Bosporus in the orbit of amicitia: Roman diplomacy after the death of Mithridates VI Eupator

The article is devoted to the analysis of Roman foreign-policy amicitia in the Bosporan Kingdom in the 1st century BC. The author shows that amicitia in the Roman understanding represented not so much personal as socio-political and diplomatic ties based on mutual benefit, obligations, and moral categories such as fides, benevolentia, and gratia. Particular attention is given to the figures of Machares and Pharnaces, the sons of Mithridates VI Eupator, who were the first to establish friendly relations with Rome and to receive the status of amici. Using their reigns as an example, the article demonstrates how the Bosporan Kingdom, while not being a Roman province, was nevertheless integrated into the orbit of pax Romana through the practice of diplomatic friendship. The mechanisms of building friendship are traced through embassies, the exchange of gifts, beneficium and the display of fides. As a result, the author shows that amicitia became an important instrument for integrating the periphery into the sphere of Roman influence without requiring its formal incorporation into the provincial system, and played a key role in forming a stable model of interaction between Rome and the Bosporan Kingdom from the 1st century BC to Late Antiquity.