(Note: Forward by Troy Priest - The following is copied almost word for word from the original we were able to recover from GIGI in 1976. In some cases where I believe the names of places or persons may be incorrect, or words misspelled, I have used the word that appears in the original text, and placed what I believe is the correct spelling in parentheses and Italics next to it. In most cases, I believe the errors were caused by garble on the old teletype we used to print the text out. There are, however, some errors that were made in calculating the dates, especially years B.C. Where I could, I have put my best guess at the correct dates in parentheses and Italics. Any other notes I made to the original text are also in parentheses and Italics.

I do not know who the original author of this work was, but it is very good. If anyone has any idea who originally wrote it, or any of the other works that are labeled Anonymous on this page, please let me know.)

THE STORY OF SINOP, TURKEY
Anonymous

Sinop…..Part One…..

Sinop…
The mists of time obscure an origin…Uncertain figures of Hittites and Assyrians move in its primitive records…A Milesian dawn of early Greek elegial light quickly clouded by invading barbarians from the Caspian Sea…Blind annals of some two hundred years…A Syrian rescue follows and further colonization by Pericles and his six hundred volunteer colonists from Athens…Democratic autonomy overcomes tyranny…Xenphon's ( Xenophon's ) "ten thousand" stirs Sinop, having forced their way through 900 miles of rugged, cold and hostile country, in one of the most famous military retreats of history…Diogenes, the cynic philosopher, Ixon, forever marking Sinop's place on the pages of Greek culture…With help from Rhodes, Sinop's fortifications defy Mithridates I, who manages to overcome the city only by treachery…Under the Pontic Empire Sinop becomes the capital and reaches glory under Mithridates IV, a military genius who baffles Rome for nearly half a century, earning him the title of "Rome's most formidable enemy"…The day of the inevitable Roman yoke with Sinop joining the universal rule of the Eternal City…Slow dissolution to the Byzantine Empire and the onslaught of Islamism…Seljuks and Ottoman Turk domination…Finally the present day phoenix-like republic of Turkey arising out of the ashes of the Ottoman Empire.

The quiet, peaceful town of present day Sinop is a pale comparison to the once great city the Seljuks, Romans and Byzantines knew. Sinop is a Turkish province three hundred and sixty miles northeast of Istanbul consisting of two peninsulas and a small section of mainland. These two peninsulas are called Since Burun and Sinop Burun. The town of Sinop is located on Sinop Burun. Sinop Burun is 600 feet high, two miles long and a mile wide at the widest point. At the narrowest point, which is the isthmus just west of town, it is barely one quarter of a mile in width.

Sinop Burun extends due east giving Sinop both a northern and a southern bay. The northern bay is shallow and unprotected but the southern one has complete natural protection due to the high cliffs. The harbor in the southern bay is the only natural harbor on the Turkish Black Sea coast. Inland are the high mountains belonging to the Northern Anatolian Mountain Chain, the highest of which is 6,512 feet.

The mountains and the Sinop peninsula are the product of underground volcanoes. Long before the time of mankind the Black Sea was disturbed by underground cataclysmic disturbances. Due to these subterranean convulsions, the mountains were formed and the two peninsulas rose out of the sea.

The purple outline of the mountains served to separate the civilizations that were to form along the coast from the barbarian peoples and the conflicts of the interior. But the mountainous district must not be thought rugged and infertile. Like the maritime plain, it is rich and productive, the mountain slopes and valleys covered with luxuriant growth.

At the same time the mountains and peninsulas were gorged from the sea floor, the narrow isthmus attaching the peninsulas to the mainland was created. In past times the isthmus was larger in breadth, but the eternal washing of the sea is gradually diminishing the width of the narrow land bridge. The surf now foams at what was once the main gate of the city of Sinop.

This area was first believed to have been settled by primitive man approximately 3,000 years ago in the year 1200 B.C. The exact date of founding is lost in the obscurities of time; but it is following this period that the Hittites became dominant in the middle Anatolia.

Recent excavations have revealed that the Hittite Empire was one of the most powerful ancient kingdoms during this era. Records date the conquering of Babylonia and extracting of tribute from Egypt by the Hittites. Thus, they were not the insignificant and loosely confederated band of nomads mentioned in the Pentateuch, but a significant and formidable foe. Their armies ranged far and wide; and it is believed they maintained a small settlement on the Sinop Burun.

The first historical reference to Sinop is that it fell to the domination of the Hittites during the reign of Mushil I. Mushil I is credited with uniting the Hittites in a strong confederation in Anatolia in the nineteenth century B.C. According to a number of tablets uncovered at Bogazkcy, Sinop was a Hittite port under the name of Sinuwa.

The early foundations of the settlement of Sinop as a city are partially Assyrian. Tablets excavated at Kultepe indicate the Assyrians swept westward in 100 B.C. to the Mediterranean Sea, and then upwards along the Black Sea in the vicinity of Sinop.

( Note: The Hittites are mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible twice, both times as 'a loosely confederated band of nomads'. However, it should be noted that the first time they are mentioned, the Israelites are just beginning to move to Egypt, where Joseph is an aide to the Pharaoh. There, they go from being invited guests to slavery, and do not emerge from Egypt until 400 years later. Then, the Hittites are a small tribe the freed Israelites must deal with in order to found their own Kingdom of Israel. In the 400 years in between, the Hittites rose to the pinnacle of their power in the area, then their empire collapsed again, so that when the Israelites returned, they were no longer the dominant power in the region. )

Sinop…..Part Two

Sinop was probably a small settlement consisting of survivors of the Hittite Empire intermixed with wandering barbarians. It is feasible that Assyria assimilated Sinop using the city as a major seaport. Historians believe Sinop was probably the cultural mediating point by which Assyrian elements, such as griffins' heads and the winged human busts or bronze vessels, came to Greece.

