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143-448: Samsun , historically known as Sampsounta ( Greek : Σαμψούντα ) and Amisos ( Ancient Greek : Ἀμισός), is a city on the north coast of Turkey and a major Black Sea port . Over 700,000 people live in the city. The city is the capital of Samsun Province which has a population of over 1,350,000. The city is home to Ondokuz Mayıs University , several hospitals, three large shopping malls, Samsunspor football club, an opera house and

286-448: A Roman rebel cooperating with Mithridates, blocked and confronted him. They faced off at Otroea near Nicaea (present-day Iznik ). Although Lucullus commanded 30,000 infantry and 2,500 cavalry, he was daunted by the size of the opposing army and reluctant to engage. The arrival of an omen, as reported by Plutarch, was thus fortuitous: But presently, as they were on the point of joining battle, with no apparent change of weather, but all on

429-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,

572-476: A cave. Like Sertorius himself, Marius at some point had lost an eye; when Lucullus gave the order to track down enemy survivors, he specified that no one-eyed men should be killed, so that he could personally oversee the renegade's death: "Lucullus wished Marius to die under the most shameful insults." Orosius reports that he atoned for his rebellious spirit with penalties he earned. While Lucullus and Cotta prepared to invade Pontus, Mithridates gained control of

715-618: A decisive victory, scattering the Roman-led forces. His victorious forces were welcomed throughout Asia Minor. The following year, 88 BC, Mithridates orchestrated a massacre of Roman and Italian settlers remaining in several Anatolian cities, essentially wiping out the Roman presence in the region. 80,000 people are said to have perished in this massacre. The episode is known as the Asiatic Vespers . The Romans responded by organising

858-558: A fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes , a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in

1001-560: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on

1144-523: A few days of supplies for his troops. Lucullus learned of the shortage through prisoner interrogations and decided to wait him out. Marius was forced to move on without the fight he had sought. While Mithridates was besieging Cyzicus, Lucullus and his army arrived; the Romans, with the help of some turncoats, were able to establish a counter-siege, trapping Mithridates' army on the Cyzicus peninsula . During

1287-540: A foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near

1430-590: A granddaughter of Marcus Antonius. From 62 CE it was directly ruled by Roman governors, most famously by Trajan's appointee Pliny. Pliny the Younger's address to the Emperor Trajan in the 1st century CE "By your indulgence, sir, they have the benefit of their own laws," is interpreted by John Boyle Orrery to indicate that the freedoms won for those in Pontus by the Romans was not pure freedom and depended on

1573-606: A large and modern manufacturing district. The city is best known as the place where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk began the Turkish War of Independence in 1919. The present name of the city is believed to have come from its former Greek name of Amisós ( Αμισός ) by a reinterpretation of eís Amisón (meaning "to Amisós") and ounta (Greek suffix for place names) to [eí]s Am[p]s-únta ( Σαμψούντα : Sampsúnta ) and then Samsun ( pronounced [samsun] ). The early Greek historian Hecataeus wrote that Amisos

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1716-493: A large invasion force (this time sending their own legions) to defeat him and remove him from power. The First Mithridatic War , fought between 88 BC and 84 BC, saw Lucius Cornelius Sulla force Mithridates out of Greece proper. After being victorious in several battles Sulla, being declared an outlaw by his political opponents in Rome, hurriedly concluded peace talks with Mithridates. As Sulla returned to Italy Lucius Licinius Murena

1859-468: A major battle took place on a plain near Zela ( the Battle of Zela ); the Romans were defeated, leaving 7,000 dead, including 24 tribunes and 150 centurions . As a result, Mithridates was back in control of Pontus. During the winter of 68–67 BC, at Nisibis, Lucullus's authority over his army was seriously undermined by the efforts of his young brother-in-law Publius Clodius Pulcher , apparently acting in

2002-459: A mixed heritage group, it is not surprising that Amisus would be an appealing site for evangelist work. The author of 1 Peter 1:1 addresses the Jewish diaspora of the province of Pontus, along with four other provinces: "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God's elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia." (Peter 1:1) As Amisus would have been

2145-562: A period of economic and population recovery in the years after the establishment of the Republic and quickly restored its status as a vital Black Sea port for Turkey. Reconstruction of Samsun began quickly after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey . In 1929, the region's first electric power plant began operations. Railway access to the city was established in the early 1950s with service to Sivas and Ankara . Major investments in

2288-503: A personal profit of this war and told him to continue it on his own. Since his army refused to campaign against Mithridates, Lucullus withdrew to Galatia leaving Mithridates to consolidate his power and rebuild his army in Pontus. In 66 BC, the Senate sent Pompey (who had been lobbying for the command against Mithridates) to succeed Lucullus. The lull allowed Mithridates and Tigranes to retake part of their respective kingdoms. Early in 66

2431-546: A separate harbour slightly further east. A ship building yard is under construction at the eastern city limit. Road and rail freight connections with central Anatolia can be used to send inland both the agricultural produce of the surrounding well rained upon and fertile land, and also imports from overseas. Donbas anthracite , imported via the Russian ports of Azov and Taganrog , is said to be illegally exported Ukrainian coal . In 2019 some crew were rescued but 6 died after

