A Bosporan Honorific Inscription from Pantikapaion

This short honorific inscription from Pantikapaion belongs in the Scythian library because it preserves a compact Bosporan royal formula in which King Aspurgus is praised as ruler of the Bosporus and neighboring peoples, and as the one who subdued Scythians and Taurians.

The text is especially useful beside the damaged CIRB 39 dedication. Here the Scythian and Taurian clause is not bracketed in PHI's display, and the dedicator is named as Menestratos, the official over the island. This edition keeps the political language close to the Greek and avoids turning a court honorific into a neutral historical report.

The damaged or compact wording is kept visible in the English rather than enlarged into narrative.

Translation

Menestratos II, the official over the island, [honors] his own savior and benefactor:

Great King Aspurgus, friend of Rome, descended from King Asandrochos, friend of Caesar and friend of Rome, ruling all the Bosporus, Theodosia, the Sindoi, the Maiotai, the Tarpeitai, the Toreitai, the Psesoi, and the Tanaïtai, who subdued the Scythians and Taurians.

Colophon

This Good Works Translation was prepared for the Scythian shelf by the New Tianmu Anglican Church from the Ancient Greek inscription text printed below. The English is a new rendering from the Greek. PHI Greek Inscriptions was used as the source text, with the local HTML capture retained for verification.

The translation is a new Good Works rendering from the inspected Greek source text.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: CIRB 40 / PH182754

Ancient Greek source text from PHI Greek Inscriptions, CIRB 40 / PH182754. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

βασιλέα μέγαν Ἀσποῦργον φιλορώμαιον, τὸν ἐκ βασιλέως Ἀσανδρόχου,

φιλοκαίσαρα καὶ φιλορώμαιον, βασιλεύοντα παντὸς Βοοσπόρου, Θεοδοσίης

καὶ Σίνδων καὶ Μαϊτῶν καὶ Ταρπείτων καὶ Τορετῶν, Ψησῶν τε καὶ Τανα[ε]ιτῶν,

ὑποτάξαντα Σκύθας καὶ Ταύρους, Μενέστρατος β ὁ ἐπὶ τῆς νήσ{σ}ου {²⁶νήσου}²⁶ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ σω-

τῆρα καὶ εὐεργέτην.

Source Colophon

The source text was inspected from PHI Greek Inscriptions, CIRB 40 / PH182754, Pantikapaion (Kerch), dated by PHI to 10-ca. 39 AD, with PHI noting IosPE II 36. The source capture is preserved in the Scythian source archive.

PHI prints an overlined beta after Μενέστρατος; this edition renders it cautiously as "Menestratos II" pending epigraphic review. PHI also prints {²⁶νήσου}²⁶ as a correction for νήσ{σ}ου; the translation follows the corrected "island" reading. The English keeps the honorific court formula and does not infer the physical monument beyond what the surviving text says.

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