This was an ancient region on the Black Sea coast in northern Anatolia.
It was relatively unimportant in its level of participation in historical
events. Much of the country is rugged and mountainous, with occasional
fertile valley regions, and its inhabitants were often regarded as
ungovernable barbarians. Strabo mentioned that the region's western limits
were formed by the River Parthenius (the modern Bartın, with its source
in the Ilgaz Mountains), whilst an eastern border was supplied by the River
Halys (the modern Kızılırmak, which the
Hittites
called the Maraantiya).
Paphlagonia emerged at the end of the second millennium BC during the
Bronze Age collapse, with
Luwian-speaking
Indo-Europeans
apparently migrating into what had recently been
Kaskan territory. The
Kaskans themselves were non-Indo-Europeans who had seemingly only recently
migrated into the region to take over territory around the indigenous city
of Zalpa, and it seems that
they may have been bumped further eastwards by the arrival of the Luwian
speakers. The Luwians came from the south, from neighbouring
Tabal (later known as
Cappadocia)
as part of a general colonisation of southern Anatolia and expansion
northwards.
In Classical times Paphlagonia was located between Bithynia to the west
and Pontus to the east.
Phrygia lay to the
south-west but was separated from it by a mountain range called the
Bithynian Olympus. Homer sets out a basic framework for Paphlagonia's
initial settlement by Trojans,
and Strabo makes it clear that nothing has changed in the meantime,
including the names and the people. Its largely independent princes seemingly
termed themselves pylaimenes as a symbol of their claimed descent
from Pylaemenes of the Eneti, supposedly the chief of the Paphlagonians
during the early twelfth century BC (and who is mentioned in the Iliad).
Towards the end of the Classical period Phrygia was invaded and taken over by
Celts who
founded a kingdom that became known as
Galatia.
However, the kingdom only partially infiltrated into Paphlagonia.
(Additional information from A Geographical and Historical Description of
Asia Minor, John Anthony Cramer, from The Iliad, Homer (Translated by E V Rieu,
Penguin Books, 1963), and from External Link:
Encyclopaedia Britannia, 11th Edition.)
c.1500 BC
According to Greek legend, Phineas is the son of Agenor, king of
Tyre. He
and his four brothers, Cadmus, Cilix, Phoenix, and Thasus have all departed
their
Phoenician
home in search of their sister, Europa, who had been abducted by Zeus.
Phineas gives up his search in eastern
Thrace,
where he settles on the western shores of the Black Sea and rules a city
state of his own.
There are two kings of early Thrace named Phineas, the first of
whom was a Phoenician while the second was rescued by Jason from
harpies, and it is the latter who is shown here
Phineas becomes the father to Bithynus, Mariandynus, Paphlagonus, and Thynus
(Bithynus and Thynus are adopted from one Odrysus, the eponymous namesake of
the later Thracian kingdom). The four each found kingdoms along the shores of
the Black Sea; Bithynia, Mariandyne, Paphlagonia, and Thynia.
Pylaemenes of the shaggy breast leads the Paphlagonian force to the
Trojan War on the side of
Troy, which includes his
son Harpalion, and contingents from Aegialus, Cromna, Cytorus, Erythini,
Sesamus, and from along the River Parthenius.
Antenor, ally of Aeneas of the
Dardanians,
sails into the furthest part of the Adriatic (the northern reaches),
accompanied by a number of Enetians who have been driven from
Paphlagonia by
revolution following the death of their king, Pylaemenes, before the
gates of Troy. They defeat the north
ItalianEuganei
and occupy their lands near the coast, later to be known as the Veneti
tribe.
A contingent of Halizones
which also fights for Troy could be from Paphlagonia. Homer calls Odius
the chief of the Paphlagonians, placing them in north-eastern Anatolia.
