This article is a historical commentary on the Old Persian inscription found at Phanagoria (the Taman peninsula, Russia) in 2016. One can think of four possibilities how the document appeared on the northern coast of the Black Sea: the shipping of the inscription or its fragment to Phanagoria together with other stones as ballast, the European Scythian campaign of Darius I, the expedition of Ariaramnes against the Scythians, and the erection of the stele with the inscription in Phanagoria after the capture of the city – supposedly by the Persian troops. The author rules out the first three possibilities and accepts the fourth one.

The inscription was found overlying the ruins of Phanagoria’s defensive works – destroyed by a huge fire sometime in the late first or the early second quarter of the 5th century BC. Judging from the archaeological context of the find, the inscription must have been authored by Darius’ son Xerxes. Many other cities in the North Black Sea area yield evidence of synchronous fires and devastation, which gives us ground to connect the capture of Phanagoria with the evidence from Diodorus (12.31) about certain Archaianaktidai who came to power in the Cimmerian Bosporus. They ruled for 42 years and were succeeded by Spartokos. It is reasonable to presume that this change of power was a result of Pericles’ Pontic expedition reported by Plutarch (Per. 20).

Thus the conquest of Phanagoria (along with other North Pontic cities) should be viewed in the context of the Graeco-Persian Wars.

本文是对2016年在帕纳戈里亚（俄罗斯塔曼半岛）发现的旧波斯铭文的历史评论。可以想到四种可能性，该文件如何出现在黑海北部海岸：铭文的运输或碎片与其他石块一起作为镇流器，运抵欧洲Scythian，大流士一世（Darius I）的运动，对Ariaramnes对Scythians的远征，以及在占领该城市后据推测是由波斯军队在Phanagoria上刻有碑文的石碑。作者排除了前三种可能性，并接受了第四种可能性。

碑文被发现覆盖在Phanagoria防御工事的废墟上–在公元前5世纪第一或第二季度初的某个时候被大火烧毁。从发现的考古背景来看，该铭文一定是由大流士的儿子薛西斯创作的。北黑海地区的许多其他城市也产生了同时发生大火和破坏的证据，这使我们有理由将捕获帕纳戈里亚与狄奥多罗斯（Diodorus）（12.31）的证据联系起来，即某些西米亚博斯普鲁斯人上台执政的Archaianaktidai。他们统治了42年，并由Spartokos继承。这是合理的推测，这种权力的变化是由普鲁塔克（报道伯里克利的桥体科考结果每20）。

因此，应该在希腊－波斯战争的背景下看待对帕纳戈里亚（以及其他北庞蒂克城市）的征服。