Some Notes on the Topography of Eastern Pontos Euxeinos in Late Antiquity and Early Byzantium

Abstract

This paper clarifies some issues of late antique and early Byzantine topography of Eastern Pontos Euxeinos. These questions can be divided into two large groups: the ecclesiastical topography and the locations of Byzantine fortresses. The earliest testimony of Apostolic preaching on the Eastern black sea coast — the list of the apostles by Pseudo-Epiphanius — following the ‘Chronicon’ of Hyppolitus of Rome, unsuccessfully connects South-Eastern Pontos Euxeinos to Sebastopolis the Great (modern Sukhumi), which subsequently gives rise to an itinerary of the apostle Andrew. The Early Byzantine Church in the region had a complicated arrangement: the Zekchians, Abasgians and possibly Apsilians had their own bishoprics (later archbishoprics); the Lazicans had a metropolitan in Phasis (and not in their capital Archaeopolis) with five bishop-suffragans. Byzantine fortresses, mentioned in 7th c sources, are located mostly in Apsilia and Missimiania, in the Kodori valley, which had strategic importance as a route from the Black sea to the North Caucasus.