It seems likely that the Halizones move into the region at the same time
that Paphlagonia begins to emerge, displacing or subsuming
Kaskans here until the
latter finally vanish from the historical records in the eighth century BC.
c.1180s BC
Odius
Son of Mecisteus of the
Halizones. Chief of
the Paphlagonians?
c.630 BC
Greek settlers from Miletus in
Caria refound the city of Sinope in Paphlagonia. The city seems previously
to have been a
Hittite
port named Sinuwa until the dark age collapse of that state. The city
becomes an important link in a regional trade route and in time founds its
own colonies.
c.585 BC
Alyattes
of II Lydia loses
the Battle of the Eclipse to Media
in a fifteen year war which is otherwise relatively evenly matched. Lydia expands
in his reign to form an empire that covers all of western Anatolia and includes
Paphlagonia. The end of the war signals the start of closer ties between the two
kingdoms. Alyattes gives his daughter in marriage to Astyages, son of Cyaxares.
549 - 546 BC
The
Persian defeat of
the Medes opens the floodgates
for Cyrus with a wave of conquests, beginning with
Cilicia in 549 BC.
Harpagus, a Median of the royal house and the main cause of the defeat of
the Medes, commands Cyrus' army in Anatolia, conquering it between 547-546
BC. Taken during this campaign are
Karkâ (Caria),
Lycia,
Lydia, Paphlagonia,
Phrygia, and
Tabal (Cappadocia). Harpagus
and his descendants reign thereafter in Karkâ and Lycia as satraps of the empire,
normally within the satrapy of Karkâ. Paphlagonia appears to be granted special
status, perhaps due to the ungovernable nature of the land. The natives
retain their own princes who rule independently of neighbouring satraps.
The attempt in 549 BC by the kingdom of
Lydia to
invade Anatolian lands which now belonged to the
Persian empire
saw an appropriate Persian response. Cyrus the Great invaded Lydia and
crushed it, and then proceeded to capture the rest of Anatolia too. The
kingdom of Phrygia
and the minor city states of
Karkâ also fell
between 549-546 BC. Following that, a Persian layer of administration
was introduced to replace the lost kingships. However, direct control
may only have been nominal. Later events suggest that the Paphlagonians
were not especially controlled by anyone other than themselves.
To the west, Paphlagonia bordered the satrapy of Hellespontine
Phrygia.
To the north it reached the sea, and in the east the minor satrapy of
Katputka
(Cappadocia). The southern border is somewhat less clear, but the writer
Curtius Rufus reported that Paphlagonia was entered near Ancyra, so the
border may have followed the modern Ankara Suyu, a tributary of the
ancient Sangarius (Sakarya).
The satraps perpetuated the illusion of ruling the region in the name
of the Persian king until invasion and conquest by Alexander the Great
gave them the chance of going it alone - now in name as well as in
probable fact. Occasionally local leaders would be able to form a unified
tribal kingdom, but rarely one that endured. Typically, details of the
satraps themselves in the fifth century are extremely scarce, and even
immediately preceding the
Greek invasion little is really known of them. If the Persians recorded
the names and dates of office of their various satraps, these details
rarely survived.
(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from The
Histories, Herodotus (Penguin, 1996), from The Persian Empire,
J M Cook (1983), and from External Links:
Encyclopaedia
Iranica, and
Lives
of Eminent Commanders, Cornelius Nepos (1886 Edition).)
549 - 546 BC
The defeat of the Medes opens
the floodgates for Cyrus the Great with a wave of conquests, beginning with
Cilicia in 549 BC.
Harpagus, a Median of the royal house and the main cause of the Median defeat,
commands Cyrus' army in Anatolia, conquering it between 547-546 BC. Taken
during this campaign are Armenia,
Karkâ (Caria),
Lycia,
Lydia,
Paphlagonia,
Phrygia, and
Tabal (Cappadocia), and
Harpagus and his descendants reign thereafter in Karkâ and Lycia (and
apparently Cilicia too) as satraps.
Cyrus the Great freed the Indo-Iranian Parsua people from Median
domination to establish a nation that is recognisable to this
day, and an empire that provided the basis for the vast
territories that were later ruled by Alexander the Great
While the other conquered regions in Anatolia gain major or minor satrapies
or, in a few cases, retain local leaders as vassals, how Paphlagonia is
governed remains a mystery. Local princes are known to rule on at least a
semi-independent basis during the mid-fifth century BC, so it is likely they
do so from the start, with the blessing of their new overlord, Cyrus, who
tacitly understands that bringing these strong-willed mountain folk under
full control is probably more trouble than it is worth. Instead it is likely
that the satrap of
Katputka or
Phrygia is tasked
with keeping an eye on things here.
