Pontic Athens: an Athenian Emporion in Its Geo-Historical Context

The least significant of all ancient settlements called Athenai was located east of Trapezous on the Pontic coast. It maintained its name well into the 20 th century, when its successor was renamed Pazar . That Arrian provides us with the first (surviving) description of this chorion is due to a storm that compelled him to anchor parts of the Roman fleet in its little harbour (AD 132). In the 6 th century, Prokopios mentions the village only to refute the local tradition that it had been founded by its more famous namesake. Scholars have shared this skepticism and thus largely relegated Pontic Athens to footnotes or condemned it to complete oblivion. But nothing is more plausible than regarding it as a result of Perikles’ expedition to the Euxine (ca. 437/35 BC). Athenai may have a pre-history as a Milesian apoikia called Limne . Less certain is the role it played after the breakdown of Athenian thalassocracy (405 BC). It probably stood under Sinopean hegemony, before being absorbed into the Pontic kingdom in the early-2 nd century BC. By then, however, Pontic Athens had shared the economic downturn of the area between Trapezous and Phasis. It lived on as a village regardless, and thus demonstrates that a polichnion could escape the historical record for centuries without ceasing to exist.