Panagoria Bosporus

Cities of Khazaria. Kromos Estatium
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     The khazar cities here include not only those cities that were built by the khazar architects, but also those that were built before the arrival of the khazars, were used by the khazars for their needs and tasks for a long time.
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Panagoria Bosporus **
     Also Phaneguris from Procopius. Agrippa from roms.
     The great Greek colonization in the 6th century before Christ also reached the Kerch Strait. According to ancient Greek legend, Greek traders in 542 BC founded their next colony here, which was named Panagoria after the greek leader Panagoras, who led them to these places.
     The new city was located by the greeks on the shore of the Taman Bay, where the village of Sennoy now stands and in one horse-drawn passage from the future Tamatarcha.
     The founders of the colony came from the greek Theos, expelled by the persians. Panagoras himself was an oikist with dictatorial powers, a supporter of empyrionia in the management of people, without which it was impossible in those days for two decades to establish an entire city with a harbor on the bay. There already during his life no less than 2-3 ships a day were moored from all over the Black sea and from other greek colonies on the Mediterranean sea.
     After his death, in the center of the city, the colonists founded a pagan temple in his honor, which eventually became the center of the city, its talisman, the existence of which the phanagorians themselves forgot a hundred years later, building up this place with their estates. This altar was accidentally unearthed by sailors only at the end of the 19th century, when they were building their own lighthouse.
     Panagoria was included in historical writings in the middle of the 1st century before Christ. But this word is found on jars and amphoraes of the early 2nd century BC.
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     The name of the leader of the greek colonists of Panagoras was not his name from birth, but acquired during life. The word «fan» in the greeks meant light, glory. The word «рorus» meant wise. The founder of the city was an inspired orator, a just judge who judged in the name of Zeus and for the common good.
     Thus, naming Panagor can be deciphered as the Bringer of light and glory of the word. The divine concept of APOL, which was minted on the obverse of the phanagorean coin after Panagor's death, had a similar meaning.
     If we assume that the pronunciation of Panagor sounded like Pan-Agor, it means that the founder of the city was considered the main Speaker among the colonists, and the city was the main place where the main questions of the life of the colony were performed, the Agora.
     In the historical correspondence of the 1st century before Christ, the inhabitants of Panagoria and its districts were often singled out as a separate ethnic group with the name phanagorians, having their own genocult and sociocult. The district of the same city called Panagoriton.
     Panagor according to legend, was a man of brave and physically strong. He was also endowed with considerable knowledge in winemaking and grain growing, and he was a skilled healer.
     He knew all the medicinal herbs in the area. Under his leadership, the colonists in a few years were able to plow several kilometers of local land and plant them with grain, the collection of which provided not only the needs of the settlers, but was sold. Bought wheat phoenician merchants, who constantly helped Panagoras.
     Panagoras wore a black beard, for what the greeks called him the Black Doctor. He was able to bring out a special kind of vine that not only gave a hangover, but was healing. Having drunk half a jug of this dense and thick-tasting wine, a tired traveler or mariner would get up in the morning full of energy to continue their journey.
     According to legend, it was this wine that cured the colonists of Panagor, which allowed the colony to expand so quickly and adapt to local conditions. Although historians say that the greeks did not shy away from buying wives from the scythians and sarmatians, who gave birth to children who were not subject to the diseases and infirmities of the newcomers from Theos.
     According to a Greek legend from the 1st century BC, the seventh entrance to the Kingdom of Hades was also located at the place where Panagoras insisted that the city be built. Allegedly, next to Panagoria there is an entrance to a sinkhole-shaped karst cave that leads to the bottom of the sea. Panagoras, taught by the pohoenicians, brought terminally ill greeks to this funnel and forced them to descend to the bottom of the funnel, holding them on a rope.
     The person began to be sucked into the funnel, held there for a while until he lost consciousness, and then pulled out. If after 2 days the funnel was covered with silt, the person recovered. It was believed that the interior of the earth took all the disease in itself and sent it to Hades. And the man was recovering. Medical scientists explain this method of treatment by introducing a person into stress from the fear of being absorbed. At this time, all his healthy forces are mobilized, which defeat diseases.
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     Among the Greek colonists of the Black sea region, Aphrodite was considered the main object of veneration. Greek writers of the time believed that Panagoria was originally created as the main sanctuary of Aphrodite on Taman. Aphrodite, the foam-born goddess of beauty and love, was the main goddess of the Bosporan Kingdom, which itself was a product of coastal sea foam, located its cities only on the shores of the Mediterranean and the Black sea.
     The greeks installed pedestals of marble statues of Aphrodite in Panagoria, which Hecateus of Abder and Strabo called the main sanctuary of Aphrodite in the entire Northern black sea region. On these pedestals, the location of the Panagoria was later discovered.
