Map of the Roman Empire - Sinope

Sinope
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Ancient Sinope - Ancient Hittite port and later refounded as a Greek colony in 770 B.C., In Roman times it was a city of Paphlagonia and was active in trade in the Black Sea. Modern name is Sinop.

Sinōp� (Σινώπη). Now Sinope, Sinoub; the most important of all the Greek colonies on the shores of the Euxine, stood on the northern coast of Asia Minor, on the western headland of the great bay of which the delta of the river Halys forms the eastern headland, and a little east of the northernmost promontory of Asia Minor. It appears in history as a very early colony of the Milesians. Having been destroyed in the invasion of Asia by the Cimmerians, it was restored by a new colony from Miletus in B.C. 632, and soon became the greatest commercial city on the Euxine. Its territory, called Sinopis, extended to the banks of the Halys. It was the birthplace and residence of Mithridates the Great, who enlarged and beautified it. Shortly before the murder of Iulius Caesar it was colonized by the name of Iulia Caesarea Felix Sinop�, and remained a flourishing city, though it never recovered its former importance. At the time of Constantine it had declined so much as to be ranked second to Amasia. It was the native city of the renowned cynic philosopher Diogenes, of the comic poet Diphilus, and of the historian Baton. - Harry Thurston Peck. Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. New York. Harper and Brothers. 1898.

Sinop (Greek: Σινώπη, Sin�pi) is a city with a population of 36,734 on İnce Burun (İnceburun, Cape Ince), by its Cape Sinop (Sinop Burnu, Boztepe Cape, Boztepe Burnu) which is situated on the most northern edge of the Turkish side of Black Sea coast, in the ancient region of Paphlagonia, in modern-day northern Turkey, historically known as Sinope. It is the capital of Sinop Province.

Ancient History of Sinope. Long used as a Hittite port which appears in Hittite sources as "Sinuwa" (J. Garstang, The Hittite Empire, p. 74), the city proper was re-founded as a Greek colony from the city of Miletus in the 7th century BC (Xenophon, Anabasis 6.1.15; Diodorus Siculus 14.31.2; Strabo 12.545). Sinope flourished as the Black Sea port of a caravan route that led from the upper Euphrates valley (Herodotus 1.72; 2.34), issued its own coinage, founded colonies, and gave its name to a red arsenic sulfate mined in Cappadocia, called "Sinopic red earth" (Miltos Sin�pik�) or sinople. Sinope escaped Persian domination until the early 4th century BC, and in 183 BC it was captured by Pharnaces I and became capital of the kingdom of Pontus. Lucullus conquered Sinope for Rome in 70 BC, and Julius Caesar established a Roman colony there, Colonia Julia Felix, in 47 BC. Mithradates Eupator was born and buried at Sinope, and it was the birthplace of Diogenes, of Diphilus, poet and actor of the New Attic comedy, of the historian Baton, and of the Christian heretic of the 2nd century AD, Marcion. - Wikipedia

Sinope, I. a city of Paphlagonia, on a peninsula at the K. entrance of a small bay of the Euxine, over against Lepte prom., 88 m. E. from Carambis prom. Founded by Autolycus, the Argonaut; enlarged by a Milesian colony. Latterly the capital of the king of Pontus. A Roman colonia. The birth-place of Mithridates Eupator, Diogenes the Cynic, Baton the historian, and Diphilus the dramatist. Sinub. - Classical Gazetteer

