(Re-)Locating Greek and Roman Cities along the Northern Coast of Kolchis. Part I. Identifying Dioskourias in the Recess of the Black Sea
Coşkun Altay
The reconstruction of the Kolchian land- and riverscapes faces several difficulties, most of all changing riverbeds and coastlines. In the first part of my study, presented here, I offer arguments for the new location of Dioskourias at Ochamchire Harbour. The city of Phasis is yet unlocated, but rightly expected somewhere near the mouth of the Phasis / Rioni River by Paleostomi Lake. Common opinion identifies Greek Dioskourias and Roman Sebastopolis with modern Sukhumi, although this lacks sufficient support in the material evidence. My revision of the ancient literary tradition, mainly drawing on Strabo (with Eratosthenes) and Pliny (with Timosthenes of Rhodes), besides Claudius Ptolemy and Pomponius Mela, has led me instead to the Hippos / Tskhenistsqali and Moches / Mokvi Rivers in the bay of Ochamchire. This is consistent with the tradition that it was located ‘in the recess of the Black Sea’ and gains further support through the Argonautic themes in its toponomastic context. For Gyenos, which scholars previously situated at Ochamchire, we should rather look somewhere along the lower course of the Kyaneos / Okumi River, for Roman Sebastopolis at the Kodori Delta south-east of the Sukhumi Airport, for GraecoRoman Pityous at the estuary of the Khipsta River, and only for its Byzantine refoundation at Pitsunda by the Korax / Bzipi River. The traditional location of Caucasian Herakleion on Cape Adler conforms with the results of our study.
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