The Bosporus and Sindice Under Leucon I (A Survey of New Epigraphical Publications)
Tokhtasyev Sergey R.
I. The author returns to the analysis (see Hyperboreus. 1998. 4/2. P. 286-301; cf. SEG. XLVIII. 1027) of an epigram of the Bosporan tyrant Leucon I from the Semibratneye site (Labrys) on the occasion of Yu.G. Vinogradov's posthumous publication (VDI. 2002. № 3). Although Yu.G. Vinogradov accepted the most important of the author's readings, some of the interpretations suggested by him were erroneous, as the author strives to prove (see also AJ. Graham's observation above in I, n. 7). An awkward conjecture of F.V. Shelov-Kovedyayev, who edited Vinogradovs article, in the 2nd line is rejected. The inscription is analysed from the point of view of its language and style. As a historical source, the epigram is discussed in the second part of the article together with a new inscription from Nymphaeum. II. As early as the end of the 5th с. ВС (or even earlier) Bosporan tyrant Satyr I made Sindice Bosporus' vassal (Polyaen. VIII. 55). The Labrys epigram tells us about Leucon I, «archont of the Bosporus and Theodosia» helping Hecataeus, king of Sindoi, dethroned by his own son, obviously in order to take possession of Sindice de jure. A new votive inscription from Nymphaeum published by O.Yu. Sokolova and N.A. Pavlichenko (Hyperboreus. 2002. 8/1. P. 99-121) sheds new light on the further history of the forming of the Bosporan state in the 1st half of the 4th century ВС. Leucon is called here «archont of the Bosporus, Theodosia, all Sindice, Toretai, Dandarioi, Psessoi» (the author believes that the epithet «all» (паса), is applied to Sindice for a greater expressiveness and implies in fact the land which belonged to Hecataeus). The author supposes that the neighbouring barbarians were annexed by a treaty (as ^noonovSoi), and the power of their own kings was abolished, this fact explaining why Greek poleis and the barbarians were politically equal. No doubt, Leucon soon had to be disappointed in the possibility of governing barbarians in the same way as Greeks. According to the inscription CIRB 6a Sindoi were still under Leucon's rule as archont (1.5 leg. [те koci ZivScov к]at?), but for the rest of the barbarians he was a king. However, in the later inscriptions CIRB 6, 8, 1037, 1038 the standard formula appears: «Leucon, archont of the Bosporus and Theodosia, king of Sindoi, Toretai, etc.» The change in the political status of the barbarians was undoubtedly connected with their efforts to get free from the power of the Bosporus. The Greek cities of the Bosporus and Theodosia preserved their formal autonomy and citizenship, but the barbarians were turned into dependent population.