With Bagratuni, Armenia gradually escaped from the sphere of Byzantium, retreating to its national church, which separated from the Byzantine Patriarchate, defining its own identity. Bartholomew and Jude were then requisitioned to serve as the founding apostles. They changed their routes somewhat and moved their tombs in order to “invent” them in Armenia.

To speak of the relationship between Rome and the kingdom of the Bosphorus is to consider a question doubly removed from the prevailing concerns of the ancient historian. First of all, the Cimmerian Bosphorus, now called the Kerch Strait, on the outskirts of the Greco-Roman world, the kingdom of the Bosphorus with its capital Panticapaeum, present-day Kerch, extended on both sides of the strait and included at its apogee most of the seashores, Azov, ancient Meotis. While outside the Roman Empire and never made into a Roman province until late antiquity, the kingdom of the Bosporus nevertheless belonged to the clientele of the Caesars and the Roman people.

The geographical and scientific isolation of the Bosporan kingdom is further aggravated by the fact that most of The subject's bibliography is naturally written in Russian, which hardly facilitates access to this topic. Given the limited time of the conference, I will have to be strict in the selection of data and sources. Aspects of the relationship between the Bosphorus and Rome, from its beginnings to the beginning of the late empire.

Before moving on to this topic, it will be useful to quickly get your bearings in time and space. The state of the Bosphorus not only covered Greek cities on both sides throughout its history, the other from the Kerch Strait, therefore the territories Eastern Crimea and, on the contrary, the Taman Peninsula. He also conquered many indigenous tribes on the banks of Maeotis, now Sea of ​​Azov, pushing towards the mouth of the Tanais River, the real Don, which gave its name to the city of Tanais, where very fruitful excavations are currently being carried out.

In the southeast of this Ionian polis was established during the 5th century Chersonese's Dorian neighbor Taurica, present-day Sevastopol, a city-state that eventually captured the entire western coast of Crimea. and Chersonesos were to retain their status as a city with a Chora, the Cimmerian Bosporus had a completely different fate, a monarchy with a dual ethnic component, consisting of Greeks on the one hand and other indigenous tribes on the other, easily under the general name of Scythians. It's not about more detailed description Scythians, which are well known by Herodotus and archaeological documentation, of which there have been some wonderful exhibitions, and more recently Madame Véronique Schiltz's book made us discover the splendors.

These Sarmatians, coming from the east, maintained their westward thrust throughout the Hellenistic and Roman periods, putting pressure on both the Danube and the Greek cities in the northern and west coast Black Sea. When we talk later about the contacts and exchanges maintained by the Bosphorus Kingdom, it is necessary to go beyond Greek cities and the Empire of Rome, but also take into account the peaceful or other contributions of the Sarmatians, the cavalry men and the lords of the steppe. The Mithridatic conquests north and south of the Black Sea eventually led to a series of wars against Rome, the last of which was to be crowned victorious in 63 BC.

When Olbia, Chersonese and the Kingdom of Bosporus emerged from the wreck of Mithridates, nothing was the same as before. After the defeat of Mithridates, Rome saw the Bosporus as belonging to its sphere of influence. Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates, had to give up his ancestral territories in Asia Minor, but was recognized by Rome as king of the Cimmerian Bosporus BC. The kingdom of the Bosphorus did not leave the Roman orbit. Our so-called subject begins here.

We will not dwell in detail on the Bosporan adventures in the last decades of the Roman Republic. This state of affairs is reflected very clearly in the expanded titular kings of the Bosporus. This is an excerpt from the Alexandrian War, work. From the Corpus Caesarianum and compiled by a close associate of Caesar.

He received under his protection the kings, tyrants and neighboring rulers of the province, who all rushed to him, by imposing a condition for the preservation and defense of the province, and returned having won all their friendship for him and for the Roman people. He receives kings, tyrants and dynasties, receives his clients and thus protects the provincial territory of Rome. This means that these kings and kings near the Roman province of Pontus and Bithynia will henceforth become Amisi Caesaris and the Romans of the people. We see Caesar or the author of the work on Alexandria at that moment firmly linked the name of Caesar with the name of the Roman people, and Caesar and the Roman state turned out to be an inextricable unity.

In the future, Amycus Caesaris would simply mean friend of the emperor. Inscription on a marble base, formerly of a statue of Livia. In Hermonassa, in the very Kerch Strait, separating the European and Asian parts. Hotels within 5 km of. Caesar, Lord of the Sea and Lord of the Continents.

