The
Bosporan Kingdom, also known as the
Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus (
Basileion tou Kimmerikou Bosporou), was an ancient state located in eastern
Crimea and the
Taman Peninsula on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus, the present-day
Strait of Kerch. (It was not named after the more famous
Bosphorus beside
Istanbul at the other end of the
Black Sea.) The Bosporan Kingdom was the longest surviving Roman
client kingdom. The 1st and 2nd centuries BC saw a period of renewed golden age of the Bosporan state. It was a
Roman province from 63 to 68 AD, under Emperor
Nero. At the end of the 2nd century AD, King
Sauromates II inflicted a critical defeat on the
Scythians and included all the territories of the Crimea in the structure of his state.