Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1917-01-17
THE WAR PRIMER
BY National Geographic Society

Sinope, one of the seaports of Asia
Minor upon which Russian fleet des-
cended recently with disastrous effect
on the Turkish ships in it's harbor, un-
questionab1y would be one of the most
important trade centers of the Black
Seas southern coast were it not that
the forest-clad mountains hem it
about so closely as to make access to
the fertile plateau of the interior most
difficult. says a war geography bulle-
tin issued by the National Geographic
Society. Unfortunately for this sec
ton of the Ottoman possessions, the
advantages of the two rival ports of
Sinope and Samsun are not combined
for while the latter is connected by an
eccellent road with the rich Sivas
. Valley the Erzerum and Angora re-
gions, but has an unsafe harbor, the
former has the finest roadstead be-
tween Constantinople and Batum, at
the eastern extrmity Of the great in
land sea. movement was begun a
quarter of a century ago to build a
carriage road from Sinope to Amasia,
but it was never completed. Should
the project ever be carried out it is
proable that the seaport's present pop
ulation of 5000 Moslems and 1000
Christians will be greatly augmented.
There are two legends concerning
the founding of Sinope, one of which
attributes the city to Autolycus,
companion of Hercules and one of
the Argonauts, while the other be-
slows the honor upon the Amazons
The place was named, according to
some authorities, after the nymph
Sinope, a daughter Of the river god
Asopus and sister Of Antiope, the
the mother of the twins Amphion and
Zethus. Herodotus thought that the
Cimmerians were the original colo
nists, but other historians have
claimed that the Milesians were
earlier settlers.
At the time Of the retreat of the
10000 Greeks, immortalized in Keno
phon's Anabasis, Sinope was a -four
ishing city. On one occasion Pericles
sent 500 colonists here. and the port
grew to such proportions that 1t be-
gan to send out colonies of it's own
along the Euxine coast, while its navy
became mistress of the inland sea as
far west as the Cyanean rocks. These
were the famous cliffs which, nnythol-
ogy says were wont to move upon
their bases, crushing all ships that
attempted to sail between. It was
the Argonauts who outwitted the evil
genius of these rocks by releasing a
pigeon which flew ahead of the Argo,
and after the bird had been crushed
and the rocks had begun to swing
back into a vertical position the ves-
sci bearing the Golden Fleece hunters
dashed through unscathed- Since that
time the rocks have remained fixed.
For many years Sinope was pos
session Of the Pontic kings, and 1t
was here that Mithradates Euergates
was assassinated by his courtiers at
a banquet. The murdered kings son,
Mithradates VI (the Great), was born
and reared here, and it was during
his ascendency that the seaport reach
ed its highest degree of prosperity.
This king built harbors on both sides
OF the narrow isthmus on which the
city is situated, erected arsenals and
constructed great reservoirs for the
pelamys, a kind of funny fish which
was a lucrative resource OF the early
Sinopians. After its capture by the
Roman general, Lucullus, in 70 B. C.
the city was almost totally destroyed
by fire, and six years later the body of
it's greatest benefactor = Mithradates
VI.-was, by Pompeys orders, brought
here for interment in the royal mauso-
leum. This inveterate but unsuccess-
full enemy of Rome, having failed in
his attempt to poison himself, finally
induced Gallo mercenary to kill him,
an example followed % years later on
the field of Philippi by Brutus' col
league CaSaius.
In the Middle Ages Sinope was sub
ject to Trebizond under the Greek en-
perors' but in 1851 it became part
of the Ottoman domain. During the
Crimean War. a Russian fleet bonn
barded the town and destroyed sew
eral Turkish warships anchored in the
harbor.
No account of Sinope would be
complete without reference to the
city's most famous native son. Dr.
ogenes the Cynic, he who spent his
days. lantern in hand, going about
the streets Of Athens, in search of
IAN honest man." and who, *. when
asked by Alexander the Great II there
were some boon the philosopher would
like granted, replied, yes, you can
step to one side, SO as not to stand
between me and the sum-" a refort
which, far from angering the mighty
soldier, evoked the praise Were not
Alexander. 7 would be Dioxenes."