Zeus the Liberator, descendant of Zeus. The texts that we will discuss later will reveal the various forms that Rome's influence took on the states and societies of the Bosporus. for those of us who" study the "influence of Rome of Gaul on" Egypt and on "other regions where even" to talk about the phenomenon of acculturation, this will be useful to take. Look at how Rome made its presence on the borders of the European and Asian steppes.

We must, firstly, remember that Greek is the official language of the kingdom of the Bosporus, even if the elements of “natives”, Scythian and Sarmatian, are very present in its people and its culture. Regardless of whether the kings of Panticapaeum have Iranian or Thracian names, they are symbols that are deeply rooted in the traditions of the Hellenistic kingdom.

From a Roman point of view, it therefore fits into the reign of the Caracalli. We see the king of the Bosphorus revered by one of his generals, but, as a rule, already carries within himself the Roman of Gentile, in particular that of the emperor Trajan. It is possible that "one of this general's ancestors acquired Roman citizenship almost a hundred years ago, having served under" the Emperor Trajan.

Sauromatus further emphasized this will with the Bosphorus king, based on a line that cannot but legitimize so completely independently of each other. There has been a tendency from time to time, especially in some sectors of Soviet historiography, to emphasize all signs that may indicate the growing independence of the Bosphorus kings over Rome. But it is clear that in order to secure their position and enhance their reputation, it was important to maintain good relations with the Emperor of Rome. Bosporanus, a chiliarchy which is perhaps inspired by the organization of the Roman army and which can be compared to the position of a militant tribune.

Thus, a year of crisis for the Roman Empire and an era in which, according to widespread belief, the kingdom of the Bosporus would increasingly assert its autonomy vis-à-vis Rome. Let's not know what the feeling of the Bosporan masses is. With the help of the accompanying epigraphic texts we can place Neocles in the context of his time and environment, and the statue, 1.95 m high, is in marble, and fragments of a marble tablet were found near the statue, with inscriptions on both sides.

Given the location of the find, these inscriptions are associated with the statue. Museum of Fine Arts. “Under the king, friend of the Romans, the pious, Neocles, his son, was erected, his father and, in the year 32, 3.” Year 483 of the Pontic and Bosporan era, month Luos, corresponds to 186 AD.

Invoice P 25. The right hand lies in the buffant of the mantle, and the left hand is lowered into a papyrus box, caps, which must be replaced here in terms of better preserved parallels and compared with a statue of a man with an identical pose, found in Panticapaeum and preserved in St. Petersburg. So we have the high official of Gorgippia presented as a Greek orator, or at least as a character emphasizing his Greek culture.

At the same time, the portrait “resembles some Roman portrait features” of the time of Marcus Aurelius. This character is the owner of an icon at first glance, surprisingly representing the Greek culture. In fact, he wears a kind of necklace around his neck, the Torques, with, in the middle, the head of a bull. The moments are very typically barbarian.

Known among the Celts, it is also found commonly among the steppe peoples. From there, twisters entered the Greek and Roman circles, as a sign of honor and as a reward for military exploits. It is interesting to discover, through the inscription and archaeological evidence of the Bosphorus, whose state of culture is Greek and orientation.

With “it is an exceptional case if” given the length and stability of customer relationships. The relatively excluded position of the Bosporus is likely to do something about it, maintaining a "certain independence" of the shadow of Rome. But one should not underestimate either the stability at sea, the internal strength of the “Bosporan state,” or the decisive actions of their kings, pushing the steppe nomads, who at the same time protected their kingdom and approaches to Roman Limes. This text presents a series of "aspects that" cannot be explored in their entirety.

Our registration is not only one to mark the Jewish presence and influence of the Jewish religion in the Bosporan kingdom, we will soon discover a document that shows all the interest, but also the characteristics of doubt raised by this type of evidence. The titles of our text book do not reflect typical Jewish onomastics, but rather indicate how the number of “other documents” introduced many Jews into onomastic traditions Hellenistic world to which they belonged. Her husband may be dead, bearing a Roman name, Drusus, without which we must infer from this name that the owner had Roman citizenship.

Persisting in the house of prayer and remaining in prayer are two different things. Here we are on the threshold of Byzantium and Byzantium. In the Supreme God who listens, the former Voto. Let's repeat this text point by point. The official who was injured and who says it. His name is first: Aurelios Valerios Sogoush, son of Olympos. The first two elements are identical with the two elements found in the names of Diocletian and Maximian, precisely the two emperors who honored our traitor and who undoubtedly awarded him the honor of bearing the imperial pagans as a reward for his services and as a sign of his status.