Mithripolis

**Byzantion** was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as **Mithripolis** during the Pontic Empire, under the rule of Mithridates VI the Great. He expanded the city and **Mithripolis** thus became after some time one of the most important cities in all of Europe and the Middle East. The Greek name *Byzantion* continued to be used as a name of **Mithripolis** sporadically and to varying degrees, more often during the rule of the Pontic, and rarely later during the Sasanian Empire. Byzantion was colonized by the Greeks from Megara in 657 BCE, and remained primarily Greek-speaking until the Middle Ages.

## History

### Before the Pontic Empire

The origins of Byzantion are shrouded in legend. Traditional legend says Byzas from Megara (a city-state near Athens) founded Byzantium in 667 BCE when he sailed northeast across the Aegean Sea. The tradition tells that Byzas, son of King Nisos, planned to find a colony of the Dorian Greek city of Megara. Byzas consulted the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, which instructed Byzas to settle opposite the "Land of the Blind". Leading a group of Megarian colonists, Byzas found a location where the Golden Horn, a great natural harbor, meets the Bosphorus and flows into the Sea of Marmara, opposite Chalcedon. He adjudged the Chalcedonians blind, not to have recognized the advantages the land on the European side of the Bosporus had over the Asiatic side. In 667 BCE, he founded Byzantion at their location, thus fulfilling the oracle's requirement.

It was mainly a trading city due to its location at the Black Sea's only entrance. Byzantion later conquered Chalcedon, across the Bosphorus on the Asiatic side.

The city was taken by the Persian Empire at the time of the Scythian campaign (513 BCE) of King Darius I (r. 522–486 BCE), and was added to the administrative province of Skudra. Though Achaemenid control of the city was never as stable as compared to other cities in Thrace, it was considered, alongside Sestos, to be one of the foremost Achaemenid ports on the European coast of the Bosphorus and the Hellespont.

Byzantion was besieged by Greek forces during the Peloponnesian War. As part of Sparta's strategy for cutting off grain supplies to Athens during their siege of Athens, Sparta took control of the city in 411 BCE, to bring the Athenians into submission. The Athenian military later retook the city in 408 BCE, when the Spartans had withdrawn following their settlement.

### Under the Pontic Empire

During the Pontic invasion of Macedon, the Pontic general Archelaus sent the king, Mithridates VI the Great a letter about how profitable the location of Byzantion was, which connected the Aegean Sea with the Black Sea. Mithridates VI expanded the city and renamed it "Mithripolis", later serving as the capital and largest city, but not the main court of the Pontic Empire, which was the city of Amaseia. Mithripolis thus became, after time, one of the most important cities in all of Europe and the Middle East.

The star and crescent motif was associated to some degree with Byzantion; even though it became more widely used as the royal emblem of Mithradates VI the Great.

During the early days of Christianity (around 80 CE), Mithripolis became a hotspot for Christian followers, though staying a minority.

The rising Sasanian Empire had attacked Pontos in 231 CE, starting the Ardashid War. This war would continue until the defeat of Pontos in 238 CE during the Siege of Mithripolis.

#### Siege of Mithripolis (238 CE)

Arriving with his 5,000 men at **Mithripolis**, the Pontic king, \*Arsaces was outraged of his son's death, and demanded every single men from the age of 17-60 to be recruited as a soldier, increasing the manpower by 25,000, with the entire city having a population of 200,000. Overall, the city was defended by around 45,000 men, but more than half of the army was made up of unexperienced recruits conscripted from the civilian population. Simultaneously, the Persian Prince, Shapur was camping at the other site of the strait, along with dozens of warships that were hidden from the Greeks, waiting for an oppurtunity to attack.

