General Notes

Birth: in bef. 190 BC
Death: in c. 169 BC
Event: Ancestor M
Event: Ruled 190 - 169 BC, King of Pontus 1
Note: Sinop, historically SINOPE, seaport on the southern coast of the Black Sea, northern Turkey. It lies on an isthmus linking the Boztepe Peninsula to the mainland and is shut off from the Anatolian Plateau to the south by high, forest-clad mountains. According to legend, Sinope was founded by the Amazons, who named it after their queen, Sinova. The city's ancient inhabitants ascribed its foundation to Autolycus, a companion of Hercules. Destroyed by the wandering Cimmerians, it was refounded toward the end of the 7th century BC by a colony of Milesians. It ultimately became the most flourishing Greek settlement on the Euxine (Black) Sea. As a terminus of the trade routes from Upper Mesopotamia, it commanded much of the maritime trade of the Pontic region and by the 5th century BC had established many colonies on the coast and enjoyed naval supremacy in the Black Sea. In 183 BC it was taken by Pharnaces I and became the capital of the Pontic kings. Under Mithridates VI the Great, who was born there (as was the 4th-century-BC founder of the Cynic sect, Diogenes), it enjoyed a high degree of prosperity and was embellished with fine buildings, naval arsenals, and well-built harbours. The Roman Lucius Licinius Lucullus captured the seaport in 70 BC, and the city was nearly destroyed by fire.