PHARNAKEIA KERASOUS
(Giresun) Pontus, Turkey.
A natural fortress and harbor on the S coast
of the Black Sea (Pontos Euxeinos) in the former land
of the Chalybes, it stood at the terminus of a route leading over the Pontic mountains (Paryadres Mons) from
Armenia Minor. It was founded in newly conquered territory ca. 180 B.C. by Pharnakes I of Pontus, using
citizens transferred from Kotyora. It was annexed to
Galatia with the remainder of the Pontic kingdom in
A.D. 64-65. The name Kerasous was used by Pharnakeia
from the early 2d c. A.D.; the original Kerasous, 110 km
farther E, had by then ceased to exist.
The city lay on a rocky promontory between two
anchorages, of which the one or the other received shelter
according to the direction of the wind. Some good lengths
of the Hellenistic walls survive both on the summit and
on the steep slopes running down to the sea.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
W. J. Hamilton,
Researches in Asia
Minor, Pontus, and Armenia (1842) I 262-65.
D. R. WILSON
