On the Epitaph for Argotas from Neapolis Scythica

This article contains a re-publication of a verse epitaph found in Neapolis Scythica ( SEG 53, 775). After correcting a number of readings and restorations of the editio princeps , the author demonstrates that lines 4-8 contain a description of the deceased Argotas and not of King Skiluros, as the scholars publishing the inscription had suggested. There are no grounds for treating the φιλο[φροσύνη] Ἑλλάνων mentioned in the text as evidence of Argotas’ Greek origin. Thus there is no reason for viewing him as a figure similar to Posideos, son of Posideos, known to us from Neapolis epigraphy. The man buried here was a representative of the Scythian nobility, who could be probably identified as the husband of the Bosporan queen Kamasarya mentioned in one of the inscriptions found in Pantikapaion ( CIRB 75)

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