Editing Trabzon (section)

===Iron Age and Classical Antiquity===
{{multiple image
 | width1 = 120
 | width2 = 170
 | image1 = Hermes Trabzon museum.jpg
 | caption1 = Bronze statue of [[Hermes]], 2nd c. BC, found near Tabakhane bridge in the center of Trabzon. Displayed in [[Trabzon Museum]].
 | image2 = Head and left hand from a bronze cult statue of Anahita, a local goddess shown here in the guide of Aphrodite, 200-100 BC, British Museum (8167370318).jpg
 | caption2 = Head and hand of a 2nd c. BC bronze statue of (possibly [[Anahit]] as) [[Aphrodite]], found near [[Kelkit]] to the south of Trabzon province. On display in the [[British Museum]].
}}
Before the city was founded as a Greek colony the area was dominated by [[Colchis|Colchians]] (west Georgian) and [[Chalybes|Chaldian]] (Anatolian) tribes. The [[Hayasa]], who had been in conflict with the Central-Anatolian [[Hittites]] in the 14th century BC, are believed to have lived in the area south of Trabzon. Later Greek authors mentioned the [[Macrones]] and the [[Chalybes]] as native peoples. One of the dominant Caucasian groups to the east were the [[Laz people|Laz]], who were part of the monarchy of the [[Colchis]], together with other related [[Kartvelians|Georgian]] peoples.<ref>''Phoenix: The Peoples of the Hills: Ancient Ararat and Caucasus'' by Charles Burney, David Marshall Lang, Phoenix Press; New Ed edition (December 31, 2001)</ref><ref>Ronald Grigor Suny, The Making of the Georgian Nation: 2nd edition (December 1994), Indiana University Press, {{ISBN|0-253-20915-3}}, page 45</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://timothygrove.blogspot.ro/2012_07_01_archive.html|title=A Star in the East|website=TimothyGrove.Blogspot.ro|date=23 July 2012|access-date=14 January 2018}}</ref>

The city was founded in [[classical antiquity]] in 756 BC as Tραπεζούς (''Trapezous''), by [[Milesians (Greek)|Milesian]] traders from [[Sinop, Turkey|Sinope]].<ref name="Bosneagu2022">{{cite book | author = Romeo Bosneagu | date = 22 February 2022 | title = The Black Sea from Paleogeography to Modern Navigation: Applied Maritime Geography and Oceanography | publisher = Springer Nature | pages = | isbn = 978-3-03-088762-9 | oclc = 1299382109 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=lr9gEAAAQBAJ}}</ref> It was one of a number (about ten) of Milesian ''emporia'' or [[colonies in antiquity|trading colonies]] along the shores of the Black Sea. Others included [[Abydos (Hellespont)|Abydos]] and [[Cyzicus]] in the [[Dardanelles]], and nearby [[Giresun|Kerasous]]. Like most [[Hellenic civilization|Greek]] colonies, the city was a small enclave of Greek life, and not an empire unto its own, in the later European sense of the word. As a colony, Trapezous initially paid tribute to Sinope, but early banking (money-changing) activity is suggested to have occurred in the city already in the 4th century BC, according to a silver [[Ancient drachma|drachma]] coin from Trapezus in the [[British Museum]], London. [[Cyrus the Great]] added the city to the [[Achaemenid Empire]], and was possibly the first ruler to consolidate the eastern Black Sea region into a single political entity (a [[satrapy]]).

[[File:The Return of the Ten Thousand under Xenophon.jpg|thumb|left|Thálatta! Thálatta! ("The Sea! The Sea!").<br /> Trebizond was the first Greek city the [[Ten Thousand]] reached on their retreat from Persia. 19th c. illustration by Herman Vogel.]]
Trebizond's trade partners included the [[Mossynoeci]]. When [[Xenophon]] and the [[Ten Thousand (Greek)|Ten Thousand]] mercenaries were fighting their way out of [[Persia]], the first Greek city they reached was Trebizond (Xenophon, ''Anabasis'', 5.5.10). The city and the local Mossynoeci had become estranged from the Mossynoecian capital, to the point of civil war. Xenophon's force resolved this in the rebels' favor, and so in Trebizond's interest.