Sinope
SINO�PE (Σινώπη: Eth. Σινωπεύς), the most important of all the Greek colonies on the coast of the Euxine, was situated on a peninsula on the coast of Paphlagonia, at a distance of 700 stadia to the east of Cape Carambis (Strab. xii. p.546; Marcian, p. 73; Eustath. ad Dion. Per. 775.) It was a very ancient place, its origin being referred to the Argonauts and to Sinope, the daughter of Asopus. (Apollon. 2.947; V. Fl. 5.108.) But the Sinopians themselves referred the foundation of their city to Autolycus, a companion of Heracles, and one of the Argonauts, to whom they paid heroic honours (Strab. l.c.). But this ancient town was small and powerless, until it received colonists from Miletus. The Milesians were in their turn dispossessed by the Cimmerians, to whom Herodotus (4.12) seems to assign the foundation of the city; but when the Cimmerians were driven from Asia Minor, the Ephesians (in B.C. 632) recovered possession of their colony. (Scymn. 204, foll.; Anonym. Peripl. P. E. p. 8.) The leader of the first Milesian colony is called Ambron, and the leaders of the second Cous and Critines; though this latter statement seems to be a mistake, as Eustathius and Stephanus B. (s. v.) call the founder Critius, a native of Cos. After this time Sinope soon rose to great power and prosperity. About the commencement of the Peloponnesian War the Sinopians, who were then governed by a tyrant, Timesileon, received assistance from the Athenians; and after the expulsion of the tyrant, 600 Athenian colonists were sent to Sinope (Plut. Per. 20). At the time of the retreat of the Ten Thousand under Xenophon, Sinope was a wealthy and flourishing city, whose dominion extended to the river Halys, and which exercised great influence over the tribes of Paphlagonia and Cappadocia, independently of its colonies of Cerasus, Cotyora, and Trapezus. It was mainly owing to the assistance of the Sinopians, that the returning Greeks were enabled to procure ships to convey them to Heracleia (Xenoph. Anab. 5.5.3; Arrian, Peripl. P. E. p. 17; Diod. 14.30, 32; Ammian. 22.8). Strabo also acknowledges that the fleet of the Sinopians held a distinguished position among the naval powers of the Greeks; it was mistress of the Euxine as far as the entrance of the Bosporus, and divided with Byzantium the lucrative tunny fisheries in that sea. In the time of Ptolemy Soter, Sinope was governed by a prince, Scydrothemis, to whom the Egyptian king sent an embassy. (Tac. Hist. 4.82, foll.) Its great wealth, and above all its excellent situation, excited the cupidity of the kings of Pontus. It was first assailed in B.C. 220, by Mithridates IV., the great-grandfather of Mithridates the Great. Polybius (4.56), who is our principal authority for this event, describes the situation of Sinope in the following manner: It is built on a peninsula, which advances out into the sea. The isthmus which connects the peninsula with the mainland is not more than 2 stadia in breadth, and is entirely barred by the city, which comes up close to it, but the remainder of the peninsula stretches out towards the sea. It is quite flat and of easy access from the town; but on the side of the sea it is precipitous all around, and dangerous for vessels, and presents very few spots fit for effecting a landing. This description is confirmed by Strabo (xii. p.545), for he says that the city was built on the neck of the peninsula; but he adds, that the latter was girt all around with rocks hollowed out in the form of basins. At high water these basins were filled, and rendered the shore inaccessible, especially as the rocks were everywhere so pointed that it was impossible to walk on them with bare feet. The Sinopians defended themselves bravely against Mithridates, and the timely aid of the Rhodians in the end enabled them to compel the agressor to raise the siege. Pharnaces, the successor of Mithridates IV., was more successful. He attacked the city unexpectedly, and finding its inhabitants unprepared, easily overpowered it, B.C. 183. From this time Sinope became the chief town, and the residence of the kings of Pontus. (Strab. l.c.; Plb. 24.10.) Mithridates, surnamed Euergetes the successor of Pharnaces, was assassinated at Sinope in B.C. 120 (Strab. x. p.477). His son, Mithridates the Great, was born and educated at Sinope, and did much to embellish and strengthen his birthplace: he formed a harbour on each side of the isthmus, built naval arsenals, and constructed admirable reservoirs for the tunny fisheries. After his disaster at Cyzicus, the king intrusted the command of the garrison of Sinope to Bacchides, who acted as a cruel tyrant; and Sinope, pressed both from within and from without, was at last taken by Lucullus, after a brave resistance. (Strab. l.c.; Plut. Luc. 18; Appian, Bell. Mithr. 83; Memnon, in Phot. Cod. p. 238, ed. Bekker.) Lucullus treated the Sinopians themselves mildly, having put the Pontian garrison to the sword; and he left them in possession of all their works of art, which embellished the city, with the exception of the statue of Autolycus, a work of Sthenis, and the sphere of Billarus. (Strab. Plut. ll. cc.; Cic. pro Leg. Man. 8) Lucullus restored the city to its ancient freedom and independence. But when Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates, had been routed at Zela, Caesar took Sinope under his protection, and established Roman colonies there, as we must infer from coins bearing the inscription Col. Jul. Caes. Felix Sinope. In the time of Strabo Sinope was still a large, splendid, and well fortified city; for he describes it as surrounded by strong walls, and adorned with fine porticoes, squares, gymnasia, and other public edifices. Its commerce indeed declined, yet the tunny fisheries formed an inexhaustible [2.1008] source of revenue, which maintained the city in a tolerable state of prosperity. It possessed extensive suburbs, and numerous villas in its vicinity (Strab. l.c.; Plin. Nat. 6.2). From Pliny's letter's (10.91), it appears that the Sinopians suffered some inconvenience from the want of a good supply of water, which Pliny endeavoured to remedy by a grant from the emperor Trajan to build an aqueduct conveying water from a distance of 16 miles. In the time of Arrian and Marcian, Sinope still continued te be a flourishing town. In the middle ages it belonged to the empire of Trebizond, and fell into the hands of the Turks in A.D. 1470, in the reign of Mohammed II. Sinope is also remarkable as the birthplace of several men of eminence, such as Diogenes the Cynic, Baton, the historian of Persia, and Diphilus, the comic poet.

Near Sinope was a small island, called Scopelus, around which large vessels were obliged to sail, before they could enter the harbour; but small craft might pass between it and the land, by which means a circuit of 40 stadia was avoided (Marcian, p. 72, &c.) The celebrated Sinopian cinnabar (Σινωπικὴ μίλτος, Σινωπὶς or Σινωπικὴ γῆ) was not a product of the district of Sinope, but was designated by this name only because it formed one of the chief articles of trade at Sinope. (Groskurd on Strabo, vol. ii. p. 457, foil.) The imperial coins of Sinope that are known, extend from Augustus to Gallienus. (Sestini, Num. Vet. p. 63; Rasche, Lex. Num. 4.2. p. 1105, foil.)

Sinope, now called Sinab, is still a town of some importance, but it contains only few remains of its former magnificence. The wall across the isthmus has been built up with fragments of ancient architecture, such as columns, architraves, &c., and the same is found in several other parts of the modern town; but no distinct ruins of its temples, porticoes, or even of the great aqueduct, are to be seen. (Hamilton, Researches, vol. i. p. 306, &c.)  - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) William Smith, LLD, Ed.