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Πληροφορίες για τον τόπο (131)

Κόμβοι τοπικής αυτοδιοίκησης

Greek & Roman Geography (ed. William Smith)

Amasia

ΑΜΑΣΕΙΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  Amasia (Amaseia, Amasia: Eth. Amaseus: Amasia, Amasiah, or Amasiyah), a town of Pontus, on the river Iris, or Yeshil Ermak. The origin of the city is unknown. It was at one time the residence of the princes of Pontus, and after-wards appears to have been a free city under the Romans till the time of Domitian. It is said that all the coins to the time of Domitian have only the epigraph Amaseia or Amasia, but that from this time they bear the effigy and the name of a Roman emperor. The coins from the time of Trajan bear the title Metropolis, and. it appears to have been the chief city of Pontus.
  Amasia was the birthplace of the geographer Strabo, who describes it in the following words: our city lies in a deep and extensive gorge, through which the river Iris flows; and it is wonder-fully constructed both by art and by nature, being adapted to serve the purpose both of a city and of a fort. For there is a lofty rock, steep on all sides, and descending abruptly to the river; this rock has its wall in one direction on the brink of the river, at that part where the city is connected with it; and in the other direction, the wall runs up the hill on each side to the heights; and the heights (kornphai) are twos naturally connected with one as Ptolemy another, very strongly fortified by towers; and within this enclosure are the palace and the tombs of the kings; but the heights have a very narrow neck, the ascent to which is an altitude of 5 or 6 stadia on each side as one goes up from the bank of the river and the suburbs; and from the neck to the heights there remains another ascent of a stadium, steep and capable of resisting any attack; the rock also contains (echei, not ekei) within it water-cisterns (hudreia) which an enemy cannot get possession of (anaphaireta, the true reading, not anapheretai), there being two galleries cut, one leading to the river, and the other to the neck; there are bridges over the river, one from the city to the suburb, and another from the suburb to the neighbouring country, for at the point where this bridge is the mountain terminates, which lies above the rock. This extract presents several difficulties. Groskurd, in his German version, mistakes the sense of two passages (ii. p. 499).
  Amasia has been often visited by Europeans, but the best description is by Hamilton (Researches in Asia Minor, &c. vol. i. p. 366), who gives a view of the place. He explains the remark of Strabo about the 5 or 6 stadia to mean the length of the road by which alone the summit can be reached, for owing to the steepness of the Acropolis it is necessary to ascend by a circuitous route. And this is clearly the meaning of Strabo, if we keep closely to his text. Hamilton erroneously follows Cramer (Asia Minor, vol. i. p. 302) in giving the version, the summits have on each side a very narrow neck of land; for the words on each side refer to the ascent to the neck, as Groskurd correctly understands it. Hamilton found two Hellenic towers of beautiful construction on the heights, which he considers to be the koruphai of Strabo. But the greater part of the walls now standing are Byzantine or Turkish. Indeed we learn from Procopius (de Aedif. iii. 7), that Justinian repaired this place. Hamilton observes: the kornphai were not, as I at first imagined, two distinct points connected by a narrow intermediate ridge, but one only, from which two narrow ridges extend, one to the north, and the other to the east, which last terminates abruptly close to the river. But Strabo clearly means two koruphai and he adds that they are naturally united (sumphueis). It is true that he does not say that the neck unites them. This neck is evidently a narrow ridge of steep ascent along which a. man must pass to reach the koruphai.
  The hudreia were cisterns to which there was access by galleries (suringes). Hamilton explored a passage, cut in the rock, down wa c h he descended about 300 feet, and found a small pool of clear cold water. The wall round this pool, which appeared to have been originally much deeper, was of Hellenic masonry, which he also observed in some parts of the descent. This appears to be one of the galleries mentioned by Strabo. The other gallery was cut to the neck, says Strabo, but he does not say from where. We may conclude, however, that it was cut from the koruphai to the ridge, and that the other was a continuation which led down to the well. Hamilton says: there seem to have been two of these covered passages or galleries at Amasia, one of which led from the koruphai or summits in an easterly direction to the ridge, and the other from the ridge into the rocky hill in a northerly direction. The former, however is not excavated in the rock, like the latter, but is built of masonry above ground, yet equally well concealed.
  The tombs of the kings are below the citadel to the south, five in number, three to the west, and two to the east. The steep face of the rock has been artificially smoothed. Under the three smaller tombs are considerable remains of the old Greek walls, and a square tower built in the best Hellenic style. These walls can also be traced up the hill towards the west, and are evidently those described by Strabo, as forming the peribolus or enclosure within which were the royal tombs. The front wall of an old medresseh at Amasia is built of ancient cornices, friezes, and architraves, and on three long stones which form the sides and architrave of the entrance there are fragments of Greek inscriptions deep cut in large letters. Hamilton does not mention a temple which is spoken of by one traveller of little credit.
  The territory of Amasia was well wooded, and adapted for breeding horses and other animals; and the whole of it was well suited for the habitation of man. A valley extends from the river, not very wide at first, but it afterwards grows wider, and forms the plain which Strabo calls Chiliocomon, and this was succeeded by the districts of Diacopene and Pimolisene, all of which is fertile as far as the Halys. These were the northern parts of the territory, and extended 500 stadia in length. The southern portion was much larger, and extended to Babonomon and Ximene, which district also reached to the Halys. Its width from north to south reached to Zelitis and the Great Cappadocia as far as the Trocmi. In Ximene rock salt was dug. Hamilton procured at Amasia a coin of Pimolisa, a place from which the district Pimolisene took its name, in a beautiful state of preservation. The modern town stands on both sides of the river; it has 3970 houses, all mean; it produces some silk. (London Geog. Jour. vol. x. p. 442.)

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Amisus

ΑΜΙΣΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  Amisus (Amisos: Eth. Amisenos, Amisios, Amisenus: Eski Samsun), a city of Pontus in Asia Minor, situated on the west side of the bay called Amisenus, about 900 stadia from Sinope according to Strabo. The ruins of Amisus are on a promontory about a mile and a half NNW. of the modern town. On the east side of the promontory was the old port, part of which is now filled up. The pier which defended the ancient harbour may still be traced for about 300 yards, but it is chiefly under water: it consists of very large blocks of stone. On the summit of the hill where the acropolis stood there are many remains of walls of rubble and mortar, and the ground is strewed with fragments of Roman tiles and pottery. On the south end of the brow of the hill which overlooks the harbour there are traces of the real Hellenic walls. (Hamilton, Researches in Asia Minor, vol. i. p. 290.)
   The origin of Amisus appears to be uncertain. Hecataeus (Strab. p. 553) supposed it to be the Enete of Homer (Il. ii. 852). Theopompus, quoted by Strabo, says that it was first founded by the Milesians; then settled by a Cappadocian king; and thirdly, by Athenocles and some Athenians, who changed its name to Peiraeeus. But Scymnus of Chios (Fr. v. 101) calls it a colony of Phocaea, and of prior date to Heracleia, which was probably founded about B.C. 559. Raoul-Rochette concludes, but there seems no reason for his conclusion, that this settlement by Phocaea was posterior to the Milesian settlement. (Histoire des Colonies Grecques, vol. iii. p. 334.) However this may be, Amisus became the most flourishing Greek settlement on the north coast of the Euxine after Sinope. The time when the Athenian settlement was made is uncertain. Cramer concludes that, because Amisus is not mentioned by Herodotus or Xenophon, the date of the Athenian settlement is posterior to the time of the Anabasis; a conclusion which is by no means necessary. Plutarch (Lucull. 19) says that it was settled by the Athenians at the time of their greatest power, and when they were masters of the sea. The place lost the name of Peiraeeus, and became a rich trading town under the kings of Pontus. Mithridates Eupator made Amisus his residence alternately with Sinope, and he added a part to the town, which was called Eupatoria (Appian. Mithrid. 78), but it was separated from the rest by a wall, and probably contained a different population from that of old Amisus. This new quarter contained the residence of the king. The strength of the place was proved by the resistance which it made to the Roman commander L. Lucullus (B.C. 71) in the Mithridatic war. (Plut. Lucull. 15, &c.) The grammarian Tyrannio was one of those who fell into the hands of Lucullus when the place was captured.
   Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates, subsequently crossed over to Amisus from Bosporus, and Amisus was again taken and cruelly dealt with. (Dion Cass. xlii. 46.) The dictator Caesar defeated Pharnaces in a battle near Zeleia (Appian. B.C. ii. 91), and restored the place to freedom. M. Antonius, says Strabo, gave it to kings ; but it was again rescued from a tyrant Straton, and made free, after the battle of Actium, by Augustus Caesar; and now, adds Strabo, it is well ordered. Strabo does not state the name of the king to whom Antonius gave Amisus. It has been assumed that it was Polemon I., who had the kingdom of Pontus at least as early as B.C. 36. It does not appear who Straton was. The fact of Amisus being a free city under the empire appears from the epigraph on a coin of the city, and from a letter of the younger Pliny to Trajan, in which he calls it libera et foederata, and speaks of it as having its own laws by the favour of Trajan.
  Amisus, in Strabo's time, possessed a good territory, which included Themiscyra, the dwelling-place of the Amazons, and Sidene.

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Bithynium

ΒΙΘΥΝΙΟΝ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  Bithynium (Bithunion: Eth. Bithunieus, Bithuniates), a city in the interior of Bithynia, lying above Tins, as Strabo describes it, and possessing the country around Salon, which was a good feeding country for cattle, and noted for its cheese. (Plin. xi. 42; Steph. B. s. v. Saloneia.) Bithynium was the birthplace of Antinous, the favourite of Hadrian, as Pausanius tells us (viii. 9), who adds that Bithynium is beyond, by which he probably means east of, the river Sangarius; and he adds that the remotest ancestors of the Bithynians are Arcadians and Mantineis. If this is true, which however does not seem probable, a Greek colony settled here. Bithynium was afterwards Claudiopolis, a name which it is conjectured it first had in the time of Tiberius (Cramer, Asia Minor, vol. i. p. 210); but it is strange that Pausanias does not mention this name. Dion Cassius (lxix. 11. ed. Reimarus, and his note) speaks of it under the name of Bithynium and Claudiopolis also. It has been inferred from the words of Pausanias that Bithynium was on or near the Sangarius, but this does not appear to be a correct interpretation. Leake, however, adopts it (Asia Minor, p. 309); and he concludes from the dubious evidence of Pausanias that, having been originally a Greek colony, it was probably not far from the mouth of the Sangarius. But this is quite inconsistent with Strabo, who places it in the interior; as Pliny (v. 32) does also. It seems probable that Claudiopolis was in the basin of the Billaeus; and this seems to agree with Ptolemy's determination of Claudiopolis.

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Gangra

ΓΑΓΓΡΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΠΑΦΛΑΓΟΝΙΑ
  Gangra (Gangra: Kiengareh, Kangreh, or Changeri), a town of Paphlagonia, to the south of Mount Olgasys, and at a distance of 35 miles from Pompeiopolis, appears to have been a princely residence, for we know that Morzus or Morzeus, and afterwards Deiotarus, the last king of Paphlagonia, resided there. (Strab. xii. p. 564; comp. Liv. xxxviii. 26.) Strabo, notwithstanding this, describes it as only a small town and a garrison. According to Alexander Polyhistor (ap. Steph. B. s. v. Gangra), the town was built by a goatherd who had found one of his goats straying there; but this is probably a mere philological speculation, gangra signifying a goat in the Paphlagonian language. In the ecclesiastical writers Gangra is often mentioned as the metropolitan see of Paphlagonia. (Socrat. ii. 43; Sozom. iii. 14, and elsewhere.) The orchards of this town were celebrated for the excellence of their apples. (Athen. iii. p. 82.)

Dia

ΔΙΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  Dia (Dia: Eth. Dieus), a town of Bithynia on the Pontus. (Steph. B. s. v. Dia.) Marcian (Peripl. p. 70) places it 60 stadia east of the mouth of the Hypius, which river is between the Sangarius and Heraclea. The name in Marcian, Dias polis, may be a mistake for Diospolis, which Ptolemy has (v. 1). It seems probable that the Dia of Stephanus and this Diospolis are the same. There are some very rare coins with the epigraph Dias, which Sestini assigns to this place.

Erythini

ΕΡΥΘΙΝΟΙ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  Erythini (Eruthinoi), a place on the coast of Paphlagonia, mentioned in the Homeric poems (Il. ii. 855). It has been supposed, however, that the whole of the passage on the Paphlagonians and their towns was an interpolation of later times, and that the old poet was unacquainted with the Euxine and its coasts. (Schlegel, de Geogr. Hom. p. 135; Broska, de Geogr. Myth. p. 58.) Strabo (xi. p. 545) fixed the position of the town upon two rocks, called, from their colour, Eruthrinoi. (Comp. Anon. Peripl. p. 6.) It was situated 90 stadia E. of Amastris, and 60 stadia N. of Cromna.

Magnopolis

ΕΥΠΑΤΟΡΙΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  A town in Pontus, at the confluence of the rivers Lycus and Iris, was founded by Mithridates Eupator, who called it Eupatoria; but it was completed by Pompey the Great, who changed its name into Magnopolis (Strab. xii. p. 556). The town seems to have fallen into decay at tan early period, as it is not mentioned by any late writer. Appian (Mithrid. 78, 115) speaks of it under both names, Eupatoria and Magnopolis, and Strabo in one passage (xii. p. 560) speaks of it under the name of Megalopolis. Ruins of the place are said to exist some miles to the west of Sonnisa, at a place called Boghaz Hissan Kaleh. (Hamilton, Researches, i. p. 340.)

