(02-25-2017, 02:57 PM)Nathan Ross Wrote: It's a vivid story, but there are several problems with it. The date of the campaign must fall between Diocletian's accession in AD284 and Constantius's elevation to Caesar in March 293. But the king of the Bosporan kingdom at that time (based on the regnal list, itself based on coinage evidence) was Theothorses, son of Teiranes. He did have a brother named Sauromates, who had reigned briefly before him as Sauromates IV: three previous kings of that name ruled in the eras of Trajan, Septimius Severus and Alexander Severus, and all seem to have been firm allies of Rome. The second even called himself Philoromaios.
There's also no evidence in any other sources for a war between the two peoples at this time. There is, however, a much earlier inscription, AE 1991, 1378, to a soldier of Legio I Italica Alexandriana, who while a tirone participated in a bellum bosporanum - the war in question would presumably date to Severus or Caracalla.
So what are the options? I can think of three:
The Historia Augusta is of course unreliable, but I've often wondered whether some of its stories are based on kernels of truth, and I'm intrigued by the little vignette where the emperor Tacitus is said to have won a victory over the Alans near the Maeotis swamp around 275 or 276. It's always interesting when the Roman army ventures that far from home.
That would have been only about a decade before your time frame, and not far off geographically. Perhaps they were the same conflict, and some dates or places were confused or conflated by our sources here?
It's worth noting that the H.A. mentions Tacitus' victory immediately after "his first care after being made emperor was to put to death all who had killed Aurelian, good and bad alike, although he had already been avenged." Isn't that what people say Diocletian did too, immediately avenge a slain emperor after taking his place? I could see that detail being confused.
