Saulaces was a king of
Colchis
In classical antiquity and Greco-Roman geography, Colchis (; ) was an exonym for the Georgian polity of Egrisi ( ka, ეგრისი) located on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia.
Its population, the ...
known from
''Naturalis Historia'' by the 1st-century Roman author
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...
and identified by one hypothesis as a king mentioned on eight coins found on the eastern
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...
coast.
Pliny
According to Pliny, Saulaces was a descendant of
Aeëtes
Aeëtes ( ; , ), or Aeeta, was the ruler of the eponymous realm of Aea in Greek mythology, a wondrous realm which from the fifth century B.C.E. onward became identified with the kingdom of Colchis east in the Black Sea. The name comes from the an ...
, a king of Colchis of the
Argonautic fame. He was further claimed to have found rich gold and silver deposits in the land of the
Suani and to have furnished his palace with golden and silver structures obtained on his conquest of
Sesostris
Sesostris () is the name of a king of ancient Egypt who, according to Herodotus, led a military expedition into parts of Europe. Tales of Sesostris are probably based on the life of Senusret I, Senusret III and perhaps other Pharaohs such as Sho ...
, king of
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
:
Pliny's account of Saulaces and his victory over the Egyptians is uncorroborated by other written sources, but Sesostris' connection with Colchis was treated by many
Classical authors, first by the 5th-century BC historian
Herodotus
Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...
, who credited Sesostris with leading an expedition into
Asia
Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
and transplanting a group of Egyptians to settle Colchis.
Martin Bernal
Martin Gardiner Bernal (; 10 March 1937 – 9 June 2013)
was a British scholar of modern Chinese political history. He was a Professor of Government and Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University. He is best known for his work '' Black Athena'', ...
, who accepted the historicity of Sesostris' campaign, dated the event to the 1930s or 1920s BC.
Coinage
In the 19th century, Saulaces was identified by
Alfred von Gutschmid on eight rare coins, five of which were acquired in West Georgia, near
Sokhumi
Sukhumi or Sokhumi is a city in a wide bay on the Black Sea's eastern coast. It is both the Capital city, capital and largest city of Abkhazia, a partially recognised state that most countries consider a part of Georgia (country), Georgia. The ...
and in Vani. This interpretation was disputed since then. The Greek inscription on these coins is incomplete (ΒΑΣΙΛΕ... ΣΑΥ or ΣΑΥΜ). The coins are now in the collections located in
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
,
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
,
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, and
Vani
Vani ( ka, ვანი ) is a town in Imereti region of a western Georgia (country), Georgia, at the Sulori river (a tributary of the Rioni river), 41 km southwest from the regional capital Kutaisi. The town, with a population of 3,744 as of 201 ...
. In 1951, Davit Kapanadze also supported the Saulaces identification.
The alternative hypothesis is that the coins attributed to Saulaces belonged to
Saumacus, a
Scythian
The Scythians ( or ) or Scyths (, but note Scytho- () in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people who had migrated during the 9th to 8th centuries BC fr ...
, who seized power in the
Bosporan Kingdom
The Bosporan Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus (; ), was an ancient Greco-Scythians, Scythian state located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus, centered in the present-day ...
108 BC. In particular, this was argued in 2013 by Giorgi Dundua. However, another such coin was also reported in 2007 as found in Crimea, near
Theodosia. The inscription on it is complete, and reads "ΣΑΥΛΑΚΟΥ" in Greek, which supports the older Saulaces identification.
[Гаврилов А.В., Шонов И.В. Монета Савлака с укрепления Куру Баш близ Феодосии. XIV Всероссийская нумизматическая конференция. – С.-Пб. 2007. С. 31-33 // (Russian) A. Gavrilov, I. Shonov, "A coin of Savlak from the fortress of Kuru Bash near Theodosia", Saint Petersburg, 2007 pp. 31-33]
References
{{Reflist
Literature
* Zeev Wolfgang Rubinsohn. Saumakos: Ancient History, Modern Politics // Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte Bd. 29, H. 1 (1st Qtr., 1980), pp. 50-70
Kings of Colchis