PITYUS
PITYUS (
Πιτυοῦς:
Pitsunda), a Greek town in Asiatic Sarmatia, on the north-eastern coast of the
Black Sea, N. of Dioscurias, from which it was distant 360 stadia according to Artemidorus, and 350 according to Arrian.
The real distance, however, is underrated by these writers; for from
C. Iskuria (Dioscurias) to
Pitsunda is not less than 400 stadia in a straight line. (Artemidor.ap.
Strab. xi. p.496; Arrian,
Per. P. Eux. p. 18.) Artemidorus described it as the great Pityus, and Pliny as an “oppidum opulentissimum;” but between the time of Artemidorus and Pliny it was destroyed by the Heniochi (
Plin. Nat. 6.5), whence Arrian mentions it only as a place for anchorage, and the name does not occur at all in Ptolemy.
The town was after-wards rebuilt by the Romans, and is described by Zosimus (1.32), in the history of Gallienus, as a fortress surrounded with a very great wall, and having a most excellent harbour. (Comp. Procop.
B. Goth. iv. p. 473, ed. Bonn; comp. C. Muller,
ad Arrian. l.c. ap. Geogr. Graec. Min. vol. i. p. 392.)
