Trapezūs
(
Τραπεζοῦς).
1.
A city of Arcadia, on the Alpheus, the name of which was mythically derived from the
τράπεζα, or altar, on which Lycaon was said to have offered
human sacrifices to Zeus. At the time of the building of Megalopolis, the inhabitants of
Trapezus, as was alleged, rather than be transferred to the new city, migrated to the shores
of the Euxine, and their city fell to ruin (
Paus.viii.3.2;
Apollod. iii.8.1;
Herod.vi. 127).
2.
Now Tarabosan, Trabezun, or Trebizond); a colony of Sinopé, at almost the
extreme east of the northern shore of Asia Minor. The city derived its name either from the
table-like plateau on which it was built, or because emigrants from the Arcadian Trapezus
took some part in its settlement (
Paus.xiii.27.4). The former
is the more likely statement, since there is no reason why the main body of colonists from
Sinopé should have given it the name of another town. After Sinopé lost
its independence, Trapezus belonged, first to Armenia Minor, and afterwards to the kingdom of
Pontus. Under the Romans, it was made a free city, probably by Pompey, and, by Trajan, the
capital of Pontus Cappadocius. Hadrian constructed a new harbour; and the city became a place
of first-rate commercial importance. It was also strongly fortified. It was taken by the
Goths in the reign of Valerian; but it had recovered, and was in a flourishing state at the
time of Justinian, who repaired its fortifications (
Procop.
Aed. iii. 7). In the Middle Ages it was for some time the seat of a
fragment of the Greek Empire, called the Empire of Trebizond.