Pontus (region) in the context of Marcionite

Cappadocia (/kæpəˈdoʊʃəˌ -ˈdoʊkiə/; Turkish: Kapadokya, from Greek: Καππαδοκία) is a historical region in Central Anatolia region, Turkey. It is largely in the provinces of Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde. Today, the touristic Cappadocia Region is located in Nevşehir province.

According to Herodotus, in the time of the Ionian Revolt (499 BC), the Cappadocians were reported as occupying a region from the Taurus Mountains to the vicinity of the Euxine (Black Sea). Cappadocia, in this sense, was bounded in the south by the chain of mountains that separate it from Cilicia, to the east by the upper Euphrates, to the north by the Pontus, and to the west by Lycaonia and eastern Galatia.

The Macedonian Wars (214–148 BC) were a series of conflicts fought by the Roman Republic and its Greek allies in the eastern Mediterranean against several different major Greek kingdoms. They resulted in Roman control or influence over Greece and the rest of the eastern Mediterranean basin, in addition to their hegemony in the western Mediterranean after the Punic Wars. Traditionally, the "Macedonian Wars" include the four wars with Macedonia, in addition to one war with the Seleucid Empire, and a final minor war with the Achaean League (which is often considered to be the final stage of the final Macedonian War). The most significant war was fought with the Seleucid Empire, and both this and the wars with Macedonia effectively marked the end of these empires as major world powers, even though neither of them led immediately to overt Roman domination. Four separate wars were fought against the weaker power, Macedonia, due to its geographic proximity to Rome, though the last two of these wars were against haphazard insurrections rather than powerful armies. Roman influence gradually dissolved Macedonian independence and digested it into what was becoming a leading empire. The outcome of the war with the now-deteriorating Seleucid Empire was ultimately fatal to it as well, though the growing influence of Parthia and Pontus prevented any additional conflicts between it and Rome.

From the close of the Macedonian Wars until the early Roman Empire, the eastern Mediterranean remained an ever shifting network of polities with varying levels of independence from, dependence on, or outright military control by, Rome. According to Polybius, who sought to trace how Rome came to dominate the Greek east in less than a century, Rome's wars with Greece were set in motion after several Greek city-states sought Roman protection against the Macedonian Kingdom and Seleucid Empire in the face of a destabilizing situation created by the weakening of Ptolemaic Egypt.

The Empire of Trebizond or the Trapezuntine Empire was one of the three successor rump states of the Byzantine Empire that existed during the 13th through to the 15th century. The empire consisted of the Pontus, or far northeastern corner of Anatolia, and portions of southern Crimea.

The Trapezuntine Empire was formed in 1204 with the help of Queen Tamar of Georgia after the Georgian expedition in Chaldia and Paphlagonia, which was commanded by Alexios Komnenos a few weeks before the Sack of Constantinople. Alexios later declared himself emperor and established himself in Trebizond (now Trabzon in Turkey).

The Pontic Greeks (Pontic: Ρωμαίοι, Ρωμιοί; Turkish: Pontus Rumları or Karadeniz Rumları; Greek: Πόντιοι, Ελληνοπόντιοι), also Pontian Greeks or simply Pontians, are an ethnically Greek group indigenous to the region of Pontus, in northeastern Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). They share a common Pontic Greek culture that is distinguished by its music, dances, cuisine, and clothing. Folk dances, such as the Serra (also known as Pyrrhichios), and traditional musical instruments, like the Pontic lyra, remain important to Pontian diaspora communities. Pontians traditionally speak Pontic Greek, a modern Greek variety, that has developed remotely in the region of Pontus. Commonly known as Pontiaka, it is traditionally called Romeika by its native speakers.