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Zela

ΖΗΛΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  Zela (ta Zela), a town in the interior of Pontus, on the left bank of the Iris, towards the Galatian frontier, was believed to have been erected on a mound constructed by Semiramis. (Strab.xii. p. 561, comp. pp. 512, 559.) It seems to have originally been a place consecrated to the worship of the goddess Anaitis, to whom a temple was built there by the Persians in commemoration of a victory over the Sacae. The chief priest of this temple was regarded as the sovereign of Zela and its territory (Zeletis). Notwithstanding this, however, it remained a small place until Pompey, after his victory over Mithridates, raised it to the rank of a city by increasing its population and extending its walls. Zela is celebrated in history for a victory obtained in its vicinity by Mithridates over the Romans under Triarius, and still more for the defeat of Pharnaces, about which Caesar sent to Rome the famous report Veni, Vidi, Vici. (Plin. vi. 3; Appian, Mithrid. 89; Plut. Caes. 50; Dion Cass. xlii. 47, where the place is erroneously called Zeleia; Hirt. Bell. Alex. 73, where it is called Ziela; Ptol. v. 6. § 10; Hierocl. p. 701; Steph. B. s. v.) Zela was situated at a distance of four days' journey (according to the Peut. Table 80 miles) from Tavium, and south-east of Amasia. The elevated ground on which the town was situated, and which Strabo calls the mound of Semiramis, was, according to Hirtius, a natural hill, but so shaped that it might seem to be the work of human hands. According to Hamilton (Researches, i. p. 306), is a black-coloured isolated hill rising out of the plain, and is now crowned with a Turkish fortress, which still bears the name of Zilleh.

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Heracleia Pontica

ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΑ ΠΟΝΤΙΚΗ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  Heracleia, surnamed Pontica, on the coast of Phrygia, in the country of the Mariandyni, was a colony of the Megarians, in conjunction with Tanagraeans from Boeotia. (Paus. v. 26. § 6; Justin. xvi. 3.) Strabo (xii. p. 542) erroneously calls the town a colony of Miletus. It was situated a few miles to the north of the river Lycus, and had two excellent harbours, the smaller of which was made artificially. (Xen. Anab. vi. 2. 1; Diod. xiv. 31; Arrian, Peripl. p. 15; Memnon, p. 52.) Owing to its excellent situation, the town soon rose to a high degree of prosperity, and not only reduced the Mariandyni to subjection, but acquired the supremacy of several other Greek towns in its neighbourhood; so that, at the time of its highest prosperity, it ruled over the whole territory extending from the Sangarius in the west to the Parthenius in the east. A protracted struggle between the aristocracy and the demos (Aristot. Polit. v. 5) at last obliged the inhabitants to submit to a tyrannis. In the reign of Dionysius, one of these tyrants, who was married to a relation of Darius Codomannus, Heracleia reached the zenith of its prosperity. But this state of things did not last long; for the rising power of the Bithynian princes, who tried to reduce that prosperous maritime city, and the arrival of the Galatians in Asia, who were instigated by the kings of Bithynia against Heracleia, deprived the town gradually of a considerable part of its territory. Still, however, it continued to maintain a very prominent place among the Greek colonies in those parts, until, in the war of the Romans against Mithridates, it received its death blow; for Aurelius Cotta plundered and partly destroyed the town (Memnon, c. 54). It was afterwards indeed restored, but remained a town of no importance (oppidum, Plin. vi. 1; comp. Strab. xii. p. 543; Scylax, p. 34; Ptol. v. 1. § 7; Marcian. pp. 70, 73; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. ii. 748, ad Nicand. Alex. 13; Eustath. ad Dionys. Per. 791). Heracleia, which was the birthplace of Heraclides Ponticus and his disciple Dionysius Metathemenus, still exists under the name of Herakie or Erekli. For the history of this important colony see Justin, xvi. 3-5; Polsberw, de Rebus Heracleae, Brandenburg, 1833, 8vo. (Niebuhr, Lect. on Anc. Hist. iii. pp. 113, fol.)

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Themiscyra

ΘΕΜΙΣΚΥΡΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  Themiscyra (Themiskura), a plain in the north of Pontus, about the mouths of the rivers Iris and Thermodon, was a rich and beautiful district, ever verdant, and supplying food for numberless herds of oxen and horses. It also produced great abundance of grain, especially pannick and millet; and the southern parts near the mountains furnished a variety of fruits, such as grapes, apples, pears, and nuts in such quantities that they were suffered to waste on the trees. (Strab. ii. p. 126, xii. p. 547, foll.; Aeschyl. Prom. 722; comp. Apollod. ii. 5; Apollon. Rhod. ii. 370; Plin. vi. 3, xxiv. 102.) Mythology describes this plain as the native country of the Amazons.
  A Greek town of the name of Themiscyra, at a little distance from the coast and near the mouth of the Thermodon, is mentioned as early as the time of Herodotus (iv. 86; comp. Scylax, p. 33; Paus. i. 2. § 1). Ptolemy (v. 6 § 3) is undoubtedly mistaken in placing it further west, midway between the Iris and Cape Heraclium. Scylax calls it a Greek town; but Diodorus (ii. 44) states that it was built by the founder of the kingdom of the Amazons. After the retreat of Mithridates from Cyzicus, Themiscyra was besieged by Lucullus. The inhabitants on that occasion defended themselves with great valour; and when their walls were undermined, they sent bears and other wild beasts, and even swarms of bees, against the workmen of Lucullus (Appian, Mithrid. 78). But notwithstanding their gallant defence, the town seems to have perished on that occasion, for Mela speaks of it as no longer existing (i. 19), and Strabo does not mention it at all. (Comp. Anon. Peripl. P. E. p. 11; Steph. B. s. v. Chadisia.) Some suppose that the town of Thermeh, at the mouth of the Thermodon, marks the site of ancient Themiscyra; but Hamilton (Researches, i. p. 283) justly observes that it must have been situated a little further inland. Ruins of the place do not appear to exist, for those which. Texier regards as indicating the site of Themiscyra, at a distance of two days' journey from the Halys, on the borders of Galatia, cannot possibly have belonged to it, but are in all probability the remains of Tavium.

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Cerasus

ΚΕΡΑΣΟΥΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΠΟΝΤΟΣ
  Cerasus (Kerasous: Eth. Kerasountios). The Ten Thousand, in their retreat, came to Trapezus, and leaving Trapezus, they arrive on the third day at Cerasus, an Hellenic city on the sea, a colony of the Sinopeis, in Colchis. (Xen. Anab. v. 3. 2) As there is a place called Keresoun on this coast, west of Trebizond (Trapezus), we should be inclined to. fix Cerasus there. But it is impossible that the army could have marched through a mountainous unknown country, in three days, a direct distance of 70 miles; and we may conclude that the three days is a right reading, for Diodorus (xiv. 30), who copies Xenophon here, also states the distance at three days. Hamilton found a river called Keresoun Dere Su, which he takes to be the river of Cerasus, though he did not see any ruins near the river. The Anonymous geographer places Cerasus 60 stadia east of Coralla, and 90 west of Hieron Oros (Yoros), and on a river of the same name.
  Keresoun or Kerasunt represents Pharnacia, a town which existed before the time of Mithridates the Great. Arrian's statement that Pharnacia was originally called Cerasus, and the fact of the modern name of Pharnacia resembling Cerasus, has led some modern geographers to consider the Cerasus of Xenophon the same as Pharnacia. It seems that the Cerasus of Xenophon decayed after the foundation of Pharnacia, and if the inhabitants of Cerasus were removed to Pharnacia, the new town may have had both names. Strabo indeed mentions Cotyora as a town which supplied inhabitants to Pharnacia, but his words do not exclude the supposition that other towns contributed. He speaks of Cerasus as a distinct place, a small town in the same gulf as Hermonassa; and Hermonassa is near Trapezus. This is not quite consistent with Hamilton's position of Cerasus, which is in a bay between Coralla and Hieron Oros. Pliny also (vi. 2) distinguishes Pharnacia and Cerasus; and he places Pharnacia 100 Roman miles from Trapezus, and it may be as much by the road. Ptolemy also (v. 6) has both Cerasus and Pharnacia, but wrongly placed with respect to one another, for his text makes Pharnacia east of Cerasus. Mela (i. 19) only mentions Cerasus, and he styles Cerasus and Trapezus maxime illustres; but this can hardly be the Cerasus of Xenophon, if the author's statement applies to his own time. The confusion between Cerasus and Pharnacia is made more singular by the fact of the name Keresoun being retained at Pharnacia, for which there is no explanation except in the assumption that the town was also called Cerasus, or a quarter of the town which some Cerasuntii occupied. Thus Sesamus was the name of a part of Amrastris.
  There is a story that L. Lucullus in his Mithridatic campaign sent the cherry to Italy from Cerasus, and that the fruit was so called from the place. (Amm. Marc. xxii. 8; Plin. xv. 25; and Harduin‘s note.) This was in B.C. 74; and in 120 years, says Pliny, it was carried to Britain, or in A.D. 46.

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Pharnacia

  Pharnacia (Pharnakia: Eth. Pharnakeus), an important city on the coast of Pontus Polemoniacus, was by sea 150 stadia distant from cape Zephyrium (Arrian, Peripl. Pont. Eux. p. 17; Anonym. Peripl. P. E. p. 12), but by land 24 miles. According to Pliny (vi. 4) it was 80 (180?) miles east of Amisus, and 95 or 100 miles west of Trapezus. (Comp. Tab. Peut., where it is called Carnassus for Cerasus, this latter city being confounded with Pharnacia.) It was evidently founded by one Pharnaces, probably the grandfather of Mithridates the Great; and the latter during his wars with the Romans kept his harem at Pharnacia. Its inhabitants were taken from the neighbouring Cotyura, and the town was strongly fortified. (Strab. xi. p. 548; Plut. Lucull. 18.) The place acquired great prosperity through its commerce and navigation, and through the iron-works of the Chalybes in its vicinity. (Strab. xi. pp. 549, 551.) According to Scylax (p. 33) the site of this town had previously been occupied by a Greek colony called Choerades, of which, however, nothing is known. But that he actually conceived Choerades to have occupied the site of Pharnacia, is clear from the mention of the island of Ares (Areos nesos) in connection with it, for that island is known to have been situated off Pharnacia. (Arrian and Anonym. Peripl. l. c.) Arrian is the only one who affirms that Pharnacia occupied the site of Cerasus; and although he is copied in this instance by the anonymous geographer, yet that writer afterwards correctly places Cerasus 150 stadia further east (p. 13). The error probably arose from a confusion of the names Choerades and Cerasus; but in consequence of this error, the name of Cerasus was in the middle ages transferred to Pharnacia, which hence still bears the name of Kerasunt or Kerasonde. (Comp. Hamilton, Researches, i. pp. 250, 261, foll.; Cramer, Asial Minor, i. p. 281.) Pharnacia is also mentioned by Stephanus Byz. (s. v.), several times by Strabo (ii. p. 126, xi. p. 499, xii. pp. 547, 549, 560, xiv. p. 677), and by Ptolemy (v. 6. § 5). Respecting its coins, see Eckhel (Doctr. Num. vol. iii. p. 357). Another town of the same name in Phrygia is mentioned by Stephanus Byz. (s. v.).

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Comana in Pontus

ΚΟΜΑΝΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  Comana in Pontus (Komana ta en toi Pontoi or Komana ta Pontika: Gumenek), a place in Pontus above Phanoroea, as Strabo says, who has a long notice of this place. Ptolemy (v. 6) fixes it in Pontus Galaticus, but it afterwards belonged to Pontus Polemoniacus. Justinian placed it in one of the four divisions of Armenia, which division he called the Second Armenia, as appears from one of his Novellae (Nov. 31. c. 1). The Table places Comana on a road that runs east from Tavium, but it is not possible to make much of this route. Strabo, describing the course of the river Iris, says that it flows from the country called Phanaroea, and has its sources in Pontus itself: its course is through Comana Pontica, and through the fertile plain Daximonitis to the west: it then turns to the north at Gaziura. We thus learn that it was in the upper valley of the Iris, and we know from Gregorius of Nyssa that it was near Neocaesarea (Niksar). In the book on the Alexandrine War (c. 35), a lofty range of hills, covered with forests, is said to extend from Pontic Comana to Armenia Minor, which range divides Cappadocia from Armenia. Hamilton (Researches, &c., vol. i. p. 450) discovered at a place called Gumenek on the Tocat-su, the modern name of the Iris, some remains of an ancient town, and part of a bridge apparently of Roman construction. There seems no doubt that Gumenek is the site of Comana Pontica. It is about seven miles north-east of Tocat. Pliny simply speaks of Comana as a Manteium, or the seat of an oracle (vi. 3). It is stated that it appears from inscriptions to have got the name of Hierocaesarea under the Romans (Forbiger, vol. ii. p. 428, note), the prefix Hiero or sacred, indicating the character of the place. The position of Comana made it a great mart (emporeion) for the merchants that came from Armenia.
  Comana was dedicated to the same goddess as Comana in Cappadocia, and was said to be a colony or settlement from the Cappadocian city. The religious ceremonial was nearly the same in both places, and the priests had like privileges. Under the early kings of Pontus, there were annually two great processions in honour of the goddess, on which occasions the chief priest wore a diadem, and he was next in dignity to the king. Dorylaus, the son of a sister of the Dorylaus who was an ancestor of Strabo's mother, once held the high-priesthood of Comana, which Mithridates the Great gave him. After Cn. Pompeius succeeded L. Lucullus in the command in these parts, he gave the high-priesthood to Archelaus, and he added to the lands of the temple a district of 60 stadia, by which expression Strabo probably means all the country round the temple within 60 stadia. Archelaus was sovereign of the people within these limits, and he was the owner of all the hieroduli, or temple slaves, within the city of Comana; but he had not the power of selling them. These slaves seem to have been attached to the soil. Their number was not less than 6000. This Archelaus was the son of the Archelaus who was honoured by L. Sulla and the Roman senate, as Strabo has it, and he was the friend of A. Gabinius. His father was, in fact, the best commander that Mithridates ever had. The son Archelaus, the priest, contrived to marry Berenice, the elder sister of Cleopatra, whose father, Ptolemaeus Auletes, had been driven out of Egypt; and Archelaus had a six months' reign with her. He fell in battle against Gabinius, who restored Auletes (B.C. 55). Archelaus was succeeded in the priesthood by his son Archelaus (Strabo, pp. 558, 796), but C. Julius Caesar, who came into Pontus after defeating Pharnaces, gave the priesthood to Lycomedes (Appian, Mithrid. c. 121), who received an addition of territory, as Strabo says. The author of the Alexandrine War (c. 61) says, that it was the priesthood of Comana in Cappadocia that Caesar gave to Lycomedes. It seems that he is perhaps mistaken as to the Comana, but it is clear that he means the Comana in Cappadocia. In a previous chapter (c. 35) he had spoken of Comana in Pontus. He knew that there were two places of the name; and in c. 66 it is certain, both from his description of the place, and the rest of the narrative, that he means the Cappadocian Comana. Cleon, a robber on Olympus, a friend of M. Antonius, deserted him in the war that ended in the battle of Actium, and went over to Octavianus Caesar, who made a prince and a priest of him. In addition to the priesthood of Zeus Abrettenus, Caesar gave him the rich place at Comana. But he only held this preferment one month, having died of an acute disease, brought on by excess, or the anger of the goddess, it is not certain which, though the ministers of the temple attributed it to the goddess. Within the circuit of the sacred ground (temenos) were the residences of the priest and the priestess, and among other rules for securing the purity of the place, it was forbidden to eat swine's flesh within the sacred enclosure: indeed, no pig was allowed to come within the city. The robber priest, who had been accustomed to eat swine's flesh in the forests of Olympus, broke the rule immediately on entering on his new office; and it was supposed that his speedy death was the consequence of it. (Strabo, p. 575.)
  In Strabo's time Dyteutus was high-priest of Comana. He was the son of Adiatorix, a Galatian chief, whom Octavianus Caesar exhibited in his triumphal procession after the battle of Actium. Adiatorix was guilty of the crime of having been on the side of M. Antonius; and accordingly Caesar, after his triumph, gave orders to put to death the chief, and his eldest son. But the second son persisted in declaring to the executioner that he was the eldest, and the two brothers disputed which should die. Their parents induced the elder to yield, and thus the younger died in his place. Caesar, on hearing this, rewarded the eldest son with the priesthood of Comana. Thus we have a Gaul in the list of the priests of Comana.
  Comana was populous. At the processions of the goddess, her exodoi, as Strabo calls them, there was a great concourse of people from the towns and country all around, men and women. The population was also increased by people who resided there pursuant to their vows, and made sacrifices to the goddess. The people were fond of good living, and their lands produced plenty of wine. The number of prostitutes in Comana was large, most of whom belonged to the temple. So it was, says Strabo, a kind of little Corinth, where people, merchants and others, got eased of their money.
  There are autonomous and imperial coins of Comana, with the legends Komanon and Komaneon.

