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Thalatta, Thalatta: Xenophon's view of the Black Sea*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Tim Mitford
Tim Mitford
Affiliation:
Corpus Christi College, Oxford
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Extract

The moment when the Ten Thousand sighted the Euxine is one of the most haunting scenes to come down to us from the ancient world. Retreating from Cunaxa near Babylon in 401 BC, Xenophon describes how the Greeks fought their way northwards across Kurdistan to scale the Pontic mountains, and reached the sea at the Greek city of Trapezus, already more than two centuries old. By linking Xenophon's famous account with Hadrian's inspection of his eastern frontier, their route across the mountains, and their triumphant viewpoint, can be determined with some certainty.

About 120 miles before the Greeks reached the Black Sea, the ruler of a large and prosperous city called Gymnias, probably the modern Bayburt, sent a guide to Xenophon.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 50 , December 2000 , pp. 127 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 2000

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