Early inhabitants Pontus remained outside the reach of the
Bronze Age empires, of which the closest was Great
Hatti. The region went further uncontrolled by Hatti's eastern neighbors, like
Hayasa-Azzi. In those days, the best any outsider could hope from this region was temporary alliance with a local strongman. The
Hittites called the unorganized groups on their northeastern frontier the
Kaška. As of 2004 little had been found of them archaeologically. In the wake of the Hittite empire's collapse, the
Assyrian court noted that the "Kašku" had overrun its territory in conjunction with a hitherto unknown group whom they labeled the
Muški.
Iron Age visitors to the region, mostly Greek, noted that the hinterlands remained disunited, and they recorded the names of tribes: Moskhians (often associated with those Muški),
Leucosyri, Mares,
Makrones,
Mossynoikoi,
Tibarenoi,
Tzans and
Chalybes or Chaldoi. The
Greeks, who spoke Indo-European, settled along the coast. The Greeks are the earliest long-term inhabitants of the region from whom written records survive. During the late 8th century BC, Pontus further became a base for the
Cimmerians, another Indo-European speaking people; however, these were defeated by the
Lydians, and became a distant memory after the campaigns of
Alyattes. Since there was so little literacy in northeastern Anatolia until the
Persian and Hellenistic era, one can only speculate as to the other languages spoken here. Given that
Kartvelian languages remain spoken to the east of Pontus, some are suspected to have been spoken in eastern Pontus during the Iron Age: the Tzans are usually associated with today's
Laz. The epical narratives related to the travels of
Jason and the
Argonauts to
Colchis, the tales of
Heracles' navigating the Black Sea, and
Odysseus' wanderings into the land of the
Cimmerians, as well as the myth of
Zeus constraining
Prometheus to the
Caucasus mountains as a punishment for his outwitting the Gods, can all be seen as reflections of early contacts between early Greek colonists and the local, probably Caucasian, peoples. The earliest known written description of Pontus, however, is that of
Scylax of Korianda, who in the 7th century BC described Greek settlements in the area.
Persian Empire expansion By the 6th century BC, Pontus had become officially a part of the
Achaemenid Empire, which probably meant that the local Greek colonies were paying tribute to the Persians. When the Athenian commander
Xenophon passed through Pontus around a century later in 401-400 BC, in fact, he found no Persians in Pontus. The peoples of this part of northern
Asia Minor were incorporated into the third and nineteenth
satrapies of the Persian empire.
Iranian influence ran deep, illustrated most famously by the temple of the Persian deities Anaitis, Omanes, and Anadatos at
Zela, founded by victorious Persian generals in the 6th century BC.
Kingdom of Pontus The
Kingdom of Pontus extended generally to the east of the Halys River. The
Persian dynasty which was to found this kingdom had during the 4th century BC ruled the Greek city of
Cius (or Kios) in
Mysia, with its first known member being
Ariobarzanes I of Cius and the last ruler based in the city being
Mithridates II of Cius. Mithridates II's son, also called
Mithridates, would proclaim himself later Mithridates I Ktistes of Pontus. As the
Encyclopaedia Iranica states, the most famous member of the family,
Mithradates VI Eupator, although undoubtedly presenting himself to the Greek world as a civilized philhellene and new Alexander, also paraded his
Iranian background: he maintained a harem and
eunuchs in true Oriental fashion; he gave all his sons Persian names; he sacrificed spectacularly in the manner of the Persian kings at
Pasargadae (Appian, Mith. 66, 70); and he appointed “
satraps” (a Persian title) as his provincial governors. Iranica further states, and although there is only one inscription attesting it, he seems to have adopted the title “king of kings.” The very small number of Hellenistic Greek inscriptions that have been found anywhere in Pontus suggest that
Greek culture did not substantially penetrate beyond the coastal cities and the court. and successfully maneuvering in this unsettled time managed, shortly after 302 BC, to create the Kingdom of Pontus which would be ruled by his descendants mostly bearing the same name, until 64 BC. Thus, this Persian dynasty managed to survive and prosper in the
Hellenistic world while the main
Persian Empire had fallen. This kingdom reached its greatest height under
Mithridates VI or Mithridates Eupator, commonly called the Great, who for many years carried on war with the Romans. Under him, the realm of Pontus included not only Pontic Cappadocia but also the seaboard from the
Bithynian frontier to
Colchis, part of inland
Paphlagonia, and
Lesser Armenia. Eventually, however, the Romans defeated both King Mithridates VI and his son-in-law, Armenian King Tigranes the Great, during the
Mithridatic Wars, bringing Pontus under Roman rule.
Roman province With the subjugation of this kingdom by
Pompey in 64 BC, little changed in the daily lives of either the oligarchies that controlled the cities or for the common people there and in the hinterland, though the meaning of the name Pontus underwent a change. Under the Byzantine Empire, the Pontus came under the
Armeniac Theme, with the westernmost parts (Paphlagonia) belonging to the
Bucellarian Theme. Progressively, these large early themes were divided into smaller ones, so that by the late 10th century, the Pontus was divided into the themes of
Chaldia, which was governed by the Gabrades family,
Empire of Trebizond Following
Constantinople's loss of sovereignty to the
Fourth Crusade in 1204, the Pontus retained independence as the
Empire of Trebizond under the
Komnenos dynasty. Through a combination of geographic remoteness and adroit diplomacy, this remnant managed to survive, until it was conquered by the
Ottomans in 1461 after the
Fall of Constantinople itself. This political adroitness included becoming a vassal state at various times to both Georgia and to various inland Turkic rulers. In addition, the Empire of Trebizond became a renowned center of culture under its ruling Komnenos dynasty.
Ottoman vilayet Under the subsequent Ottoman rule which began with the fall of
Trebizond, particularly starting from the 17th century, some of the region's
Pontic Greeks became Muslim through the
Devşirme system. But at the same time some valleys inhabited by Greeks converted voluntarily, most notably those in the Of valley. Large communities (around 25% of the population) of Christian Pontic Greeks remained throughout the area (including Trabezon and Kars in northeastern Turkey/the Russian Caucasus) until the 1920s, and in parts of Georgia and Armenia until the 1990s, preserving their own customs and
dialect of Greek. One group of Islamicized Greeks were called the Kromli, but were suspected of
secretly having remained Christians. They numbered between 12,000 and 15,000 and lived in villages including Krom, Imera, Livadia, Prdi, Alitinos, Mokhora, and Ligosti. Many of the Islamized Greeks continued speaking
their language, known for its
unique preservation of characteristics of Ancient Greek and still today there are some in the Of valley that speak the local
Ophitic dialect.
Republic of Pontus The
Republic of Pontus () was a proposed Pontic Greek state on the southern coast of the Black Sea. Its territory would have encompassed much of historical Pontus and today forms part of Turkey's Black Sea Region. The proposed state was discussed at the
Paris Peace Conference of 1919, but the Greek government of
Eleftherios Venizelos feared the precarious position of such a state and so it was included instead in the larger proposed state of
Wilsonian Armenia. Neither state came into existence and the Pontic Greek population was subjected to
genocide and expelled from Turkey after 1922 and resettled in the Soviet Union or in
Macedonia This state of affairs was later formally recognized as part of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923.
Present The
Black Sea Region (), comprising all or parts of 22 provinces, is one of
Turkey's seven
census-defined geographical regions. It encompasses but is larger than historic Pontus. ==Religion==