     Apparently, the sanctuary of Aphrodite served as a lighthouse at the same time, since the word «fine» meant in greek fire, a lighthouse for sailors.
     However, over time, this sanctuary changed its content, since the scythians who collaborated with the greeks on Taman introduced elements of the worship of the scythian-sarmatian goddess Agrimpasa to the cult of Aphrodite.
     To the sanctuary of Aphrodite and Agrimpasa in Panagoria gathered all the famous greeks and sarmatian leaders of the area to bring gifts to Aphrodite, at the same time to communicate.
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     According to legend, Panagoria was founded on the island of the Korokondamit archipelago, from the shores of which the water receded after 300 years and Panagoria ended up on the mainland.
     Panagoria was considered one of the first greek trading posts in the 6th century BC in the Black sea region. They were assisted in the construction of the phoenicians, who participated in the construction of the harbor and the shipyard at it. The phoenicians also examined the nearest rivers Kuban, Dnieper and Don. There are traces of their presence everywhere.
     At about the same time as Panagoria, another greek colony, Hermonassa, was founded 25 kilometers away.
     The place where the city of Panagoria was built was very convenient from all points of view, since it was surrounded by fertile land, a calm sea full of fish, a diversity of wildfowl, a lot of fresh water and there was salt, which was used for salting sturgeon and other fish, which was also abundant here.
     Panagoria was very conveniently located on the island, where it had a convenient harbor that received ships from all over the Mediterranean and Black seas. By the beginning of the 5th century, the city had reached such a level of development that an inter-city union similar to the Panticapean one, was formed around it, which triumphed on the other side of the strait. The Panagoria Union included the polises of both banks of the Kerch Strait.
     Panagoria was boggleв the imagination in the beauty and stability of the merchants who arrived at the call of the phoenicians, because there were temples made of greek marble, there were many public buildings, and the streets were paved. Panagoria was also a polis, a free city that paid no tribute to anyone.
     Initially, Panagoria developed as an independent Polis on the rights of a separate state. This was a popular way of maintaining separate coastal polis at the time, which the greeks undoubtedly borrowed from the phoenicians.
     This was possible in the Kerch direction, since there was no permanent population. Here the taurians wandered, preferring hidden gorges in the crimean mountains, and the scythians came to the steppes, who were not interested in the coastal strip of the Kerch Strait. And there were also meots with sinds, who had small settlements at the mouth of the Kuban river and they were engaged in agriculture.
     In this regard, no defensive fortifications were placed at the original Panagoria. In addition, Panagoria island was still surrounded by water until the middle of the 5th century, although there were several fords and river crossing.
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     From the beginning of the 5th century BC, Panagoria issued its own coin with the legend of APOLO. This coin is issued a little later by Panticopei, which indicates the union interaction of the two centers, as the capitals of the Kerch Strait.
     After joining the Kerch coast along with Panagoria to the Bosporan Kingdom, the city gained the status of the local capital, challenging this title from Panticapea.
     Panagoria's trade was based on the cultivation and export of wheat. Together with Panticapaea, the city provided half of the grain received by Athens, up to one thousand tons per year. In addition to wheat, Panagoria supplied salted fish, cattle, processed leather, and sometimes slaves.
     Back panagoreans received wine from Greece, although from the 3rd century BC Panagoria began to produce wine itself, which is very fond of the goths, in the 2nd century BC came from the Baltic.
     Merchants also carried all sorts of oils and metal products through panagoria, since there was no ore in the Kerch region, they carried expensive fabrics, jewelry, marble statues, terracotta, and vases of artistic work. All this was bought by the noble leaders of neighboring tribes.
     In the first third of the 5th century BC, under the Spartokids, handicraft workshops and large ergastirias appeared in Panagoria, workshops along with a trading shop.
     In the first half of the 3rd century BC, the entire coinage of the Bosporian Polis was reorganized under the control of the Bosporian King Leucon Second. Now Panagoria is minting a silver coin that has legal circulation throughout the Bosporus.
     In the 4th century BC, Panagoria, after a short period of resistance to the new dynasty of the Spartocid Kings of the Bosporus, reaches its peak. The area of the city's suburbs reaches 60 hectares.
     In the 3rd century BC, Panagoria disputed the title of Asian capital of the Bosporian Kingdom from Panticapaeus, which remains the capital of the inner Kingdom.
     At the very beginning of the 2nd century BC, Perisades the Fifth, the last Spartokid, abdicates in favor of the King of the Pontic Kingdom, Mithridates the Fourth Eupator, an enemy of Rome. From this point on, the Bosporian Polis began to run a fever, as did the Central government. Panagoria was not left out, because the spirit of the city preserved the aspirations of its founders to freedom and independence.
