Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/515

 rOLlTICAL CONDITION OF BOSPORUS. 433 heightiiig aud navigating of ships for that purpose, together with the advance of money by rich capitalists (citizens and metics) upon interest and conditions enforced by the Athenian judica- ture, was a standing and profitable business. And we may ap- preciate the value of equitable treatment, not to say favor, from the kings of Bosporus — when avb contrast it with the fradulenl and extortionate behavior of Kleomenes, satrap of Egypt, in I'eference to the export of Egyptian corn.^ The political condition of the Greeks at Bosporus was some- what peculiar. The hereditary princes (above enumerated), who ruled them substantially as despots, assumed no other title (in respect to the Greeks) than that of Archon. They paid tri bute to the powerful Scythian tribes wlio bounded them on the European side, and even thought it necessary to cany a ditch across the naxTow isthmus, from some point near Theodosia northward to the Palus Masotis, as a protection against incur- sions.2 Their dominion did not extend farther west than Theo- dosia ; tliis ditch was their extreme western boundary ; and even for the land within it, they paid tribute. But on the Asiatic side of the strait, they were lords paramount for a considerable distance, over the feebler and less warlike tribes who pass under the common name of Mjeotae or M£eeta3 — the Sindi, Toi-eti, Dandarii, Thates, etc. Inscriptions, yet remaining, of Parisades I. record him as King of these various barbaric tribes, but as Archon of Bosporus and Theodosia.^ His dominion on the Asi- atic side of the Kimmerian Bosporus, sustained by Grecian and Thracian mercenaries, was of considerable (though to us un- ^ Demosthen. adv. Dionj-sodor. p 1285. « Stralio, vii. p. 310, 311. ' See Inscript. Nos. 2117. 2118, 2119, in Boeckh's Collection, p. 156. In the Meniorabilia of Xenophon (ii. 1, 10), Sokratcs cites tlie Scvtliians as an example of ruling people, and the MsBOta; as an example of subjecte. Probably this refers to the position of the Bosporanic Greeks, who paid tribute to the Scythians, but ruled over the MieotiB. The name Mccohe seems confined to tribes on the Asiatic side of the Palus Mseotis; while tho Scythians were on the European side of that sea. Sokratcs and the Athe- nians had good means of being informed about the situation of the Bospo rani and tlieir neighbors on both sides. See K. Neumann, die Hellenea .ioi Skythenlande, b. ii. p. 216.