Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Pontus

​PONTUS was the name given in ancient times to an extensive tract of country in the north-east of Asia Minor, bordering on Armenia and Colchis (see vol. xv. Plate II.). It was not, like most of the divisions of Asia, a national appellation, but a purely territorial one, derived from its proximity to the Euxine, often called simply Pontus by the Greeks. Originally it formed part of the extensive region of Cappadocia, which in early ages extended from the borders of Cilicia to the Euxine; but afterwards it came to be divided into two satrapies or governments, of which the northernmost came to be distinguished as “Cappadocia on the Pontus,” and thence simply as “Pontus.” The term is not, however, found either in Herodotus or Xenophon, though the latter traversed a considerable part of the region, and it is probable that it did not come into general use until after the time of Alexander the Great. Under the Persian empire the province continued to be governed by a satrap, nominally subject to the great king, but apparently enjoying virtual independence, as no ​mention occurs in Xenophon of the Persian authorities in this part of Asia. The first of these local satraps who assumed the title of king was Ariobarzanes, about the beginning of the 4th century B.C., who was reckoned the founder of the dynasty ; but its history as an independent monarchy really begins with Mithradates II., who commenced his reign in 337 B.C. From this time Pontus continued to be ruled by a succession of kings of the same dynasty, mostly bearing the name of Mithradates, whose independence was respected by the Macedonian sovereigns of Asia, and who were able gradually to extend their power along the shores of the Euxine. The capture of the important city of Sinope by Pharnaces I. (about 183 B.C.) led to the extension of their frontier to that of Bithynia ; while under Mithradates VI., commonly known as the Great, their dominion for a time comprised a large part of Asia Minor. The history of the reign of that monarch and his wars with the Romans will be found under the heading Mithradates. After his final defeat by Pompey in 65 B.C., Pontus was again confined within its original limits, but was united with Bithynia as a Roman province, and this union generally continued to subsist, though not without interruption, under the Roman empire. A portion of the original dominion of the kings of Pontus was, however, separated from the rest by Antony in 36 B.C., and placed under the government of a Greek rhetorician named Polemon, whose descendants continued to rule it till the reign of Nero, when it was finally annexed to the Roman empire (63 A.D.). Hence this part of the country came to be known as Pontus Polemoniacus, by which epithet it was still distinguished as a Roman province. The interior district in the south-west, adjoining Galatia, hence came to be known as Pontus Galaticus.

Pontus, in the proper sense of the term, as defined by Strabo, who was himself a native of the country, was bounded by the river Halys on the west, and by Colchis and the Lesser Armenia on the east. Its exact frontier in this direction is not specified, but it may be taken as extending as far as the mouth of the river Acampsis. The region thus limited may be considered as divided into two portions, differing much in their physical characters. The western half presents considerable plains and upland tracts in the interior, stretching away till they join the still more extensive uplands of Cappadocia and Galatia. Besides the great river Halys that forms its boundary on the west, this region is traversed by the river Iris, and its tributary the Lycus, both of which have their rise in the highlands on the frontiers of Armenia, and are very con siderable streams, flowing through fertile valleys. The Thermodon, which enters the Euxine a little to the east of the Iris, is a much less important stream, though cele brated from its connexion with the fable of the Amazons. On the other hand the eastern portion of Pontus, between Armenia and the Euxine, is throughout a very rugged and mountainous country, furrowed by deep valleys descending from the inland range of mountains, known to the ancients as Paryadres, which has a direction nearly parallel to the sea-coast, and is continued to the frontiers of Colchis under the name of Scydises and various other appellations. These mountains have in all ages been almost inaccessible, and even in the time of Strabo were inhabited by wild tribes who had never been really reduced to subjection by any government. But the coast from Trebizond westward is one of the most beautiful parts of Asia Minor, and is justly extolled by Strabo for its wonderful productiveness in fruits of every description.

The population of the greater part of Pontus was undoubtedly of the same race with that of Cappadocia, of which it originally formed a part, and was therefore clearly of Semitic origin.^[1] Both nations were frequently comprised by the Greeks under the term Leucosyri or White Syrians. But the rugged mountain districts in the north-east, towards the frontiers of Colchis and Armenia, were occupied by a number of semi-barbarous tribes, of whose ethnical relations we are wholly ignorant. Such were the Chaldyeans or Chalybes (identified by the Greeks with the people of that name mentioned by Homer), the Tibareni, the Mosynoeci, and the Macrones. Some light is thrown on the manners and condition of these people by Xenophon, who traversed their country on his march from Trapezus to Cotyora (Anab., v.) but we have otherwise hardly any information concerning them.

The sea-coast of Pontus, like the rest of the south shore of the Euxine, was from an early period studded with Greek colonies, most of them of Milesian origin, though in many cases deriving their settlement directly from Sinope, itself a colony of Miletus. Next to that city, between the mouth of the Halys and that of the Iris, stood Amisus, originally a colony direct from Miletus, but which subsequently received a body of Athenian settlers. It was one of the most flourishing of the Greek colonies on this coast, and is still a considerable town under the name of Samsun. Proceeding eastward from thence, we find Side, called in later times Polemonium; Cotyora, a colony of Sinope, where Xenophon embarked with the ten thousand Greeks ; Cerasus, afterwards named Pharnacia; and Trapezus, also a colony of Sinope, which was a flourishing and important town in the days of Xenophon, but did not attain till a later period to the paramount position which it occupied under the Roman and Byzantine empire, and which it still retains under the name of Trebizond (q.v.).

But, besides these Greek settlements, there were in the interior of Pontus several cities of considerable importance, which were of native origin, though they had gradually received a certain amount of Greek culture. The principal of these were Amasia, on the river Iris, the birth-place of Strabo, which was made the capital of his kingdom by Mithradates the Great, but had previously been the burial-place of the earlier kings, whose tombs are still extant, and have been described by Hamilton and other travellers ; Comana, higher up the valley of the same river, which, like the place of the same name in Cappadocia, was consecrated to a native goddess named Ma, identified by Strabo with the Greek Enyo, and derived great celebrity from its sacred character, having a large fixed population under the direct government of the priests, besides being the resort of thousands of pilgrims; Zela, nearer the frontier of Galatia, which was in like manner consecrated to a goddess named Anaitis ; and Cabira, in the valley of the Lycus, afterwards called Neocassarea, a name still retained in the abbreviated form of the modern Niksar. Several smaller towns are mentioned by Strabo as giving name to the surrounding districts, of which he has left us the names of not less than fifteen ; but these obscure appellations of local divisions are in themselves of little interest, and for the most part not mentioned by any other writer.  (E. H. B.)