     In the middle of the 1st century BC, the phanagorians, taking advantage of the situation, withdrew from the Bosporus, citing the rejection of the power of Mithridates, turning for help to Rome, which at that time was gaining strength. Panagoria forces the sons of Mithridates the Great to hand over control of the polis to the Panagoria nobles. During the uprising was killed the wife of Mithridates Hypecrite.
     Panagoria is besieged by the new Pontic King Pharnaces The Second. The townspeople were able to buy off the besiegers, and Pharnaces himself led a half-hearted policy, sometimes making peace with Rome, then breaking agreements.
     Finally, Caesar defeats the Pontic army of Pharnaces, who flees to the Crimea, where he settles in Panagoria and Panticapea. Here he tried to raise an army from the scythians and their kindred sarmatians, promising a large booty in Rome.
     Pharnaces, having gone with the nomads to Italy, left Assander in the Crimea, who organized a revolt against Pharnaces, as a result of which Pharnaces was killed on his return. Panagoria, which supported Assander in this rebellion, apparently not without the support of Rome, gets the rights to independent trade throughout the Crimea and Taman.
     At the end of the 1st century BC, after all the vicissitudes of the Roman-Pontic confrontation, the Bosporan King Polemon the First, as a sign of reconciliation, renames Panagoria to Agrippia after the Roman General Mark Agrippa, who fought during the reign of the Roman Consul Octavian Augustus and was revered by the wife of Mithridates, who died during the revolt in Panagoria.
     In the 1st century A.D., roman writings denote the inhabitants of Panagoria, envoys to Rome, as citizens of the country of Panagoriton, which emphasized the importance of the city for Rome, and its consuls raised the city and its district to the rank of a state.
     The strategy based on cooperation with Rome made it possible for Panagoria to remain one of the largest shopping centers not only in the Kerch Strait, but also in the entire Black sea region.
     At the beginning of the 1st century after the birth of Christ, Panagoria became the most significant city in all respects of the Bosporan Kingdom.
     In the middle of the 1st century, a Synagogue appeared in Panagoria, which indicates that among the merchants there were people of the jewish faith who lived here permanently.
     In the 3rd century after the birth of Christ, Panagoria became dependent on the scythians and sarmatians, the city began to wither, as the new tribes were far from sea trade, although they were considered the grandsons of the people of the sea, the cimmerians. In the 3rd century, through the Kerch crossing to the Crimea, alan tribes began to penetrate, who were also not particularly interested in sea trips.
     At the beginning of the 3rd century, Panagoria began to be attacked by the goths who poured into the Crimea, who came here from the Baltic coast and took with them many other tribes, the main of which were well-organized and knew the art of war, the slavs. The coastal cities of the Bosphorus in the Kerch isthmus are being attacked by goths and borans, experts in maritime affairs, one of the progenitors of Rus.
     The goto-slavic union assessed the advantages of the Bosporan Kingdom as a system for managing at least a hundred coastal cities along the Black sea. The goto-slavs are trying to seize not so much the territory as the Kingdom itself. They carry out a number of sea crossings along the coast of the Crimea and Taman, using both the finances and infrastructure of Panagoria and Panticapea.
     In the 4th century, the city was attacked by the huns, it falls into desolation. Panagoria again tries to attract Rome, referring to the unaffordable tribute they pay to the goto-slavic newcomers. But Rome can no longer help Panagoria, as it did 4 centuries earlier. In Crimea, a Goth party system is being established.
     This proved to be a salvation for Panagoria, since the goto-slavic power was able to hold on to its border a new invasion of the steppe people, the huns, whose hordes poured into Europe and absorbed the Gothic Germanaria. Nevertheless, although in a weakened form, the power of the huns reached the shores of Panagoria, where their Tudun once sat.
     Since the end of the 5th century, elements of christianization have appeared in Panagoria, as well as in Panticapea. Byzantine-style basilicas are being built here.
     In 520, the Bosporus was completely taken over by Byzantium. The history of Panagoria as the main trade center under the Bosporan Kingdom is over. Panagoria is losing its dominant role as a trade intermediary between the Black sea and the Black sea region.
     In the 6th century, the Bosporan Kingdom still existed and used the Panagoria harbor.
     In 519, the Council of Constantinople was held, in which John of Gotha takes part. At this time, his episcopal see was located in Panagoria, although its competence did not extend to the entire Bosporus.
     In 522, the Byzantine official Prov arrives in Bosporus, who supported the Cardost mission to Colchis by sending a caravan with provisions and utensils from Kepa and Panagoria to conduct church activities in Colchis.
     Procopius noted that in 528 Grod was overthrown by the huns, and then they carried out the capture of Bosporus, Kepa and Panagorus, after which these cities fell into complete decline.
     In 529, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian equips a large military fleet to regain control of the Bosporus. The company was run by Comit John. The army was joined by scythian and gothic detachments that moved to the Crimea from the Western Black sea region, with their leaders Godila from Odysses and Badurius.
