Leukon of Bosporus

The cities of Theodosia and Chersonesus.

Leukon I of Bosporus (389 - 349 BC), also known as Leuco and Leuko (Greek: Λεύκον A') was a Spartocid king of the Cimmerian Bosphorus kingdom.

His father was Satyros I (407 - 387 BC), and he was succeeded by his son Spartokos III (347 - 342 BC).[1]

He was noted in antiquity as a strategist and a disciplinarian. In the writings of Aeneas Tacticus, How to Survive under Siege (Greek: Περὶ τοῦ πῶς χρὴ πολιορκουμένους ἀντέχειν) he dismissed his guards who owed gambling debts, because their loyalty could be doubted during a city siege.[2] He continued the war of his father against Theodosia and Chersonesus with the goal of annexing all the Greek colonies in the Bosporus.[3][4] He also made Sindike his vassal, and in an inscription (see Epigraphy) from Nymphaion he is described as "archon of the Bosporus, Theodosia, all Sindike".[5]

Leukon also initiated a semi-fraudulent coinage reform in which he recalled all coins from the region to be minted into new coins with double the face value.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Burstein, Stanley M. (1974). "The War between Heraclea Pontica and Leucon I of Bosporus". Historia: Zeitschrift fur Alte Geschicte. 4th Quarter: 401.
  2. ↑ Aeneas Tacticus. Περὶ τοῦ πῶς χρὴ πολιορκουμένους ἀντέχειν. pp. V.2.
  3. ↑ Burstein, Stanley M. (1974). "The War between Heraclea Pontica and Leucon I of Bosporus". Historia: Zeitschrift fur Alte Geschicte. 4th Quarter: 401–402.
  4. ↑ Encyclopedia Britannica (2011). Kingdom of the Bosporus.
  5. ↑ Tokhtas'ev, Sergei R. (2006). "The Bosporus and Sindike in the Era of Leukon I. New Epigraphic Publications". Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia. 1-2 12: 1. doi:10.1163/157005706777968915. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
  6. ↑ Polyaenus. Strategems 6.9.1.

External links

Aeneas Tacticus, Περὶ τοῦ πῶς χρὴ πολιορκουμένους ἀντέχειν (online edition here).

Stanley M. Burstein (1974), "The War between Heraclea Pontica and Leucon I of Bosporus" Historia: Zeitschrift fur Alte Geschicte. 4th Quarter. pp 401–416.

Encyclopedia Britannica Academic Edition (2011) (online page here).

Sergei R. Tokhtas'ev (2006), "The Bosporus and Sindike in the Era of Leukon I. New Epigraphic Publications" Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia. Volume 12 series 1-2, pp. 1–62