Paerisades I: Spartocid King of the Bosporan Kingdom

Introduction

Paerisades I (also recorded as Birisades, Pairisades, Parysades) was a Spartocid king of the Bosporan Kingdom in the Cimmerian Bosporus, reigning from about 342 to 310/9 BC. He was a son of Leukon I and succeeded his elder brother Spartokos II to become sole ruler after 342 BC.

During his roughly 38-year reign Paerisades pursued military expansion around the Maeotic (Sea of Azov) region, extending Bosporan influence beyond the gains of his father. Ancient accounts attribute to him campaigns that brought various Maeotic tribes under Bosporan suzerainty and record hostilities with the Scythians; surviving inscriptions and later testimony suggest his authority over some tribes was intermittent rather than secure.

A Scythian war dated in the sources to about 328 BC is reported to have damaged the kingdom’s economy. Paerisades is also connected in the literary tradition with territorial gains on the Tanais frontier, though the sources vary in detail.

He died in 310/9 BC. His death precipitated a dynastic civil war among his sons Satyros II, Prytanis and Eumelos; Eumelos emerged victorious and substantially increased the kingdom’s territory during his subsequent five-year rule.

Ancient writers and local inscriptions preserve the fact that Paerisades was honored in some fashion as divine, but the sources disagree as to whether that recognition arose during his lifetime or only after his death.