city state · Greece and the Aegean
Sinope
Origins
Miletus founded Sinope on a peninsula on the north coast of Anatolia; ancient sources give dates in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, and the register follows c. 631 BCE. Its sheltered harbour made it the main Greek port of the southern Black Sea.
Rule and society
Sinope founded colonies of its own, including Trapezus, Cerasus and Cotyora, and traded tuna, timber and red ochre called Sinopic earth. It was under the Achaemenid Empire and later independent. Pericles's Black Sea expedition of c. 437 BCE installed Athenian settlers. Diogenes the Cynic was born there c. 412 BCE.
Decline and legacy
Pharnaces I of the Kingdom of Pontus captured Sinope in 183 BCE and made it his capital; Mithridates VI was born there. Rome took it in 70 BCE. It is the modern Turkish town of Sinop.
On the connections map
Open the full map →Connections (3)
- Trapezus was a colony of Sinope756 BCE – 400 BCE
- Sinope paid tribute to Achaemenid Empire380 BCE – 334 BCE
- Sinope was conquered by Kingdom of Pontus183 BCE
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Sinope. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/sinope
- MLA
- “Sinope.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/sinope. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Sinope.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/sinope.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Sinope’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/sinope (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