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.

Bibliography

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/31/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.