Poti Georgia

From Jatland Wiki
(Redirected from Phasis)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)
Georgia Map
For Jat Gotra see Poti

Poti is a port city in Georgia, located on the eastern Black Sea coast in the region of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti in the west of the country. Built near the site of the ancient Greek colony of Phasis and deriving its name from the same, the city has become a major port city and industrial center since the early 20th century. It is also home to a main naval base and the headquarters of the Georgian Navy.

Variants

Jat Gotras Namesake

Etymology

Etymology: The name Poti is linked to Phasis, but the etymology is a matter of a scholarly dispute. "Phasis" (Greek: Φάσις) is first recorded in Hesiod's Theogony (c. 700 BC) as a name of the river, not a town. Since Erich Diehl, 1938, first suggested a non-Hellenic origin of the name and asserted that Phasis might have been a derivative of a local hydronym, several explanations have been proposed, linking the name to the Proto-Georgian-Zan *Poti, Svan *Pasid, and even to a Semitic word, meaning "a gold river".[1]

History

Ancient and medieval history: The recorded history of Poti and its environments spans over 26 centuries. In Classical antiquity and the early Middle Ages, the area was occupied by the Greek polis of Phasis which was established by the colonists from Miletus led by one Themistagoras at the very end of the 7th, and probably at the beginning of the 6th century BC. The famed Greek semi-mythological voyage of Jason and the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece would have entered Georgia at this port and traveled up the river to what is today Kutaisi.

After many years of uncertainty and academic debate, the site of this settlement now seems to be established, thanks to underwater archaeology under tough conditions. Apparently, the lake which the well-informed Ancient Greek author Strabo reported as bounding one side of Phasis has now engulfed it, or part of it. Yet, a series of questions regarding the town’s exact location and identification of its ruins remain open due largely to the centuries-long geomorphological processes of the area as the lower reaches of the Rioni are prone to changes of course across the wetland. Phasis appears to have been an important center of trade and culture in Colchis throughout the Classical period.[2] The section along the river Phasis was a vital component of the presumed trade route from India to the Black Sea, attested by Strabo and Pliny.[3]

Between the 6th and 2nd centuries BC, the town played an active role in these contacts. During the Third Mithridatic War, Phasis came under Roman control. It was where the Roman commander-in-chief Pompey, having crossed into Colchis from Iberia, met the legate Servilius, the admiral of his Euxine fleet in 65 BC.[4] After the introduction of Christianity, Phasis was a seat of a Greek diocese, one of whose bishops, Cyrus, became a Patriarch of Alexandria between 630 and 641 AD. During the Lazic War between the Eastern Roman and Sassanid Iranian empires (542-562) Phasis was attacked, unsuccessfully, by Iranian soldiers.

In the 8th century, the name Poti entered Georgian written sources. It remained a place of maritime trade within the Kingdom of Georgia and was known to medieval European travelers as Fasso.[5] In the 14th century, the Genoese established a trading factory, which proved to be short-lived.

Phasis town

Phasis (Ancient Greek: Φᾶσις; Georgian: ფაზისი, pazisi) was an ancient and early medieval city on the eastern Black Sea coast, founded in the 7th or 6th century BC as a colony of the Milesian Greeks at the mouth of the eponymous river in Colchis. Its location today could be the port city of Poti Georgia.

Location: Its location today could be the port city of Poti Georgia. Its ancient bishopric became a Latin Catholic titular see of Metropolitan rank.

Etymology: The names of ancient Phasis and modern Poti are apparently linked to each other, but the etymology is a matter of a scholarly dispute. "Phasis" is first recorded in Hesiod's Theogony (c. 700 BC) as a name of the river, not a town. The first Greek settlement here must have been founded not earlier than the very end of the 7th, and probably at the beginning of the 6th century BC, and received its name from the river.

Since Erich Diehl, in 1938, first suggested a non-Hellenic origin of the name and asserted that Phasis might have been a derivative of a local hydronym, several explanations have been proposed, linking the name to the Proto-Georgian-Zan language *Poti, Svan, *Pasid, and even to a Semitic word, meaning "a gold river."[6] The collective use of the ethnonym Φασιανοί (Phasians) is attested in Xenophon and Heraclides Lembus.[7]

The name Phasis is the origin of the word pheasant.

