Leucon I

The cities of Theodosia and Chersonesus.

After his father's death and his ascendance to the throne, Leukon laid siege the city of Theodosia twice. The first siege ended in a Bosporan defeat due to Tynnichus, a general sent by Heraclea Pontica, to relieve the city, which he accomplished, despite inferior numbers, due to trickery.[12]

Leucon besieged Theodosia again 5 years later in a surprise attack, before the city could receive relief aid from the Heracleotes. It is possible that the Heracleotes withdrew before Leucon attacked due to a change of government from oligarchy to tyranny under Clearchus.

He was then attacked by the Heracleotes in his own territory. Leucon, noticing that his own troops could be routed easily,[13] positioned his Scythian soldiers in the rear and gave clear instructions that his men were to be struck down if they fled.[14] This precaution helped his army defeat the Heracleotes.[15] Shortly after his victory, Leucon made a peace treaty with the Heracleotes, ending the war.

Leucon then turned his eye to the Sindike Kingdom, where there had been a dynastic dispute between Hecataeus, the king of the Sindi, and his son, Octamasades who had taken power from his father. Before the Battle of Labrytai, Leucon said he “made a vow to erect a victory monument, not to the local Apollo of Labrys, but to the supreme deity and patron of all the Bosporans, Apollo the Healer”.[16] After defeating Octamasades, it is possible Leucon persuaded Hecataeus to surrender the kingship to him, as he was proclaimed "king of all the Sindike" shortly thereafter.

Probably during the last years of Leucon's reign, Heraclea Pontica may have hired Memnon of Rhodes, the famous guerrilla fighter who had fought Alexander. Heraclea Pontica sent envoys to Leucon to learn the size of his army.[17] Upon hearing that there were not many soldiers, Memnon went to battle Leucon, and used trickery to gain an easy victory against the Bosporan army. Memnon had his army march over to a hill, leaving only half of his men visible, as if to show that there was desertion amongst his troops.[18] He then dispatched a "deserter"[19] to inform the Bosporan army that there had been a mutiny in the Heracleote army.[20] The Bosporan forces marched out to Memnon's forces, believing that they had been split in half, but were defeated as in reality the army was completely intact.[21]

Leucon was well regarded by the Athenians, as the Bosporan Kingdom exported a large portion of their grain primarily to Athens. In 356 BC, when Athens could not make do on their payment because of restrictions Sparta had placed on them during the Peloponnesian War, he gave them 400,000 medinmoi (around 16,380 t)[22] free of charge. For this, Leucon was praised in Athens and was both given citizenship and statues of him and his sons erected in Athens. This policy was continued by his descendants, such as Spartocus III, who gave Athens 15,000 medimnoi of grain (ca 590 t) as a gift.[23] They would continue to follow this diplomatic friendship with the Athenians. Leucon also gave Athenian ships privileges at his ports and did not have them taxed when they docked.

Leucon died in 349 BC, after a reign of around forty years. He was at least sixty years old at the time of his death, placing his birth around 410 BC or earlier. His body is thought to have been placed in the Royal Kurgan,[24] a burial mound where the previous Bosporan rulers had been interred, on the outskirts of Panticapaeum. Leucon's actions mirrored those of his grandfather, Spartocus I, who usurped the former Greek dynasty of the Bosporan state, as well as those of his father Satyrus. Leucon's descendants ruled the Bosporus for another two centuries, until Paerisades V died during a Scythian uprising.