Athenae (Pontus)
ancient city of Pontus in modern-day Turkey
Athenae or Athenai (Ancient Greek: Ἀθῆναι) was a city and port of ancient Pontus, with a Greek temple of Athena. According to Arrian, it was 180 stadia east of the river Adienus, and 280 stadia west of Apsarus.
According to Arrian, the place got its name from the sanctuary of Athena. Procopius, on the other hand, writes that some believe the town was named because colonists from Athens settled there. However, he states that the it actually took its name from a woman called Athenaea (Ancient Greek: Ἀθηναία), who ruled the land in early times. He also adds that her tomb was still there during his time.
Arrian speaks of the place as a deserted fort, but Procopius describes it as a populous place in his time. Konrad Mannert assumes it to be the same place as the Odeinius of the Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax.
Its site is located near the modern town of Pazar, in Turkey.
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed.
The public source identifies “Athenae (Pontus)” as ancient city of Pontus in modern-day Turkey. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Athenae, Pontus and ancient.
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The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q60289439. Authority coordinates are 41.181, 40.889. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Athenae (Pontus)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.