546 - ? BC
?
Satrap or native vassal ruler unknown.
480 - 479 BC
Paphlagonia
with its still-independent but generally unrecorded princes contributes an
important, numerous contingent to the
Persian army of
Xerxes which invades Greece. Once there the Persians subdue the
Thracian tribes, and they join his forces too, all except the Satrai,
precursors to the
Bessoi,
who refuse to succumb. The
Macedonians
are also subdued but continue to supply aid in the war against the Persians.
Then the vast army of the Persian King Xerxes makes its way southwards and
is swiftly engaged by
Athens and
Sparta
in the Vale of Tempe. The Persians are subsequently stymied by a mixed force
of Greeks led by Sparta at Thermopylae. (These events are depicted
somewhat colourfully - but no less impressively for that - in the 2007
film, 300.)
Athens, as the leader of the coalition of city states known as the Delian
League, then defeats the Persian navy at Salamis, and after Xerxes returns
home his army is decisively defeated at the Battle of Plataea and kicked
out of Greece. (The naval battles of Artemisium and Salamis are shown to
superb graphic effect in the 2014 sequel film, 300: Rise of an Empire,
although it does contain a great many historical inaccuracies.)
c.425 BC
By this time a dynasty of native satraps have emerged into history,
governing the region (probably on the usual semi-independent basis) for the
Achaemenid
Persians. They are reputedly descended from Pylaemenes of the Eneti, a
twelfth century BC
Thracian
in Paphlagonia who had
been killed at Troy.
Like the Kaskans before them, the Paphlagonians struggled to
survive in the somewhat tough conditions of the Black Sea's
southern coast
This is the point at which the native princes of Paphlagonia are finally
removed from holding any kind of office. They are replaced by various
individuals from more powerful regions. By now the Greek city of Sinope
has also fallen under
Persian
domination.
Datames, satrap of
Khilakku
(which includes
Katpatuka and
Paphlagonia) is the first outsider to take control. He seizes Paphlagonia
upon the orders of Autophradates, satrap of
Sparda. Cornelius
Nepos writes that Thyus, 'prince of Paphlagonia, a man of ancient family',
descended from the twelfth century Pylaemenes (see above), is taken prisoner
by Datames. He also states that Datames and Thyus are first cousins, so it
is apparent that the vassal Persian satraps are likely taken from compliant
members of the local nobility.
Given the fact that he has made enemies within the regional Persian
administration through his successes and his promotion to govern the minor
satrapy of Cappadocia-beside-the-Pontus, Datames seized Paphlagonia as
his own and effectively declares that he is in revolt against Persia.
Soon all of Asia Minor (Anatolia) revolts against
Persian King
Artaxerxes II and, in 362 BC, even Autophradates, satrap of
Sparda, is driven
to join the rebels.
Sparta, and also Takhôs, pharaoh of
Egypt, send substantial help to the rebels. Two years later, in 360 BC,
Ariobarzanes is betrayed by his son, Mithridates, and is executed. The
satrapal revolt is finally suppressed in 359-358 BC, by which time a replacement
satrap seems to have been appointed in Paphlagonia, while Datames' son, Ariaramnes,
is satrap of Katpatuka.
Alexander the Great launches his campaign into the
Persian empire by crossing the Dardanelles. The first battle is fought
on the River Graneikos (Granicus), eighty kilometres (fifty miles) to the
east. The Persian defeat forces Arsites to commit suicide while the region
is incorporated into Alexander's growing
Greek empire.
Sparda surrenders but
Karkâ's satrap holds
out in the fortress of Halicarnassus with the Persian General Memnon.
Alexander the Great crossed the River Graneikos (or Granicus) in
334 BC to spark a direct face-off with the Persians that had
been brewing for generations, and his victory in battle near the
river sent shockwaves through the Persian empire
Greek satraps hold nominal command, but often from beyond the mountain range
that isolates Paphlagonia. In fact the mountain dwellers appear to provide
as much trouble as ever to the Greek region of
Paphlagonia.