The earliest Greek colonies in the region of Pontus begin in 700 BC, including Sinope, Trapezus, and Amisos. Greek colonies continued to expand on the coast of the Black Sea (Euxeinos Pontos) between the Archaic and Classical periods. The Hellenistic Kingdom of Pontus was annexed by Rome in 63 BC becoming Roman and later Byzantine territory. During the 11th century AD, Pontus was largely isolated from the rest of the Greek–speaking world, following the Seljuk conquest of Anatolia. After the 1203 siege of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade, the Empire of Trebizond was established on the Black Sea coast by a branch of the Komnenos dynasty, later known as 'Grand Komnenos'. Anatolia, including Trebizond, was eventually conquered by the Ottomans entirely by the 15th century AD. Greek presence in Pontus remained vibrant during the early modern period up until the 20th century, when, following the Pontic Greek genocide and the 1923 population exchange with Turkey, Pontic Greeks migrated primarily to Greece and around the Caucasus, including in the country of Georgia. Although the vast majority of Pontic Greeks are Orthodox Christians, those who remained in Northeastern Turkey's Black Sea region following the population exchange are Muslim; their ancestors having converted to Islam during the Ottoman period, like thousands of other Greek Muslims.

Pontus (Ancient Greek: Πόντος Pontos) was a Hellenistic kingdom centered in the historical region of Pontus in modern-day Turkey, and ruled by the Mithridatic dynasty of Persian origin, which may have been directly related to Darius the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty. The kingdom was proclaimed by Mithridates I in 281 BC and lasted until its conquest by the Roman Republic in 63 BC. The Kingdom of Pontus reached its greatest extent under Mithridates VI the Great, who conquered Colchis, Cappadocia, Bithynia, the Greek colonies of the Tauric Chersonesos, and for a brief time the Roman province of Asia. After a long struggle with Rome in the Mithridatic Wars, Pontus was defeated.

The kingdom had three cultural strands, which often fused together: Greek (mostly on the coast), Persian, and Anatolian, with Greek becoming the official language in the 3rd century BC.

Bithynia (/bɪˈθɪniə/; Koine Greek: Βιθυνία, romanized: Bithynía) is a geographical region of northwestern Asia Minor (in present-day Turkey), adjoining the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, and the Black Sea. It borders Mysia to the southwest, Paphlagonia to the northeast along the Black Sea coast, and Phrygia to the southeast towards the interior of Asia Minor.

Hellenistic Bithynia was an independent kingdom from the 3rd century BC. Its capital Nicomedia was rebuilt on the site of ancient Astacus in 264 BC by Nicomedes I. Bithynia was bequeathed to the Roman Republic in 74 BC, and became united with the Pontus (region) region as the province of Bithynia and Pontus.

Pontic Greek (Pontic: Ρωμαίικα, romanized: Rhomaiika, Greek: Ποντιακά, romanized: Pontiaka; Turkish: Rumca or Romeika), also referred to as Pontic, is a variety of Modern Greek indigenous to the Pontus region on the southern shores of the Black Sea, northeastern Anatolia, and the Eastern Turkish and Caucasus region. An endangered Greek language variety, Pontic Greek is spoken by about 778,000 people worldwide, who are known as Pontic or Pontian Greeks.

Like nearly all of Greek varieties spoken today, the linguistic lineage of Pontic Greek stems from the Hellenistic Koine, itself based on Attic–Ionic Greek, which later developed into the Byzantine Greek of the Middle Ages. Following its geographic isolation from the rest of the Greek–speaking world, Pontic continued to develop separately along with other Anatolian Greek dialects, like Cappadocian, from the 11th century onwards. As a result, Pontic Greek is not completely mutually intelligible with the standard Demotic Greek spoken in mainland Greece today. Pontic also contains influences from Russian, Turkish, Kartvelian (namely Laz and Georgian) and Armenian.

The Pontic Greek genocide, or the Pontic genocide (Greek: Γενοκτονία των Ελλήνων του Πόντου), was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the indigenous Greek community in the Pontus region (the northeast of modern Turkey) in the Ottoman Empire during World War I and its aftermath.

