Sestertius - Sauromates I

Sauromates I ruled the Bosporan Kingdom as a client king under Roman authority, and his coinage reflects that dependency directly — issues from his reign are among the earliest Bosporan bronzes to carry explicit Roman imperial portraits alongside the local dynast, a practice that formalized the kingdom's subordinate relationship with Rome under Domitian and then Trajan. The Bosporan Kingdom controlled the Cimmerian Bosporus and the grain trade routes feeding the Roman Black Sea frontier, making these client rulers politically indispensable.

RPC III 832 places this issue firmly within the Trajanic opening years of Sauromates' reign.