Sinōpé
（
Σινώπη). Now Sinope, Sinoub; the most important of all
the Greek colonies on the shores of the Euxine, stood on the northern coast of Asia Minor, on
the western headland of the great bay of which the delta of the river Halys forms the eastern
headland, and a little east of the northernmost promontory of Asia Minor. It appears in
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Coin of Sinopé.
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history as a very early colony of the Milesians. Having been destroyed in the
invasion of Asia by the Cimmerians, it was restored by a new colony from Miletus in B.C. 632,
and soon became the greatest commercial city on the Euxine. Its territory, called Sinopis,
extended to the banks of the Halys. It was the birthplace and residence of Mithridates the
Great, who enlarged and beautified it. Shortly before the murder of Iulius Caesar it was
colonized by the name of Iulia Caesarea Felix Sinopé, and remained a flourishing
city, though it never recovered its former importance. At the time of Constantine it had
declined so much as to be ranked second to Amasia. It was the native city of the renowned
cynic philosopher Diogenes, of the comic poet Diphilus, and of the historian Baton.
