Pontus was the Greek name for a region, and later a kingdom, on the south shore of the Black Sea in Asia Minor. Little is known about Pontus before the 700’s B.C., when the Greeks began colonizing the area. Pontus became part of the Persian Achaemenid Empire in the 500’s B.C., then an independent kingdom around 300 B.C. The kingdom’s rulers used a mixed form of Greek and Persian government, and its population included Greeks, Persians, and native peoples of Asia Minor.
The kingdom of Pontus reached its greatest importance under King Mithridates VI, who ruled from 120 to 63 B.C. At that time, it included other nearby areas in what is now Turkey, and lands north of the Black Sea in what is now Russia. Mithridates fought three wars against Rome. After the last one ended in 63 B.C., the victorious Roman general Pompey brought Pontus under Roman rule. Over the following centuries, the area was made part of various Roman administrative divisions. In 1204, Pontus again established itself as an independent kingdom. It became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1461.
