The Cimmerian Bosporus in the 5th Century BC (an Old Persian Inscription from Phanagoria)

Abstract

This article is a historical commentary on the Old Persian inscription found at Phanagoria (the Taman peninsula, Russia) in 2016. One can think of four possibilities how the document appeared on the northern coast of the Black Sea: the shipping of the inscription or its fragment to Phanagoria together with other stones as ballast, the European Scythian campaign of Darius I, the expedition of Ariaramnes against the Scythians, and the erection of the stele with the inscription in Phanagoria after the capture of the city – supposedly by the Persian troops. The author rules out the first three possibilities and accepts the fourth one. The inscription was found overlying the ruins of Phanagoria’s defensive works – destroyed by a huge fire sometime in the late first or the early second quarter of the 5th century BC. Judging from the archaeological context of the find, the inscription must have been authored by Darius’ son Xerxes. Many other cities in the North Black Sea area yield evidence of synchronous fires and devastation, which gives us ground to connect the capture of Phanagoria with the evidence from Diodorus (12.31) about certain Archaianaktidai who came to power in the Cimmerian Bosporus. They ruled for 42 years and were succeeded by Spartokos. It is reasonable to presume that this change of power was a result of Pericles’ Pontic expedition reported by Plutarch (Per. 20). Thus the conquest of Phanagoria (along with other North Pontic cities) should be viewed in the context of the Graeco-Persian Wars.