On the Epitaph for Argotas from Neapolis Scythica

Abstract

This article contains a re-publication of a verse epitaph found in Neapolis Scythica (SEG 53, 775). After correcting a number of readings and restorations of the editio princeps, the author demonstrates that lines 4-8 contain a description of the deceased Argotas and not of King Skiluros, as the scholars publishing the inscription had suggested. There are no grounds for treating the φιλο[φροσύνη] Ἑλλάνων mentioned in the text as evidence of Argotas’ Greek origin. Thus there is no reason for viewing him as a figure similar to Posideos, son of Posideos, known to us from Neapolis epigraphy. The man buried here was a representative of the Scythian nobility, who could be probably identified as the husband of the Bosporan queen Kamasarya mentioned in one of the inscriptions found in Pantikapaion (CIRB 75).