Søren Lund Sørensen Libros

When, around 64 BC, the Romans drove out the last king of Pontos, they turned parts of his domains into a Roman province. The interior was, however, not ready for annexation, and a city-state culture was introduced, including the foundation of seven new cities in an area previously characterised by fortresses and temple states. This book surveys the development of these cities from their origins in the war-torn territories of the Pontic kingdom to the third century AD; by then they were fully incorporated in the Roman Empire. Furthermore, it places particular emphasis on one of them, Neapolis (later Neoklaudiopolis), an important but little studied city. Not only is this the first book-length study of Neapolis in its regional context, it also reassesses the many Greek and Latin inscriptions from this city and Pontos in general. Among the documents re-evaluated here is a famous imperial oath taken to the Emperor Augustus, aptly illustrating the difficult transition from a Persian-Anatolian domain to a Roman province by the means of client kings and the imperial cult.

For more than a decade Klaus Geus has held the Chair for the Historical Geography of the Ancient Mediterranean at Freie Universitat Berlin, during which he has continuously explored new ways in the study of the Greek and Roman world. Through his immense scholarly output and his extensive network, he has established himself as one of the foremost experts on historical geography. The present collection of articles by thirty-one scholars from various disciplines is dedicated to Klaus Geus on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. In line with Klaus Geus' research interests the articles of this Festschrift take the reader on a journey from the imperial court along the Roman roads into the provinces and far beyond the confines of the Mediterranean to the edges of the oikumene India and Taprobane - Yemen and Ethiopia. On this odyssey through the ancient world particular attention is paid to common sense geography, and Herodotos, Mela, Ptolemy and Strabon are but a few of the Greek and Roman authors accompanying the reader.