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Cotyora

ΚΟΤΥΩΡΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  Cotyora (ta Kotuora: Eth. Kotuorites, Steph. B. s. v.) and Cotyorum (Plin. vi. 4), in Pontus. According to Xenophon (Anab. v. 5. § 4), a colony of Sinope, which furnished supplies for the Ten Thousand in their retreat. It was in the country of the Tibareni. The place was on the coast, and on a bay called after the town. Strabo, where the name is written in a corrupt form, speaks of it as a small place; and Arrian as a village, which was owing to the neighbouring town of Pharnacia being supplied with part of its population from it. The Maritime Itins. on this coast make the distance from Cotyora to the river Melanthius 60 stadia. Hamilton (Researches, &c. vol. i. p. 267) says: Cotyora perhaps stood on the site of Ordou, where some remains of an ancient port cut out of the solid rock are still visible. But he remarks that some writers suppose that Cotyora was on the modern bay of Pershembah, which is certainly more sheltered than Ordou, and its distance from the river Melanthius agrees better with the 60 stadia of Arrian and the anonymous Periplus, than the site of Ordou.

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


ΠΑΦΛΑΓΟΝΙΑ (Αρχαία χώρα) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  Paphlagonia (Paphlagonia: Eth. Paphlagon), a country in the north of Asia Minor, bordering in the west on Bithynia, in the east on Pontus, and in the south on Galatia, while the north is washed by the Euxine. The river Parthenius in the west divided it from Bithynia, the Halys in the east from Pontus, and Mount Olgassys in the south from Galatia. (Hecat. Fragm. 140; Scylax, p. 34; Strab. xii. pp. 544, 563; Agathem. ii. 6.) But in the case of this, as of other countries of Asia Minor, the boundaries are somewhat fluctuating. Strabo, for example, when saying that Paphlagonia also bordered on Phrygia in the south, was most probably thinking of those earlier times when the Galatians had not yet established themselves in Phrygia. Pliny (vi. 2) again includes Amisus beyond the Halys in Paphlagonia, while Mela (i. 19) regards Sinope, on the west of the Halys, as a city of Pontus. It is probable, however, that in early times the Paphlagonians occupied, besides Paphlagonia proper, a considerable tract of country on the east of the Halys, perhaps as far as Themiscyra or even Cape Iasonium (Xenoph. Anab. v. 6. § 1; Strab. xii. p. 548), and that the Halys did not become the permanent boundary until the consolidation of the kingdom of Pontus. The whole length of the country from west to east amounted to about 40 geographical miles, and its extent from north to south about 20. Paphlagonia was on the whole a some-what rough and mountainous country, Mount Olgassys sending forth its ramifications to the north, sometimes even as far as the coast of the Euxine; but the northern part nevertheless contains extensive and fertile plains. (Xenoph. Anab. v. 6. § 6, foll.; comp. Strab. xii. p. 543; Pococke, Travels, iii. p. 138.) The Olgassys is the chief mountain of Paphlagonia. Its numerous branches are not distinguished by any special names, except the Scorobas and Cytorus Its most remarkable promontories are Carambis and Syrias; its rivers, with the exception of the Halys, are but small and have short courses, as the Sesamus, Ochosbanes, Evarchus, Zalecus, and Amnias. The fertility was not the same in all parts of the country, for the northern plains were not inferior in this respect to other parts of Asia Minor, and were even rich in olive plantations (Strab. xii. p.546)) but the southern, or more mountinous parts, were rough and unproductive, though distinguished for their large forests. Paphlagonian horses were celebrated in the earliest times (Hom. II. ii. 281, foll.); the mules and antelopes (dorkades) were likewise highly prized. In some parts sheep-breeding was carried on to a considerable extent, while the chase was one of the favourite pursuits of all the Paphlagonians. (Strab. xii. p. 547; Liv. xxxviii. 18.) Stories are related by the ancients according to which fish were dug out of the earth in Paphlagonia. (Strab. xii. p. 562; Athen. viii. p. 331.) The forests in the south furnished abundance of timber, and the boxus of Mount Cotyrus was celebrated. (Theophr. H. P. iii. 15; Plin. xvi. 16; Catull. iv. 13; Val. Flacc. v. 16.) Of mineral products we hear little except that a kind of red chalk was found in abundance.
  The name Paphlagonia is derived in the legends from Paphlagon, a soil of Phineus. (Eustath. ad Hom. Il. ii. 851, ad Dion. Per. 787; Steph. B. s. v.; Const. Porph. de Them. i. 7.) Some modern antiquaries have had recourse to the Semitic languages to find the etymology and meaning of the name; but no certain results can be obtained. An, ancient name of the country is' said to have been Pylaemenia (Plin. vi. 2; Justin, xxxvii. 4), because the Paphlagonian princes pretended to be descendants of Pylaemnenes, the leader of the Paphlagonian Heneti (Hom. II. xi. 851) in the Trojan War, after whom they also called themselves Pylaemenes.
  The Paphlagonians, who are spoken of even in the Homeric poems (Ii. ii. 851, v. 577, xiii. 656, 661), appear, like the Leucosyri on that coast, to have been of Syrian origin, and therefore to have belonged to the same stock as the Cappadocians. (Herod. i. 72, ii. 104 ; Plut. Lucull. 23; Eustath. ad Dionys. Per. 72.) They widely differed in their language and manners from their Thracian and Celtic neighbours. Their language, of which Strabo (xii. p. 552) enumerates some proper names, had to some extent been adopted by the inhabitants of the eastern bank of the Halys. Their armour consisted of a peculiar kind of helmets made of wickerwork, small shields, long, spears, javelins, and daggers. (Herod. vii. 72; Xenoph. Anab. v. 2. § 28, 4. § 13.) Their cavalry was very celebrated on account of their excellent horses. (Xenoph. Anab. v. 6. § 8.) The Paphlagonians are described by the ancients as a superstitious, silly, and coarse people, though this seems to apply to the inhabitants of the interior more than to those of the coast. (Xenoph. Anab. v. 9. § 6; Aristoph. Eq. 2, 65, 102, 110; Lucian, Alex. 9. foill.) Besides the Paphlagonians proper and the Greek colonists on the coast, we hear of the Heneti and Macrones, concerning whose nationality nothing is known: they may accordingly have been subdivisions of the Paphlagonians themselves, or they may have been foreign immigrants.
  Until the time of Croesus, the country was governed by native independent princes, but that king made Paphlagonia a part of his empire. (Herod. i. 28.) On the conquest of Lydia by Cyrus, the Paphlagonians were incorporated with the Persian empire, in which they formed a part of the third satrapy. (Herod. iii. 90.) But at that great distance from the seat of the government, the satraps found it easy to assert their independence; and independent Paphlagonian kings are accordingly mentioned as early as the time of Xenophon (Anab. v. 6. § 3, 9. § 2). In the time of Alexander the Great, whose expedition did not touch those northern parts, kings of Cappadocia and Paphlagonia are still mentioned. (Arrian, Anab. ii. 4. § 1; iii. 8. § 5 ; Diod. Sic. xviii. 16.) But this independence, though it may have been merely nominal, ceased soon after, and Paphlagonia and Cappadocia fell to the share of Eumenes. (Diod. Sic. xviii. 3; Justin, xiii. 4, 16.) After Eumenes' death, it was again governed by native princes, until in the end it was incorporated with the kingdom of Pontus by Mithridates. (Arrian, ap. Phot. p. 72, ed. Bekker; Diod. Eclog. xxxi. 3: Justin, xxxvii. 1; Strab. xii. p. 540; Appian, Mithrid. 11, 12.) Mithridates, however, soon afterwards divided Paphlagonia with his neighbour Nicomedes, who made his son, under the name of Palaemenes,, king of Paphlagonia. (Justin, xxxvii. 3, 4.) After the conquest of Mithridates, the Romans united the coast districts of Paphlagonia with Bithynia, but the interior was again governed by native princes (Strab. l. c.; Appian, B.C. ii. 71; Plut. Pomp. 73); and when their race became extinct, the Romans incorporated the whole with their empire, and thence-forth Paphlagonia formed a part of the province of Galatia. (Strab. vi. p. 288, xii. pp. 541, 562.) In the new division of the empire in the fourth century, Paphlagonia became a separate province, only the easternmost part being cut off and added to Pontus. (Hierocl. pp. 695, 701.) The principal coast towns were Amastris, Erythini, Cromna, Cytorus, Aegialus, Abonitichos, Cimolis, Stephane, Potami, Armene, Sinope, and Carusa. The whole of the interior of the country was divided, according to Strabo, into nine districts, viz. Blaene, Domanetis, Pimolisene, Cimiatene, Timonitis, Gezatorigus, Marmolitis, Sanisene, and Potamia. The interior contained only few towns, such as Pompeiopolis, Gangra, and some mountain fortresses.

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Olgassys mountain

  Olgassys (Olgassus), a lofty and inaccessible mountain on the frontiers of Paphlagonia and Galatia, extending from the Halys in a south-western direction towards the Sangarius, and containing the sources of the Parthenius. The surrounding country was filled with temples erected by the Paphlagonians. (Strab. xii. p. 562.) The mountain mentioned by Ptolemy (v. 4. § 4) under the name of Ligas, Gigas, or Oligas, is probably the same as the Olgassys of Strabo. It still bears its ancient name in the corrupt form of Ulgaz, and modern travellers state that; some parts of the mountain are covered with snow nearly all the year.

