Ancient and medieval history The recorded history of Poti and its environments spans over 26 centuries. In
Classical antiquity and the
early Middle Ages, the area was occupied by the
Greek polis of
Phasis which was established by the colonists from
Miletus led by one Themistagoras at the very end of the 7th, and probably at the beginning of the 6th century BC. The famed Greek semi-mythological voyage of
Jason and the
Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece would have entered Georgia at this port and traveled up the river to what is today
Kutaisi. After many years of uncertainty and academic debate, the site of this settlement now seems to be established, thanks to underwater archaeology under tough conditions. Apparently, the lake which the well-informed Ancient Greek author
Strabo reported as bounding one side of Phasis has now engulfed it, or part of it. Yet, a series of questions regarding the town’s exact location and identification of its ruins remain open due largely to the centuries-long geomorphological processes of the area as the lower reaches of the Rioni are prone to changes of course across the wetland. Phasis appears to have been an important center of trade and culture in
Colchis throughout the Classical period. The section along the river Phasis was a vital component of the presumed trade route from India to the Black Sea, attested by Strabo and
Pliny. Between the 6th and 2nd centuries BC, the town played an active role in these contacts. During the
Third Mithridatic War, Phasis came under
Roman control. It was where the Roman commander-in-chief
Pompey, having crossed into Colchis from
Iberia, met the
legate Servilius, the admiral of his Euxine fleet in 65 BC. After the introduction of
Christianity, Phasis was a seat of a Greek diocese, one of whose bishops, Cyrus, became a
Patriarch of Alexandria between 630 and 641 AD. During the
Lazic War between the
Eastern Roman and
Sassanid Iranian empires (542-562), Phasis was attacked, unsuccessfully, by Iranian soldiers. In the 8th century, the name Poti entered Georgian written sources. It remained a place of maritime trade within the
Kingdom of Georgia and was known to medieval European travelers as Fasso. In the 14th century, the
Genoese established a trading factory, which proved to be short-lived.
Modern history river, 19th century In 1578, Poti was conquered by the
Ottoman Empire. The Turks, who knew the town as Faş, heavily fortified it and made it into one of their Caucasian outposts which were also home to a great slave market. A combined army of the western Georgian princes recovered Poti in 1640, but the town fell under the
Ottoman sway again in 1723. Another futile attempt to dispossess the Ottomans of Poti was made by
Russo-Georgian forces in 1770 and 1771. Once Russia took control of most of the principal Georgian lands in the 1800s, it again attempted to evict the Turkish garrison from Poti and succeeded in doing so with the help of Georgian auxiliaries under the command of
Nino, Princess of Mingrelia in 1809, but was coerced to return the fortress to the Ottomans in the
Treaty of Bucharest (1812). The next
Russo-Turkish War resulted in the capture of Poti by
Russia in 1828. (See Russian conquest of the Caucasus#Black Sea Coast.) The town was subordinated to the
Governorate of Kutais and granted the status of a
port town in 1858. The seaport was reconstructed between 1863 and 1905. In 1872, the town became the terminus of the
Transcaucasus Railway, whence the line led directly to
Tiflis (Tbilisi). Poti particularly grew in size and importance during the mayorship of
Niko Nikoladze between 1894 and 1912. Considered to be the founding father of modern Poti, Nikoladze presided over a series of modernizing and construction projects, including a theater, a
large cathedral, two gymnasia, a power station, an oil refinery, etc. By 1900, Poti had become one of the major ports on the Black Sea, exporting most of Georgia’s manganese and coal. During the
First Russian Revolution, Poti became a scene of workers' strikes and barricade fighting in December 1905. At the beginning of
World War I, on November 7, 1914, the Ottoman
SMS Breslau appeared off the port of Poti and subjected the railway yards there to a bombardment that lasted three-quarters of an hour, without any direct results. During a brief period of independence in 1918–1921, Poti was Georgia’s principal window to Europe, also serving as the portal of entry for successive German and British expeditionary forces. On May 28, 1918, a German-Georgian preliminary
treaty of alliance was signed at Poti. On March 14, 1921, Poti was occupied by the
invading Red Armies of
Soviet Russia which installed a Soviet government in Georgia. During the Soviet era, Poti retained its principal function as a seaport and the town was further industrialized and militarized. During the
2008 war with Russia, Russian warplanes attacked the port. Although a ceasefire was declared on August 12, the Russian troops continued to
occupy the environs of the city until being withdrawn the next month. ==Politics==