Plautius Silvanus lifts the Scythian siege of Chersonesus

After the fall of Mithridates VI the Scythians of Crimea, whose capital was Scythian Neapolis on the site of modern Simferopol, regained their strength; mixed with the Tauri of the mountains, they were known as Tauro-Scythians. In the 60s they again threatened Chersonesus, and the city turned to Rome. The expedition is known chiefly from the epitaph of Plautius Silvanus in the mausoleum of the Plautii at Tibur near Rome (CIL XIV 3608), which lists among his deeds as legate of Moesia under Nero that he drove a king of the Scythians from the siege of Chersonesus, “which is beyond the Borysthenes” (the Dnieper). The same inscription records that he brought more than 100,000 people from beyond the Danube into his province and sent Moesian grain to Rome; later, on Vespasian’s proposal, the Senate granted him triumphal honours.

The campaign can be dated only by his governorship (61–66). Afterwards Chersonesus received a Roman garrison and became a base for Roman ships, a camp arose on the bay of Symbolon (Balaklava), and under Vespasian the fort of Charax was built on Cape Ai-Todor to watch the southern coast. With interruptions, Roman troops stayed in Crimea until the middle of the 3rd century.