Kimmerikon

Kimmerikón (Greek Κιμμερικόν, Latin: Cimmericum) was an ancient Greek city in Crimea, on the southern shore of the Kerch Peninsula, at the western slope of Opuk mountain, roughly 40 kilometres southwest of modern Kerch.

[1] The town was founded by the Milesian colonists in the 5th century BC and flourished at the beginning of the Christian era.

[2] In the mid-3rd century AD Kimmerikon was sacked by the Goths, but some measure of urban settlement persisted until the end of the 3rd century AD, when the city perished abruptly as a result of being laid waste and burnt by pirate raiders.

[3] The Emperor Justinian I, after re-establishing Byzantine sovereignty in the Cimmerian Bosporus in the mid-6th century, did not restore the fortress, which seems to have lost its role as a guardian of the borders.

[4] Kimmerikon should not be confused with the Tatar town of Kirim founded approximately a 1,000 years following the demise of the city and 55 miles (88 km) due west.