hands of Athenian merchants. The Athenians requited this favour by public votes of gratitude and honour, conferring upon Leukon the citizenship, together with immunity from all the regular burthens attaching to property at Athens. There was lying in that city money belonging to Leukon; who was therefore open (under the proposition of Leptines) to that conditional summons for exchange of properties, technically termed Antidosis. In his time, moreover, the corn-trade of Bosporus appears to have been farther extended; for we learn that he established an export from Theodosia as well as from Pantikapæum. His successor Parisades I. continuing to Athenian exporters of corn the same privilege of immunity from export duty, obtained from Athens still higher honours than Leukon; for we learn that his statue, together with those of two relatives, was erected in the agora, on the motion of Demosthenes. The connexion of Bosporus with Athens 1 Demosth. adv. Leptin., p. 467. 2 Demosth. adv. Leptin., p. 469. 3 Demosth. adv. Phormion., p. 917; Deinarchus adv. Demosth., p. 34. |