Sinop…..Part Three…..

Once free from danger, the citizens of Sinop concentrated on trade and commerce. Sinop quickly became the most important port on the Black Sea. Two harbors were constructed, one on the north side and one on the south side. The one on the north side was given up as the ships could not be protected from the strong and icy north winds. The northern harbor eventually became inaccessible to ships due to silt that filled it, making the northern harbor too shallow.

Sinop became famous, not only for the fine harbor, but for wool, wheat and all kinds of lumber and fruit. Figs, pears, plums, apricots, and cherries were shipped from this thriving seaport. Cherries are believed to have originated in this area and shipped to other lands. Cerasus, a colony of Sinop, was so named due to the fact that cherry trees grew around the colony site in profusion.

The olive tree was apparently more abundant in ancient times. Strabo wrote of the whole region as being covered with them; but few are noticeable in present day Sinop. Forests of oak, pine, elm, walnut, maple, cypress and numerous other varieties still thrive along the Sinopean coast today even as in Strabo's times.

But the city of Sinop was notorious for the fine fish caught along the Black Sea region surrounding it. Great schools of fish traveled each year from the ocean to their spawning areas at the eastern end of the Black Sea. The ones evading the fishermen at Istanbul reached huge proportions by the time they arrived at Sinop. Due to the fine harbor, a greater number of large fish were caught and traded in Sinop than anywhere else on the Black Sea. The fish were taken to Istanbul, Cyprus and even as far away as Egypt to be sold. Sinop became noted all over the known world as an important fishing and commercial port.

Ancient navigators proceeded from both east coast and west coast to the central section of the sea, where it was much narrower than elsewhere, and then traveled directly across to Sinop. Thus a commercial lane was established in this manner, making Sinop the southern port through which the greater part of the Black Sea trade passed. In Herodotus' time, Sinop is said to be situated opposite the mouth of the Ister, showing the line of thought that originated from the use of the narrowest point of the sea.

Such a point from which commercial articles were distributed by sea seems a likely point toward which the various inland roads would meet. Thus a large amount of the goods would be traded to the interior districts in this manner. At some periods in history, this seems highly probable. The ancient Hittites are believed to have followed a trail that branched out in to the Ninova-Sinop road, which later served to connect Assyria to the Black Sea. It seems feasible that the best harbor on the southern shore of the Black Sea would thus become the terminal land point of the great caravans.

Despite the varied nationalities that passed through the city, Sinop remained a Greek colony, basically, and was built in the typical Greek fashion. The main buildings were constructed of stone. Beautiful temples for the Greek gods and goddesses were erected. In the middle of town one may still see the foundations of one of these ancient Greek temples.

A number of stones with pictures of oxen have been found in the area, strengthening the feeling that it was dedicated to Serapis, a combination of Osiris and Apis. The abundance of ceramic pieces which were unearthed in excavations at the site provide evidence the temples were built during the Greek period of domination.

The ruins indicate the temple was fifteen meters long and eight meters sixty centimeters wide. The stairs around the sides show that the temple was built on top of a series of stairs. Marble was used on the altar top which remains intact; but the base and pedestal were apparently made of limestone.
This thriving Greek settlement naturally enticed the envy and greed of numerous kings. In 560 B.C. Lydia, a kingdom in southern Turkey, under their famous leader Croesus, established control throughout most of Turkey, and captured Sinop. Sinop was forced to pay tribute to Croesus for 14 years.

In 546 B.C. Cyrus of Persia defeated Croesus and Sinop's tribute switched to Persia. Sinop was so isolated from Persia, however, that although paying tribute, she was never molested by the Persian rulers. After a few years had passed, Sinop stopped paying tribute and the Persians took no retaliatory action.

Though the Persian shackles were thrown aside, Sinop was still not free from diplomatic entanglements. To protect their trade along the Black Sea, Athens wished Sinop to become an Athenian colony. Previously, Sinop had remained an independent city, although inhabited largely by Greeks. The Sinopeans, feeling that their trade would profit from the Athenians protection, agreed; but their ruling tyrant, Timesilaus, vetoed their plans. Pericles, with the design of making a display of Athenian power and relieve the Greek colony of oppression, led forth an expedition from Athens which reached Sinop in 444 B.C.

Pericles appointed the efficient Lamachus thirteen ships and assigned him the task of expelling the tyrant Timesilaus. Lamachus performed the task with the promptness he was noted for, having gained notoriety for his quick decisive action during previous campaigns. Not long afterwards it was voted at Athens that six hundred volunteer colonists should sail for Sinop to occupy the houses and lands of the defeated tyrant and his followers, and fortify the colony.

This reinforcement of Greeks changed the way of life of Sinop, making the city even more completely a Greek city with Greek laws and democracy. Aristotle thought that Sinop was worthy of its own constitution and drew one up. Geographers began to place Sinop on all the new maps. Pliny placed it in the fifth segment of the world and Avienus, in the fifth century A.D., placed it near the confines of the Earth. Even today, though the larger cities of the Black Sea may be omitted, Sinop may be seen on the maps illustrated by modern mapmakers.

This minor Greek settlement was even able to contribute a genius to the Greek culture. In the year 412 B.C., the famous cynic philosopher Diogenes was born in Sinop. The Spartan life at Sinop definitely molded Diogenes' way of thinking. Hardship and privation teach such men to increase the number of things they can designate superfluous, as may be seen in the example where Diogenes, upon seeing a lad drink from his cupped hands, consequently threw his gourd away. Diogenes is an example of the type of spirit that must have developed in the Sinopean mind.


Sinop…..Part Four….

Freedom of spirit that is shown when Diogenes asked Alexander to get from between him and the sun is evidence of the individual courage and mental qualities that developed from the environment of Sinop.

