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Panticapaeum and other ancient Greek colonies along the north coast of the Black Sea.

Panticapaeum (Greek: Παντικάπαιον; see also List of traditional Greek place names), present-day Kerch: an important Greek city and port in Taurica (Tauric Chersonese), situated on a hill (Mt. Mithridates) on the western side of the Cimmerian Bosporus, founded by Milesians in the late 7th–early 6th century BC.

In the 5th–4th centuries BC, the city became the residence first of the Archaeanactids and then of the Spartocids, dynasties of Greek kings of Bosporus, and was hence itself sometimes called Bosporus. Its economic decline in the 4th–3rd centuries BC was the result of the Sarmatian conquest of the steppes and the growing competition of Egyptian grain. The last of the Spartocids, Paerisades V, apparently left his realm to Mithridates VI Eupator, king of Pontus.

This transition was arranged by one of Mithridates's generals, a certain Diophantus, who earlier was sent to Taurica to help local Greek cities against Palacus of Lesser Scythia. The takeover didn't go smoothly: Paerisades was murdered by Scythians led by Saumacus, Diophantus escaped to return later with reinforcements and to suppress the revolt (c. 110 BC).

Half of a century later, Mithridates himself took his life in Panticapaeum, when, after his defeat in a war against Rome, his own son and heir Pharnaces and citizens of Panticapaeum turned against him. In 63 BC the city was partly destroyed by an earthquake. Raids by the Goths and the Huns furthered its decline, and it was incorporated into the Byzantine state under Justin I in the early 6th century AD.

Ruins of Panticapaeum in Kerch

During the first centuries of the city's existence, imported Greek articles predominated: pottery (see Kerch Style), terracottas, and metal objects, probably from workshops in Rhodes, Corinth, Samos, and Athens. Local production, imitated from the models, was carried on at the same time. Athens manufactured a special type of bowl for the city, known as Kerch ware. Local potters imitated the Hellenistic bowls known as the Gnathia style as well as relief wares—Megarian bowls. The city minted silver coins from the mid 6th century BC and from the 1st century BC gold and bronze coins. The Hermitage and Kerch Museums contain material from the site, which is still being excavated.

• Noonan, Thomas S. "The Origins of the Greek Colony at Panticapaeum", American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 77, No. 1. (1973), pp. 77–81.

• Perseus Digital Library
• Decree honoring Diophantos, general of the Pontic king Mithridates VI
• Odessa Numismatics Museum: Panticapaeum
• Odessa Numismatics Museum: Bosporus
• Similarities between Panticapaeum and the City of Atlantis as described by Plato. Eagle/Wind 2005
• Bulletin of Odessa Numismatics Museum. Issue #8. September 2001. Silver coins of Pantikapeum (end VI–I BC).

North Pontic Greek colonies
Tyras • Olbia • Borysthenes • Eupatoria • Chersonesos • Charax • Theodosia Kimmerikon • Nymphaion • Tyritake • Panticapaeum • Myrmekion Kepoi • Phanagoria • Hermonassa • Gorgippia • Pitiunt • Dioscurias • Tanais