city state · Greece and the Aegean
Tomis
Origins
Tomis was settled by Greeks from Miletus on a peninsula of the western Black Sea shore, in a region the Greeks called Scythia Minor, probably in the 6th century BCE. It began as a trading post beside the older colony of Histria and grew slowly into a city with its own territory, trading with the Getae and other Thracian peoples of the Dobruja hinterland.
Rule and society
Like other West Pontic colonies, Tomis was a self-governing polis with a council and assembly and close ties to its mother city Miletus. Its economy rested on grain, fish and exchange with inland peoples, whose raids were a constant threat. It struck its own coins in the Hellenistic period, and under Roman rule it headed the league (koinon) of the West Pontic Greek cities.
Decline and legacy
The Roman general Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus brought the West Pontic cities under Roman control in 72-71 BCE. The poet Ovid, exiled there by Augustus in 8 CE, complained of its cold and its barbarous neighbours. Tomis later became the capital of the Roman province of Scythia and is today Constanta.
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- Tomis was conquered by Roman Republic72 BCE
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Tomis. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/tomis
- MLA
- “Tomis.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/tomis. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Tomis.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/tomis.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Tomis’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/tomis (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