2574-706: A ship sank in the Black Sea. There is a light industrial zone between the city and the airport. The main manufactured products are medical devices and products, furniture (wood is imported across the Black Sea), tobacco products (although tobacco farming is now limited by the government), chemicals and automobile spare parts. Flour mills import wheat from Ukraine and export some of the flour. Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized :  Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized :  Hellēnikḗ )

2717-556: A small army from Colchis to Crimea and attempted to raise yet another army to take on the Romans but failed to do so. In 63 BC, he withdrew to the citadel in Panticapaeum . His eldest son, Machares , now king of Cimmerian Bosporus , whose kingdom had been reorganized by the Romans, was unwilling to aid his father. Mithridates had Machares murdered and took the throne of the Bosporan Kingdom, intent on retaking Pontus from

2860-455: A sudden, the sky burst asunder, and a huge, flame-like body was seen to fall between the two armies. In shape, it was most like a wine-jar ( pithos ) , and in colour, like molten silver. Both sides were astonished at the sight, and separated. This marvel, as they say, occurred in Phrygia , at a place called Otryae . No battle occurred. For Marius, delay posed a logistical problem. He had only

3003-598: A ticket. Passenger and freight trains run to Sivas via Amasya . The train station is in the city center. Freight trains are taken by ferry to railways at Kavkaz in Russia, and will later see service to the port of Varna in Bulgaria and Poti in Georgia. The Samsun Tram operates between the eastern district of Tekkeköy and Ondokuz Mayıs University . There is a plan to run electrically powered bus rapid transit between

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3146-804: Is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout

3289-773: Is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system

3432-479: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During

3575-580: Is around 27 °C (81 °F) in August. Winters are cool to mild and wet, the lowest average minimum temperature is around 4 °C (39 °F) in January. Precipitation is heaviest in late autumn and early winter. Snow sometimes occurs between the months of December and March, but temperatures below the freezing point rarely last more than a couple of days. The water temperature is generally mild, fluctuating between 8–20 °C (46–68 °F) throughout

3718-404: Is possible to reach the airport by Havas service buses: they depart from the coach park close to Kultur Sarayi in the city center. Horse-drawn carriages, (Turkish: fayton) run along the seafront. There was automated bike rental along the seafront, but it is not currently operational. Samsun has a mixed economy with a cluster of medical industries. Samsun is a port city. In the early 20th century,

3861-519: Is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to

4004-864: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern Third Mithridatic War In 120 BC, Mithridates V ,

4147-526: Is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around

4290-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,

4433-650: Is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with

Samsun - Misplaced Pages Continue

4576-880: Is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see . Samsun was part of the Seljuk Empire , the Sultanate of Rum , the Empire of Trebizond , and was one of the Genoese colonies . After the breakup of the Seljuk Empire into small principalities (beyliks) in the late 13th century, the city was ruled by one of them, the Isfendiyarids . It was captured from the Isfendiyarids at the end of

4719-570: The Aegean , but Lucullus mounted an attack against them. He captured a detachment of 13 ships between the island of Tenedos and the mainland harbor of the Achaeans . The main Pontic force, however, had drawn their ships to shore at a site difficult of approach, the small island of Neae between Lemnos and Scyros ; Lucullus then sent infantry by land across Neae to their rear, killing many and forcing

4862-807: The Albanians who tried to overrun his camps and the Iberians whom he defeated at the battle of the Pelorus . After defeating the Albanians and Iberians he advanced into Colchis as far as Phasis , where he met up with Servilius, the admiral of his Euxine fleet. From Phasis, Pompey marched east again for he had heard the Iberians were gathering their army again, he caught them at the river Abas where he decisively defeated them (see: battle of Abas ). After his defeat by Pompey in 65 BC, Mithridates VI fled with

5005-481: The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey funded the building of a harbor. Before the building of the harbor, ships had to anchor to deliver goods, approximately 1 mile or more from shore. Trade and transportation was focused around a road to and from Sivas . The privately operated port fronting the city centre handles freight, including RORO ferries to Novorossiysk , whereas fishing boats land their catches in

5148-578: The Cimmerian Bosporus . Pompey marched against Tigranes, whose kingdom and authority were now severely weakened. Tigranes then sued for peace and met with Pompey to plead a cessation of hostilities. The Armenian Kingdom became an allied client state of Rome. From Armenia, Pompey marched north against the Caucasian tribes and kingdoms who still supported Mithridates. In 65 BC, Pompey had set out in pursuit of Mithridates, meeting opposition from

5291-548: The Dioecesis Pontica within the eastern Roman Empire ; later still it was part of the Armeniac Theme . Samsun Castle was built on the seaside in 1192, it was demolished between 1909 and 1918. Though the roots of the city are Hellenistic , it was also one of the centers of an early Christian congregation. Its function as a commercial metropolis in northern Asia Minor was a contributing factor to enable

5434-495: The Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It

5577-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as

5720-493: The Nationalist Movement Party . Air pollution is a problem in some parts of the city, especially in winter when free coal is supplied to poor families by the government. NOx levels from traffic on Yüzüncüyıl Boulevard are among the highest in the country. Samsun like many Ottoman Empire cities was composed of stone mosques, baths, markets and government buildings while the residential vernacular

5863-948: The Pontic steppe with the Scythian King Palacus . The most important cities and people of the Crimea , the Tauric Chersonesus and the Bosporan Kingdom readily surrendered their independence in return for Mithridates' protection against the Scythians, their ancient enemies. The Scythians and their allies the Rhoxolanoi suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Pontic general Diophantus and accepted Mithridates as their overlord. The young king then turned his attention to Asia Minor, where Roman power

Samsun - Misplaced Pages Continue

6006-578: The Tekkeköy Caves can be seen in Samsun Archaeology Museum. The earliest layer excavated of the höyük of Dündartepe revealed a Chalcolithic settlement. Early Bronze Age and Hittite settlements were also found there and at Tekkeköy. Samsun (then known as Amisos , Greek Αμισός, alternative spelling Amisus ) was settled in about 760–750 BC by Ionians from Miletus , who established a flourishing trade relationship with

6149-485: The Turkish War of Independence . Samsun's tallest building is Gökdelen Towers Tower 1 at 115 m followed by the Sheraton Hotel Samsun at 115 m. In recent years dozens of mid-rise residential and commercial buildings have come to populate the city's formerly low-rise skyline. Long distance buses the bus station is outside the city centre, but most bus companies provide a free transfer there if you have

6292-756: The Turkish national movement against the Allies in Samsun on May 19, 1919, the date which traditionally marks the beginning of the Turkish War of Independence . Atatürk, appointed by the Ottoman government as Inspector of the Ninth Army Troops Inspectorate of the Empire in eastern Anatolia , left Constantinople aboard the now-famous SS  Bandırma on May 16 for Samsun. Instead of obeying

6435-492: The nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in

6578-639: The 14th century by the rival Ottoman beylik (later the Ottoman Empire ) under sultan Bayezid I , but was lost again shortly afterwards. The Ottomans permanently conquered the town in the weeks following 11 August 1420. In the later Ottoman period, it became part of the Sanjak of Canik ( Turkish : Canik Sancağı ), which was at first part of the Rûm Eyalet . The land around the town mainly produced tobacco , with its own type being grown in Samsun,

6721-412: The 18th and 19th centuries bore the title of Amisus as titular bishops . In the 13th century the Franciscans had a convent at Amisus, which became a Latin bishopric some time before 1345, when its bishop Paulus was transferred to the recently conquered city of Smyrna and was replaced by the Dominican Benedict, who was followed by an Italian Armenian called Thomas. No longer a residential diocese, it

6864-402: The 20th century radar base. The Romans conquered Amisus in 71 BC during the Third Mithridatic War . and Amisus became part of Bithynia et Pontus province. Around 46 BC, during the reign of Julius Caesar, Amisus became the capital of Roman Pontus. From the period of the Second Triumvirate up to Nero, Pontus was ruled by several client kings, as well as one client queen, Pythodorida of Pontus ,

7007-415: The 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into

7150-412: The 6th century is a fragment of Wild Goat style Greek pottery, in the Louvre. The city was captured by the Persians in 550 BC and became part of Cappadocia (satrapy) . In the 5th century BC, Amisus became a free state and one of the members of the Delian League led by the Athenians ; it was then renamed Peiraeus under Pericles . A historical tradition from Theopompus by way of Strabo has it that

7293-480: The Armenian king demanding he hand over Mithridates. Since handing over his father-in-law would make him look like nothing more than a puppet of Rome, Tigranes had no other choice than to refuse and prepare for war. In the spring of 69 BC Lucullus marched his army from Cappadocia across the Euphrates into Greater Armenia (the Armenian Empire's heartland) and the Roman-Armenian War began. Tigranes sent one of his nobles, Mithrobarzanes, with 2,000–3,000 cavalry to expel

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7436-568: The East, Cotta returned to Rome in 70 BC, where he at first was widely acclaimed for his victory at Heraclea. However, around 67 BC he was accused of appropriation of war booty by Gaius Papirius Carbo. He was convicted of the offence and expelled from the Senate . After the Battle of Cabira Mithridates fled to his son-in-law Tigranes II the king of the Armenian Empire . Lucullus, busy mopping up resistance in Pontus and Armenia Minor (also part of Mithridates's former dominions), sent his brother-in-law Appius Claudius Pulcher as an emissary to

7579-405: The Free Republican Party and the first provincial branch of the Democrat Party were opened. For that reason, the city occupies an important place in the history of politics in Turkey. Samsun has traditionally voted for right-wing and nationalistic parties both in local and national elections. In this respect, in Samsun, which is described as the "vote depot of the right". Until the 2018, nearly 80% of

7722-486: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit

7865-425: The Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to the extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than

8008-442: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in

8151-629: The Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow

8294-446: The Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in the country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community

8437-404: The Illuminator (raised as a Christian from 257 CE when he was brought to Amisus) and Basil the Great (Bishop of the city 330–379 CE). Christian bishops of Amisus include Antonius, who took part in the Council of Chalcedon in 451; Erythraeus, a signatory of the letter that the bishops of Helenopontus wrote to Emperor Leo I the Thracian after the killing of Patriarch Proterius of Alexandria ;

8580-479: The Pontic coast, Cotta began besieging Heraclea itself, which took him two years to complete, sacking the city in 71 BC. During this time he was forced to dismiss one of his quaestors , Publius Oppius, charging him with bribery and conspiracy. Lucullus himself consolidated Roman control over Pontus. First returning to the siege of Amisus. With Mithridates out of his reach Lucullus set about consolidating his hold on Pontus. Amisus , an important Greek city in Pontus,

8723-415: The Pontic threat. The only other possible general for such an important command, Pompey , was in Hispania to help Metellus Pius crush the revolt led by Sertorius. Lucullus was sent to govern Cilicia and Cotta to Bithynia . According to Appian and Plutarch Lucullus had 30,000 infantry and 1,600–2,500 cavalry while Mithridates was rumoured to have as many as 300,000 men in his force. The original plan

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8866-505: The Roman cause, probably because many of its citizens (serving in Cotta's army as auxiliaries ) had died fighting against Mithridates at Chalcedon. The Pontic army marched on Cyzicus and began a siege. Lucullus was camped somewhere along the Sangarius river in Bithynia when he received news of Cotta's defeat. His soldiers urged him to leave Cotta to his own folly and march on undefended Pontus with its rich potential for loot. Lucullus ignored them and headed toward Chalcedon. Marcus Marius ,

9009-475: The Romans because they detested Mithridates. They were keen to see the Roman legions pass through Galatia without plundering it. Once Lucullus was in the Pontic heartland and he let his troops plunder the rich and fertile area. Mithridates could do nothing to stop the despoiling of his lands for he had to rebuild his army. He eventually assembled 40,000 men (4,000 cavalry) near Cabira and waited for Lucullus. Upon entering Pontus, Lucullus lay siege to Themiscyra ,

9152-564: The Romans. His younger son, Pharnaces II , backed by a disgruntled and war weary populace, led a rebellion against his father. This betrayal, after the decisive defeat in battle, hurt Mithridates more than any other and seeing his loss of authority he attempted suicide by poison. The attempt failed as he had gained immunity to various poisons from taking tiny doses of all available poisons throughout his life to guard against assassination. According to Appian 's Roman History , he then ordered his Gallic bodyguard and friend, Bituitus, to kill him by

9295-416: The Romans. Lucullus' army annihilated the Armenian host, despite odds of about more than two to one against him. This was the famous battle of Tigranocerta . It was fought on the same (pre-Julian) calendar date as the Roman disaster at Arausio 36 years earlier, the day before the Nones of October according to the reckoning of the time (or October 6), which is Julian October 16, 69 BC. Tigranes then retired to

9438-462: The Romans. Mithridates plotted to overthrow him, but his attempts failed and Nicomedes IV, instigated by his Roman advisors, declared war on Pontus. Rome itself was involved in the Social War , a civil war with its Italian allies. Thus, in all of Roman Asia Province there were few Roman troops available. The Romans therefore mustered a great number of Asian levies and combined with Nicomedes' army they invaded Mithridates' kingdom in 89 BC. Mithridates won

9581-434: The Samsun-Bafra, which the British described as having "small but very aromatic leaves", and commanding a "high price." The town was connected to the railway system in the second half of the 19th century, and tobacco trade boomed. There was a British consulate in the town from 1837 to 1863. Previously, the last Armenian Zoroastrians, the Arewordik , or children of the sun, lived in Samsun. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk established

9724-436: The Second and Third wars of Rome and the Pontic Kingdom (81–75 BC) is discussed under the Kingdom of Pontus . There it can be seen how the long piracy wars were a development out of the First Mithridatic War and especially of the alliance between Mithridates VI and Sertorius , which in joining those two threats into a unity much larger than its parts had the serious potential of overturning Roman power. The immediate cause of

9867-461: The Third War was the bequest to Rome by King Nicomedes IV of Bithynia of his kingdom upon his death (74 BC). Mithridates, who had been rebuilding his forces, launched an invasion of Bithynia. Having launched an attack at the same time as a revolt by Sertorius swept through the Spanish provinces, Mithridates was initially virtually unopposed. The Senate responded by sending the consuls Lucius Licinius Lucullus and Marcus Aurelius Cotta to deal with

10010-419: The Turks was a strategic failure. Following Turkey's victory, the Greek population left for Greece after the 1923 Population Exchange founding villages including Nea Sampsounda in Preveza , Greece . After the establishment of the Republic, Samsun was declared a province with five districts Bafra , Çarşamba , Havza , Terme and Vezirköprü . Samsun added additional districts in later years. In 1928, Ladik

10153-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),

10296-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of

10439-476: The ancient peoples of Anatolia . The city's ideal combination of fertile ground and shallow waters attracted numerous traders. Amisus was settled by the Ionian Milesians in the 6th century BC, it is believed that there was significant Greek activity along the coast of the Black Sea, although the archaeological evidence for this is very fragmentary. The only archaeological evidence we have as early as

10582-414: The assistance of Rome. The Romans twice interfered in the conflict on behalf of Nicomedes (95–92 BC), leaving Mithridates, should he wish to continue the expansion of his kingdom, with little choice other than to engage in a future Roman-Pontic war. By this time Mithridates had resolved to expel the Romans from Asia. The next ruler of Bithynia , Nicomedes IV of Bithynia , was a figurehead manipulated by

10725-520: The city center. Projects include the restoration of the Mert River, the construction of the new National Garden, the restoration of Tarihi Şifa Hamamı and the construction of Samsun Saathane Square . Samsun is a long city which extends along the coast between two river deltas which jut into the Black Sea . It is located at the end of an ancient route from Cappadocia : the Amisos of antiquity lay on

10868-513: The city center. The airport is primarily serviced by Turkish Airlines with service to Istanbul Airport and Ankara Esenboğa Airport but also has international service to Germany and Iraq . In 2008, the Metropolitan Municipality opened the 36.5 km Samsun Tram network which connects Ondokuz Mayıs University to Samsun 19 Mayıs Stadium . In 1993, Samsun was established as a metropolitan municipality by decree of

11011-467: The city to no avail; it was strongly fortified, with two walls of brick and a moat. But in the winter of 68/67 BC, during a terrible storm – when the defenders relaxed their guard – Lucullus launched a surprise attack and captured the city and its treasury. It made no difference, Mithridates and Tigranes stuck to their strategy and refused to march against Lucullus; Tigranes was in the process of taking back southern Armenia and Mithridates invaded Pontus. In

11154-528: The city was originally colonized by the Greeks by a man named Athenocles . Starting in the 3rd century BC, the city came under the control of Mithridates I, later founder of the Kingdom of Pontus . The Amisos treasure may have belonged to one of the kings. Tumuli, containing tombs dated between 300 BC and 30 BC, can be seen at Amisos Hill but unfortunately Toraman Tepe was mostly flattened during construction of

11297-438: The command of the legate Sornatius was attacked by the Pontic cavalry. The Roman infantry stood their ground and held off the attack inflicting terrible losses on the Pontic horsemen. When a second supply convoy, also heavily armed, under the command of the legate Marcus Fabius Hadrianus made for Lucullus's camp Mithridates decided to use a combined arms (infantry and cavalry) attack. A force of 4,000 cavalry and infantry fell upon

11440-573: The construction of vast areas of gecekondu on the city's suburban periphery. As the region has modernized, the Turkish government has made a full force effort to replace gecekondu with formally designed and built housing. TOKİ , the state agency tasked with housing development has invested heavily in Samsun, building several large social housing developments for the city's growing population. Samsun used to have several Greek Orthodox churches however most were destroyed or converted to mosques following

11583-431: The convoy, unfortunately for Mithridates, the Romans realized the narrow valley at the scene limited the effectiveness of their opponents' cavalry and they counter-attacked wiping out half the attacking force. With the Romans re-supplied and his attack-force decimated (c. 2000 casualties) Mithridates decided to retreat. During the preparations for the retreat a panic broke out among his troops, Lucullus became aware of what

11726-466: The court of his mother and went into hiding. He returned between 116 and 113 BC and was able to remove his mother and his brother from the Pontic throne, thus becoming the sole ruler of Pontus. Mithridates entertained ambitions of making his state the dominant power in the east of Asia Minor and the Black Sea region. He first subjugated Colchis , a region east of the Black Sea, and prior to 164 BC, an independent kingdom. He then clashed for supremacy on

11869-404: The early 19th century that was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of

12012-506: The east, lie the Yeşilırmak ("Green River", the Iris of antiquity) and its delta. The River Mert reaches the sea at the city. Samsun has a humid subtropical climate ( Köppen : Cfa, Trewartha : Cf ), typical for the region, but Samsun is nevertheless drier during summer and milder during winter than most of the southern Black Sea coast. Summers are warm, the average maximum temperature

12155-408: The economic liberalization Turkey, the city's population began to rapidly increase. In 1990, the city reported a population of 322,982. That figure grew to 388,509 by 2000, 461,640 in 2008, to 511,601 in 2015. In 2020, the city had an estimated population of 710,000. Samsun holds an important historical role in the political development of the Republic of Turkey . The city is where the first branch of

12298-618: The epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute

12441-624: The exception of those from Atakum . The mayor of the Metropolitan Municipality Mustafa Demir is a member of the Justice and Development Party . Of the members of parliament from Samsun, Ahmet Demircan, Yusuf Ziya Yılmaz, Çiğdem Karaaslan, Fuat Köktaş and Orhan Kırcalı are from the Justice and Development Party , while two are from the Republican People's Party , one from Good Party and one from

12584-507: The famine and a plague which had struck his main army forced Mithridates to completely abandon his position, sailing north while his army marched overland. Lucullus pursued the army and defeated them at the confluence of the Aesepus and Granicus Rivers , slaughtering many (20,000 were killed while crossing the river Granicus). Eventually, of the 300,000 who had set out for Bithynia, only 20,000 effective troops remained. The siege of Cyzicus and

12727-602: The far east. In the summer of 68 BC Lucullus marched against Tigranes and crossed the Anti-Taurus range heading for the old Armenian capital Artaxata. Once again, Tigranes was provoked to attack, and in a major battle at the Aratsani River, Lucullus defeated the Armenian army. Soon he left this campaign, and when winter came on early in the Armenian tablelands, his troops mutinied, refusing to go further, and he

12870-452: The following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in

13013-406: The generosity of the Roman emperor. The estimated population of the city around 150 AD is between 20,000 and 25,000 people, classifying it as a relatively large city for that time. The city functioned as the commercial capital for the province of Pontus; beating its rival Sinope (now Sinop) due to its position at the head of the trans-Anatolia highway. In Late Antiquity , the city became part of

13156-605: The headland northwest of the modern city center. The city is growing fast: land has been reclaimed from the sea and many more apartment blocks and shopping malls are currently being built. Industry is tending to move (or be moved) east, further away from the city center and towards the airport. To Samsun's west, lies the Kızılırmak ("Red River", the Halys of antiquity), one of the longest rivers in Anatolia and its fertile delta. To

13299-478: The heights overlooking Cabira. This was a secure and very defensible position, but its location meant the Romans were cut off from their recent conquests in Pontus and their supply lines now had to come north from Cappadocia , a Roman ally, to the south of Pontus. Since Mithridates dominated the countryside, Lucullus had to send out heavily armed convoys to get supplies. One of those supply convoys, escorted by no less than ten cohorts of infantry (3,000–5,000 men), under

13442-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn

13585-523: The inhabitants had disappeared by his time. Samsun has also been known as Peiraieos by Athenian settlers and even briefly as Pompeiopolis by Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus . The city was called Simisso by the Genoese . It was during the Ottoman Empire , that its present name was written as Ottoman Turkish : صامسون ( Ṣāmsūn ). The city has been known as Samsun since the formation of the Turkish Republic in 1923. Paleolithic artifacts found in

13728-452: The interests and pay of Pompey the Great , who was eager to succeed Lucullus in the eastern command. Lucullus was able to persuade his army to march back to Asia Minor to protect Roman interests there, but they refused to march against Mithridates. They were tired of constant campaigning for little profit. They threw their purses at Lucullus's feet and accused him that he was the only one making

13871-510: The invader. Mithrobarzanes charged the Romans while they were setting up their camp, but was met by a 3,500-strong sentry force and his horsemen were routed. He perished in the attempt. Lucullus began a siege of the new Armenian imperial capital of Tigranocerta in the Arzenene district. Tigranes, with his main host, returned from mopping up a Seleucid rebellion in Syria, and sought battle with

14014-466: The king of Pontus was poisoned by unknown figures. The conspirators were probably working for his wife Laodice . In his will Mithridates V left the kingdom to the joint rule of Laodice, Mithridates VI and Mithridates Chrestus . Both of her sons were underage and Laodice retained all power as regent. Laodice in her regency favored her second son (Chrestus was probably more pliable). During her regency 120–116 BC (perhaps even 113 BC), Mithridates VI escaped

14157-713: The largest commercial port-city in the province, it is believed certain that the spread of Christianity in the region would have begun there. In the 1st century Pliny the Younger documents accounts of Christians in and around the cities of Pontus. His accounts center on his conflicts with the Christians when he served under the Emperor Trajan and describe early Christian communities, his condemnation of their refusal to renounce their religion, but also describes his tolerance for some Christian practices like Christian charitable societies. Many great early Christian figures had connections to Amisus, including Caesarea Mazaca , Gregory

14300-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write

14443-706: The late 6th-century bishop Florus, venerated as a saint in the Greek menologion ; and Tiberius, who attended the Third Council of Constantinople (680), Leo, the Second Council of Nicaea (787), and Basilius, the Council of Constantinople of 879 . The diocese is no longer mentioned in the Greek Notitiae Episcopatuum after the 15th century and thereafter the city was considered part of the see of Amasea . However, some Greek bishops of

14586-581: The legendary home of the Amazons , on the River Thermodon . Lucullus's forces erected siege towers and dug great tunnel passages underneath the walls. These tunnels were so large that significant battles were later fought within them. The Themiscyrans are said to have introduced bears, other large animals, and even swarms of bees into the subterranean passages to fight off Lucullus's men. After careful manoeuvering, Lucullus occupied an old fortress on

14729-640: The membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek

14872-441: The modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and

15015-491: The national government in Ankara . The decree further enhanced Samsun's status as one of Turkey's largest and most important cities. As Samsun grew, as did its environs. Neighboring Atakum, a suburb to the west of the city center was established in 2008 with the merger of Atakent, Kurupelit, Altınkum, Çatalçam and Taflan towns into one municipality. Atakum in recent years has become a bedroom community to Samsun and home to much of

15158-631: The northern regions of his kingdom to gather another army and defend his hereditary capital of Artaxata. Meanwhile, Lucullus moved off south-eastwards to the kingdom of the Kurds ( Korduene ) on the frontiers of the Armenian and Parthian empires. During the winter of 69–68 BC both sides opened negotiations with the Parthian king, Arsaces XVI, who was presently defending himself against a major onslaught from his rival Phraates III coming from Bactria and

15301-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks

15444-536: The objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It

15587-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as

15730-495: The orders of the Ottoman government, then under the control of the occupying Allies, he and a number of colleagues declared the beginning of the Turkish national movement. The Allies claimed that the Greek population of Samsun was subject looting by Turkish irregular groups, as noted by representatives of the American Near East Relief , an Allied organization. The Turkish National Movement became alarmed due to