The Argead were the ruling family and founders of
Macedonia who reached their greatest extent under Alexander the Great
and his two successors before the kingdom broke up into several Hellenic
sections. Alexander's successors held no real power, being mere figureheads
for the generals who really held control of Alexander's empire. In western
Anatolia, various satraps were they effective ruling power, and these began
with Calas.
The Persian satraps
had perpetuated the illusion of ruling Paphlagonia in the name
of the king until invasion and conquest by Alexander the Great gave them the
chance of going it alone. However, direct control by the Persians may only
have been nominal. Events during the lifetime of the empire events suggest
that the Paphlagonians were not especially controlled by anyone other than
themselves. Occasionally local leaders would be able to form a unified
tribal kingdom, but rarely one that endured. Alexander was content to accept
nominal submission from them without tribute being exacted.
Upon Alexander's death his two successors were retained as figureheads while
the empire was governed by his powerful generals. Perdiccas, the leading
cavalry commander, was the first general to rule, carrying the title 'Regent
of Macedonia', initially with Meleager, head of the infantry officers, as
his lieutenant, but alone after he had him murdered. Control of the empire
was divided up, with Alexander's secretary, Eumenes of Cardia, gaining
Cappadocia,
Mysia, and Paphlagonia.
(Additional information from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and
Mythology, William Smith (Ed, 1867), and from The Persian Empire,
J M Cook (1983).)
334 - 325 BC
Calas
Son of Harpalus
of Elimiotis. Satrap of Paphlagonia &
Phrygia.
The death of Antipater of
Greece
leads to the Second War of the Diadochi. He had passed over his son,
Cassander, in favour of Polyperchon as his successor (possibly to avoid claims
of dynasticism) but the two rivals go to war. In the resultant shifts in
power and control,
Cappadocia and its
surrounding regions (including Paphlagonia) become part of the
Empire of Antigonus
and Eumenes is killed. The kingdom of Cappadocia is subsumed by the empire
until 301 BC.
Diogenes of Sinope was the rather eccentric father of the Greek
cynicism school of philosophy, living between either 412 or 404
BC and 323 BC, while above is the route of Alexander's ongoing
campaigns, leading him from Europe to Egypt, into Persia, and
across the vastness of eastern Iran as far as the Pamir mountain
range (click or tap on map to view full sized)
302 - 301 BC
Mithradates takes control of
Pontus from the fragmenting
Greek empire, notably thanks to the collapse of the
Empire of Antigonus.
He creates his own kingdom, which in 301 BC also encompasses part of Paphlagonia.
This removes Cappadocian
access to the Black Sea, whilst the Greek city of Sinope retains its independence
under Scydrothemis.
301 - 280 BC
Scydrothemis
Greek
ruler of Sinope. A king according to Tacitus.
235 BC
Antiochus Heirax, co-regent of the
Seleucid empire and governor of regions in Anatolia - together with Mithradates of
Pontus, continues his campaign
to wrest the empire from his brother by defeating him at the battle of Ancyra
in 235 BC, leaving Anatolia outside of Seleucid power. This victory is
clearly also good for Pontus itself, giving it more freedom to expand its
own power and territory. However, Mithradates is unable to conquer the city
of Sinope in Paphlagonia.
c.200 BC
By now Galatia
has been settled for almost a century around the River Halys and the
Phrygian
plain - the poorest parts of Anatolia. According to Pliny the Elder, it lies
'above' Phrygia and includes the greater part of the territory taken from that
province, along with its former capital at Gordion (Gordium). The Gauls of Maeonia
(Lydia)
and Paphlagonia are called the Trocmi (Trocmes).
Cappadocia
stretches along to the north-west of Galatia, with its most fertile regions being in
the possession of the Galatian Tectosages and Teutobodiaci.
183 BC
Following
Roman victories over
Macedonia
and the Seleucids in
Syria (190 BC),
Pharnaces I of
Pontus allies his kingdom to
Rome.
In 183 BC he completes the conquest of neighbouring Paphlagonia by taking
Sinope. The region's history now largely follows that of Pontus and its
successor, Rome. No further mention is made of independent princes and today
Paphlagonia forms part of
Turkey.
