Listed 5 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "AMISSOS Ancient city TURKEY".
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.
A large city on the coast of Pontus, called after it Amisenus Sinus, and a favourite residence of Mithridates.
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
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