Heraclea Pontica (; ; , ), known in Byzantine and later times as Pontoheraclea (), was an ancient city on the coast of Bithynia in Asia Minor, at the mouth of the river Lycus. The site is now the location of the modern city Karadeniz Ereğli, in the Zonguldak Province of Turkey.
History Heraclea Pontica was founded by the Greek city-state of MegaraFor report of Boeotian involvement see Pausanias 5.26.7 in approximately 560–558 BC and was named after Heracles who the Greeks believed entered the underworld at a cave on the adjoining Acherusian cape.
The colonists soon subjugated the native Mariandynians but agreed to terms that none of the latter, now helot-like serfs, be sold into slavery outside their homeland. Prospering from the rich, fertile adjacent lands and the sea-fisheries of its natural harbor, Heraclea soon extended its control along the coast as far east as Cytorus (Gideros, near Cide), eventually establishing Black Sea colonies of its own (Cytorus, Callatis and Chersonesus). It was the birthplace of the philosopher Heraclides Ponticus.
The prosperity of the city, rudely shaken by the Galatians and the Bithynians, was utterly destroyed in the Mithridatic Wars.
The Greek historical author Memnon of Heraclea (fl. 1st century AD) wrote a local history of Heraclea Pontica in at least sixteen books. The work has perished, but Photius's Bibliotheca preserves a compressed account of books 9–16, seemingly the only ones extant in his day. These books run from the rule of the tyrant Clearchus (c. 364–353 BC) to the later years of Julius Caesar (c. 40 BC) and contain many colorful accounts including the Bithynian introduction of the barbarian Gauls into Asia where they first allied themselves with the Heracleans and later turned violently against them.
Then, Heraclea Pontica was part of the (Eastern) Roman Empire for more than 1000 years. The Turks ravaged the area after the Battle of Mantzikert in 1071. David Komnenos, brother of the ruler of Trebizond Alexios I of Trebizond, took Heraclea Pontica in 1205 and made it capital of his domain, called Paphlagonia; he lost it in 1214 to Theodore I Laskaris, who made it a major frontier bulwark. The Genoese had a colony there after 1261. When the Turks conquered Paphlagonia in 1360, Genoa bought the city from the weakening Byzantine Empire. Heraclea developed as a trading centre of the Genoese, who settled there in large numbers. A ruined citadel on a height overlooking the town is a remnant of this period. The Italian name of the city was Pontarachia. The Genoese held the city until the Ottomans captured it after 1453.Kazhdan, Alexander P. - The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium - Volume 2 (1991, Oxford University Press), entry "Herakleia Pontike"
Ecclesiastical history The city replaced Claudiopolis as metropolitanate in the late 13th century, during the reign of Andronikos II. After its fall in 1360, and its subsequent decline due to Turkoman raids and migrations, a synod in 1387 decreed that the metropolitanate of Heraclea Pontica be assumed by Amastris, for the following reason:
It is in no way just to leave without a metropolitan the remnant of the Christians captured by barbaric invasions in the most holy metropolitanate of Pontoheracleia. For such are in need of spiritual supervision and its consecration, since as human beings they are led astray by the deception of life and care little for the heavenly and immortal rewards. [...] Since it seems impossible for them to have a valid metropolitan, for the church had previously disintegrated and the ones there are not sufficient for his aid and support [...]Vryonis, Speros (1971). The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamisation from the Eleventh through the Fifteenth Century. Berkeley: California University Press. pp. 293, 294
Notable people Amastris, tyrant of Heraclea, niece to Persian King Darius III Bryson of Heraclea, mathematician and sophist Chamaeleon, philosopher Chion of Heraclea, a disciple of Plato who helped assassinate the tyrant Clearchus Clearchus of Heraclea, tyrant of Heraclea Diogenianus, a Greek grammarian Dionysius of Heraclea, tyrant of Heraclea Evagrius Ponticus, philosopher, monk, and ascetic Heraclides Ponticus, philosopher and astronomer, born in Heraclea Herodorus, mythographer, born in Heraclea. Marcian of Heraclea, geographer Memnon of Heraclea, historian Nicetas of Heraclea, Metropolitan of Heraclea Oxyathres of Heraclea, tyrant of Heraclea Promathidas of Heraclea, historianAthenaeus, Deipnosophistae, §11.77Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, §7.2957 Spintharos Of Heraclea, poetSuda, sigma, 945 Theodore Stratelates, Christian martyr saint Timotheus of Heraclea, son of Clearchus and succeeded him after his death Xenagoras (historian), historianSuda Encyclopedia, nu.598
See also List of ancient Greek cities
Notes
References
"Outpost of Hellenism: The Emergence of Heraclea on the Black Sea", Stanley Mayer Burstein, University of California Publications: Classical Studies, 14 (Berkeley, 1976).
Further reading Bittner, Angela (1998). Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft in Herakleia Pontike. Eine Polis zwischen Tyrannis und Selbstverwaltung [Society and economy in Heraclea Pontica. A polis between tyranny and self-government]. Bonn: Habelt, . Hoepfner, Wolfram (1966). Herakleia Pontike – Ereğli. Eine baugeschichtliche Untersuchung [Heraclea Pontica - Ereğli. An architectural study]. Tituli Asiae Minoris, supplementary volume 1. Vienna: Böhlau. Saprykin, Sergei J. (1997). Heracleia Pontica and Tauric Chersonesus before Roman domination. VI–I centuries B.C. Amsterdam: Hakkert, .
External links Coin minted in Heraclea Pontica 3rd–2nd century BC. Photius's Bibliotheca 224, Memnon of Heraclea, History of Heraclea