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Pontus

ΠΟΝΤΟΣ (Αρχαία χώρα) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
   Pontus (Pontos), a large country in the northeast of Asia Minor, which derived its name from its being on the coast of the Pontus Euxinus, extending from the frontiers of Colchis in the east, to the river Halys in the west. In the earlier times the country does not appear to have borne any general appellation, but the various parts were designated by names derived from the different tribes by which they were inhabited. Xenophon (Anab. v. 6. § 15) is the first ancient author who uses Pontus as the name of the country. Pontus formed a long and narrow tract of coast country from the river Phasis to the Halys, but in the western part it extended somewhat further south or inland. When its limits were finally fixed, it bordered in the west on Paphlagonia, where the Halys formed the boundary ; in the South on Galatia, Cappadocia, and Armenia Minor, the Antitaurus and Mount Paryadres being the boundaries ; and in the east on Colchis and Armenia, from which it was separated by the river Phasis. Pontus thus embraced the modern pashaliks of Trebizond and Siwas. Although the country was surrounded by lofty mountains, which also sent their ramifications into Pontus itself, the plains on the coast, and especially the western parts, were extremely fertile (Strab. xii. p. 548), and produced excellent fruit, such as cherries, apples, pears, various kinds of grain, olives, timber, aconite, &c. (Strab. xii. p. 545, &c.; Theophrast. Hist. Plant. iv. 5, viii. 4, &c., ix. 16, xix. 17; Plin. xiv. 19.) The country abounded in game (Strab. xii. p. 548), and among the animals bees are especially mentioned, and honey and wax formed important articles of commerce. (Xenoph. Anab. iv. 8. § § 16, 20; Dioscor. ii. 103; Plin. xxi. 45; Strab. iii. p. 163.) The mineral wealth of the country consisted chiefly in iron (Xenoph. Anab. v. 4. § 1; Strab. xii. p. 549; Steph. B. s. v. Chalubes; Pliny vii. 57) and salt. The chief mountains of Pontus are the Paryadres and on the east of it the Scoedises, two ranges of Antitaurus, which they connect with Mount Caucasus. The Paryadres sends two branches, Lithrus and Ophlimus to the north, which form the eastern boundary of the plain of Phanaroea. Another mountain which terminates in a promontory 100 stadia to the west of Trapezus was called the Oros Hieron (Anonym. Peripl. p. 13 Apollon. Rhod. ii. 1015, with Schol.), and Teches is a mountain mentioned in the south-east of Trapezus. The promontories formed by these mountains, if we proceed from west to east, are: the Heracleium, Iasonium, and Zephyrium. These projecting headlands form the bays of Amisus and Cotyora. The mountains in the south contain the sources of numerous streams and rivers, such as the Halys, Lycastus, Chadisius, Iris, Scylax, Lycus, Thermodon, Beris, Thoaris, Oenius, Phigamus, Sidenus, Genethes, Melanthius, Pharmathenus, Hyssus, Ophis, Ascurus, Adienus, Zagatis, - Prytanis, Pyxites, Archabis, Apsarus, Acampis, Bathys, Acinasis, Isis, Mogrus, and the Phasis. The only lake in Pontus noticed by the ancients is the Stiphane Palus, in the west, north of the river Scylax.
  Pontus was inhabited by a considerable number of different tribes, whose ethnological relations are either entirely unknown or extremely obscure. The most important among them, if we proceed from west to east, are: the Leucosyri, Tibareni, Chalybes, MosynoeciI, Heptacometae, Drilae, Bechires, Byzeres, Colchi, Macrones, Mares, Taochi, and Phasiani. Some of these tribes were wild and savage to the last degree, especially those of the interior; but on the coast Greek colonies continued to be established ever since the middle of the 7th century B.C., and rose to great power and prosperity, spreading Greek culture and civilisation around them.
  As to the history of the country, tradition stated that it had been conquered by Ninus, the founder of the Assyrian empire (Diod. ii. 2); after the time of Cyrus the Great it certainly was, at least nominally, [p. 659] under the dominion of Persia (Herod. iii. 94, vii. 77, &c.), and was governed by hereditary satraps belonging to the royal family of Persia. In the time of Xenophon, the tribes of Pontus governed by native chiefs seem to have still enjoyed a high degree of independence. But in B.C. 363, in the reign of Artaxerxes II., Ariobarzanes subdued several of the Pontian tribes, and thereby laid the foundation of an independent kingdom in those parts. (Diod. xv. 90.) He was succeeded in B.C. 337 by Mithridates II., who reigned till B.C. 302, and who, by skilfully, availing himself of the circumstances of the times during the struggles among the successors of Alexander, considerably enlarged his kingdom. After him the throne was occupied by Mithridates III., from B.C. 302 to 266; Ariobarzanes III., B.C. 266 probably till 240. The chronology of this and the following kings, Mithridates IV., Pharnaces I., and Mithridates V., is very uncertain. Under Mithridates VI., from B.C. 120 to 63, the kingdom of Pontus attained the height of its extent and power, but his wars with the Romans led to its subjugation and dismemberment. Pompey, the conqueror of Mithridates, in B.C. 65 annexed the western part of Pontus as far as Ischicopolis and the frontiers of Cappadocia to Bithynia (Dion Cass. xlii. 45; Strab. xii. pp. 541, 543 ; Vell. Pat. ii. 38; Liv. Epit. 102), and gave away the remaining parts to some of the chiefs or princes in the adjoining countries. A portion of the country between the Iris and Halys was given to the Galatian Deiotarus, which was henceforth called Pontus Galaticus (Strab. xii. p. 547; Dion Cass. xli. 63, xlii. 45; Ptol. v. 6. § § 3, 9.) The Colchians tribes in the south-east of the Euxine received a king of their own in the person of Aristarchus. (Appian, Mithrid. 114; Eutrop. vi. 14.) Pharnaces II., the treacherous son of Mithridates, received the Crimea and some adjoining districts as an independent kingdom under the name of Bosporus (Appian, Mithrid. 110, &c.); and the central part, from the Iris to Pharnacia, was subsequently given by M. Antonius to Polemon, the son of Pharnaces, and was henceforth designated by the name of Pontus Polemoniacus (Ptol. v. 6. § § 4, 10; Eutrop. vii. 9; Aurel. Vict. de Caes. 15), which it retained afterwards, even when it had become incorporated with the Roman empire. The eastern part, which had likewise been ceded to Polemon, was transferred by his widow Pythodoris to king Archelaus of Cappadocia, who married her, and, was thenceforth called Pontus Cappadocius. In Pontus Polemoniacus, Pythodoris was succeeded by her son Polemon II., who resigned his kingdom into the hands of the emperor Nero (Suet. Ner. 18; Eutrop. vii. 14). Pontus was then made a Roman province, A.D. 63, under the name of Pontus Polemoniacus, the administration of which was sometimes combined with that of Galatia. In the new arrangements under Constantine, the province was again divided into two parts; the south-western one, which had borne the name of Pontus Galaticus, was called Helenopontus, in honour of the emperor's mother Helena; and the eastern portion, to which Pontus Cappadocius was added, retained the name of Pontus Polemoniacus. (Novell. xxviii. 1; Hierocl. p. 702.) Besides these provincial divisions, there also exist a number of names of smaller separate districts, such as Gazelonitis, Saramene, Themiscyra, Sidene; and in the interior Phazemonitis, Pimosene, Diacopene, Chiliocome, Daximonitis, Zeletis, Ximene, and Megalopolitis.

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Rhizus

ΡΙΖΟΥΣ (Πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  Rhizus (Pizous), a port-town of Pontus, at the mouth of the river Rhizius, about 120 stadia to the east of the river Calus, and 30 stadia west of the mouth of the Ascurus. In the time of Procopius (Bell. Goth. iv. 2) the place had risen to considerable importance, so that Justinian surrounded it with strong fortifications. The Table mentions on its site a place under the name of Reila, which is probably only a corruption of the right name, which still exists in the form of Rizeh, though the place is also called Irrish. (Comp. Procop. de Aed. iii. 4; Ptol. v. 6. § 6.)

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Sebastopolis

ΣΕΒΑΣΤΟΥΠΟΛΙΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  Sebastopolis. A town in Pontus Cappadocicus (Ptol. v. 6. § 7), which, according to the Antonine Itinerary (p. 205), was situated on a route leading from Tavium to Sebastia, and was connected by a road with Caesareia (p. 214). Pliny (vi. 3) places it in the district of Colopene, and agrees with other authorities in describing it as a small town. (Hierocl. p. 703; Novell. 31; Gregor. Nyssen. in Macrin. p. 202.) The site of this place is still uncertain, some identifying the town with Cabira, which is impossible, unless we assume Sebastopolis to be the same town as Sebaste, and others believing that it occupied the site of the modern Turchal or Turkhal.

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Amastris

ΣΗΣΑΜΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
Amastris (Eth. Amastrianos, Amastrianus: Amasra, or Amasserah), a city of Paphlagonia, on a small river of the same name. Amastris occupied a peninsula, and on each side of the isthmus was a harbour (Strab.): it was 90 stadia east of the river Parthenius. The original city seems to have been called Sesamus or Sesamum, and it is mentioned by Homer (Il. ii. 853) in conjunction with Cytorus. Stephanus (s. v. Amastris) says that it was originally called Cromna; but in another place (s. v. Kromna), where he repeats the statement, he adds, as it is said; but some say that Cromna is a small place in the territory of Amastris, which is the true account. The place derived its name Amastris from Amastris, the niece of the last Persian king Darius, who was the wife of Dionysius, tyrant of Heracleia, and after his death the wife of Lysimachus. Four places, Sesamus, Cytorus, Cromna, also mentioned in the Iliad (ii. 855), and Teion or Ties, were combined by Amastris, after her separation from Lysimachus (Memnon, ap. Phot. Cod. ccxxiv.), to form the new community of Amastris. Teion, says Strabo, soon detached itself from the community, but the rest kept together, and Sesamus was the acropolis of Amastris. From this it appears that Amastris was really a confederation or union of three places, and that Sesamus was the name of the city on the peninsula. This may explain the fact that Mela (i. 19) mentions Sesamus and Cromna as cities of Paphlagonia, and does not mention Amastris (Comp. Plin. vi. 2). There is a coin with the epigraph Sesamum. Those of Amastris have the epigraph Amastrianon.
  The territory of Amastris produced a great quantity of boxwood, which grew on Mount Cytorus. The town was taken by L. Lucullus in the Mithridatic war (Appian. Mithrid. 82). The younger Pliny, when he was governor of Bithynia and Pontus, describes Amastris, in a letter to Trajan (x. 99), as a handsome city, with a very long open place (platea), on one side of which extended what was called a river, but in fact was a filthy, pestilent, open drain. Pliny obtained the emperor's permission to cover over this sewer. On a coin of the time of Trajan, Amastris has the title Metropolis. It continued to be a town of some note to the seventh century of our era.

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Polemonium

ΣΙΔΗ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  Polemonium (Polemonion), a town on the coast of Pontus, at the mouth of the small river Sidenus, 10 stadia from Phadisane, and 130 from Cape Iasonium. (Arrian, Peripl. p. 16; Anonym. Peripl. p. 11, &c.; Ptol. v. 6. § 4; Steph. B. s. v.) Pliny (vi. 4) places the town 120 Roman miles from Amisus, which seems to be too great a distance. (Comp. Amm. Marc. xxii. 8; Hierocl, p. 702, where it is erroneously called Tolemonion; Tab. Peuting.) Neither Strabo nor any writer before him mentions this town, and it is therefore generally believed that it was built on the site of the town of Side, which is not noticed by any writer after Strabo. Its name intimates that it was founded, or at all events was named, after one Polemon, perhaps the one who was made king of that part of Pontus, about B.C. 36, by M. Antonius. It had a harbour, and seems to have in the course of time become a place of considerable importance, as the part of Pontus in which it was situated received from it the name of Pontus Polemoniacus. The town was situated on the western bank of the Sidenus, where its existence is still attested by the ruins of an octagon church, and the remains of a massive wall; but the ancient name of the place is preserved by the village of Ponleman, on the opposite side of the river. (Hamilton, Researches, vol. i. p. 270.)

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Side

  Side (Side: Eth. Sidetes), a town with a good harbour on the coast of Pamphylia, 50 stadia to the west of the river Melas, and 350 east of Attaleia. (Stud. Mar. Mag. § 214, fell.) The town was founded by Cumae in Aeolis. (Scylax, Peripl. p. 40; Strab. xiv. p. 667, comp. p. 664; Steph. B. s. v.;. Pomp. Mela, i. 15.) Arrian (Anab. i. 26), who admits the Cumaean origin of the place, relates a tradition current at Side itself, according to which the Sidetae were the most ancient colonists sent out from Cumae, but soon after their establishment in their new home forgot the Greek language, and formed a peculiar idiom for themselves, which was not understood even by the neighbouring barbarians. When Alexander appeared before Side, it surrendered and received a Macedonian garrison. In the time of Antiochus the Great, a naval engagement took place off Side between the fleet of Antiochus, commanded by Hannibal, and that of the Rhodians, in which the former was defeated. (Liv. xxxv. 13, 18, xxxvii. 23, 24.) Polybius (v. 73) states that there existed great enmity between the people of Side and Aspendus. At the time when the pirates had reached their highest power in the Mediterranean, they made Side their principal port, and used it as a market to dispose of their prisoners and booty by auction. (Strab. xiv. p. 664.) Side continued to be a town of considerable importance under the Roman emperors, and in the ultimate division of the province it became the metropolis of Pamphylia Prima. (Hierocl. p. 682; Concil. Const. ii. p. 240.) The chief divinity of this city was Athena, who is therefore seen represented on its coins, holding a pomegranate (side) in her hand. (Sestini, Num. Vet. p. 392, foil.; comp. Xenoph. Anab. i. 2. § 12; Cicero, ad Fam. iii. 6; Athen. viii. p. 350; Paus. viii. 28. § 2; Ptol. v. 5. § 2, viii. 17. § 31.) The exact site of ancient Side, which is now called Esky Adalia, as well as its remains, have been described by modern travellers. Beaufort (Karamania, p. 146, foll), who gives an excellent plan of the present condition of the place, states that the city stood on a low peninsula, and was surrounded by walls; the part facing the land was of excellent workmanship, and much of it is still perfect. There were four gates, one from the country and three from the sea. The agora, 180 feet in diameter, was surrounded by a double row of columns. One side of the square is at present occupied by the ruins of a temple and portico. The theatre appears like a lofty acropolis rising from the centre of the town, and is by far the largest and best preserved of any seen in Asia Minor. The harbour consisted of two small moles, connected with the quay and principal sea gate. At the extremity of the peninsula were two artificial harbours for larger vessels. Both are now almost filled with sand and stones, which have been borne in by the swell. The earliest coins of Side are extremely ancient; the inscriptions are in very barbarous characters, resembling the Phoenician, and the imperial coins exhibit the proud titles of lamprotate and endoxos. (Eckhel, vol. iii. pp. 44, 161; Spanheim, De Usu et Praest. Num. p. 879; Fellows, Asia Minor, p. 201; Leake, Asia Minor, p. 195, foll.)

