Paerisades

or Pari'sades (Παιπιρισάδης or Παρισάδης). The latter form is the more common: but the former, which is that used by Strabo, is confirmed by the evidence of coins.

1. A king of Bosporus, son of Leucon, sueceeded his brother Spartacus in B. C. 349, and reigned thirty-eight years. (Diod. 16.52.) No events of his reign have been transmitted to us, except that we find him at one period (apparently about B. C. 333) engaged in a war with the neighbouring Scythians (Dem. c. Phorm. p. 909), and he appears to have continued the same friendly relations with the Athenians which were begun by his father Leucon. (Id. ib. p. 917.) But we are told, in general terms, that he was a mild and equitable ruler, and was so much beloved by his subjects as to obtain divine honours after his death. (Strab. vii. p.310.) He left three sons, Satyrus, Eumelus and Prytanis. (Diod. 20.22.)

He is probably the same person as the Birisades mentioned by Deinarchus (c. Dem.p . 95), to whom Demosthenes had proposed that a statue should be erected at Athens. (See Wesseling ad Diod. 14.93; Clinton, F. H. vol. ii. p. 284.)

2. Son of Satyrus, and grandson of the preceding. He was the only one of the children of Satyrus who escaped from the designs of his uncle Eumelus, and took refuge at the court of Agarus king of Scythia, B. C. 308. (Diod. 20.24.)

3. A second king of Bosporus, and the last monarch of the first dynasty that ruled in that country. He was probably a descendant of No. 1, but the history of the kingdom of Bosporus, during the period previous to his reign, is wholly lost. We only know that the pressure of the Scythian tribes from without, and their constantly increasing demands of tribute, which he was unable to resist, at length induced Paerisades voluntarily to cede his sovereignty to Mithridates the Great. (Strab. vii. pp. 309, 310.) The date of this event is wholly unknown, but it cannot be placed earlier than B. C. 112, nor later than B. C. 88. It is uncertain whether an anecdote related by Polyaenus (7.37) refers to this Paerisades or to No. 1. [E.H.B]

(Παιρισάδης) or Parisădes (Παρισάδης). The name of two kings of Bosporus, the first of whom ruled in the fourth century B.C. and the second in the first century B.C. The latter ceded his kingdom to Mithridates the Great (Strabo, p. 310).