The Scythian kingdom in Crimea (Ancient Greek: Μικρά Σκυθία, romanized: Mikra Skuthia; Latin: Scythia Minor, lit.

[2][3] In the 3rd century BCE, the expansion in the northern Pontic region of the Sarmatians, who were another nomadic Iranian people related to the Scythians, as well as of the Thracian Getae, the Germanic Bastarnae and Sciri, and of the Celts, the Scythian kingdom disappeared from the Pontic Steppe and the Sarmatians replaced the Scythians as the dominant power of the Pontic steppe, due to which the appellation of "Scythia" for the region became replaced by that of "Sarmatia Europea" (European Sarmatia).

[4][3][2] From the early 3rd century BCE, the Scythia Minor of Crimea started expanding against the Greek cities of western Crimea which had been so far been controlled by the city of Chersonesus, who had lost all its possessions not in its immediate vicinity by the middle of the century, with Kalos Limēn and Kerkinitis passing under Scythian control.

Skilurus continued Scythian hostility against Chersonesus, but he kept good ties with the Bosporan kingdom, with a daughter of his marrying a member of its royal dynasty who was named Hērakleidēs.

[2][3] Following Mithridates's defeat by the Roman Republic, the Crimean Scythians were able to regain some of their strength, and besieged Chersonesus, who asked help from Rome.