Scylurus (redirected from Skilurus)

Scylurus 

a Scythian king of the second century B.C.

Under Scylurus, Scythia included the Crimean steppe and the lower courses of the luzhnyi Bug and Dnieper rivers; its capital was the city of Neapolis, on the site of what is now Simferopol’. In Olbia, which had come under Scythian rule, Scylurus minted coins, arranged for the export of grain with the aid of local merchants, and strove to expand the boundaries of his state and obtain an outlet to the sea. He conquered the Crimean coast, along with a number of possessions of Chersonesus, including Cercinitis and Kalos Limen. To achieve his territorial aims, he entered into a military alliance with the Sarmatian tribe of the Roxolani, but Chersonesus placed itself under the protection of the king of Pontus, Mithridates Eupator. In a war with Mithridates circa 108–107 B.C., during which Scylurus died, Scythia was defeated.

REFERENCE

Zhebelev, S. A. Severnoe Prichernomor’e: Issledovanie i stat’i po istorii Severnogo Prichernomor’ia antichnoi epokhi. Moscow-Leningrad, 1953.