Evidence of the relationship between Greece and Assyria is found in Sinopic coins with Aramaic inscriptions, in an ancient writers' statement that "everybody calls Sinop Assyria", and in the legends pertaining to the nymph Sinope. In addition, Scymnus speaks of "Sinope, a city named after one of the Amazons, who dwell nearby, which formerly the native born Assyrians inhabited and afterwards the Greeks who went against the Amazons."

A possible origin of the derivation of the name, Sinop, or Sinope as the ancients called the city, goes back to the Assyrian deity Sin, the moon god of the Assyrians, for on the Euphrates, halfway between Babylon and the Persian Gulf, was the center of this lunar cult. The calendar was based on the moon; and all good things, particularly rain and fertility, were attributes of the moon. Sin's numerical symbol was thirty, or Selene as he was called by the Greeks, along with Helios and Hermes. The Assyrians habitually compounded the names of towns and persons with the name of the god Sin; and in view of the early influence of Assyria on Sinop, Sinop is probably an example of such compounding.

The majority of modern scholars tend to take a dim view, however, of the role Assyria played in the founding of Sinop and its naming. They prefer to connect the name with the Greek word "Sinomai", meaning to "seize or carry off". There are several plausible explanations for the naming of Sinop based on the word "Sinomai". This derivation may have been built up from the manifold forms of the rape of nymph Sinope. The tale of the nymph's abduction is inconsistent in virtually every item except the seizure or abduction. Sometimes Zeus carries her away; other times it is Apollo or Poseidon, and sometimes the river god, Halys.

Her parents are either Asopus or Metope, and Parnasse or Aegina. She is carried off from Assyria or from Boetia by Apollo. She deceives her captor by exacting a blank promise to give her whatever she should ask, and fills in the blank with her own virginity. Sometimes she has children.

But the legends always imply seizure of Sinope by Atolycus who founded the first settlement by the Greeks at Sinop. And finally the name may refer to the frequent destruction or "seizure" of seafaring vessels by the rocks along the Sinopean coastline. Whatever the answer, and regardless of how large a part Assyria did play in the development of Sinop, the Greeks were destined to predominate.

In the year 1184 B.C. the first recorded Greeks began exploring the Black Sea region around Sinop. The treacherous and swift currents of the Black Sea were a challenge to these young, adventurous Greek sailors.

Many ancient Greek tales have been written about the Black Sea and have included Sinop. "The Odyssey of Homer", "Jason and the Golden Fleece", "Tales of Hercules", and "Tales of the Cyclops" all make reference to Sinop.

The Sirens were said to live along these regions, drawing men to their death on the rocks. The corrosive effect of the sea against rocks of varying hardness, such as trachyte and black volcanic breccia varying greatly in density from the shaley limestone and sandstone has left a mass of sharp projections along the Black Sea coast. The sea has hollowed out caves and water-filled holes called "choenicides" by Strabo.

Upon such a shore, it was literally impossible to accomplish a landing and search, in time of war, the easily defended plateau above.

The peninsulas with their huge cliffs and rocky shores are still feared by sailors. Even with modern navigational equipment and a lighthouse located on the point of Sinop Burun, they remain a deadly menace.

In fog and bad weather the peninsulas cannot be seen until it is too late. Thus one can see merit in the argument of historians that Sinop may be derived from "Sinomai" or "seizure" of ships by the ocean.

One early Greek explorer, Atolycus, an Argonaut who had fought with Hercules against the Amazons, had his ship wrecked upon the rocks near Sinop. Atolycus managed to escape the implacable waters and swim to the peninsula of Sinop Burun. After resting at the small settlement still remaining from the days of the Hittites and Assyrians, he returned to Greece.

But Sinop had enamored him with its green vegetation and beautiful views; he returned with a small group of settlers from Miletus.

Atolycus and his colonists probably confiscated the city of Sinop in approximately 726
(? ) B.C.

The date is difficult to ascertain, but must have been before 756 B.C. for Trapezus, one of Sinop's colonies, was founded in that year. ( 726 B.C. would have been after this, thus the confusion. ) Thus, the founding points to some period in the eighth century B.C. before 756 B.C., leaving Sinop a few years to become the prosperous settlement that was to found the colony of Trapezus. ( My best guess is that the writer did his math wrong and subtracted 30 years from 756 to get 726, when he should have added 30 because he is referring to B.C., where the larger number is the earlier year. Perhaps instead of 726, then, he meant 786. )

Sinop quickly became an important city in the chain of Greek settlements, along with Amisuss ( Samsun ) and Trabizus ( Trabzon ), that was to grow up along the Black Sea. The Greek colony thrived and prospered for a number of years until capture and destruction by nomadic barbarians from the north.

In 635 B.C. a group called the Cimmerians were forced down into Turkey from their home around the Caspian Sea. Travelling into Anatolia, they began capturing, looting and burning the towns and colonies. These barbarians were so powerful and numerous that even great kings in southern Anatolia began to fear their migrations.

The Midian line of kings, who ruled Phyrgia during this period, took control of Sinop, planning to use the well-fortified city as a stronghold and buffer state against the Cimmerians. King Midas, famous as "the king with the golden touch", hoped to overcome the Cimmerians from Sinop, but the barbarians were overpowering and in the year 667 B.C. ( again, confusion over the dates ) Sinop was captured. Ancient records show these barbarians used Sinop as a major base for deeper raids into Anatolia.

The Cimmerians controlled Sinop for over a hundred years until they were driven back to the north by the Assyrians. The Assyrians, realizing the threat they faced from the Cimmerians, mustered their divided forces and repelled the barbarians. Since the Greeks and Assyrians were allies, Sinop was allowed to become an autonomous seaport once more.