Greek Pontian History

[Prokomenos]

Since the article starts off describing the Greek Pontians from the year 1,000 B.C Ill post it here.

The presence of Greeks at the Euxeinos Pontos, the Black Sea, dates back to early times. Research suggests that in the period around 1000 B.C. first trading adventures in this area took place, searching mainly for gold and minerals. The trip of Jason and the Argonauts to Kolchis, the adventures of Odysseus in the country of the Cimmerians, the punishment of Prometheus by Zeus and the arresting of his body to the mountains of Caucasus, the sailing of Heracles on the Black Sea and other Greek myths related to this testify the existence of ancient trading routes.

In the 8th century B.C. the trading posts which were occupied only occasionally began to develop into permanent settlements. The town of Miletus was the first to start its colonisation politics at the Black Sea by founding its daughter-city Sinope which proved to have great advantages with its useful harbour and its accessibility towards the hinterland.

In a similar pattern numerous cities with large populations emerged in the course of time, strong centers with important sea trade and strong cultural influence. Archaeological excavations and plenty of written sources of the classical and post-classical period have unveiled interesting testimonies about the organisation of these settlements, of their economic activities an of the trade and political relations with their colonial mother-cities, with other Greek poleis and also with indigenous peoples.

In the first centuries of their existence the colonies remained in the same patterns of social and political organisation as their colonial mother-towns. The predominance of the Greek cities in the political life of the region becomes apparent by the reaction of the local people who took over Greek culture and Greek thinking out of their own will.

In the period of Alexander the Great and his successors the economic power of the Greek cities peaked. The impact of the Greek culture on the indigenous peoples remained strong and helped to develop their social an cultural systems. Under the reign of the Pontian king Mithridates VI. Eupator the Greek language became official language of the many and therefore polyglot peoples of Asia Minor.

Even in Roman times, the Greek culture in the eastern Part of the Black Sea retained its freedom, its independence and self-determination as well as its leading role in the economic and cultural life of that region.

Christianity arrived in Pontos very early by the apostles St. Andrew and St. Peter. Both of them and later also church representatives profited from the fact that in most of the hellenized indigenous societies the spoken language was Greek. By the spread of Christianity, Greek culture and national identity was in turn transferred to these peoples. As a result a homogenous culture emerged, based on the uniting element of Orthodoxy.

The capture of Constantinople by the Franks in 1204 resulted in the splitting of the Byzantine Empire into small Frankish states, but also in the foundation of smaller Greek empires. Alexios, a member of the dynasty of the Komnenes an his brother David founded with the help of their aunt, the Georgian queen Thamar, in the Pontos* the Empire of the Great Komnenes of Trebizond. The up to that point unimportant city achieved a place in world's history by this coincidence.


Dr. Konstantinos Fotiadis
Professor of History at the University of Thessaloniki and the Pedagogic College Florina.