Аспургиане: 500 стадиев между Фанагорией и Горгиппией

Abstract

In the ancient literary and cartographic tradition, the mention of the Aspourgians goes back to the information of Strabo (XI. 2, 11; XII. 3, 29), who considered them one of the Meotian tribes, who lived “near” (περὶ) Sindica “in the space of 500 stadia between Phanagoria and Gorgippia. This mention of Aspourgians is connected solely with the fact that in 8 BC. they captured and killed the Roman henchman on the Bosporan throne – Polemo I. In addition, the ethnonym "Aspourgians" appears in Bosporan epigraphic documents of the 3rd century AD, where the nomenclature of the official who controlled the administrative-territorial region is noted – ὁ ἐπὶ τῶν Ἀσπουργιανῶν (CIRB 36, 1246=1248). In historiography, there are many conflicting points of view on the origin, character and historical role of the Aspourgians. However, the prevailing opinion is that the name "Aspourgians" is associated with the name of King Aspourgos (they supported him against Polemo), although Aspourgos is not mentioned in Strabo, and various researchers start his reign attributed to 8 BC. before 14 AD (now confirmed by a new epigraphic monument terminus ante quem – 6/7 AD). At the same time, recognizing the Aspourgians as "barbarians", most scientists consider them not a separate tribe (or its faction), but military settlers (katoikoi) endowed with land in the service of the Bosporan kings, who defended the eastern borders of the state. The author of this article, relying on modern ideas about the paleogeography of the region, an analysis of the administrative-territorial division of the Asian Bosporus and archaeological evidence (both settlements and necropolises), tried to clarify the ideas about the habitat of aspourgians, the chronology of events associated with their appearance in the Bosporus. This made it possible to abandon a number of outdated views and remove some imaginary contradictions between different points of view on the origin and place of the Aspourgians in Bosporan history. Strabo’s “Ἀσπουργιανοί” should be understood as representatives of the Meoto-Sarmatian world settled by the Bosporan kings in the region of the modern region of Anapa-Novorossiysk in order to defend the southeastern borders of the state. These military settlers supported the legitimate heir to the Bosporan throne, Aspurgos, in his struggle against Polemo I, after which they received the name “aspourgianoi”. The compact area of inhabitancy of the “supporters of Aspurg” constituted a special administrative district of the Asian Bosporos, which was ruled by “governors of the <area> aspourgianoi” (οἱ ἐπὶ τῶν Ἀσπουργιανῶν).