Gorgippus
King of Bosporus
Reign389–349 BCE
PredecessorSatyrus I
SuccessorSpartocus II and Paerisades I
King of Sindoi
Reign389–349 BCE
PredecessorHecataeus
SuccessorComosarye I
Bornc. 410 BCE
Bosporan Kingdom
Died349 BCE (aged 40+)
Bosporan Kingdom
Issue
  • Comosarye I
  • Satyrus III
  • Ambrocus(?)
HouseSpartocid
FatherSatyrus I

Gorgippus (Ancient Greek: Γοργιππος, romanized: Gorgippos) was a son of Satyrus I[1] and was a Spartocid joint ruler with his brother Leucon (389–349 BCE) of the Bosporan Kingdom.[2] He situated himself on the Asiatic side of the kingdom, in Gorgippia where he ruled until, presumably, his death in 349 BCE.

Wars of Expansion

Gorgippus was a prominent figure of the Bosporan Wars of Expansion, after he became joint-ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom alongside his brother Leukon upon the death of their father Satyros I. He seems to have ended the war his father had unsuccessfully began with queen Tirgatao of the Maeotians, who had been wronged by Satyrus earlier on in diplomatic relations with Hecataeus.[3] Additionally, he seems to have renamed Sindia, the capital of the Sindike Kingdom, to Gorgippia, after himself.[4]

In a speech against the Athenian orator Demosthenes, Gorgippus was described as one of the "detested tyrants", alongside Paerisades I and Satyrus I[5] for whom Demosthenes had erected statues in Athens due to his grandfather's relation with the Spartocids. The same speech claimed that Demosthenes received a thousand bushels of grain from Gorgippus annually.[6]

Gorgippus' daughter, Comosarye, may have been of Sindian descent. She married her cousin Paerisades I, a son of Leucon and later ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom.[7]

References

  1. ^ Polyaenus. Strategems 55.1. Satyrus died in the midst of an unsuccessful war; leaving his son Gorgippus to succeed him in the throne.
  2. ^ Kinzl, Konrad H. (11 January 2010). A Companion to the Classical Greek World. Wiley. p. 145. ISBN 9781444334128. Retrieved 26 January 2017. Although Satyros seems to have been succeeded jointly by his sons Leukon I and Gorgippos...
  3. ^ Polyaenus. Strategems 55.1. 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.
  4. ^ Brill Reference. October 2006. and was officially named after the Spartocid Gorgippus after its integration into the Bosporus Kingdom.
  5. ^ Against Demosthenes. 10 October 2022. Was it for nothing he procured brazen statues to Berisades and Satyrus, and Gorgippus, those detested tyrants
  6. ^ Against Demosthenes. 10 October 2022. from whom he annually receives a thousand bushels of corn,
  7. ^ D. E. W. Wormell (1946). "Studies in Greek tyranny—II. Leucon of Bosporus". Hermathena (68): 49–71. JSTOR 23037564. when the joining of the two nations had been symbolized in the marriage of Comosarye and Paerisades, he took the title "king of sindi"
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