Up until the conquests of [[Alexander the Great]] the city remained under the dominion of the Achaemenids. While the Pontus was not directly affected by the war, its cities gained independence as a result of it. Local ruling families continued to claim partial Persian heritage, and Persian culture had some lasting influence on the city; the holy springs of Mt. Minthrion to the east of the old town were devoted to the Persian-Anatolian Greek god [[Mithra]]. In the 2nd century BC, the city with its natural harbours was added to the [[Kingdom of Pontus]] by [[Pharnaces I of Pontus|Pharnaces I]]. [[Mithridates VI Eupator]] made it the home port of the Pontic fleet, in his quest to remove the Romans from Anatolia.

After the defeat of Mithridates in 66 BC, the city was first handed to the [[Galatians (people)|Galatians]], but it was soon returned to the grandson of Mithradates, and subsequently became part of the new client Kingdom of Pontus. When the kingdom was finally annexed to the [[Roman Empire|Roman]] province of [[Galatia (Roman province)|Galatia]] two centuries later, the fleet passed to new commanders, becoming the ''[[Classis Pontica]]''. The city received the status of [[Free city (classical antiquity)|civitas libera]], extending its judicial autonomy and the right to mint its own coin. Trebizond gained importance for its access to roads leading over the [[Zigana Pass]] to the Armenian frontier or the upper [[Euphrates]] valley. New roads were constructed from [[Persian Empire|Persia]] and [[Mesopotamia]] under the rule of [[Vespasian]]. In the next century, the emperor [[Hadrian]] commissioned improvements to give the city a more structured harbor.<ref name=Miller-9>[[William Miller (historian)|William Miller]], ''Trebizond: The Last Greek Empire'', 1926, (Chicago: Argonaut Publishers, 1968), p. 9</ref> The emperor visited the city in the year 129 as part of his inspection of the eastern border ([[Limes (Roman Empire)|limes]]). A [[mithraeum]] now serves as a crypt for the church and monastery of Panagia Theoskepastos (''Kızlar Manastırı'') in nearby Kizlara, east of the citadel and south of the modern harbor.

[[File:Aquila, Valerian, Eugene and Candidus of Trebizond (Menologion of Basil II).jpg|thumb|left|Martyrdom of Eugenius, Candidius, Valerian, and Aquila. Work dated to 985, [[Vatican Library]].]][[File:Trabzon City walls and Aquaduct.JPG|thumb|Parts of the [[Walls of Trabzon|city walls of Trabzon]] and the Eugenius Aqueduct are among the oldest remaining structures in the city.]]

[[Septimius Severus]] punished Trebizond for having supported his rival [[Pescennius Niger]] during the [[Year of the Five Emperors]]. In 257 the city was pillaged by the [[Goths]], despite reportedly being defended by "10,000 above its usual garrison" and two bands of walls.<ref name=Miller-9/> {{anchor|258 sack}} Trebizond was subsequently rebuilt, pillaged again, by the [[Sasanian Empire|Persians]], in 258, and then rebuilt once more. It did not soon recover. Only in the reign of [[Diocletian]] does an inscription allude to the restoration of the city; [[Ammianus Marcellinus]] had nothing to say of Trebizond except that it was "not an obscure town." 

[[Christianity]] had reached Trebizond by the third century, for during the reign of Diocletian occurred the martyrdom of [[Eugenius of Trebizond|Eugenius]] and his associates Candidius, Valerian, and Aquila.<ref>Miller, ''Trebizond'', p. 10</ref> Eugenius had destroyed the statue of [[Mithras]] which overlooked the city from [[Mount Minthrion]] (Boztepe), and became the patron saint of the city after his death. Early Christians sought refuge in the Pontic Mountains south of the city, where they established [[Vazelon Monastery]] in 270 AD and [[Sumela Monastery]] in 386 AD. As early as the [[First Council of Nicea]], Trebizond had its own bishop.<ref name="Hewsen46">Hewsen, 46</ref> Subsequently, the Bishop of Trebizond was subordinated to the [[Metropolitan Bishop]] of [[Poti]].<ref name="Hewsen46" /> Then during the 9th century, Trebizond itself became the seat of the Metropolitan Bishop of [[Lazica]].<ref name="Hewsen46" />