15873-508: The populace voted for right-wing parties while the membership rate to political parties is around 20%. The majority of the deputies have been from the right in all general elections since 1950. Only in 1989 and 1994 did a candidate from a left-wing party, Muzaffer Önder was elected mayor. Today, 6 of the 9 deputies of Samsun's delegation to the Turkish Grand National Assembly are members of right-wing parties with

16016-495: The presence of Greek warships in the vicinity of Samsun and undertook the deportation which entailed the deportation of 21,000 local Greeks to the interior of Anatolia. By 1920, Samsun's population totaled about 36,000, though this figure declined due to the impacts of war and deportations. Later, in early June 1922, the city was bombarded by the Allied navy, consisting of American and Greek warships. The Allied bombardment against

16159-476: The railway station and Tekkekoy . Some city buses are electric. Dolmuş , the routes are numbered 1 to 4 and each route has different color minibuses. The 320 m (1,050 ft) long Samsun Amisos Hill Gondola serves from Batıpark the archaeological area on the Amisos Hill, where ancient tombs in tumuli were discovered. Samsun-Çarşamba Airport is 23 km (14 mi) east of the city center. It

16302-471: The region's professional class. Multiple other large developments have further established Samsun as a major urban center. In 2013, Piazza Samsun a 160 store shopping mall, the largest in the Central Black Sea region, opened in the city center. The opening of the mall was followed by the construction of 115 m tall Sheraton Hotel Samsun . Now the second tallest building in the region, the hotel at

16445-432: The regions road network were made beginning in the 1960s. In 1975, per law No. 1873, Ondokuz Mayıs University was established in neighboring Atakum . The construction of the university was a major development to the region, bringing a highly regarded and well-funded educational institution and state hospital to Samsun. The region was connect by air in 1998 with the construction of Samsun-Çarşamba Airport 23 km east of

16588-491: The rest back to sea. Lucullus sunk or captured 32 ships of the royal fleet provided by Mithradates and additional transport vessels. Dionysios committed suicide, but Alexandros was captured and held for display in Lucullus's anticipated triumph . Among the dead were a number of men who had been on Sulla's proscription lists . Marius at first escaped, possibly from a sinking ship, since he was later found ashore taking refuge in

16731-460: The right time (when Callimachus let his defenders take a rest) and took Amisus, but not without regret; his soldiers ransacked the city and turned it into a ruin. Lucullus, a great admirer of Greek culture, lamented that Sulla had been blessed because he was able to save Athens, while the gods had ordained the fate of Lucius Mummius Achaicus , the destroyer of Corinth , for him. After Amisus Lucullus besieged Sinope , Pontus' main port city, which

16874-471: The siege Mithridates sent his cavalry away, with the sick and the wounded, but they were ambushed and slaughtered at the river Rhyndacus. In the middle of a snowstorm, Lucullus met these forces with ten cohorts and attacked them in mid-crossing on both sides of the river. Plutarch and Appian record 15,000 men and 6,000 horses as being captured during the battle. The disaster at the Rhyndacus combined with

17017-516: The spread of Christian influence. As a large port city – the commercial capital of Pontus – travel to and from Christian hotbeds like Jerusalem was not uncommon. According to Josephus , there was large Jewish diaspora in Asia Minor. Given that the early evangelist Christians focused on Jewish diaspora communities, and that the Jewish diaspora in Amisus was a geographically accessible group with

17160-412: The spring of 67 BC, while Lucullus was laying siege to Nisibis, Mithridates suddenly returned to Pontus. The Romans had not expected Mithridates to strike at them in Pontus and he caught several small Roman detachments unaware. The legate Gaius Valerius Triarius who was nearby bringing two legions to reinforce Lucullus took command of all Roman forces in Pontus. After several skirmishes and small battles,

17303-526: The strategically important city of Heraclea Pontica and garrisoned it with 4,000 men. Hearing of the situation at Heraclea, Lucullus and Cotta decided that Cotta would march on Heraclea while Lucullus would move through the Galatian highlands and invade Pontus from there. In 72 BC, while Cotta moved against Heraclea and Triarius managed naval affairs, Lucullus marched his army through Galatia and into Pontus. The Galatians were only too happy to supply

17446-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of

17589-561: The subsequent retreat could be considered an unmitigated disaster. Marcus Marius, having survived the Cyzicus campaign, had taken to the sea. Along with Mithridates's admirals Alexandros the Paphlagonian and Dionysios Eunuchos ("the Eunuch "), he was placed in joint command of 50 ships and 10,000 handpicked men, among them, in the words of Mommsen , "the flower of the Roman emigrants." Their intention seems to have been to sail east into

17732-520: The time was the first building in Samsun's history to stand more than 100 m. In 2017, Samsunspor opened a new 30,000 person stadium in Tekkeköy . Gökdelen Towers is now the tallest building in the Samsun region and representative of a recent trend towards high-rise residential housing. Under the leadership of Metropolitan Mayor Mustafa Demir , the Samsun regional government has undertaken several major transportation and housing development projects in

17875-542: The tribune Gaius Manilius proposed that Pompey should assume supreme command of the war against Mithridates and Tigranes. He should take control from the provincial governors in Asia Minor, have the power to appoint legates himself and the authority to make war and peace and to conclude treaties on his own discretion. The law, the Lex Manilia , was approved by the Senate and the People and Pompey officially took command of

