KINGS OF BOSPOROS. Dynamis, Queen, circa 21/0 BC-AD 7/8. 3 Units (Bronze, 18 mm, 5.52 g). Lion crouching to right; star above; all within laurel wreath. Rev. Wreath and palm; to right, monogram above and Γ (mark of value). Anokhin 1355. HGC 7, -. MacDonald 244. Very rare, especially untooled. The obverse struck somewhat off center and with a flan fault, otherwise, very fine.


As the daughter of Pharnakes II (63-47 BC) and the granddaughter of Mithradates VI Eupator, Dynamis was first married by the usurper, Asander, to bolster his claim to the Bosporan throne after he had killed his future wife's father. As Asander grew old, Dynamis exercised the regency for him, until he eventually committed suicide, aged 93, when a certain Scribonius rebelled against him in 16 BC. Again, the queen was married by the usurper, only to see her new husband killed by his own troops when the Pontic king, Polemo I, threatened to invade. In 14 BC, Augustus' right-hand man, Agrippa, showed up in the Black Sea with a Roman fleet, enforcing Polemo's acceptance as king both in Northen Asia Minor and in the Bosporan realm. In a recurring theme, it now was Polemo's turn to marry Dynamis, but she soon fled to the mountainous hinterlands of the Crimea, where she found support among the native tribes. In 8/7 BC, Polemo was killed in battle when campaigning against her, and she was eventually accepted by Augustus as regent for her minor son, Aspourgos, dying in 7/8 AD after an incredibly adventurous life.