The Pontic Greeks had a continuous presence in the Pontus region from at least 700 BC, over 2,500 years ago. Following the Ottoman conquest of the Empire of Trebizond in 1461, the area came under the control of the Ottoman Empire. The rise of Turkish nationalism at the beginning of 20th century dramatically increased anti-Greek sentiment within the Ottoman Empire. The genocide began in 1914 by the Young Turk regime, which was led by the Three Pashas, and, after a short interwar pause in 1918–1919, continued into 1923 by the Kemalist regime which was led by Mustafa Kemal Pasha. Both nationalist movements massacred the Pontians and deported them to the interior regions of Anatolia. This resulted in approximately 350,000 deaths – about half of the pre-genocide Pontic population.

Pontic Greek culture includes the traditional music, dance, architecture, clothing, artwork, and religious practices of the Pontic Greeks, also called Pontian Greeks (Pontic: Ῥωμαῖοι (Romaīoi=Romans)). Pontians are an ethnic group indigenous to the Pontos in modern-day Turkey. They have lived in the area for thousands of years, since the 8th century BCE. The majority were displaced in the early 20th century CE after the Greek genocide and the population exchange between Greece and Turkey; most Pontians today live in the diaspora. Small pockets of Muslim Pontian communities remain in Turkey. Although Pontians speak many different languages, the Pontic Greek language, Romeika, is especially important to their culture. Most religious Pontian Greeks practice Greek Orthodoxy, but a minority adhere to Sunni Islam or other Christian denominations. Folk dances such as the serra, traditional music instruments such as the Pontic lyra, religious celebrations, traditional clothing, and the land itself remain important to Pontian diaspora communities.

Although their culture has been heavily influenced by Greek culture, Turkish culture, and the cultures of various minorities in Turkey such as Armenians and Lazes, Pontian culture contains unique aspects. The dominant culture of the countries where Pontians live has continued to shape Pontian culture since the formation of the diaspora. For example, many Pontians in Greece only speak Greek instead of Romeika, while Soviet Greeks have adopted Russian and Ukrainian dishes into their cooking. Pontian cultural societies around the world aim to preserve and transmit Pontian traditions, especially folk dances.

Pontic Greek music includes both the folk music traditionally performed by Pontic Greeks and modern Pontic music. Song and dance have a long history in the Pontos, ranging from ancient dances to the Acritic songs to folk songs. Certain dances, accompanied by music, date to ancient times, such as the pyrrhichios. Pontic music evolved alongside Pontic dance.

Acritic songs, which are epic songs describing folk heroes who lived and fought on the borders of the empire in Byzantine times, date back hundreds of years. Versions of these songs exist today, accompanied by modern Pontic instruments and singing techniques. More recent folk songs include love songs, mourning songs, and war songs. These date to the late 1800s or earlier during Ottoman times. Some songs appeared after the creation of the Pontic diaspora with the 1923 population exchange; many of these speak to the hardships of the exchange and longing for home.

Pontic Greek folk dances are a group of over ninety dances traditionally performed by Pontic Greeks (Pontic: Ρωμαίοι). Dance has been an integral part of Pontian culture since ancient times. Dances vary based on region. Today, few Pontians remain in the Pontus region, but those living in the diaspora worldwide still perform folk dances to preserve their cultural heritage and group identity. Dances are accompanied by traditional music. Some traditional instruments include the lyra, daouli, zurna, dankiyo, tulum, and oud. The instrumental music may or may not be accompanied by singing.

All dances are traditionally performed in lines or circles with participants linking hands. The circle may shrink and expand during the dance, or it may move clockwise or counterclockwise. Pontic Greek dances can be distinguished from other types of Greek dance because of their unique style. Pontian dances are characterized by shoulder tremors, abrupt pauses, synchronized arm swinging, knee bends, and precise steps. Shimmying—the flexion and rotation of the torso—is also characteristic of Pontian dance. Some dances are only performed by women, others only by men; many dances can be performed by both.

