242 The Imperial Government
upthisdecree[todogma]inpublic,seetoitthatthisjudgementofmine
becomesknowntoall.Bewell.[Year]312.20thofDaisios.Like the accompanying one, this letter from King Aspourgos (a.d.10/11–
38/9) dates to the summer of 15. As a royal letter to a city, it is thus very
closeintimetothewell-knownletterofArtabanusIIIofParthia,toSeleucia
on the Eulaeus, ofa.d.21.^45 But there is a crucial distinction in the pres-
encehereofatwo-levelmonarchy.Thedatemakesitverypossible,butby
no means certain, that theSebastos Autokrator(Augustus Imperator) towhom
Aspourgos had ‘‘gone up’’ was the new emperor Tiberius. Aspourgos evi-
dentlydidnotsharethedoubtsfeltinCyprusastowhetherthepraenomen
(first name)Imperator/Autokratorhad actually been assumed.^46 Buthemay
equallybereferringtothenowdeceasedImperator (Caesardivi filius) Augustus
(ImperatorCaesar,sonofthedivineCaesar,Augustus)andtoanearliervoy-
age.Ifso,hehadfailedtoincorporateintheletteranyreflectionofAugustus’
recentdeification.Theformofthenameisinfactnotfullycorrectforeither
emperor.
What is important, however, is on the one hand the very concrete re-
flectionofthedependenceofakinglikeAspourgosonthedistantemperor
inRome.His‘‘goingup’’thusperfectlymirroredthewell-knownjourneys
oftheHerodianhouseholdtoRome.OntheotherhandweseeAspourgos’
recognitionofestablishedrights(grantedinthiscasebythegreatMithri-
datesVIEupator)possessedbytheGorgippeis,andhisawarenessoftheneed
to address them diplomatically, and to return their goodwill.The letter is
thusareflectionofthediplomaticexpressionbothoftwo-levelsovereignty
andofthedelicaterelationsofkingandcity.
IntheepigraphyoftheBosporankingdomoverthenextthreecenturies,
adoubleconceptionofthekings,asmonarchsandconquerorsontheone
hand,andasloyalsubjectsofRomeontheother,isvisibleeverywhere.For
instance, there is a later inscription of King Aspourgos, of the 20s, from
Kerch:^47
TheGreatKingAspourgos,philorōmaios,descendantofKingAsandro-
chos,philokaisar[friendoftheCaesars]andphilorōmaios,kingofallthe
BosporusandTheodosiaandtheSindiandMaitiandTaipeiiandToreti,- C.B.Welles,Royal Correspondence in the Hellenistic Period(1934),no.75.
- T.B.Mitford,‘‘ACypriotOathofAllegiancetoTiberius,’’JRS50(1960):75–79.See
alsoF.Millar,‘‘OvidandtheDomus Augusta:RomeSeenfromTomoi,’’JRS83(1993):1–17,
onpp.16–17(Millar[n.3],chap.14,321–49).
47.CIRB,no.40,cf.alsono.39.