PAPHLAGONIA , an
See also:district of
See also:Asia Minor, situated on the Euxine
See also:Sea between
See also:Bithynia and
See also:Pontus, separated from
See also:Galatia by a prolongation to the east of the Bithynian
See also:Olympus . According to
See also:Strabo, the
See also:Parthenius formed the western limit of the region, which was bounded on the east by the Halys . Although the Paphlagonians
See also:play scarcely any
See also:part in
See also:history, they were one of the most ancient nations of Asia Minor (Iliad, ii . 851) . They are mentioned by
See also:Herodotus among the races conquered by
See also:Croesus, and they sent an important contingent to the army of
See also:Xerxes in 48o B.C .
See also:Xenophon speaks of them as being governed by a
See also:prince of their own, without any reference to the neighbouring satraps, a freedom due, perhaps, to the nature of the
See also:country, with its lofty
See also:mountain ranges and difficult passes . At a later
See also:period Paphlagonia passed under the Macedonian
See also:kings, and after the
See also:death of
See also:Alexander the
See also:Great it was assigned, together with
See also:Cappadocia and
See also:Mysia to Eumenes . It continued, however, to be governed by native princes until it was absorbed by the encroaching power of Pontus . The rulers of that
See also:dynasty became masters of the greater part of Paphlagonia as early as the reign of
See also:Mithradates III . (3o2-266 B.C.), but it was not till that of Pharnaces I. that
See also:Sinope fell into their hands (183 B.C.) . From this
See also:time the whole province was incorporated with the
See also:kingdom of Pontus until the fall of the great Mithradates (65 B.C.) .
See also:united the
See also:coast districts of Paphlagonia with the province of Bithynia, but
See also:left the interior of the country under the native princes, until the dynasty became
See also:extinct and the whole country was incorporated in the
See also:empire .
All these rulers appear to have
See also:borne the name of PyIaemenes, as a token that they claimed descent from the chieftain of that name who figures in the Iliad as
See also:leader of the Paphlagonians . Under the Roman Empire Paphlagonia, with the greater part of Pontus, was united into one province with Bithynia, as we find to have been the case in the time of the younger Pliny; but the name was still retained by geographers, though its boundaries are not distinctly defined by
See also:Ptolemy . It reappears as a
See also:separate province in the 5th century (
See also:Hierocles, Synecd. c . 33) . The ethnic relations of the Paphlagonians are very uncertain . It seems perhaps most probable that they belonged to the same
See also:race as the Cappadocians, who held the adjoining province of Pontus, and were undoubtedly a Semitic race . Their language, however, would appear from Strabo to have been distinct . Equally obscure is the relation between the Paphlagonians and the Eneti or Heneti (mentioned in connexion with them in the Homeric
See also:catalogue) who were supposed in antiquity to be the ancestors of the
See also:Veneti, who dwelt at the
See also:head of the Adriatic. but no trace is found in
See also:historical times of any tribe of that name in Asia Minor . The greater part of Paphlagonia is a rugged mountainous country, but it contains fertile valleys, and produces great abundance of fruit . The mountains are clothed with dense forests, which are conspicuous for the quantity of
See also:boxwood which they furnish . Hence its coasts were from an early period occupied by Greek colonies, among which the flourishing city of Sinope, founded from
See also:Miletus about 63o B.C., stood pre-eminent . Amastris, a few
See also:miles east of the Parthenius, became important under the Macedonian monarchs; while Amisus, a colony of Sinope, situated a
See also:short distance east of the Halys, and therefore not strictly in Paphlagonia as defined by Strabo,
See also:rose to be almost a
See also:rival of its
See also:parent city .
The most considerable towns of the interior were Gangra, in ancient times thecapital of the Paphlagonian kings, afterwards called Germanicopolis, situated near the frontier of Galatia, and Pompeiopolis, in the valley of the Amnias (a tributary of the Halys), near which were extensive mines of the
See also:mineral called by Strabo sandarake (red arsenic), which was largely exported from Sinope . See Hommaire de
See also:Hell, Voyage en Turquie (
See also:Paris, 1854-186o) ; W . J .
See also:Hamilton, Researches (
See also:London, 1842) ; W . M .
See also:Ramsay, Hist . Geog. of Asia Minor (London, 189o) .
PAPER (Fr. papier, from Lat. papyrus)
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