Pontic Greek cuisine consists of foods traditionally eaten by Pontic Greeks (Pontic: Ρωμαίοι, Ρωμιοί), a Greek-speaking ethnic minority that originates from the southern shore of the Black Sea in modern Turkey. Their cuisine has been heavily influenced by the migration of different ethnic groups to the Pontos. Because of the Pontos' remote location, Pontic Greek cuisine has many differences from other Greek cuisines. According to Achillefs Keramaris et al., "Pontic Greek traditional cuisine is diverse and simplistic, incorporating traditions from mountainous and coastal regions, ancient Greece, nomadic regions, and influences from Russian, Turkish, Laz, Hemshin, and Armenian cuisines."

The Serra (Pontic: Σέρρα) is a Pontic Greek war dance of ancient Greek origin, from the Pontus region of the Black Sea. Its name comes from the Serra river, in the region of Trapezounda. It is also called Pyrrhichios (Greek: Πυρρίχιος). The rhythm starts in
₁₆ and becomes an even meter when the dance speeds up.

The Serra is a men's dance, danced hand by hand. The Pontic Lyra often accompanies this dance.

Paphlagonia (/ˌpæfləˈɡoʊniə/; Greek: Παφλαγονία, romanized: Paphlagonía, modern translit. Paflagonía; Turkish: Paflagonya) was an ancient region on the Black Sea coast of north-central Anatolia, situated between Bithynia to the west and Pontus to the east, and separated from Phrygia (later, Galatia) by a prolongation to the east of the Bithynian Olympus. According to Strabo, the region was bounded by the river Parthenius to the west and the Halys River to the east. Paphlagonia was said to be named after Paphlagon, a son of the mythical Phineus.

The Kaska (also Kaška, later Tabalian Kasku and Gasga) were a loosely affiliated Bronze Age non-Indo-European tribal people, who spoke the unclassified Kaskian language and lived in mountainous East Pontic Anatolia, known from Hittite sources. They lived in the mountainous region between the core Hittite region in eastern Anatolia and the Black Sea, and are cited as the reason that the later Hittite Empire never extended northward to that area. They are sometimes identified with the Caucones known from Greek records.

Nerik (Hittite: Nerik(ka)) was a Bronze Age settlement to the north of the Hittite capitals Hattusa and Sapinuwa, probably in the Pontic region. Since 2005–2009, the site of Nerik has been identified as Oymaağaç Höyük, on the eastern side of the Kızılırmak River, 7 km (4.3 mi) northwest of Vezirköprü.

The Tristia ("Sad things" or "Sorrows") is a collection of poems written in elegiac couplets by the Augustan poet Ovid during the first three years following his banishment from Rome to Tomis on the Black Sea in AD 8. Despite five books in which he bewails his fate copiously, the immediate cause of Augustus' banishment of the most acclaimed living Latin poet to Pontus remains a mystery. In addition to the Tristia, Ovid wrote another collection of elegiac epistles on his exile, the Epistulae ex Ponto, as well as a 642-line curse poem called Ibis, directed against the unnamed enemy who had apparently caused his downfall. He spent several years in the outpost of Tomis and died in AD 17 or 18 without ever returning to Rome.

The Tristia was once viewed unfavorably in Ovid's œuvre, but has become the subject of scholarly interest in recent years.

Marcionism was an early Christian dualistic belief system originating with the teachings of Marcion of Sinope in Rome around 144. Marcion was an early Christian theologian, evangelist, and an important figure in early Christianity. He was the son of a bishop of Sinope in Pontus. About the middle of the 2nd century (140–155) he traveled to Rome, where he joined the Syrian gnostic Cerdo.

Marcion preached that the benevolent God of the Gospel who sent Jesus into the world as the savior was the true Supreme Being, different and opposed to the malevolent deity, the Demiurge or creator deity, identified with Yahweh in the Hebrew Bible. He considered himself a follower of Paul the Apostle, whom he believed to have been the only true apostle of Jesus.