AMISOS
(Samsun) Pontus, 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 Kürtüun Irmaği. It was
thus virtually a peninsula, with a fine view over the
great bay between the deltas of the Kizil Irmak (Halys
fl.) and Yeşil 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.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
W. J. Hamilton,
Researches in Asia
Minor, Pontus, and Armenia (1842) I 290-91; V. Cuinet,
La Turquie d'Asie (1890) I 102; F. & E. Cumont,
Studia
Pontica II (1906) 111-17
P; J.G.C. Anderson et al.,
Studia
Pontica III.1 (1910) 1-25.
D. R. WILSON