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Sinope

ΣΙΝΩΠΗ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  Sinope (Sinope: Eth. Sinopeus), the most important of all the Greek colonies on the coast of the Euxine, was situated on a peninsula on the coast of Paphlagonia, at a distance of 700 stadia to the east of Cape Carambis (Strab. xii. p. 546; Marcian, p. 73; Eustath. ad Dion. Per. 775.) It was a very ancient place, its origin being referred to the Argonauts and to Sinope, the daughter of Asopus. (Apollon. Rhod. ii. 947; Val. Flacc. v. 108.) But the Sinopians themselves referred the foundation of their city to Autolycus, a companion of Heracles, and one of the Argonauts, to whom they paid heroic honours (Strabo). But this ancient town was small and powerless, until it received colonists from Miletus. The Milesians were in their turn dispossessed by the Cimmerians, to whom Herodotus (iv. 12) seems to assign the foundation of the city; but when the Cimmerians were driven from Asia Minor, the Ephesians (in B.C. 632) recovered possession of their colony. (Scymn. 204, foll.; Anonym. Peripl. P. E. p. 8.) The leader of the first Milesian colony is called Ambron, and the leaders of the second Cous and Critines; though this latter statement seems to be a mistake, as Eustathius and Stephanus B. (s. v.) call the founder Critius, a native of Cos. After this time Sinope soon rose to great power and prosperity. About the commencement of the Peloponnesian War the Sinopians, who were then governed by a tyrant, Timesileon, received assistance from the Athenians; and after the expulsion of the tyrant, 600 Athenian colonists were sent to Sinope (Plut. Pericl. 20). At the time of the retreat of the Ten Thousand under Xenophon, Sinope was a wealthy and flourishing city, whose dominion extended to the river Halys, and which exercised great influence over the tribes of Paphlagonia and Cappadocia, independently of its colonies of Cerasus, Cotyora, and Trapezus. It was mainly owing to the assistance of the Sinopians, that the returning Greeks were enabled to procure ships to convey them to Heracleia (Xenoph. Anab. v. 5. § 3; Arrian, Peripl. P. E. p. 17; Diod. Sic. xiv. 30, 32; Amm. Marc. xxii. 8). Strabo also acknowledges that the fleet of the Sinopians held a distinguished position among the naval powers of the Greeks; it was mistress of the Euxine as far as the entrance of the Bosporus, and divided with Byzantium the lucrative tunny fisheries in that sea. In the time of Ptolemy Soter, Sinope was governed by a prince, Scydrothemis, to whom the Egyptian king sent an embassy. (Tac. Hist. iv. 82, foll.) Its great wealth, and above all its excellent situation, excited the cupidity of the kings of Pontus. It was first assailed in B.C. 220, by Mithridates IV., the great-grandfather of Mithridates the Great. Polybius (iv. 56), who is our principal authority for this event, describes the situation of Sinope in the following manner: It is built on a peninsula, which advances out into the sea. The isthmus which connects the peninsula with the mainland is not more than 2 stadia in breadth, and is entirely barred by the city, which comes up close to it, but the remainder of the peninsula stretches out towards the sea. It is quite flat and of easy access from the town; but on the side of the sea it is precipitous all around, and dangerous for vessels, and presents very few spots fit for effecting a landing. This description is confirmed by Strabo (xii. p. 545), for he says that the city was built on the neck of the peninsula; but he adds, that the latter was girt all around with rocks hollowed out in the form of basins. At high water these basins were filled, and rendered the shore inaccessible, especially as the rocks were everywhere so pointed that it was impossible to walk on them with bare feet. The Sinopians defended themselves bravely against Mithridates, and the timely aid of the Rhodians in the end enabled them to compel the agressor to raise the siege. Pharnaces, the successor of Mithridates IV., was more successful. He attacked the city unexpectedly, and finding its inhabitants unprepared, easily overpowered it, B.C. 183. From this time Sinope became the chief town, and the residence of the kings of Pontus. (Strab. l. c.; Polyb. xxiv. 10.) Mithridates, surnamed Euergetes the successor of Pharnaces, was assassinated at Sinope in B.C. 120 (Strab. x. p. 477). His son, Mithridates the Great, was born and educated at Sinope, and did much to embellish and strengthen his birthplace: he formed a harbour on each side of the isthmus, built naval arsenals, and constructed admirable reservoirs for the tunny fisheries. After his disaster at Cyzicus, the king intrusted the command of the garrison of Sinope to Bacchides, who acted as a cruel tyrant; and Sinope, pressed both from within and from without, was at last taken by Lucullus, after a brave resistance. (Strab. l. c.; Plut. Lucull. 18; Appian, Bell. Mithr. 83; Memnon, in Phot. Cod. p. 238, ed. Bekker.) Lucullus treated the Sinopians themselves mildly, having put the Pontian garrison to the sword; and he left them in possession of all their works of art, which embellished the city, with the exception of the statue of Autolycus, a work of Sthenis, and the sphere of Billarus. (Strab. Plut. ll. cc.; Cic. pro Leg. Man. 8) Lucullus restored the city to its ancient freedom and independence. But when Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates, had been routed at Zela, Caesar took Sinope under his protection, and established Roman colonies there, as we must infer from coins bearing the inscription Col. Jul. Caes. Felix Sinope. In the time of Strabo Sinope was still a large, splendid, and well fortified city; for he describes it as surrounded by strong walls, and adorned with fine porticoes, squares, gymnasia, and other public edifices. Its commerce indeed declined, yet the tunny fisheries formed an inexhaustible source of revenue, which maintained the city in a tolerable state of prosperity. It possessed extensive suburbs, and numerous villas in its vicinity (Strab. l. c.; Plin. vi. 2). From Pliny's letter's (x. 91), it appears that the Sinopians suffered some inconvenience from the want of a good supply of water, which Pliny endeavoured to remedy by a grant from the emperor Trajan to build an aqueduct conveying water from a distance of 16 miles. In the time of Arrian and Marcian, Sinope still continued te be a flourishing town. In the middle ages it belonged to the empire of Trebizond, and fell into the hands of the Turks in A.D. 1470, in the reign of Mohammed II. Sinope is also remarkable as the birthplace of several men of eminence, such as Diogenes the Cynic, Baton, the historian of Persia, and Diphilus, the comic poet.
  Near Sinope was a small island, called Scopelus, around which large vessels were obliged to sail, before they could enter the harbour; but small craft might pass between it and the land, by which means a circuit of 40 stadia was avoided (Marcian, p. 72, &c.) The celebrated Sinopian cinnabar (Sinopike miltos, Sinopis or Sinopike ge) was not a product of the district of Sinope, but was designated by this name only because it formed one of the chief articles of trade at Sinope. (Groskurd on Strabo, vol. ii. p. 457, foil.) The imperial coins of Sinope that are known, extend from Augustus to Gallienus. (Sestini, Num. Vet. p. 63; Rasche, Lex. Num. iv. 2. p. 1105, foil.)
  Sinope, now called Sinab, is still a town of some importance, but it contains only few remains of its former magnificence. The wall across the isthmus has been built up with fragments of ancient architecture, such as columns, architraves, &c., and the same is found in several other parts of the modern town; but no distinct ruins of its temples, porticoes, or even of the great aqueduct, are to be seen. (Hamilton, Researches, vol. i. p. 306, &c.)

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Tius

ΤΙΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  Tius or Tium (Tios or Tion: Eth. Tianos), a town on the coast of Bithynia, or, according to others, belonging to Paphlagonia. It was a Greek town situated at the mouth of the river Billaeus, and seems to have belonged to Paphlagonia until Prusias annexed it to Bithynia. (Memnon, 17-19; Pomp. Mela, i. 19; Marcian, p. 70; Arrian, Peripl. P. E. p. 14; Anon. Peripl. P. E. p. 2.) In Strabo's (xii. pp. 542, 543, 565) time, Tius was only a small place but remarkable as the birthplace of Philetaerus, the founder of the royal dynasty of Pergamum. (Comp. Plin. vi. 1.) There are coins of Tius as late as the reign of Gallienus, on which the ethnic name appears as Tianoi, Teioi, and Teianoi. (Sestini, p. 71; Eckhel, ii. p. 438.)

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Trapezus

ΤΡΑΠΕΖΟΥΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  Trapezus (Trapezous: Eth. Trapezountios: now Tarabosan or Trebizond), an important city on the coast of Pontus, on the slope of a hill, 60 stadia to the east of Hermonassa, in the territory of the Macrones (Anon. Peripl. P. E. p. 13), was a colony founded by the Sinopians, who formed many establishments on this coast. (Xenoph. Anab. iv. 8. § 22; Arrian, Peripl. P. E. pp. 1, 3, 6; Scylax, p. 33.) It derived its name probably from its form, being situated on an elevated platform, as it were a table above the sea; though the town of Trapezus in Arcadia pretended to be the mother-city of Trapezus in Pontus (Paus. viii. 27. § 4). Trapezus was already a flourishing town when Xenophon arrived there on his memorable retreat; and he and his men were most hospitably treated by the Trapezuntians. (Xen. Anab. v. 5. 10) At that time the Colchians were still in possession of the territory, but it afterwards was occupied by the Macrones. The real greatness of Trapezus, however, seems to have commenced under the dominion of the Romans. Pliny (vi. 4) calls it a free city, a distinction which it had probably obtained front Pompey during his war against Mithridates. In the reign of Hadrian, when Arrian visited it, it was the most important city on the south coast of the Euxine, and Trajan had before made it the capital of Pontus Cappadocicus, and provided it with a larger and better harbour. (Arrian, Peripl. P. E. p. 17; comp. Tac. Ann. xiii. 39, Hist. iii. 47; Pomp. Mela, i. 19; Strab. vii. pp. 309, 320, xi. p. 499, xii. p. 548; Steph. B. s. v.) Henceforth it was a strongly fortified commercial town; and although in the reign of Gallienus it was sacked and burnt by the Goths (Zosim. i. 33; Eustath. ad Dion. Per. 687), it continued to be in such excellent condition, that in the reign of Justinian it required but few repairs. (Procop. de Aed. iii. 7.) From the Notitia Imperil (c. 27) we learn that Trapezus was the station of the first Pontian legion and its staff. Some centuries later a branch of the imperial house of the Comneni declared themselves independent of the Greek Empire, and made Trapezus the seat of their principality. This small principality maintained its independence even for some time after the fall of Constantinople; but being too weak to resist the overwhelming power of the Turks, it was obliged, in A.D. 1460, to submit to Mohammed II., and has ever since that time been a Turkish town. (Chalcond. ix. p. 263, foll.; Due. 45; comp. Gibbon, Decline, c. xlviii. foll.) The port of Trapezus, called Daphnus, was formed by the acropolis, which was built on a rock running out into the sea. (Anon. Peripl. P. E. p. 13.) The city of Trebizond is still one of the most flourishing commercial cities of Asia Minor, but it contains no ancient remains of any interest, as most of them belong to the period of the Lower Empire. (Tournefort, Voyage au Levant, iii., lettre 17, p. 79, foll; Fontanier, Voyages dans l'Orient, p. 17--23; Hamilton's Researches, i. p. 240.) The coins of Trapezus all belong to the imperial period, and extend from the reign of Trajan to that of Philip. (Eckhel, i. 2. p. 358; Sestini, p. 60.)

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Phazemon

ΦΑΖΗΜΩΝ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  A small town in the west of Pontus, south of Gazelonitis, and north of Amasia; it contained hot mineral springs, which, according to Hamilton (Researches, i. p. 333), are the modern baths of Cauvsa. (Strab. xii. pp. 553, 560, 561.) Pompey, after his victory over Mithridates, planted a colony there, and changed its name into Neapolis, from which the whole district was called Neapolitis, having previously been called Phazemonitis. (Strab. xii. p. 560; Steph. B. s. v. Phamizon, for thus the name is erroneously written.) Phazemon is generally supposed to correspond in situation with the modern town of Mazifun or Marsifun.

This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Phinopolis

ΦΙΝΟΠΟΛΗ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΠΟΝΤΟΣ
(Phinopolis, Ptol. iii. 11. § 4; Strab. vii. p. 319), a maritime town of Thrace, not far from the junction of the Bosporus with the [p. 601] Euxine, and close to the town of Phileae. It has been variously identified with Inimakale, Mauromolo, and Derkus. (Mela, ii. 2; Plin. iv. 11. s. 18, v. 32. s. 43.)

Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities

Amasia

ΑΜΑΣΕΙΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
The capital of the kings of Pontus, a strongly fortified city on both banks of the river Iris. It was the birthplace of Mithridates the Great and of the geographer Strabo.

Amisus

ΑΜΙΣΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
A large city on the coast of Pontus, called after it Amisenus Sinus, and a favourite residence of Mithridates.

Claudiopolis

ΒΙΘΥΝΙΟΝ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
   A city of Bithynia, previously called Bithynium. It was situated above Tium, in a district named Salone, celebrated for its excellent pastures and a cheese much esteemed at Rome. Under Theodosius it was made the capital of the province Honorias. Many years after, we learn from Anna Comnena and Leo Diaconus, who describe it as the most wealthy and flourishing city of Galatia, that it was almost totally destroyed by an earthquake, attended with vast loss of life.

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Gangra

ΓΑΓΓΡΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΠΑΦΛΑΓΟΝΙΑ
A city of Paphlagonia, near the borders of Galatia. In the time of King Deiotarus it was a royal residence, and under the Empire, the capital of Paphlagonia.

Pontus Euxinus

ΕΥΞΕΙΝΟΣ ΠΟΝΤΟΣ (Θάλασσα) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
   (Pontos Euxeinos), or simply Pontus (Pontos). Now the Black Sea. The great inland sea enclosed by Asia Minor on the south, Colchis on the east, Sarmatia on the north, and Dacia and Thracia on the west, and having no other outlet than the narrow Bosporus Thracius in its southwestern corner. Its length is about 700 miles, and its breadth varies from 400 to 160. The Argonautic legends show that the Greeks had some acquaintance with this sea at a very early period. It is said that they at first called it Axenos ("inhospitable"), from the savage character of the peoples on its coast and from the supposed terrors of its navigation, and that afterwards, on their favourite principle of euphemism (i. e. abstaining from words of evil omen), they changed its name to Euxenos (Ion. Euxeinos), "hospitable". The Greeks of Asia Minor, especially the people of Miletus, founded many colonies and commercial emporiums on its shores.

