Listed 5 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "AMASSIA Ancient city TURKEY" .
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
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.
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.
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