Money of Mercenaries in the Cimmerian Bosporus
From the Mithridatic Wars to the Roman-Bosporan War of AD 45-49
By (author) M.G. Abramzon
Hardback (Published)
(July 2026)
ISBN: 9789042952508
Price: $245.00
On back order
This book examines the numismatic evidence of military payments in the Cimmerian Bosporus during the Late Hellenistic and Early Roman periods, from the Mithridatic Wars to the Roman-Bosporan War of AD 45-49. These are hoards discovered during excavations at the Bosporan cities and military settlements on the <i>chora</i> (<i>katoikiai</i>, forts, towers), where mercenaries served. Such finds are the garrison treasury or salaries, mercenary purses, cash allowances for rations, money of <i>katoikoi</i>, etc. These hoards of a military context contain silver or bronze coinages, which were precisely used for pay soldiers (the <i>opsonia</i>, <i>sitarchia</i>, <i>siteresion</i>, <i>sitonion</i>). Particular attention is paid to the Fontalovskaya 1963 hoard (<i>IGCH</i> 1143 = <i>CH</i> XI, 137), containing about 1000 Dionysus/wreath didrachms bearing three city-names, Panticapaeum, Phanagoria and Gorgippia. It represents a salary of the garrison of either Fontalovskaya settlement, or Phanagoria, where the only garrison of foreign mercenaries is attested by an epigraphic source, the Phanagorian decree of 88/7 BC. Roman coins from the Artezian Fortress (Ptolemaeus’ Parosta?) are military booty of the party of Mithridates III, and those discovered in the barbarian sanctuaries near the Gurzufskoe Sedlo Pass and Eklizi-Burun (southern Crimea) along with Roman military equipment, jewellery, bronze statuettes from <i>lararia</i>, installed on Roman ships, details of Roman balance scales, etc., were the military booty of the Tauri. In Eklizi-Burun sanctuary, such objects and coins came in AD 49 from ships carrying Roman troops along the Crimean coast from Bosporus to Moesia Inferior, and were beached by storm on the coast of the Tauri and there plundered by local barbarians (Tacitus <i>Annals</i> 12.17), who then brought the trophies to the sanctuary and used them as votives.
- By (author) M.G. Abramzon
Other Titles in this Series
Greece’s Northern Frontier
Studies in the History of the Ancient Greek Experience in the Black Sea
Volume 38
L’aristocratie odryse
Insignes et lieux du pouvoir en Thrace (Ve-IIIe siècles avant J.-C.)
Volume 39
From Old Cairo to the New World
Coptic Studies Presented to Gawdat Gabra on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday
Volume 9
Kulturkontakte in antiken Welten: vom Denkmodell zum Fallbeispiel
Proceedings des internationalen Kolloquiums aus Anlass des 60. Geburtstages von Christoph Ulf, Innsbruck, 26. bis 30. Januar 2009
Volume 10
Greek Colonisation
Continuing an Account of Greek Colonies and Settlements Overseas (Greek Colonisation vol. 3)
Volume 41
Religious Excitement in Ancient Anatolia
Cult and Devotional Forms for Solar and Lunar Gods
Volume 23
Archaeology of Eastern Anatolia II: From Prehistoric Times to the End of the Iron Ages
Proceedings of the 2nd Archaeology of Eastern Anatolia Colloquium, 23-25 April 2021, Online (Arkeolojihaber Youtube Channel)
Volume 43
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts: Coins of the Black Sea Region. Part II: Ancient Coins of the Black Sea Littoral
Volume 11
Phrygia in Antiquity: From the Bronze Age to the Byzantine Period
Proceedings of an International Conference 'The Phrygian Lands over Time: From Prehistory to the Middle of the 1st Millennium AD', held at Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey, 2nd-8th November, 2015
Volume 24
An Approach to the Historical Geography of the Southern Black Sea Littoral (First Millennium BC)
Volume 36
Une autre façon d’être grec: interactions et productions des Grecs en milieu colonial. Another Way of Being Greek: Interactions and Cultural Innovations of the Greeks in a Colonial Milieu
Actes du colloque international organisé à Amiens (Université de Picardie Jules Verne/TRAME) et Paris (ANHIMA), 18-19 novembre 2016
Volume 26
Ex toto orbe Romano: Immigration into Roman Dacia
With Prosopographical Observations on the Population of Dacia
Volume 5
Tell Qudadi
An Iron Age IIB Fortress on the Central Mediterranean Coast of Israel (with References to Earlier and Later Periods): Final Report on the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Excavations Directed by E.L. Sukenik and S. Yeivin, with the Participation of N.
Volume 15
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum: State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts
Coins of the Black Sea Region. Part I: Ancient Coins from the Northern Black Sea Littoral
Volume 3