Though Sinop was under Athenian rule, all the other cities and settlements in central Turkey remained under Persian rule. The Persians had conquered all of the middle east, southern Turkey and greater part of central Turkey. Thousands of Greeks that lived in colonies established in Asia Minor centuries before were under Persian rule. They had revolted numerous times against the strong central form of government so unlike their free independent Greek city-states.

In the spring of 401 B.C. Cyrus the Younger hired a Greek mercenary force to march against his brother, Artaxerxes II Memon, the Persian monarch, in an attempt to seize the throne of the Persian Empire. This expedition is described in "Anabasis", or march inland.

Troubled conditions in Greece made foreign service as hired mercenaries attractive and profitable to the Greek, so Xenophon joined the "ten thousand", actually numbering 13,000 at the beginning, as a junior officer. Cyrus was defeated near Babylon at Cunaxa in the early fall of 401 B.C. and the Greek commanders killed. Xenophon assumed command and led the retreat through 900 miles of rough, cold and alien terrain to the Black Sea.

The Greek colonists, fearing reprisal upon themselves as an example to future Greek mercenary forces, joined the mercenaries in a mass migration to the sea. Thus thousands of Greeks swept towards the helpless towns and villages along the Black Sea. The wave of migrants swarmed across Trabzon, Samsun, and the other small towns, taking and stealing what supplies they needed, leaving the inhabitants desolate. When the Greeks finally merged up on the shoreline of the Black Sea, it was Trapezus, a colony of Sinop, that lay directly beneath their eyes on the coast. Founded some 250 miles east of Sinop, it owed allegiance to Sinop and paid tribute along with Cotyora and Cerasus. It is evident that Sinop had established a firm colonial system covering the entire southern shore of the Black Sea.

The cohesiveness of the colonies with Sinop is illustrated in the speech given to Xenophon by Hecatonymus, a prominent Sinopean sent to deal with the migrants, when he said, "These and the people of Cerasus and Trapezus bring us as appointed tribute; so that whatever you do to them, the city of the Sinopeans considers that it suffers itself."

Sinop must have held a sacred place in the heart of the migrants for they left Sinop unharmed. But they were viewed with mild distrust by the Sinopeans who had heard reports of the migrants destruction of other settlements in their trek to the sea. This accounts for Xenophon's ships going a few miles past Sinop, as though there was an objection to his anchoring, as he should have, at the excellent harbor in Sinop, so large and powerful a force with such a temerarious history.

The "ten thousand" departed for Greece and Sinop continued life as of old. The years passed and the "grandeur that was Greece" slowly began to decline. Sinop's independence waned with the decline of Athens. When Sparta defeated Athens, Sinop was left to its own devices. Never having a Black Sea fleet or any colonial ambitions, Sparta made no attempt to contact or have relations with Sinop.

The attack by Datames in 370 B.C. showed Sinop no longer a Greek colony but an object of desire between Persians in possession and distances from the Persian monarch was likely to be somewhat lax in his loyalty in those days. Datames, anxious to carve an empire for himself in Asia Minor, went beyond his own satrapy of Cappadocia into Paphloagonia.

After subduing Paphloagonia, Datames, being in need of siege engines and ships, tricked the old enmity of the Sinopeans against Sestus into furnishing him with engineers and mechanics to construct them for operations against Sestus. But he treacherously used them, when completed, for a combined land and naval attack upon Sinop itself. It is possible that Sinop was an autonomous city during this time; but the action of the Persian monarch reflects the thought that Persians must have been numerous in the city if not indeed the rulers. Upon hearing of the attack, Artaxerxes, the Persian monarch, ordered Datames to raise the siege of the city. This act, plus a number of coins minted during that period, indicates Sinop was probably part of a Persian satrapy.

It is feasible, however, that Datames renewed the attack and subsequently subjugated the city. Ancient records indicate he succeeded in subduing large portions of Asia Minor, including Amisus; and at some later date, he probably secured Sinop, which he desired for his capital – numismatic studies indicate such was the case. Coins issued during this period with the nymph Sinope on the side and "Data" with the eagle and dolphin on the other imply possession and personal authority.
Sinop's isolated position at times prevents its history from being viewed clearly and various scholars tend to interpret material differently during various eras, though, some great power becomes so all powerful as to draw the whole ancient world into its light. One of these epochs was the time of Pericles; that of Alexander the Great was another. When Philip of Macedonia, who had taken advantage of the decline of Greece to build an empire, died, his son Alexander further expanded his father's conquests.

In the year 334 B.C. Alexander began his conquest of Persia and its territories. Appian tells of Alexander on his great eastward journey incidentally restoring to Amisus by edict its freedom and autonomy. Dreysen surmises other Greek settlements along the Black Sea revived for a similar service. But their remoteness made Alexander unwilling to deviate from the line of his far greater plans to suffer the delay that would be necessary for the purpose. This would indicate that although the Greeks were ruled by the Persians they were ready at any time for deliverance.

In approximately 326 B.C. when the annual embassy from Sinop arrived to visit Darius at Persepolis, they found Alexander in control of the Persian capital. Alexander then decreed release for them and their city on the grounds that Sinop had not joined in the Greek league formed by the Greeks as a last attempt to block Philip of Macedonia, Alexander's father.

Thus, when Alexander died an untimely death a few years later in 323 B.C. Sinop was once more an autonomous city free from foreign rule. After his death, Alexander's empire was divided by his generals. The Black Sea gave a new power opportunity to rise upon the horizon of history: the Pontic Empire.

Making a declaration of independence from the Seleucids, they established a powerful kingdom by 200 B.C. Sinop was the only city along the Black Sea that managed a successful resistance of Mithridates.