Dynamis

This article is about the Queen Dynamis. For the philosophical term dynamis see act and potency and ability (ability) , for the annual event see Württembergischer Christusbund

Dynamis (* 63 BC ; † 7/8 AD) was Queen of the Bosporan Empire during the time of Emperor Augustus .

Life

Bronze bust traditionally identified with Dynamis in the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg (but see the section on pictorial representations )

She was the daughter of the Bosporan king Pharnakes' II and thus the granddaughter of Mithridates VI. from Pontos . After the assassination of her father by his governor Asandros in 47 BC. The nobleman Mithridates of Pergamon , who was in Roman service, tried to conquer the Bosporan Empire, but was also defeated by Asandros. He then made himself the Bosporan king and married Dynamis in order to legitimize his rule. Little is known about his reign.

As 16 BC An otherwise unknown Scribonius rebelled, the allegedly 93-year-old Asandros killed himself and Dynamis married the usurper. Thereupon the Pontic king Polemon I was commissioned by Augustus with the suppression of this uprising. But before he could take military action against Scribonius, he was killed by his own people. Polemon now ruled both Pontus and the Bosporan Empire and with it the whole of Crimea. In order to gain acceptance, he married - like Asandros and Scribonius - Dynamis.

This, however, did not agree with the communal government and fled in 13 BC. To the loyal tribes of the "Aspourgianoi" who live in the interior of the Crimea and whose name was probably derived from Aspourgos , the son of Dynamis. They prevented Polemon from taking full control of the Bosporan Empire. Polemon then married Pythodoris, a granddaughter of Mark Antony, and ruled his empire with him and their three children for the next few years. In the area of ​​the Bosporan Empire, however, it was only partially accepted, here only by the Greek cities of the Tauride Chersonesos . There were repeated uprisings against his rule, which presumably came from Dynamis. In order to be able to finally prevail, Polemon led military campaigns inland. In an action against the Aspurgianoi , Polemon was captured and probably 8/7 BC. Killed in BC. Augustus reinstated Dynamis as regent. She ruled until 7/8 AD. After her death, Aspourgos took control of the Crimea.

The main source on the life of dynamis is Book 54 of Cassius Dios' Roman History . There is also an inscription in which Dynamis thanks her “benefactors” Augustus and Livia .

Part of the south frieze of the Ara Pacis: the small person in the middle of the picture is partially identified with Aspourgos, the poorly worked out woman who puts her hand on his head with Dynamis

Pictorial representations

A larger than life bronze bust, discovered in 1898 and published by Michael Rostovtzeff and now in the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg , is traditionally identified with Dynamis. The piece happened to come to light in Shyroka Balka near Novorossiysk , probably in a former burial mound. It shows a woman in a chiton , whose curly braids fall on both sides of her head and who, as a symbol of king, wears a tiara in the form of a Phrygian cap . The assignment to Dynamis is now considered unlikely and identification with a deity (such as Attis ) is not generally accepted. Instead, a representation of the later reigning Bosporan Queen Gepaipyris is recognized in the bust .

Charles Brian Rose, on the other hand, suggested identifying a figure in the southern relief of the Ara Pacis in Rome with Dynamis, and the smaller person below it with her son Aspourgos. However, reliably assignable representations of the Dynamis can only be found on their coins.

literature

• Arthur Stein : Dynamis. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume V, 2, Stuttgart 1905, Sp. 1879 f.
• Michael Rostovtzeff: Queen Dynamis of Bosporus. In: The Journal of Hellenic Studies . Volume 39, 1919, pp. 88-109.
• Viktor F. Gajdukevič : The Bosporan Empire. 2nd edition, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1971, especially pp. 324–332.
• Bernhard Kytzler : women of antiquity. From Aspasia to Zenobia . Artemis, Munich & Zurich 1994, ISBN 3-7608-1224-4 , p. 61 f.
• Duane W. Roller: Cleopatra's Daughter and other Royal Women of the Augustan Era. Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2018, ISBN 978-0-19-061882-7 , pp. 79–97.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Cassius Dio 54, 24, 4.
2. ↑ Lucian of Samosata , Makrobioi 17.
3. ↑ Cassius Dio 54, 24, 4ff .; Strabo 11, 493; among others
4. ↑ Alexander V. Podossinov: On the edge of the Greek Oikumene. History of the Bosporan Empire. In: Jochen Fornasier, Burkhard Böttger (ed.): The Bosporan Empire. The northeast of the Black Sea in ancient times. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2002, ISBN 3-8053-2895-8 , pp. 21–38, here p. 31.
5. ↑ Michael Rostovtzeff: Queen Dynamis of Bosporus. In: The Journal of Hellenic Studies . Volume 39, 1919, pp. 88-109.
6. ↑ So Latife Summerer: Hellenistic terracottas from Amisos. A contribution to the art history of the Pontos area (= Geographica Historica. Volume 12). Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1999, p. 157 f. According to her, the bust was originally made in Amisos (now Samsun ).
7. ↑ Klaus Parlasca : Gepayris, not Dynamis. The bronze bust of a Bosporan queen in Saint Petersburg. In: Eurasia Antiqua. Volume 15, 2009, pp. 241-257.
8. ^ Charles Brian Rose: "Princes" and Barbarians on the Ara Pacis. In: American Journal of Archeology . Volume 94, 1990, pp. 453-467.