     Despite the diversity of mercenaries, Bosporus was returned. Panagoria is being reinforced with new structures. Justinian the First placed his military garrison here, which controlled the trade supplies from Constantinople to Panagoria. Olive oil, wine, glass and red-lacquer dishes were brought here.
     In 576, Panagoria with the entire coastal economy of the Kerch Strait came under the rule of the Turkic Khaganate.
     It was a short time when the connection between Byzantium and great Bulgaria was carried out through the city.
     At the end of the 6th century, during the reign of the Emperor Maurice, three brothers came from Upper Scythia to the Crimea, whom Michael of Syria reports under the name of pugura, and Markwart calls panagurs and panagorians. Artamonov in this message saw the kuban bulgarians, who could then belong to the city of Panagoria on the Bosporus.
     At the beginning of the 7th century, Panagoria was one of the administrative centers of the Khazar Khaganate, which Khazaria and Byzantium ruled jointly.
     In 632, Kubrat, planted here by Byzantium, after his flight from the khazars, founded the capital of Great Bulgaria, which itself was located in the Azov region.
     In 665, Kubrat, along with Great Bulgaria, was deported by the Byzantines to Pannonia.
     Starting from the 6th century, Byzantium initiated the arrival of christianity in Panagoria, along with christians, jews came here, who were periodically expelled by the Emperors.
     At the same time, Procopius calls Panagoria the capital of Great Bulgaria.
     At the end of the 7th century, Byzantium cedes to Khazaria Panagoria, and part of the Crimea. Panagoria is ruled by a khazar caretaker.
     In 695, the Emperor Justinian Second, who was expelled from Byzantium by the rebels, found refuge here. Khagan Ibuzir Glavan, who ruled in Khazaria, renders imperial honor to Justinian. It seems that Panagoria at that time proved to be the most convenient place for the deposed Emperor to follow the political battles in the Empire and from here to conduct correspondence with his supporters in the metropolis. A year later, Justinian The Second returned to Byzantium, regained the throne and thanked the Khagan.
     For a while, the city falls into disrepair, many homes look abandoned by their owners.
     Theophanes in his chronicle adds to these events information that beyond Panagoria in the direction of the Meotian lake live jews and other peoples.
     Since the first centuries of the New Faith, jews have long inhabited many areas of Taman. Jews found refuge here in the early 7th century, when they were persecuted by the Emperor Heraclius.
     Especially actively they began to settle in the fat trading cities of the Crimean coast from the 9th century, when the khazar nobility judaized. With the support of the khazars, jews communities began to move to Crimea not only from the North Caucasus, but also from other countries and lands. Here their monuments are preserved everywhere, which testify to their presence in Panagoria and on the Bosporus from the first centuries after the birth of Christ.
     At the beginning of the 8th century, new jewish settlers began to arrive here, driven from the Empire by Leo the Third. Some of them moved to Khazaria, carrying with them their teachings, which they handed over to local princes who did not receive their inheritance under their Nord Kings.
     By the very beginning of the 8th century, chronicles refer to the arrival in Panagoria of the khazar delegation, which arrived to negotiate with the Byzantine ambassadors on the issue of the division of powers on the Bosporus. Byzantium did not particularly prevent the khazars from entering the Bosporus and the Crimea, since the khazars assisted no Byzantium in the fight against the persians in the Caucasus. In addition, to keep the army and navy in the Crimea to subdue local tribes and thugs was expensive for Byzantium, the khazars did it for free.
     In the 8th century, Panagoria was revived under the same name, and the city quickly grew into a flourishing shopping center that stretched along the seashore. At the same time, new buildings were built without noticeable changes in the layout of old buildings and blocks. At this time, the city has extensive trade relations, as well as a well-developed craft industry.
     At the beginning of the 10th century, the sea level rises. Panagoria is back on the island, but all its main infrastructure facilities are under water. The primacy in trade goes to neighbouring Tmutorokan, where the main ethnic element was already slavs. Part of panagorians joined Tmutorokan, and then disappeared in Rus.
     In the middle of the 10th century, King Joseph, in his letters to Jewish recipients in Europe, no longer reports anything about this city. Konstantin Porphyrogenitus also does not report anything about Panagoria, although many times he returns to affairs in the Bosporus..
     At the very beginning of the 11th century, the history of Panagoria is interrupted. The city was not destroyed, people gathered everything that could be taken away and left, leaving their homes.
     In the 11th century, only a small settlement remained of Phanagoria, which existed among the Phanagorian ruins.
     In the 16th century, the turks authors note in their chronicles a small village on the site of the former Panagoria.
     About half of the ancient Panagoria now remains under the water of the Taman Bay.
     The wealth of Panagoria is indicated by several thousand burials in the giant Necropolis, which was located on three sides of Panagoria in ancient times. The abundance of marble and cypress sarcophagus is amazing.
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