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Magnopolis

ΕΥΠΑΤΟΡΙΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
(Magnopolis) or Eupatoria Magnopolis. A city of Pontus in Asia Minor near the union of the rivers Lycus and Iris. It was begun by Mithridates Eupator and finished by Pompey the Great.

Zela

ΖΗΛΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
   (ta Zela) or Ziela. Now Zilleh; a city in the south of Pontus, not far south of Amasia. The surrounding district was called Zeletis or Zelitis. At Zela the Roman general Valerius Triarius was defeated by Mithridates; but the city is more celebrated for another great battle, that in which Iulius Caesar defeated Pharnaces, and of which he wrote his famous despatch to Rome--Veni, vidi, vici.

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Heraclea

ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΑ ΠΟΝΤΙΚΗ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
   Pontica (Herakleia Pontou). A city on the coast of Bithynia, about twelve stadia from the river Lycus. It was founded by a colony of Megareans, strengthened by some Tanagreans from Boeotia; the numbers of the former, however, so predominated that the city was in general considered as Doric. This place was famed for its naval power and its consequence among the Asiatic States. Memnon composed a history of the tyrants who reigned at Heraclea during a space of eighty-four years; but we have only now the abridgment of Photius, which is confirmed by incidental notices contained in Aristotle.

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Themiscyra

ΘΕΜΙΣΚΥΡΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
A plain on the coast of Pontus, extending east of the river Iris, beyond the Thermodon, celebrated from very ancient times as the country of the Amazons.

Cerasus

ΚΕΡΑΣΟΥΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΠΟΝΤΟΣ
   A flourishing colony of Sinope on the coast of Pontus, at the mouth of a river of the same name; chiefly celebrated as the place from which Europe obtained both the cherry and its name (cerasum). Lucullus is said to have brought back plants of the cherry-tree (kerasos) with him to Rome; but this refers probably only to some particular sorts, as the Romans seem to have had the tree much earlier. Cerasus fell into decay after the foundation of Pharnacia.

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Pharnacia

(Pharnakia). A flourishing city of Asia Minor, on the coast of Pontus, built near or actually on the site of Cerasus, probably by Pharnaces, the grandfather of Mithridates the Great.

Cytorum

ΚΥΤΩΡΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΠΑΦΛΑΓΟΝΙΑ
   (Kutoron). A city of Paphlagonia, on the coast between the promontory Carambis and Amastris. It was a Greek town of great antiquity, since Homer alludes to it (Il. ii. 853), and it is thought to have been founded by a colony of Milesians. According to Strabo, it had been a port of the inhabitants of Sinope. In its vicinity was a mountain, named Cytorus, which produced a beautifully veined species of box-tree. It is now Kidros.

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Neocaesarea

ΝΕΟΚΑΙΣΑΡΕΙΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
(Neokaisareia). A city of Pontus in Asia Minor, standing on the river Lycus. It was the native place of Gregory Thaumaturgus. The modern name is Niksar.

Paphlagonia

ΠΑΦΛΑΓΟΝΙΑ (Αρχαία χώρα) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
   A country of Asia Minor, bounded by Bithynia on the west, by Pontus on the east, by Phrygia and afterwards by Galatia on the south, and by the Euxine on the north. In the Trojan War the Paphlagonians are said to have come to the assistance of the Trojans, from the land of the Heneti, under the command of Pylaemenes. The Paphlagonians were subdued by Croesus, and afterwards formed part of the Persian Empire. Under the Romans, Paphlagonia formed part of the province of Galatia, but it was made a separate province by Constantine. The principal rivers were the Halys, the Sesamus, the Ochosbanes, the Evarchus, the Zalecus, and the Amnius. The principal cities (mostly on the coast) were Amastris, Cromna, Aegealius, Abonitichos, Cimolis, Stephane, Potami, Sinope, Pompeiopolis, and Gangra.

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Pontus

ΠΟΝΤΟΣ (Αρχαία χώρα) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
   (Pontos). The most northeasterly district of Asia Minor, along the coast of the Euxine, east of the river Halys, having originally no specific name, was spoken of as the country en Pontoi, "on the Pontus" (Euxinus), and hence acquired the name of Pontus, which is first found in Xenophon's Anabasis. The name first acquired a political importance through the foundation of a new kingdom in it, about the beginning of the fourth century B.C., by Ariobarzanes I. This kingdom reached its greatest height under Mithridates VI., who for many years carried on war with the Romans. In A.D. 62 the country was constituted by Nero a Roman province. It was divided into the three districts of Pontus Galaticus in the west, bordering on Galatia; P. Polemoniacus in the centre, so called from its capital Polemonium; and P. Cappadocius in the east, bordering on Cappadocia (Armenia Minor). Pontus was a mountainous country--wild and barren in the east, where the great chains approach the Euxine; but in the west watered by the great rivers Halys and Iris, and their tributaries, the valleys of which, [p. 1301] as well as the land along the coast, are extremely fertile. The eastern part was rich in minerals, and contained the celebrated iron mines of the Chalybes. The inhabitants of Pontus were called generically Leucosyri.

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Prusa

ΠΡΟΥΣΙΑΣ ΠΡΟΣ ΥΠΙΩ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
Some writers distinguish from this a smaller city, called P. ad Hypium or Hyppium (pros toi Hgppioi potamoi) which stood northwest of the former, and was originally called Cierus (Kieros), and belonged to the territory of Heraclea, but was conquered by Prusias, who named it after himself. It stood northwest of the former. Perhaps it is only another name for Cius.

Polemonium, Sida

ΣΙΔΗ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
(Polemonion). A city on the coast of Pontus, in Asia Minor, built by King Polemon (probably the second of the name), on the site of the older city of Side, and at the end of a deep gulf.
(Sida). The old name of Polemonium.

Sinope

ΣΙΝΩΠΗ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
   Now Sinope, Sinoub; the most important of all the Greek colonies on the shores of the Euxine, stood on the northern coast of Asia Minor, on the western headland of the great bay of which the delta of the river Halys forms the eastern headland, and a little east of the northernmost promontory of Asia Minor. It appears in history as a very early colony of the Milesians. Having been destroyed in the invasion of Asia by the Cimmerians, it was restored by a new colony from Miletus in B.C. 632, and soon became the greatest commercial city on the Euxine. Its territory, called Sinopis, extended to the banks of the Halys. It was the birthplace and residence of Mithridates the Great, who enlarged and beautified it. Shortly before the murder of Iulius Caesar it was colonized by the name of Iulia Caesarea Felix Sinope, and remained a flourishing city, though it never recovered its former importance. At the time of Constantine it had declined so much as to be ranked second to Amasia. It was the native city of the renowned cynic philosopher Diogenes, of the comic poet Diphilus, and of the historian Baton.

This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Trapezous

ΤΡΑΠΕΖΟΥΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
   Now Tarabosan, Trabezun, or Trebizond; a colony of Sinope, at almost the extreme east of the northern shore of Asia Minor. The city derived its name either from the table-like plateau on which it was built, or because emigrants from the Arcadian Trapezus took some part in its settlement. The former is the more likely statement, since there is no reason why the main body of colonists from Sinope should have given it the name of another town. After Sinope lost its independence, Trapezus belonged, first to Armenia Minor, and afterwards to the kingdom of Pontus. Under the Romans, it was made a free city, probably by Pompey, and, by Trajan, the capital of Pontus Cappadocius. Hadrian constructed a new harbour; and the city became a place of first-rate commercial importance. It was also strongly fortified. It was taken by the Goths in the reign of Valerian; but it had recovered, and was in a flourishing state at the time of Justinian, who repaired its fortifications. In the Middle Ages it was for some time the seat of a fragment of the Greek Empire, called the Empire of Trebizond.

This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Perseus Project

Amastris

ΣΗΣΑΜΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ

Perseus Project index

Amaseia

ΑΜΑΣΕΙΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
Total results on 12/4/2001: 19

Dia

ΔΙΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
Total results: 77

Herakleia Pontica, Heracleotae

ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΑ ΠΟΝΤΙΚΗ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
Total results on 4/5/2001: 7

Themiscyra

ΘΕΜΙΣΚΥΡΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
Total results on 6/6/2001: 22 for Themiscyra, 7 for Themiskyra.

Cerasus

ΚΕΡΑΣΟΥΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΠΟΝΤΟΣ
Total results on 21/9/2001: 14 for Cerasus, 12 for Pharnacia.

Kotyora

ΚΟΤΥΩΡΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
Total results on 11/5/2001: 8 for Kotyora, 5 for Cotyora.

Cromna

ΚΡΩΜΝΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΠΑΦΛΑΓΟΝΙΑ
Total results on 21/9/2001: 4

Cytorus

ΚΥΤΩΡΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΠΑΦΛΑΓΟΝΙΑ
Total results on 21/9/2001: 15

Trapezus

ΤΡΑΠΕΖΟΥΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
Total results on 19/7/2001: 42

The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites

Abonuteichos

ΑΒΟΝΥΤΕΙΧΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΑΚΤΗ ΕΥΞΕΙΝΟΥ ΠΟΝΤΟΥ
  A minor city, presumably an Ionian foundation, halfway along the inhospitable Paphlagonian shore of the Black Sea (Pontus Euxinus). It achieved full civic status in the 1st c. A.D. and adopted the name Ionopolis under Marcus Aurelius. Its only claim to fame (considerable at the time) was as the seat of the bogus oracle set up by the charlatan Alexander (Luc. Pseudomantis). Traces of ancient walls have been recorded on the acropolis, and architectural fragments are common in the town.

D. R. Wilson, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.


Amaseia

ΑΜΑΣΕΙΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  A natural fortress at the W margin of the Pontic mountains, 82 km inland as the crow flies but 136 km by road on the ancient trade route to Samsun (Amisos) formerly known as the Baghdad Road. Amaseia was capital of the Hellenistic kingdom of Pontus from its foundation ca. 300 B.C. by Mithridates I Ktistes until shortly after the fall of Sinope to Pharnakes I in 183 B.C. After that date it continued to be important to the royal house, being close to the Sanctuary of Zeus Stratios (invoked by Mithridates VI Eupator in 82 and 73 B.C.) and itself the site of memorials to the early Mithridatic kings. Amaseia was captured by Lucullus in 70 B.C., assigned a large and fertile territory in Pompey's new province of Bithynia and Pontus (64 B.C.), put in the hands of an unknown dynast by Antony, and annexed to Galatia in 3-2 B.C., becoming metropolis of the minor district Pontus Galaticus. When this was transferred to Cappadocia by Trajan and incorporated in Pontus Mediterraneus (with metropolis Neocaesarea), Amaseia retained the honorary title of metropolis. In the reorganization of Diocletian and Constantine, Amaseia became metropolis of Diospontus/Helenopontus.
  Amaseia was the birthplace of the geographer Strabo, whose proud description of it (12.561) is still one of the best. The original city grew up on a restricted site of great strength on the W bank of the Yelil Irmak (Iris fl.). At its back rises a lofty crag (Harsene Kalesi), now carrying mediaeval fortifications as well as a tower and several lengths of wall of Hellenistic date. Beneath the twin summits cliffs plunge 250 m to the river, closing off the city on both sides. At the foot of the crag a terrace retained by Hellenistic masonry marks the site of the royal palace. Rock-cut steps gave access to the fortress above and to the five "memorials" of the earlier Pontic kings, which take the form of freestanding heroa carved out of the living rock, one (that of Pharnakes I?) left unfinished. Within the fortress two rock-cut monumental stairways descend through tunnels into the heart of the crag; a third stairway, apparently unknown to Strabo, is found farther down the slope. They belong to a class of monument, probably designed for ritual use, found from Phrygia to Commagene; whatever the original purpose, those at Amaseia were used in Late Hellenistic times to obtain water in time of siege. A bridge (Alcakkopru) connected the city to its suburbs on the E bank, where the modern town lies; Roman arches support a post-Roman superstructure. About 1 km S of Amasya are remains of an aqueduct-channel beside the main road, cut into the rock of Ferhatkaya. Some 2 km downstream is the rock-cut tomb of the high priest Tes, similar in type to the royal memorials but better finished. Other rock-cut tombs are common in and around Amasya.

D. R. Wilson, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.


Amisos

ΑΜΙΣΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  An Ionian colony founded in the mid 6th c. on the S coast of the Black Sea (Pontos Euxeinos), at the terminus of the only easy route to this coast from Cappadocia. In the mid 5th c. it received cleruchs from Athens and adopted the name Peiraeus. Its democratic constitution, suppressed under Persian rule, was restored by Alexander the Great, and the name Amisos was resumed. After being incorporated in the Pontic kingdom, perhaps by Mithridates II, it was adorned and enlarged, especially by Mithridates VI Eupator, who built a walled satellite town called Eupatoria at a certain distance from the main city (to be distinguished from the inland Eupatoria refounded by Pompey as Magnopolis). Eupatoria was destroyed by Lucullus in 71 B.C. and Amisos was largely burnt and pillaged though subsequently restored by Lucullus, who freed the city and extended its territory. In the winter of 48-47 B.C. Amisos fell to Pharnakes II but only after long resistance, in recognition of which Caesar confirmed the city's freedom. A tyrant imposed by Antony ca. 36 B.C. was removed by Octavian in 31 B.C. and the grant of freedom was renewed.
  The site of the Greek, Roman, and Byzantine city (Eski Samsun) was on a massive headland NW of the modern city, bounded on two sides by the sea and cut off on the W by the ravine of the Kurtuun Irmagi. It was thus virtually a peninsula, with a fine view over the great bay between the deltas of the Kizil Irmak (Halys fl.) and Yesil Irmak (Iris fl.), and with an easily defended approach from the S. In the 19th c. the remains of walls and semicircular towers on the acropolis were reported and 2 km inland a temple with columns and relief sculpture, from which fragments were taken to adorn the residence of the governor of Samsun. Abundant surface traces of the city (architectural debris, pottery, etc.) were said to extend more than 1 km inland. Although no standing buildings survive, there are several underground cisterns, and the steep sides of the headland contain rock-cut tomb chambers. Today the ancient site is occupied by military installations, and access to the site is restricted. A large signed mosaic of Achilles and Thetis, recently discovered, is now on display in Samsun. There was no natural harbor; the city's commercial prosperity rested solely on good communications with the hinterland. The ancient anchorage lay N of the modern one, close under the headland, and was protected by two moles.

