Iranians and Greeks in South Russia - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian ...

INTHEROMANPERIOD 149
the northern coast of the Black Sea. But it is not sufficiently recognized,
that it was only against their will, and of bitter necessity, that
the Crimean Greeks summoned Mithridates to their aid. Their
fortunes had sunk so low, that they must either become the subjects
of the Scythians, or accept the assistance of the Pontic king. It was
certainly not from any liking that they approached him. The generals
of Mithridates conquered the Scythians in three campaigns, took
possession of the Bosphoran kingdom, and estabhshed Pontic garrisons
in all the cities on the northern shore of the Black Sea, including Olbia.
For the Greeks, accustomed to freedom, especially the Chersonesans
and the Olbians, the domination of Mithridates was a heavy burden.
It became intolerable, when they realized that the philhellenism of
Mithridates was merely superficial, and that his true purpose was to
unite the native populations, especially the Iranian tribes, under his
banner, and to lead them to the conquest of the Roman Empire : the
Greeks being;_useful only as a source of revenue. The Scythians,
indeedTwere vanquished by Mithridates, and the Crimea was nominally
embodied in the Pontic kingdom, but it nevertheless remained
independent and powerful, and Mithridates hastened to enter into
amicable relations with the Scythians : it is well known that he
made himself popular by marrying his sons and daughters to Scythian
princesses and princes. He also adopted a friendly policy towards
the Maeotian, Sarmatian and Thracian tribes. He thus succeeded
in arousing a strong feeling of sympathy in these warlike races, who
looked upon Mithridates as a descendant of the Achaemenids and
the founder of a new and great Iranian power. We pointed out, in
preceding chapters, that neither the Scythians nor the Sarmatians
were in any wise barbarous peoples. If large numbers of Greek
objects found their way into their fortified camps, if they valued
Greek representations of native myths and of native military and
religious life, they must certainly have learned from the Greeks the
history of the Iranian world and of the universal empire of Persia.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the tribes of South Russia
lent their aid to Mithridates. When he found a last refuge in Panticapaeum,
after his defeat by Lucullus and Pompey in Asia Minor,
and tried to organize a new army to march against Rome, it was not
the Iranian and Thracian tribes who betrayed him, but the Greeks,
first at Phanagoria and then at Panticapaeum. He perished in a rising
of his Greek subjects, who were apprehensive of his alliance with their
secular enemies and preferred the lordship of Rome to that of an
Iranian king. The same story as in Asia Minor.
It must also be remembered, that Mithridates brought into the
,