ay pass through the strait (or through the Dardanelles)
without the countenance of the Porte. (See also CONSTANTINOPLE.)

BOSPORUS CIMMERIUS, the ancient name for the Straits of Kerch or
Yenikale, connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov; the Cimmerii
(q.v.) were the ancient inhabitants. The straits are about 25 m. long
and 2-1/2 m. broad at the narrowest, and are formed by an eastern
extension of the Crimea and the peninsula of Taman, a kind of
continuation of the Caucasus. This in ancient times seems to have formed
a group of islands intersected by arms of the Hypanis or Kuban and
various sounds now silted up. The whole district was dotted with Greek
cities; on the west side, Panticapaeum (Kerch, q.v.), the chief of all,
often itself called Bosporus, and Nymphaeum (Eltegen); on the east
Phanagoria (Sennaja), Cepi, Hermonassa, Portus Sindicus, Gorgippia
(Anapa). These were mostly settled by Milesians, Panticapaeum in the 7th
or early in the 6th century B.C., but Phanagoria (c. 540 B.C.) was a
colony of Teos, and Nymphaeum had some connexion with Athens--at least
it appears to have been a member of the Delian Confederacy. The towns
have left hardly any architectural or sculptural remains, but the
numerous barrows in their neighbourhood have yielded very beautiful
objects now mostly preserved in the Hermitage in St Petersburg. They
comprise especially gold work, vases exported from Athens, textiles and
specimens of carpentry and marquetry. The numerous terra-cottas are
rather rude in style.

According to Diodorus Siculus (xii. 31) the locality was governed from
480 to 438 B.C. by the Archaeanactidae, probably a ruling family, who
gave place to a tyrant Spartocus (438-431 B.C.), apparently a Thracian.
He founded a dynasty which seems to have endured until c. 110 B.C. The
Spartocids have left many inscriptions which tell us that the earlier
members of the house ruled as archons of the Greek cities and kings of
various native tribes, notably the Sindi of the island district and
other branches of the Maitae (Maeotae). The text of Diodorus, the
inscriptions and the coins do not supply sufficient material for a
complete list of them. Satyrus (431-387), the successor of Spartocus,
established his rule over the whole district, adding Nymphaeum to his
dominions and laying siege to Theodosia, which was a serious commercial
rival by reason of its ice-free port and direct proximity to the
cornfields of the eastern Crime