A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

2. A man of high rank in the kingdom of the Bosporus. He first occurs in history as a general of Pharnaces H. of the Bosporus, whose sister Dynamnis was the wife of Asander. In B. C. 47, he revolted against his brother-in-law who had appointed him regent of his kingdom during his war against Cn. Domitius Calvinus. Asander hoped by thus deserting his brother-in-law to win the favour of the Romans, and with their assistance to obtain the kingdom for himself. When, therefore, Pharnaces was defeated by the Romans and took refuge in his own dominions, Asander had him put to death. Asander now usurped the throne, but was unable to maintain himself upon it, for Julius Caesar commanded Mithridates of Pergamus, on whom he conferred the title of king of the Bosporus, to make war upon Asander. (D. C. 42.46_48, 54.24; Appian, Mithruid. 120; Caesar, de Bello Alex. 78.) The results of this undertaking are not mentioned, but if we may believe the authority of Lucian (Macrob. 17) Asander was deprived of his kingdom and afterwards restored by Augustus. He died of voluntary starvation at the advanced age of ninety-three, from

despair at seeing his troops desert to Scribonius. Strabo (vii. p.311) speaks of a wall or a ditch which Asander constructed across the Isthmus of the Crimea, of 360 stadia in length, to protect the peninsula against the incursions of the nomadic tribes. (Mannert, Geogr. der Griech. u. Röm. iv. p. 293.) [L. S.]