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Amasra (from Greek Amastris Ἄμαστρις, ''gen''. Ἀμάστριδος) is a small Black Sea port town in the Bartın Province, Turkey. The town is today much appreciated for its beaches and natural setting, which has made tourism the most important activity for its inhabitants. In 2010 the population was 6,500. Amasra has two islands: the bigger one is called Büyük ada (Great Island) while the smaller one is called Tavşan adası (Rabbit Island). ==History== Situated in the ancient region of Paphlagonia, the original city seems to have been called Sesamus (Greek: Σήσαμος), and it is mentioned by Homer〔Homer, ''Iliad'', (ii. 853 )〕 in conjunction with Cytorus. Stephanus〔Stephanus, ''Ethnica'', s.v. "Amastris"〕 says that it was originally called Cromna; but in another place,〔Stephanus, ''Ethnica'', s.v. "Cromna"〕 where he repeats the statement, he adds, as it is said; but some say that Cromna is a small place in the territory of Amastris, which is the true account. The place derived its name Amastris from Amastris, the niece of the last Persian king Darius III, who was the wife of Dionysius, tyrant of Heraclea, and after his death the wife of Lysimachus. Four small Ionian colonies, Sesamus, Cytorus, Cromna, also mentioned in the ''Iliad'',〔Homer, (ii. 855 )〕 and Tium, were combined by Amastris, after her separation from Lysimachus,〔Memnon, ''History of Heraclea'', (5 ), (9 )〕 to form the new community of Amastris, placed on a small river of the same name and occupying a peninsula.〔Strabo, ''Geography'', (xii. 3 )〕 According to Strabo, Tium soon detached itself from the community, but the rest kept together, and Sesamus was the acropolis of Amastris. From this it appears that Amastris was really a confederation or union of three places, and that Sesamus was the name of the city on the peninsula. This may explain the fact that Mela〔Pomponius Mela, ''De chorographia'', (i. 93 )〕 mentions Sesamus and Cromna as cities of Paphlagonia, while omitting Amastris.〔Pliny the Elder, ''Natural History'', (vi. 2 )〕 The territory of Amastris produced a great quantity of boxwood, which grew on Mount Cytorus. Its tyrant Eumenes presented the city of Amastris to Ariobarzanes of Pontus in c. 265–260 BC rather than submit it to domination by Heraclea, and it remained in the Pontic kingdom until its capture by Lucius Lucullus in 70 BC in the second Mithridatic War.〔Appian, ''The Foreign Wars'', "The Mithridatic Wars", (82 )〕 The younger Pliny, when he was governor of Bithynia and Pontus, describes Amastris, in a letter to Trajan,〔Pliny the Younger, ''Letters'', x. 99〕 as a handsome city, with a very long open place (''platea''), on one side of which extended what was called a river, but in fact was a filthy, pestilent, open drain. Pliny obtained the emperor's permission to cover over this sewer. On a coin of the time of Trajan, Amastris has the title Metropolis. It continued to be a town of some note to the seventh century of our era. From Amasra got its name an important place of Constantinople, the Amastrianum. The city was not abandoned in the Byzantine Era, when the acropolis was transformed into a fortress and the still surviving church was built. It was sacked by the Rus during the First Russo-Byzantine War in the 830s. Speros Vryonis states that in the 9th century a "combination of local industry, trade, and the produce of its soil made Amastris one of the more prosperous towns on the Black Sea."〔Vryonis, ''The decline of medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor: and the process of Islamization from the eleventh through the fifteenth century'', (Berkeley: University of California, 1971), p. 14〕 In the 13th century Amasra exchanged hands several times, first becoming a possession of the Empire of Trebizond in 1204,〔Anthony Bryer, "David Komnenos and Saint Eleutherios", ''Archeion Pontou'', 42 (1988-1989), p. 179〕 then at some point in the next ten years being captured by the Seljuk Turks, until finally in 1261, in her bid to monopolize the Black Sea trade, the town came under the control of the Republic of Genoa. Genoese domination ended when the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II conquered the whole Anatolian shores of the Black Sea.〔Franz Babinger dates the conquest to autumn of 1460, although Halil İnalcık would date its capture to A.H. 863 (AD 1458/1459). Babinger, ''Mehmed the Conqueror and his Time'' (Princeton: University Press, 1978), p. 181 and note.〕 The bishopric of Amastris was established early: according to Eusebius, its congregation received a letter from the second-century bishop, Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, wherein he names their bishop, one Palmas.〔Eusebius, ''Historia Ecclesiastica'', 4.23〕 The see was initially a suffragan of the metropolitan of Gangra, capital of the Roman province of Paphlagonia, but in the late 8th century its bishop obtained from the Byzantine Emperor its elevation to the rank of autocephalous archeparchy. It is listed as such in the ''Notitia Episcopatuum'' attributed to Basil the Armenian (c. 840) and in that of Leo VI the Wise (early 10th century). In the middle of the 10th century it obtained the rank of metropolitan see without suffragans, a rank it held until, due to the diminution in the number of Christians in the area, it was suppressed. From the 14th century to the second half of the 15th, the town was also the seat of a bishopric of the Latin Church.〔Michel Lequien, (''Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus'' ), Paris 1740, Vol. I, coll. 561-566〕〔Jean Richard, ''La Papauté et les missions d'Orient au Moyen Age (XIII-XV siècles)'', École Française de Rome, 1977, pp. 236 and 246〕〔Siméon Vailhé, v. ''Amastris'', in (''Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques'' ), vol. XII, Paris 1953, coll. 971-973〕 No longer a residential bishopric, Amastris is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.〔''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 830〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Amasra」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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