D. R. Wilson, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.


Dia, (Ancaroca)

ΔΙΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  On the Black Sea 56 km NW of Bolu is a town near which may have been the site of ancient Dia. According to ancient sources Dia was a town on the Pontos (Steph. Byz.) 60 stadia E of the mouth of the Hypios (Marcian Herakl. Epit. Peripl. Menipp. 1.8) now the Melen Deresi, and a harbor for small ships (Anon. Peripl. Pont. Eux., which also places it 60 stadia E of the Hypios). Ptolemy (5.1.2) mentions a Diospolis in Bithynia. These references have been believed to identify the same site, generally placed at or near Akcakoca. An Imperial inscription found at nearby Kepenc mentions harbor improvements to an unnamed city, and sherds from the Roman to the Turkish period have been found on a hill near the coast 3 km W of Akcakoca. Dia may have been the port for Prusias ad Hypium, ca. 30 km inland and reached from the coast by a modern road which may survive from antiquity.

T. S. Mackay, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.


Eupatoria

ΕΥΠΑΤΟΡΙΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  At the confluence of the Yesil Irmak (Iris fi.) and the Kelkit Cayi (Lycus fi.), 12 km NW of Erbaa. Founded by Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus under the name Eupatoria, and refounded as Magnopolis by Pompeius Magnus in 64 B.C. Pompey restored the city, which had been devastated by Mithridates himself in revenge for opening its gates to Lucullus in 70 B.C., and gave it a territory including the fertile plain of Talova (Phanaroia). Magnopolis then disappears from history. Presumably it was presented to Polemon I of Pontus by Mark Antony and became eclipsed by its neighbor Diospolis Sebaste, which was the capital of Polemon's successor Pythodoris.
  No significant trace remains visible. The nucleus of the city seems to have been a rocky hillock on the right bank of the Yesil Irmak shortly before the river enters its gorge to pass through the coastal mountains to the sea.

D. R. Wilson, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.


Zela

ΖΗΛΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  Some 57 km S of Amasya (Amaseia) on the old route to Sebasteia, where this was crossed by one of the Roman roads from Tavion to Neocaesarea. Under the Mithridatids Zela was a temple settlement with its own territory tilled by the temple serfs and governed by the priest of Anaitis. The Hellenized Persian cult of Anaitis, Omanos, and Anadatos was apparently established during the Persian occupation. Zela was a less important sanctuary than Comana Pontica, 67 km to the E, but it had special sanctity for making oaths. The precinct of Anaitis was defended by a wall. In Pompey's settlement of Pontus (64 B.C.) Zela, unlike Comana, received a civic constitution and a sizable territory. It was near here that Julius Caesar defeated Pharnakes II of Pontus (47 B.C.) and reported "Veni, vidi, vici." Under Antony, Zela lost the E part of its territory to Comana and temporarily reverted to its previous status as a temple domain. A generation later it was in the hands of Pythodoris of Pontus, and it remained in the Pontic kingdom until its annexation by Rome in A.D. 64-65.
  The site is a low hill rising from the fertile plain of Zile Ovasi, ca. 18 km from the Yesil Irmak (Iris fl.). Byzantine and Turkish fortifications have replaced the temple precinct of Anaitis on the summit. On the NE flank a small theater was partly carved in the living rock, partly built up in masonry or timber. Nearby is a single rock-cut tomb.

D. R. Wilson, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.


Herakleia

ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΑ ΠΟΝΤΙΚΗ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  A natural haven on the S coast of the Black Sea (Pontos Euxeinos), the first of any importance E of the Bosporus. Herakleia was a Megarian colony founded ca. 558 B.C. in Mariandynian territory on the E margin of Bithynia. It founded colonies of its own in the late 6th c. at Kallatis and Chersonnesos on the opposite shore of the Euxine, as well as emporia along the coast W towards the Bosporus. In addition, it established a small land empire by reducing the Mariandynoi to helotage and subjecting the small Greek cities of Sesamos, Tios, and Kieros. In the early 3d c. B.C. this subject territory seceded, but was restored to Herakleia ca. 278 B.C. by Nikomedes I of Bithynia. In the early 2d c. this same territory was lost to Prousias I of Bithynia, though Herakleia itself was still independent when Bithynia was annexed by Rome in 74 B.C. It proceeded to slaughter a group of Roman publicani and submitted to Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus, but was captured by Cotta and devastated in 70 B.C. In Pompey's settlement of the joint province of Bithynia-Pontus (64 B.C.), Herakleia was transferred from the Bithynian to the Pontic portion and was henceforth known as Herakleia in Pontus. A colony was established there by Julius Caesar, and the remainder of the city presented by Antony to a Galatian prince, Adiatorix, who massacred the coloni and was removed by Octavian. Under the Empire Herakleia became metropolis of the coastal cities of Pontus.
  Herakleia's mythical founder Herakles was said to have reached the underworld through a cavern on Baba Burnu (Acherousia pr.), a headland 2 km NW of Eregli. The harbor, praised by Strabo (12.542), lay close in under this headland, which protected it from NE storms. There were two moles, and the lighthouse, known from coins, presumably stood (like its modern counterpart) on the tip of Baba Burnu. The Greek city lay on the flat ground beside the harbor, with a citadel rising on the SE side. All but one short length of the walls has disappeared, as has the Roman temple seen by Ainsworth. The area of the harbor and much of the Greek city are made inaccessible by a Turkish naval base; and the citadel, similarly, by a Turkish shore battery. The modern town, on the S and W slopes of the citadel hill, contains many Roman and Byzantine inscribed and sculptured stones, but its walls are mediaeval. It is not clear whether the Roman city lay here or on the site of the original Greek colony. Farther SE another Roman temple was visited by Ainsworth and von Diest, and an aqueduct was visible to Perrot. The amphitheater (shown on coins) has not been located.

D. R. Wilson, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.


Themiskyra

ΘΕΜΙΣΚΥΡΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  A minor city in Amisene territory, in the district also called Themiskyra, ca. 60 km E of Samsun (Amisos). The district, traditionally associated with the Amazons, comprised the delta of the Yesil Irmak (Iris fl.), an alluvial plain projecting more than 15 km out into the Black Sea (Pontos Euxeinos). At the E margin of this delta is a second river, the Terme Cayi (Thermodon fl.), on which the city lay. Themiskyra was besieged (perhaps destroyed) by Lucullus (71 B.C.) and must have had walls of some strength. No trace of these is known, but the site is presumed to lie beneath modern Terme, some 5 km from the river mouth. The Thermodon was navigable in antiquity up to the city, which lay on both sides of the river.

D. R. Wilson, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.


Kerasous

ΚΕΡΑΣΟΥΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΠΟΝΤΟΣ
  A tributary colony of Sinope, on the S coast of the Black Sea (Pontos Euxeinos), in Colchian territory; visited by Xenophon and the Ten Thousand in 400 B.C. (Anab. 5.3.2). From here Lucullus took the cherry (kerasos) to Rome. The city had ceased to exist by the early 2d c. A.D., and its name was transferred to Pharnakeia.
  The site lies on the W side of Yeros Burnu (Hieron Oros), presumably at the mouth of the Kireson Deresi (Kerasous fl.), 3 km NE of Vakfikebir. No remains are known.

D. R. Wilson, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.


Pharnakeia Kerasous

  A natural fortress and harbor on the S coast of the Black Sea (Pontos Euxeinos) in the former land of the Chalybes, it stood at the terminus of a route leading over the Pontic mountains (Paryadres Mons) from Armenia Minor. It was founded in newly conquered territory ca. 180 B.C. by Pharnakes I of Pontus, using citizens transferred from Kotyora. It was annexed to Galatia with the remainder of the Pontic kingdom in A.D. 64-65. The name Kerasous was used by Pharnakeia from the early 2d c. A.D.; the original Kerasous, 110 km farther E, had by then ceased to exist.
  The city lay on a rocky promontory between two anchorages, of which the one or the other received shelter according to the direction of the wind. Some good lengths of the Hellenistic walls survive both on the summit and on the steep slopes running down to the sea.

D. R. Wilson, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.


Comana Pontica

ΚΟΜΑΝΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  Site of the temple of Ma, in the valley of the Yesil Irmak (Iris fl.), 11 km upstream from Tokat on the road to Niksar (Neocaesarea). The cult of Ma, identified with the Roman Bellona, was derived from Comana in Cappadocia, an old Hittite sanctuary. The priest of Ma ranked second to the king of Pontus and wore a diadem; the temple had 6000 serfs, including sacred prostitutes. Comana Pontica was both a trading center for goods from Armenia and a resort. In Pompey's settlement of Pontus (64 B.C.) Comana became an independent principality, and it so remained under a succession of Roman nominees until it was annexed to Pontus Galaticus in A.D. 33-34 or 34-35. Its importance as a religious center was marked by adopting the additional name Hierocaesarea in or before the reign of Titus. Comana's territory included the plains of Kazova and Tokatovasi (Dazimonitis) on the Yesil Irmak as well as Artova farther to the S. The natural center of this region is not Comana but Tokat (Dazimon), and after Comana had ceased to be a major religious site, with the triumph of Christianity, it lost its ancient local importance also.
  The actual site of Comana Pontica is a low natural hill beside the bridge called Gomenek Koprusu. The Kazova irrigation canal cuts through the edge of this hill. Eight columns of gray marble now supporting the porch of the 16th c. mosque of Ali Pasa at Tokat may well be derived from the tetrastyle temple of the goddess Ma. The Roman bridge and post-Roman buildings recorded at Comana in the 19th c. no longer survive. A number of inscribed stones from Comana are now in the museum at Tokat.

XIX. D. R. Wilson, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.


Kotyora

ΚΟΤΥΩΡΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  A tributary colony of Sinope in Tibarenian territory, on the S coast of the Black Sea (Pontos Euxeinos). The citizens were transferred to the new city of Pharnakeia, ca. 48 km farther E, by Pharnakes I of Pontus (ca. 180 B.C.). Kotyora itself declined into a small village. Traces of the port, cut in solid rock, were formerly visible at Kiraz Limani, on the N side of Ordu.

D. R. Wilson, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.


Neocaesarea

ΝΕΟΚΑΙΣΑΡΕΙΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  About 103 km inland by mountain road over the coastal range (Paryadres Mons), overlooking the plain of the Kelkit Cayi (Lycus fl.). This is probably the same site as Kabeira, a treasury and hunting lodge of Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus, where Pompey in 64 B.C. founded the city of Diospolis. This was subsequently presented by Antony to Polemon I of Pontus, whose widow and successor Pythodoris made it her capital under the name Sebaste. The later name Neocaesarea may mark a refoundation by Nero when the Pontic kingdom was annexed to Galatia in A.D. 64-65. Neocaesarea remained the chief city of the region, being metropolis first of Pontus Polemonianus and then of Pontus Mediterraneus. In Diocletian's reorganization it was metropolis of Polemoniacus.
  The site is dominated by a largely mediaeval castle, which crowns a long spur projecting S from the foothills of the Paryadres. Part of the walls may be Roman or earlier; and a rock-cut tunnel-stairway, like those at Amaseia, is certainly pre-Roman. Other mediaeval walls enclose the old Turkish town, which lies below the castle on the S, perhaps on the site of the Roman city. Earthquakes in A.D. 344 and 499 may well have destroyed most of the Roman walls and buildings.

D. R. Wilson, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.


Prusias ad Hypium

ΠΡΟΥΣΙΑΣ ΠΡΟΣ ΥΠΙΩ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  City in Bithynia 8 km N of Duzce, which lies midway between Istanbul and Ankara, and on the road from Duzce to Akcakoca on the Black Sea. It was an important city on the road from Nicomedia (Izmit) to Amastris (Amasra) in Pontos, and lay E of the Hypios river.
  The site is on a defensible hill at the foot of Mt. Hypios, and is mentioned by Pliny and Memnon. According to the latter, King Prusias I conquered Kieros and changed its name to Prusias. When the city was conquered by the Romans in 74 B.C. it consisted of four phylai; it flourished under Roman rule, and inscriptions indicate that it had 12 phylai in the 2d c. A.D. Hadrian, Caracalla, and Elagabalus visited it, and in the 4th c. it became a bishopric. Georgios, bishop of Prusias ad Hypium, was present at the Council of Nicaea, and another bishop, Olympios, attended the Council of Calchedon in 451.
  Remains are of the Roman period and Roman walls surround the site. The S and W walls and a S gate called Baltali Kapi are still standing; they incorporate many earlier inscriptions. The theater, 100 by 74 m, probably dates from the 2d c. A.D. Most of the cavea is standing, and the scaenae frons and parodoi are visible. A three-arched bridge, 10 m long, outside the walls to the W, was intact until recently, when a flood ruined the pavement. A colonnaded street runs SE from the bridge; carved entablatures, arches, pediments, pavements, and drains are still visible. Pavement mosaics, now covered, have been found S of the city outside the wall. They include scenes of Achilles and Thetis and of Orpheus with the Seasons.
  Buildings of the early Ottoman period include a bath and an aqueduct. Many inscriptions, architectural fragments, bomoi (especially the funerary bomos of an Athenian actor), and a garland sarcophagus can be seen in the museum depot. Other finds are in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, including a bust of a boy, and statues of Tyche, a philosopher, and a seated woman.

N. Firatli, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.


Sebastopolis Herakleopolis

ΣΕΒΑΣΤΟΥΠΟΛΙΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  In the upper valley of the Cekerek Irmagi (Skylax fl.) 68 km SW of Tokat, where the road from Amaseia to Sebasteia was crossed by one of the routes from Tavion to Neocaesarea. The district of Kouloupene, in which Sebastopolis lay, belonged formerly to Megalopolis. All or part of Kouloupene was probably transferred by Antony to the Galatian chieftain Ateporix, on whose death it was annexed by Rome and, according to Strabo (12.560), formed "an organization on its own the little city of those who synoecized Karana." The era of Sebastopolis (3-2 B.C.) should thus be the date at which Karanitis was annexed, while the name itself is likely to mark a refoundation by Augustus later in his reign. The additional name Herakleopolis was commonly used at least from the time of Trajan. Sulusaray contains abundant ancient stones, both inscribed and uninscribed, but the only structure visible in situ is a single arch of the Roman bridge over the Cekerek Irmagi, NW of the village.

D. R. Wilson, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.


Amastris

ΣΗΣΑΜΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
Amastris. Founded in the early 4th c. B.C. by Amastris, queen of Herakleia Pontica, by the synoecism of four small Ionian colonies on the coast E of Herakleia: (1) Tios, which soon seceded; (2) Sesamos, center of the new city, later named Amastris; (3) Kromna, 40 km to the E, on Zeytin Burnu, W of Kurucalile; and (4) Kytoros, now Gideriz, 25 km E of Kromna. Its tyrant Eumenes presented the city of Amastris to Ariobarzanes of Pontus in ca. 265-260 B.C. rather than submit it to domination by Herakleia, and it remained in the Pontic kingdom until its capture by Lucullus in 70 B.C.
  The original nucleus of the city itself was a peninsula and adjacent island (now linked by bridge) on the W side of a sheltered bay which formed the main harbor. This part of the city is covered by Genoese fortifications and the modern Turkish town. In the Roman period Amastris also extended inland over the little valley behind this bay, and the suburbs covered some of the lower hills. Roman buildings can still be traced for 1.5 km inland from the sea. The most impressive are a temple, and a warehouse 115 m long and three stories high. Other buildings, no longer visible, were recorded in the mid 19th c. The stream, "nomine quidem flumen, re vera cloaca foedissima," covered over by Pliny (Ep. 10.98), still runs beneath a Roman vault. Four ancient moles protect the main harbor. A lesser harbor W of the city provided refuge from E gales. Inscriptions and architectural fragments are housed in the municipal museum. Four km S-SW of Amasra, at Kuskaya, the Roman road from Bartin (Parthenia) runs on a rock-cut terrace, with associated inscriptions and relief sculpture.
  The site of Kromna is marked by occupation material but no surviving buildings. Construction of the harbor offices at Kurucasile revealed columns which now adorn the administrative buildings at Bartin. At Kytoros the remains of impressive harbor buildings used to be indicated by columns along the seashore.

D. R. Wilson, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.


Polemonion

ΣΙΔΗ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  Founded by Polemon I or (less probably) by Polemon II of Pontus in Sidene, a coastal district formerly belonging to Amisos, at the mouth of the Bolaman Irmagi (Sidenus fl.). Polemonion lay at the center of communications of the kingdom of Polemon I, being linked by sea with Pharnakeia and Trapezous and by road with Diospolis. A second inland route, leading to Armenia Minor, may have become important during the reign of Pythodoris, whose possessions included Armenia Minor. After Rome's annexation of the Pontic kingdom in A.D. 64-65 Polemonion ceased to have more than local importance. Only Byzantine remains have been recorded. It had a port 3 km W of the city at Fatsa (Phadissa or Phadisane), where there is an exposed anchorage.

D. R. Wilson, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.


Sinope

ΣΙΝΩΠΗ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  City on the isthmus of a peninsula in the middle of the S coast of the Black Sea, W of the mouth of the Halys, the earliest colony that Miletos founded in the Pontos (Xen., An. 6.1.15; Diod. 14.31.2; Strab. 12.545). Eusebios (Chron. 2.88-89) records that Sinope was twice colonized, in 756 and 630 B.C., but 8th c. Greek colonization in the Pontos is unlikely. The oldest find is an aryballos of Middle Corinthian type of the beginning of the 6th c. or ca. 600 B.C. at the earliest, suggesting that the second date, 630 B.C., may be accepted. Excavations in other Greek cities of the Pontos, such as Olbia (Borysthenes), Istria, and Apollonia Pontica, have yielded nothing earlier than the last quarter of the 7th c., and it has also been pointed out that the Greeks were first in a position to colonize the Black Sea about 700, when they began to build triremes.
  The excavations also yielded Phrygian vases of the late type, dating from the second quarter of the 6th c., indicating that when the Greeks came to Sinope they found native peoples (Paphlagonians?) at least partly mixed with Phrygians. There is, however, no evidence of Assyrian colonization (Ps. Skymnos 94ff) or Kimmerian occupation (Hdt. 4.12).
  A large number of 6th-4th c. Greek vases from the necropolis are now in the museums of Ankara, Kastamonu, and Sinop, and much of the Achaemenid metalwork on the black market seems to have come from there. Late archaic gravestones have also been found, and the remains of a Hellenistic temple with altar and surrounding colonnades.
  Sinope flourished as the port of a caravan route (Hdt. 1.72; 2.34) between the Euphrates and the Black Sea from the 6th to the 4th c., and issued its own coinage as early as the 6th c. Kotyora, Kerasos, and Trapezos were its colonies, and among its exports was red sulfate of arsenic from Cappadocia, called Sinopic red earth (Miltos Sinopike). It escaped Persian domination until the early 4th c., and in 183 B.C. it was captured by Pharnakes I and became capital of the Pontic kingdom. It was conquered by Lucullus in 70 B.C., and Julius Caesar established a Roman colony, Colonia Julia Felix, in 47. Mithradates Eupator was born and buried here, and it was the birthplace of Diogenes, of Diphilos, poet and actor of the New Attic comedy, and of the historian Baton.

E. Akurgal, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.


Tios

ΤΙΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  City in Pontos or Bithynia, 23 km NE of Zonguldak. A Milesian colony at the mouth of the Filyos Cayi, the ancient Billaios. In the mid 4th c. Tios was a dependency of its neighbor Herakleia, and was later incorporated by Amastris in the city which she founded under her own name. Following a period of independence after 280 B.C. Tios was restored to Herakleia by Nikomedes of Bithynia. In 189 B.C. it was given to Eumenes of Pergamon, and after some further vicissitudes was captured by Mithridates VI (Strab. 541). Under Pompey's settlement of the region Tios seems to have acquired some measure of autonomy. The coinage begins in the 4th c. B.C. and extends to the 3d c. A.D.
  Although Strabo (543) regarded Tios as an undistinguished town, its ruins are considerable; they date, however, after Strabo's time and at present are much overgrown. The acropolis, the original place of settlement, is on a headland N of the site; it carries a mediaeval fortification based on ancient defense lines; two Hellenic towers are recognizable. The inhabited town lay below the acropolis on the S; in the hillside facing W is the theater, judged in the late 19th c. to be among the best preserved in Asia Minor. Today this cannot be said, but parts of the cavea and stage building can still be made out among the dense overgrowth. To the S of the theater are the ruins of a rectangular building of regular ashlar, parts of which still stand to a considerable height. Other buildings include one with apse and peristyle, in regular bossed ashlar, with numerous doors. A fragment of an aqueduct, with three or four arches remaining, extends towards the shore, where some traces of the ancient harbor are visible. The necropolis spread over the NE slope of the acropolis; the finds were chiefly much damaged sarcophagi.

G. E. Bean, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.


Trapezous

ΤΡΑΠΕΖΟΥΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
  On the S coast of the Black Sea (Pontos Euxeinos), it was the N terminus of a trade route leading over the Zigana Pass from Armenia and the Euphrates, and the first Greek city to be reached by the Ten Thousand in 400 B.C. (Xen. Anab. 5.5.10). The foundation date given by Eusebius, 756-755 B.C., may refer to an early emporium in Colchian territory; if so, this was subsequently refounded (after 630 B.C.?) by Sinope, to whom Trapezous paid annual tribute. The city was added to the Pontic kingdom by Mithridates VI Eupator, and under Polemon II, if not before, it became the depot of the royal fleet. When the kingdom was annexed to Galatia as Pontus Polemonianus (A.D. 64-65), Polemon's fleet became the nucleus of the Roman classis Pontica, and Trapezous assumed increasing importance as a supply port for the Euphrates frontier. It was, nevertheless, still a harborless roadstead when visited by Hadrian (ca. A.D. 131), and it was described by Arrian at that period as culturally backward (Perip.P.E. 1.2 Roos). A harbor was built by Hadrian. The city was sacked by the Goths ca. A.D. 257 and was slow to recover. Legio I Pontica was based there in the Late Empire. The Byzantine period saw the old trade route regain importance, and in the 8th- 10th c. Trapezous was a major commercial center. The Empire of Trebizond, established 1204, fell to the Turks in 1461.
  The walled city, on a coastal ridge at the foot of the Pontic mountains (Paryadres Mons), is cut off on E and W by two parallel steep-sided ravines. Some sectors of the walls rest on Hellenistic masonry, but most of the fabric is Byzantine. Below the citadel two moles of large undressed blocks are the only traces of Hadrian's harbor. In a suburb E of the citadel and S of the modern harbor the Church of Panaghia Theoskepastos occupies the site of a probable mithraeum.

D. R. Wilson, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.


Καθολική Εγκυκλοπαίδεια

Ionopolis

ΑΒΟΝΥΤΕΙΧΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΑΚΤΗ ΕΥΞΕΙΝΟΥ ΠΟΝΤΟΥ
  A titular see in the province of Paphlagonia, suffragan of Gangres. The city was founded by a colony from Miletus already established at Sinope, and at first took the name of Abonouteichos.
  There, in the second century A.D., was born the false prophet Alexander, who caused the erection of a large temple to Apollo, and thus secured rich revenues. The city was afterwards called Ionopolis.
  Le Quien mentions eight bishops between 325 and 878; it had others since then, for the see is mentioned in the later “Notitiae episcopatuum.” Ionopolis, to-day called Ineboli, is a Black Sea port, numbering 9000 inhabitants, 1650 of whom are Greek schismatics, and 230 Armenians; all the remainder are Turks. It is a caza of the sanjak and the vilayet of Castamouni, and enjoys a very healthy and pleasant climate.

S. Vailhe, ed.
Transcribed by: John Fobian
This text is cited June 2003 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.


Amisus

ΑΜΙΣΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ

Claudiopolis

ΒΙΘΥΝΙΟΝ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ

Ibora (Gaziura)

ΓΚΑΖΙΟΥΡΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
A titular see in the Province of Helenopont, suffragan of Amasia. The primitive name of the city was Gaziura, formerly a royal city, mentioned by Strabo as deserted (XII, xv: Dion Cassius, xxxv, 12). In fact a Greek inscription, which dates from the time of Mithridates of Pontus, has been discovered on the rock of the fortress; a subterranean gallery, hewn from the rock, descends to the interior of the mountain and served perhaps as a secret depository for the royal treasures. Evagrius Ponticus, the famous Origenist ascetic of the fourth century, was a native of Ibora (Sozomen, "Hist. Eccl.," VI, xxx); situated not far from it was Annesi, the property of St. Basil, who led a religious life on the bank of the river Iris with his friend St. Gregory and his sister Macrina. There is frequent mention in the correspondence of these two saints of Ibora, which, according to Procopius (Historia Arcana, xviii), was destroyed by an earthquake in the sixth century. Le Quien (Oriens Christ., I, 533) mentions seven bishops of Ibora, from the fourth to the ninth century. The bishopric still existed about the year 1170 under Manuel Comnenus (Parthey, "Hieroclis Synecdemus," 108). To-day Ibora is called Turkhal; it is a caza in the sanjak of Tokat, in the vilayet of Sivas. The village numbers 3000 inhabitants, all Turks. It is surrounded by beautiful gardens and orchards. Nearby is the Lake of Turkhal, three to three and a half miles in circumference.

Thomas J. Shahan, ed.
Transcribed by: S. Vailhe
This text is cited Dec 2005 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.


Zela

ΖΗΛΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ

Ibora

ΙΒΟΡΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ

Ionopolis

ΙΩΝΟΠΟΛΙΣ (Πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
A titular see in the province of Paphlagonia, suffragan of Gangres. The city was founded by a colony from Miletus already established at Sinope, and at first took the name of Abonouteichos. There, in the second century A.D., was born the false prophet Alexander, who caused the erection of a large temple to Apollo, and thus secured rich revenues. The city was afterwards called Ionopolis. Le Quien (Oriens Christ., I, 555) mentions eight bishops between 325 and 878; it had others since then, for the see is mentioned in the later "Notitiae episcopatuum." Ionopolis, to-day called Ineboli, is a Black Sea port, numbering 9000 inhabitants, 1650 of whom are Greek schismatics, and 230 Armenians; all the remainder are Turks. It is a caza of the sanjak and the vilayet of Castamouni, and enjoys a very healthy and pleasant climate.

S. Vailhe, ed.

This text is cited July 2004 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.


Cerasus

ΚΕΡΑΣΟΥΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΠΟΝΤΟΣ

Neocaesarea

ΝΕΟΚΑΙΣΑΡΕΙΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ

Pompeiopolis

ΠΟΜΠΗΪΟΠΟΛΙΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ

Πόντος

ΠΟΝΤΟΣ (Αρχαία χώρα) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ

Rhizus

ΡΙΖΑΙΟΝ (Αρχαίο λιμάνι) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ

Amastris

ΣΗΣΑΜΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ
Amastris (Now Amasserah or Samastro) . A titular see of Paphlagonia in Asia Minor, on a peninsula jutting into the Black Sea. Its episcopal list dates from the third century. It is mentioned by Homer (Iliad, II, 853), was a flourishing town in the time of Trajan (98-117), and was of some importance until the seventh century of our era.

Sora

ΣΟΡΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΠΑΦΛΑΓΟΝΙΑ

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