18018-401: The walls of Chalcedon. Sixty-four Roman ships had been captured or burnt, and Cotta had lost three thousand men. There Cotta was forced to remain until Lucullus could come to his rescue. Having made his way to Nicomedia , Cotta watched in frustration as Mithridates marched on taking Nicaea , Lampsacus , Nicomedia and Apameia, all major cities in the region. Only nearby Cyzicus held to

18161-497: The war in the east. On the approach of Pompey, Mithridates retreated into the centre of his kingdom trying to stretch and cut off the Roman supply lines but this strategy did not work (Pompey excelled at logistics). Eventually Pompey cornered and defeated the king at the river Lycus (see: battle of Lycus ). As Tigranes II of Armenia, his son-in-law, refused to receive him into his dominions ( Greater Armenia ), Mithridates fled to Colchis , and hence made his way to his own dominions in

18304-547: The year. During the Tanzimat period and the subsequent wars, Ottoman Muslims were exiled from the Balkans and Circassians were expelled from the Caucasus region. Many of the present inhabitants trace their origins from further west or east on the Black Sea coast. The overwhelming majority of people are Muslim . Due to depressed economic conditions, Samsun saw slow but gradual population growth until 1990. Beginning with

18447-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or

18590-508: Was almost exclusively wood. The city was populated with wooden konak style homes with more elaborate yali (residence) style homes for the wealthy. Beginning in the 1950s as the city's population grew many of these older wooden structures burned down or torn down and replaced with concrete frame apartment buildings which are now the predominant form of construction in the city center. The city's explosive population growth outpaced its ability to formally build housing for its new residents leading to

18733-543: Was also holding out against the Romans. There was significant resistance; the garrison was doing well in defending the coastal city on water as well as land. Lucullus kept up the pressure and finally the defenders gave up, they burned their heavier ships while escaping on lighter vessels. Lucullus granted the city its freedom because the real resistance had not come from the Sinopians themselves but from Cilician troops Mithridates had garrisoned there. While Lucullus stayed in

18876-568: Was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of

19019-557: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe

19162-500: Was established as a district. In 1934, district was Kavak was established followed by Alaçam in 1944 which brought the number of districts in Samsun Province to eight. With the law number 3392 adopted on 19 June 1983 Salıpazarı , Asarcık , Ondokuzmayıs and Tekkeköy districts were established. With the law number 3644 adopted on 9 May 1990, Ayvacık and Yakakent two more districts were established. Samsun entered into

19305-508: Was forced to withdraw southwards back into Arzenene. From there he proceeded back down through Korduene into old Assyria (Northern Mesopotamia ) and in the late autumn and early winter besieged Nisibis , the main Armenian fortress city and treasury in Northern Mesopotamia. The Armenian garrison at Nisibis was under the command of Tigranes's brother Gouras and the Greek defence expert Callimachus. At first Lucullus besieged

19448-565: Was formerly called Enete , the place mentioned in Homer's Iliad . In Book II, Homer says that the ἐνετοί (Enetoi) inhabited Paphlagonia on the southern coast of the Black Sea in the time of the Trojan War (c. 1200 BC). The Paphlagonians are listed among the allies of the Trojans in the war, where their king Pylaemenes and his son Harpalion perished. Strabo mentioned that

19591-437: Was happening, mustered his army, and attacked Mithridates's camp; at this point the Pontic army broke and disintegrated. After the Battle of Cabira, Mithridates fled Pontus, he went to Armenia seeking his son-in-law king Tigranes' support. Joined by Lucullus at Nicomedia in 73 BC, Cotta was assigned the task of securing Lucullus' rear by taking Heraclea Pontica, which Mithridates had reinforced with 4,000 troops. After reducing

19734-586: Was left in charge of Roman forces in Anatolia. The lenient peace treaty, which was never ratified by the Senate, allowed Mithridates VI to restore his forces. Murena attacked Mithridates in 83 BC, provoking the Second Mithridatic War from 83 BC to 81 BC. Mithridates defeated Murena's two green legions at the Battle of Halys in 82 BC before peace was again declared by treaty. The period between

19877-409: Was on the rise. He contrived to partition Paphlagonia and Galatia with King Nicomedes III of Bithynia . Yet it soon became clear to Mithridates that Nicomedes was steering his country into an anti-Pontic alliance with the expanding Roman Republic. When Mithridates fell out with Nicomedes over control of Cappadocia , and defeated him in a series of battles, the latter was constrained to openly enlist

20020-473: Was still holding out against Murena whom Lucullus had put in charge of the siege. Mithridates had sent the Greek Callimachus, a master of siege warfare, to Amisus to help with its defence. Callimachus created a number of mechanical defensive devices which gave the Romans a lot of hardships. Lucullus took over from Murena and proved his tactical genius once again by launching an attack at precisely

20163-419: Was that Cotta should tie down Mithridates' fleet, while Lucullus attacked by land. Cotta was therefore ordered to station his fleet at Chalcedon , while Lucullus marched through Phrygia with the intention of invading Pontus. Lucullus had not advanced far when news came through that Mithridates had made a rapid march westward, attacked and defeated Cotta at the Battle of Chalcedon , and forced him to flee behind

20306-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect

20449-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage

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