black sea

GREEK GREEK CITIES
CITIES
IN IN THE THE NORTH-WESTERN NORTH-WESTERN PONTUS PONTUS1
Dr. Dr. SERGIU SERGIU IOSIPESCU
IOSIPESCU
Senior Senior Senior Senior Senior Researcher Researcher Researcher Researcher Researcher of of of of of the the the the the Institute Institute Institute Institute Institute for for for for for Political Political Political Political Political Studies Studies Studies Studies Studies
of of of of of Defense Defense Defense Defense Defense and and and and and Military Military Military Military Military History History History History History
When the first „citizen of the world” – after
Proclos – son of river God Meles, and of nymph
Cretheis, the great Homer was telling the story of
the Trojan War and of Odysseos’s wanderings,
Greek navigators had already reached the Pontus.
The Poet knew about the Euxinos lands, the Istros
and the people in the neighborhood, or even because
of the prejudices “he shifted (…) toward the
Ocean the happenings from Pontus, thinking that
people (…) would accept them easier”. 2 However,
near the mouths of Istros is located the rocky island
Leuce (White), surnamed of the Achilles’, 3
where, later on, the sailors from Milet will build a
temple dedicated to pontarch Achille, under who’s
auspices were placed the navigation and commerce
in Pontus. 4
Through an extraordinary chance, the most
valuable geographic work of the classical antiquity
is due to a scholar from the shores of the Black
Sea, Strabon (69 B.C.-19 A.D.) of Pontic Amaseia.
Thus, the information of the illustrious geographer
about the region of the Lower Danube and Pontus
are of prime rank, his conception combining the
data of cartography with those of anthropogeography.
Strabon focused his description of the North-
Western Pontus on Istros, which had seven mouths
at that time. Sailing along the “left” (western) shore
of the Sea, the first mouth was the Sacred one,
where entering one could reach, after a floating of
120 stadia, the island Peuce. From the seventh
mouth of Istros to Tyras there were 300 stadia, on
this shore being located two lakes, one of which
being opened as a harbor, further on the river Tyras
being navigable. Between the Istros and Tyras was
the “Getic desert”, less inhabited because around
the last river were living the Tyragets. 5
According to Eratosthenes, the left bank of
Istros, around the river mouths appeared as a swam,
which gave the name of Salmydessos and those
sand banks formed in the Sea by the waste brought
by waters and named by sailors “chests”. 6 From
the Sacred mouth, Strabon enumerate the settlements
of: Istros, Milesian colony, Tomi, the town
Callatis, colony of Heracleia, then Bizone “a part
of which sunk due to earthquakes”, Crunoi, Odessos,
Milesian colony, Naulochus founded by Mesembrians
and beyond the Haemus mountains,
Mesembria, Megarian colony, and Apollonia,
Milesian creation. 7
To Strabon’s enumeration must be added, on
the Peuce branch upstream of Histria, the city
Orgame/Argamum, the first to be mentioned in a
narrative source – Europe by Hecateos of Milet
(Centuries VI-V B.C.). 8 There should be also added,
in the Christian era, the Stratonis pyrgos (Straton’s
tower) between Tomis and Callatis, Amlaidina,
Parthenopolis, and beyond Callatis, Gerania. 9
If Strabon limits his description to the Pontic
shores, another great geographer of classical antiquity
is preoccupied with the course of the Danube.
Famous in its time, the Geographical guide by
the great Alexandrian Claudius Ptolemeus from
the II nd Century A.D., based on the not less valuable
longitude and latitude calculations made by
Marinos of Tyr, comprises the succinct description
of the North-Western Pontic shore and of the
last part of the Danube. Along this river, Ptolemeus
recorded Durostorum, Transmarisca, Sucidava,
Axiopolis – downstream of which the great river
was named Istros – Carsium, Troesmis, Dinogetia,
Noviodunum, Sitioenta/Aigypsoenta, in fact
Aegyssus. From the city of Noviodunum, Istros
separated its waters, flowing into Euxinos Pontos
through numerous mouths named from North to
South: Thiagola or Psilon, Boreion, Naracion,
Pseudostomos, Kalon, Peuce or Sacred. After this
mouth it was following a promontory, Pteron, than
the cities Istros, Tomi, Callatis, Dionysopolis, promontory
Tiristis, Odessos and beyond the mouths of
the river Panysos, Mesembria. North of the
Danube’s delta, the Geographical Guide enumerates
the city of Harpis/Carpis, the village of
Hermonact, Tyras city at the mouths of the hom-
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