The Bosporan Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus (Ancient Greek: Βασιλεία τοῦ Κιμμερικοῦ Βοσπόρου, romanized: Basileía tou Kimmerikou Bospórou; Latin: Regnum Bospori), was an ancient Greco-Scythian state located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus, centered in the present-day Strait of Kerch.

[3] Under the Spartocid dynasty, the aristocracy of the kingdom adopted a double nature of presenting themselves as archons to Greek subjects and as kings to barbarians, which some historians consider unique in ancient history.

At the end of the 2nd century AD, King Sauromates II inflicted a critical defeat on the Scythians and included all the territories of the Crimean Peninsula in the structure of his state.

[5] The profit of the trade supported a class whose conspicuous wealth is still visible from newly discovered archaeological finds, excavated, often illegally, from numerous burial barrows known as kurgans.

The once-thriving cities of the Bosporus left extensive architectural and sculptural remains, while the kurgans continue to yield spectacular Greco-Sarmatian objects, the best examples of which are now preserved in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

These include gold work, vases imported from Athens, coarse terracottas, textile fragments, and specimens of carpentry and marquetry.

The Black Sea Greeks before this period had dealt largely in goods like animals, slaves, furs, and fish, with grain playing a minor role.

[9] The Bosporan kingdom under the Spartocid kings was heavily influenced by the mixing of local Scythian and Greeks at all levels of society, particularly in the nobility.

In an internal conflict between Satyrus II and his brother Eumelus, the royal Bosporan army was said to contain no more than two thousand Greeks, and an equal number of Thracians fighting as mercenaries.

[10] The northern Black Sea underwent what some historians refer to as a "long Hellenistic Age" due to the institutions typically associated with the era occurring independently from the greater Greek world.

Their relatively isolated position, and constant contact/conflict with barbarians along their borders, allowed monarchs with traditions rooted in the region to establish independent kingdoms from those of the successor states.

While Spartocus was traditionally considered to be a Thracian[12] due to the family name, more recent historians have posited he was likely of Greco-Scythian descent, as was typical of the region.

The Spartocids left many inscriptions, indicating that the earliest members of the house ruled under the titles of archons of the Greek cities and kings of various minor native tribes, notably the Sindi (from central Crimea) and other branches of the Maeotae.

The last of them, however, Paerisades V, unable to make headway against increasingly violent attacks from nomadic tribes in the area, called in the help of Diophantus, general of King Mithridates VI of Pontus, leaving him his kingdom.

[6] The Spartocids were well known as a line of enlightened and wise princes; although Greek opinion could not deny that they were, strictly speaking, tyrants, they are always described as dynasts.

The Bosporan Kingdom covered the eastern half of Crimea and the Taman peninsula, and extended along the east coast of the Maeotian marshes to Tanais at the mouth of the Don in the north-east, a great market for trade with the interior.

Throughout the period there was perpetual war with the native tribes of Scythians and Sarmatians, and in this the Bosporan Kingdom was supported by its Roman suzerains, who lent the assistance of garrisons and fleets.

[19] Because of evidence of their increasing prominence in the Crimea, it is possible that Rhescuporis was overthrown by a Sarmatian or Alan tribal leader, who established his own dynasty on the Bosporan throne.

The Byzantine historian Procopius describes the Goths of Crimea fighting against and then allying with the Utigurs, indicating that Gothic control of the region lasted for some time after the departure of the Huns.

[20] Through some means, the Goths appear to have left or been driven away, leading to the resumption of local self-rule in the late 5th century under rulers such as Douptounos, who re-oriented the kingdom towards the Byzantine Empire as a client state.

Though Gordas maintained good relations with Justinian, he was killed in a revolt in 527, which led the emperor to send armies to the Bosporus, conquering the lands of the kingdom and establishing imperial control there.

A relevant Byzantine usage of the term is found in a newly discovered seal of a general of the early 11th century as of "Πο⟨σ⟩φορ(ου)", i.e., of the Cimmerian Bosporos.