Ancient Greece, Pontos, Amisos, Æ 21

Amisos, otherwise known as Samsunta by the Greeks, is today's Samsun, a city situated on the shoreline of the historic region of Pontus, in today's Turkey.

The city was colonised in the 8th century BC and because of its strategic location it played an important political and economical role during the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine period.

Amisos was a rich commercial center under the kings of Pontus, a royal residence and fortress of Mithridates, and is sometimes considered as the home of the fabled Amazons.

People from Miletus settled there around 760-750 BC and established a flourishing trade relationship with the ancient peoples of Anatolia. Amisos came under the rule of the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great's Macedonian Empire, and then the Kingdom of Pontus. The Romans took control in 47 BC and Amisos remained within the Byzantine Empire after the fall of Rome. In 1200 AD the city was captured by the Seljuks, to be later taken over by the Ilhanlilar.