Leucon I

Leukon was born to Satyrus I, a ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom who had become king after the death of his father, Spartocus I, a man of Thracian descent with possible ties to the Odrysian royal dynasty,{{cite journal|last=D. E. W. Wormell|title=Studies in Greek Tyranny—II. Leucon of Bosporus

|journal=Hermathena

|issue=68

|pages=49–71

|jstor=23037564|quote=It seems likely to connect that Spartokos was connected by birth to the Odrysian dynasty.|year=1946

}} who usurped the former Greek Archaeanactid dynasty. Leukon may have been taught by Isocrates.To his Greek subjects, Leukon was merely an "Archon", but to the tribes in his dominions, he was "king". Nonetheless, the Athenians viewed him as a tyrant but nonetheless a friend of Athens. He was present during his father's unsuccessful war against the barbarian queen Tirgatao of the Ixomatae, where his brother Metrodoros died as a hostage. He became king with his brother Gorgippus after their father died during the unsuccessful first siege of Theodosia.

Upon becoming king, he attacked the city of Theodosia at first without success, but continued to attack it until the city was defeated, both times being aided by Heraclea Pontica, probably to finish what his father began prior to his own death.

At some point during his reign, he married a woman named Theodosia, possibly the daughter of a powerful Bosporan diplomat named Sopaeus.{{cite journal|last=D. E. W. Wormell|title=Studies in Greek Tyranny—II. Leucon of Bosporus

|journal=Hermathena

|issue=68

|pages=49–71

|jstor=23037564|quote=and Satyrus's son, perhaps Leucon, married his daughter|year=1946

}} They had three sons named Spartocus II, Apollonius, and Paerisades I.

Leucon 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.{{cite book|last=Polyaenus|title=Strategems 6.9.1|url=http://www.attalus.org/translate/polyaenus6.html#9.1}}

Leucon also faced early problems with his subjects; he had to enlist the aid of merchants to successfully put down a rebellion fomented by some members of his court and even trusted friends.{{cite book|last=Polyaenus|title=Strategems 6.9.1|url=http://www.attalus.org/translate/polyaenus6.html#9.1}} According to Aeneas Tacticus, How to Survive under Siege, he dismissed his guards who owed gambling debts, because their loyalty could not be assured during a city siege.{{cite book|last=Aeneas Tacticus|title=Περὶ τοῦ πῶς χρὴ πολιορκουμένους ἀντέχειν|pages=V.2|url=http://www.aeneastacticus.net/x_5.htm}}

Leukon had inherited several wars from his father, including one against the Ixomatae, led by queen Tirgatao, ending with the unsuccessful siege to Theodosia that claimed his father's life. He and his brother Gorgippos made peace with the Ixomatae and focused their attentions to the west.{{cite book|last1=Polyaenus|title=Strategems 55.1|url=http://www.attalus.org/translate/polyaenus8B.html#55.1|quote=He renounced his father's proceedings, and sued for peace, which she granted on payment of a tribute, and put and end to the war.}}

{{main|Siege of Theodosia (c. 365 BC)}}

File:Greek colonies of the Northern Euxine Sea (Black Sea).svg and Chersonesus.]]

After his father's death and his ascendance to the throne, Leukon laid siege the city of Theodosia twice. The first siege ended in a Bosporan defeat due to Tynnichus, a general sent by Heraclea Pontica, to relieve the city, which he accomplished, despite inferior numbers, due to trickery.{{cite journal|last=D. E. W. WORMELL|title=STUDIES IN GREEK TYRANNY—II. Leucon of Bosporus

|journal=Hermathena

|issue=68

|pages=49–71

|jstor=23037564|quote=Tynnichus, who raised the siege of the city, through his armament compromised only of 1 Trireme and 1 transport ship|year=1946

}}

{{main|Siege of Theodosia (c. 360 BC)}}

Leucon besieged Theodosia again 5 years later in a surprise attack, before the city could receive relief aid from the Heracleotes. It is possible that the Heracleotes withdrew before Leucon attacked due to a change of government from oligarchy to tyranny under Clearchus.

He was then attacked by the Heracleotes in his own territory. Leucon, noticing that his own troops could be routed easily,{{cite book|last=Polyaenus|title=Strategems 6.9.1|url=http://www.attalus.org/translate/polyaenus6.html#9.1|quote= Leucon observed that his troops did not show courage against the enemy; they were reluctant to fight, and easily routed}} positioned his Scythian soldiers in the rear and gave clear instructions that his men were to be struck down if they fled.{{cite book|last=Polyaenus|title=Strategems 6.9.1|url=http://www.attalus.org/translate/polyaenus6.html#9.1|quote=but altered the arrangement of it; he posted his hoplites in the first line, and in their rear the Scythians, who had express orders, that if the hoplites gave way, they should strike them down with their javelins.}} This precaution helped his army defeat the Heracleotes.{{cite book|last=Polyaenus|title=Strategems 6.9.1|url=http://www.attalus.org/translate/polyaenus6.html#9.1|quote=the severity of these orders made his army more resolute, and put an end to the ravages of the enemy.}} Shortly after his victory, Leucon made a peace treaty with the Heracleotes, ending the war.

Leucon then turned his eye to the Sindike Kingdom, where there had been a dynastic dispute between Hecataeus, the king of the Sindi, and his son, Octamasades who had taken power from his father. Before the Battle of Labrytai, Leucon said he “made a vow to erect a victory monument, not to the local Apollo of Labrys, but to the supreme deity and patron of all the Bosporans, Apollo the Healer”.{{cite book|last1=Tokhtasev|first1=S.R.|title=Bosporus and the Sindike In the era of Leukon I|url=https://www.scribd.com/document/32215607/Tokhtasev-S-R-Bosporus-and-the-Sindike-in-the-era-of-Leukon-I}} After defeating Octamasades, it is possible Leucon persuaded Hecataeus to surrender the kingship to him, as he was proclaimed "king of all the Sindike" shortly thereafter.

Probably during the last years of Leucon's reign, Heraclea Pontica may have hired Memnon of Rhodes, the famous guerrilla fighter who had fought Alexander. Heraclea Pontica sent envoys to Leucon to learn the size of his army.{{cite book|last=Polyaenus|title=Strategems 6.9.1|url=http://www.attalus.org/translate/polyaenus5B.html#44.1|quote=When the inhabitants of course crowded to the theatres to hear him, the ambassador was able, from the number of men he saw there, to form some estimate of the population of the respective places.}} Upon hearing that there were not many soldiers, Memnon went to battle Leucon, and used trickery to gain an easy victory against the Bosporan army. Memnon had his army march over to a hill, leaving only half of his men visible, as if to show that there was desertion amongst his troops.{{cite book|last=Polyaenus|title=Strategems 6.9.1|url=http://www.attalus.org/translate/polyaenus5B.html#44.1|quote=retreated to a greater distance from them; and drew up only a part of his army, to make the enemy believe that some disaster had occurred in his camp.}} He then dispatched a "deserter"{{cite book|last=Polyaenus|title=Strategems 6.9.1|url=http://www.attalus.org/translate/polyaenus5B.html#44.1|quote=And to support such a suspicion, he at the same time dispatched a deserter over to them}} to inform the Bosporan army that there had been a mutiny in the Heracleote army.{{cite book|last=Polyaenus|title=Strategems 6.9.1|url=http://www.attalus.org/translate/polyaenus5B.html#44.1}} The Bosporan forces marched out to Memnon's forces, believing that they had been split in half, but were defeated as in reality the army was completely intact.{{cite book|last=Polyaenus|title=Strategems 6.9.1|url=http://www.attalus.org/translate/polyaenus5B.html#44.1|quote=They therefore decided to leave their position, and offered him battle}}

Leucon was well regarded by the Athenians, as the Bosporan Kingdom exported a large portion of their grain primarily to Athens. In 356 BC, when Athens could not make do on their payment because of restrictions Sparta had placed on them during the Peloponnesian War, he gave them 400,000 medinmoi (around 16,380 t){{cite book|title=Dynasty of the Spartocids|url=http://documents.mx/documents/spartocid-house.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170425120825/http://documents.mx/documents/spartocid-house.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 25, 2017|quote=400,000 medimnoi (= 16,380 t) of grain in 356 B.C.}} free of charge. For this, Leucon was praised in Athens and was both given citizenship and statues of him and his sons erected in Athens. This policy was continued by his descendants, such as Spartocus III, who gave Athens 15,000 medimnoi of grain (ca 590 t) as a gift.{{cite book|title=Dynasty of the Spartocids|url=http://documents.mx/documents/spartocid-house.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170425120825/http://documents.mx/documents/spartocid-house.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 25, 2017|quote=the Bosporan king Spartocus III had presented 15,000 medimnoi (ca 590 t) of grain to the Athenians.}}

They would continue to follow this diplomatic friendship with the Athenians. Leucon also gave Athenian ships privileges at his ports and did not have them taxed when they docked.

Leucon died in 349 BC, after a reign of around forty years. He was at least sixty years old at the time of his death, placing his birth around 410 BC or earlier. His body is thought to have been placed in the Royal Kurgan,[http://www.archmap.ru/mondescr/tsarkurg.htm Excerpt from Aarchaeological Walks in Ancient Kerch (Russian)] a burial mound where the previous Bosporan rulers had been interred, on the outskirts of Panticapaeum. Leucon's actions mirrored those of his grandfather, Spartocus I, who usurped the former Greek dynasty of the Bosporan state, as well as those of his father Satyrus. Leucon's descendants ruled the Bosporus for another two centuries, until Paerisades V died during a Scythian uprising.

• Cimmerian Bosporus
• List of Kings of Cimmerian Bosporus
• Sindi people
• Bosporan Kingdom

{{reflist}}

• Aeneas Tacticus, Περὶ τοῦ πῶς χρὴ πολιορκουμένους ἀντέχειν (online edition [http://www.aeneastacticus.net/ here]).
• Stanley M. Burstein (1974), "The War between Heraclea Pontica and Leucon I of Bosporus" Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte. 4th Quarter. pp 401–416.
• Encyclopædia Britannica Academic Edition (2011) (online page [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/74787/Kingdom-of-the-Bosporus 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

{{Bosporan kings}}

Category:4th-century BC monarchs

Category:Monarchs of the Bosporan Kingdom

Category:Spartocid dynasty