PONTOS

The presence of Greeks at the Euxeinus Pontos, the Black Sea, dates thousands years ago (about 1200 BC). Greek mythology refers to Jason and the Argonauts who passed Ellispontos and arrived to Kolchis (Georgia) to retake the golden hide that Frixos brother of Elli's had left there, the punishment of Prometheus by Zeus because he gave the fire to the man and the arresting of his body to the mountains of Caucasus. Xenofon and his men after their adventures in Persia, found refuge in greek cities of Pontus, (Thalatta-thalatta).
In the 8th century BC, many greek cities were created and the main occupation was sea trade. Sinope with its harbor was a strong trade center with important cultural influence. The first cities preserved the same social and political organization as their colonial mother-towns.
In the period of Alexander the Great and his successors, the economic power of the Greek cities reached its zenith. Under the reign of king Mithridates VI Eupator, the Greek language became official language of Asia Minor.

Even in Roman times, the Greek culture in the eastern part of the Black Sea retained its leading role in the economic and cultural life of that region. St. Andrew and St. Peter profited from the fact that the spoken language was Greek and spread Christianity to Pontos. Greek culture and Orthodoxy were united and formed a homogenous culture.
After the capture of Constantinople by the Franks in 1204, Alexios Comnenos founded in Pontos the Empire of the Great Komnenes of Trebizond which had at that time great development.
The fall of Constantinople (1453) and, eight years later of Trebizond (1461) mark one of the greatest disasters in Greek history. Mehmet later murdered the emperor David and 5 of his children and forbade their bodies to be burried. But David's wife alone buried her husband and her children with her bare hands. She was imprisoned for that action. Immediately after the seize of Trebizond by the Ottomans, many inhabitants of the rich coastal towns fled. Most of them escaped into the remote mountain regions of Pontos.