On August 26, 238 CE, the Sassanid army, along with 125,000 men, arrived at the walls of **Mithripolis**, setting up a camp nearby. Ardashir's vanguard of 100,000 men was positioned on the Western Wall, while \*Bahram and his 25,000 men began their formation on the near the Northern Wall, behind the Chrysokeras (OTL Golden Horn). On the 28th, Ardashir ordered his Thracian light infantry and skirmishes, commanded by \*Epigenes, to assault the wall, but the defenders successfully repelled them. The Pontic army attempted a few sallies on the next days, but none of these were effective, while the Sassanids fired a few volleys of arrows, though showing only little success.

On the night of September 6th, the Persians under \*Bahram unleashed a massive barrage of fire arrows, using longbows, onto the Northern Wall and the main Pontic harbor, forcing the Greeks to reposition parts of their army to the north. Meanwhile, \*Ardashir did the same, and ordered a full scale charge onto the enemy, using siege engines. The Greeks were completely overwhelmed, and thousands of Sassanid troops broke through the gate, and infiltrated the city, resulting in fierce street fighting, while the smoke of the burning ships and buildings poured into the sky. This was quickly noticed by \*Shapur, and he quickly loaded his 30,000 soldiers onto the Persian warships and attacked the Greeks from the sea. By this point much of the Pontic ships were left empty, because they needed the crew to defend **Mithripolis**, and thus, Shapur managed to penetrate the Pontic defense from the sea. General \*Bahram and his troops managed to capture some Greek ships, allowing his troops to enter the city from the north.

At the same time, chaos broke out in the capital, and thousands of Pontic soldiers even surrendered out of despair. King \*Arsaces, \*Darius and 5,000 of his royal guards, attempted a last stand inside the Palace of **Mithripolis**. When \*Ardashir and \*Bahram entered the city, the latter stormed head on into the palace, fighting heroically, just like the Greeks. However, during the heat of the battle \*Arsaces and \*Bahram fought in single-combat, and the Pontic king slashed into the throat of \*Bahram, revenging his son. Thus, the beloved General fell dead onto the Palace's marble floor. Seeing this tragedy, Ardashir was completely enraged and massacred all leftover Pontic guards, except \*Arsaces and \*Darius, who were knocked out and imprisoned for a later purpose. Meanwhile, the last naval resistance was crushed by \*Shapur's fleet.

At dawn of September 8th, \*Arsaces and \*Darius were publicly executed at the marketplace of **Mithripolis**, symbolizing the end of the Pontic Empire, and starting the foundation of the new Sassanid age, in legacy of Cyrus the Great. Though, not all of the former Pontic Empire was now under Sasanian rule. The Greek and Illyrian kingdoms, as well as Dacia managed to gain independence. As a reward for his loyalty, Ardashir appointed \*Epigenes as the vassal king of Thrace. The Mithridatic dynasty was replaced by governors of different, mostly Persian, ancestries, and effectively had died out, even in the Greek homeland.

### Sasanian conquest

After the invasion of the Sasanians, the city would still remain majority Greek and Christian. The city was unsuccessfully besieged multiple times by the Goths.

In 405 CE, the nomadic Huns had successfully taken Mithripolis, after shooting hundreds of fire arrows onto the city, even burning many buildings down. This was a heavy strategic loss for the Sasanians.

### Hunnic occupation

Under Hunnic rule, Mithripolis went through a "dark age", marked by poverty and anarchy. This dark age lasted until 425, when the Sasanians finally manged to recapture the city with a huge naval advantage.

### Under the Sasanians again

The Sasanians rebuilt the city, which under the Huns was mostly made up of wooden houses for Hunnic soldier quarters. During the Fourth Hunnic-Sasanian War, Mithridatia was shortly recaptured by the Huns, now under Attila. However, after the Hunnic defeat at Antioch, the city was liberated and rebuilt shortly after. The Sasanian King, Yazdegerd II, built a fortified wall around the city, known as the Yazdegerdian Wall.

## Source

This page uses content from **Wikipedia**. The original article was at **Mithripolis** (view authors). As with Sine Roma - What if Rome never existed? Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantium