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NEOKESARIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
(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.
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.
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