History: Phasis appears in numerous Classical and early medieval sources as well as the Greek mythology, particularly an Argonautic cycle. Phasis is reported by Heraclides, Pomponius Mela and Stephanus of Byzantium to have been founded by Milesians. Phasis is referred to as a polis Hellenis in the Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax and Hippocrates calls it an emporion, "a trading place". According to the classical sources, Phasis had its constitution, including the Aristotelian corpus of 158 politeiai.[8]

Phasis was probably a mixed Hellenic–"barbarian" city,[9] in which the Greek settlers coexisted peacefully with the natives.[10] It seems to have been a vital component of the presumed trade route from India to the Black Sea, attested by the Classical authors Strabo and Pliny.[11]

During the Third Mithridatic War, Phasis came under Roman control. It was where the Roman commander-in-chief Pompey, having crossed into Colchis from Iberia, met the legate Servilius, the admiral of his Euxine fleet in 65 BC.[12]

During the Lazic War between the Eastern Roman and Sassanid Iranian empires (542–562), the Iranian army besieged the town, but failed to take it.[6][7] After the introduction of Christianity, Phasis was the see of a Greek diocese one of whose bishops, Cyrus, became a Patriarch of Alexandria between AD 630 and 641.[13][14]

Phasis River

Phasis River or the modern The Rioni (Georgian: რიონი, Rioni; Ancient Greek: Φᾶσις, Phᾶsis) is the main river of western Georgia. It originates in the Caucasus Mountains, in the region of Racha and flows west to the Black Sea, entering it north of the city of Poti (near ancient Phasis). The city of Kutaisi, once the ancient city of Colchis, lies on its banks. It drains the western Transcaucasus into the Black Sea while the river Kura, drains the eastern Transcaucasus into the Caspian Sea.

Mention by Pliny

Pliny[15] mentions ....At the back of the mountains of this district is Iberia, while on the coast are the Heniochi, the Ampreutæ25, the Lazi, the rivers Acampsis,26 Isis,27 Mogrus, and Bathys,28 the nations of the Colchi, the town of Matium,29 the river Heracleum and the promontory of the same name,30 and the Phasis,31 the most celebrated river of Pontus.

25 It is suggested by Hardouin that these are the same as the Zydretæ mentioned in the Periplus of Arrian, and by him placed between the Heniochi and the Lazi.

26 See note 91.

27 Supposed to be the same as the modem Tshorok.

28 Or "Deep" River. This stream may possibly be identified by observing that Pliny places only one river between it and the Phasis.

29 Probably the Madia of Ptolemy, who places it in the interior.

30 At the present day called Eraklia, according to Parisot.

31 Now called the Faz or Poti.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lordkipanidze (2000), pp. 11–12
  2. ↑ Lordkipanidze (2000), p. 50.
  3. ↑ Lordkipanidze (2000), p. 31.
  4. ↑ John Leach (1986), Pompey the Great, p. 84. Routledge, ISBN 0-7099-4127-7.
  5. ↑ W.E.D. Allen (Aug. 1929), The March-Lands of Georgia. The Geographical Journal, Vol. 74, No. 2, p. 135.
  6. ↑ Lordkipanidze (2000), pp. 11–12.
  7. ↑ Hansen, Mogens Herman & Nielsen, Thomas Heine (2004), An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis, p. 953. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-814099-1
  8. ↑ Hansen, Mogens Herman & Nielsen, Thomas Heine (2004), An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis, p. 953. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-814099-1
  9. ↑ Hansen, Mogens Herman & Nielsen, Thomas Heine (2004), An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis, p. 953. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-814099-1
  10. ↑ "Phasis". Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World, Black Sea.
  11. ↑ Otar Lordkipanidze (2000), Phasis: The River and City in Colchis. Franz Steiner Verlag, ISBN 3-515-07070-2, p. 31.
  12. ↑ John Leach (1986), Pompey the Great, p. 84. Routledge, ISBN 0-7099-4127-7.
  13. ↑ Bury, John Bagnell (1889), A History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene, Vol. I, MacMillan & Co., ISBN 978-1-4021-8369-0, p. 458-462
  14. ↑ Holmes, William Gordon (1999), The age of Justinian and Theodora: a history of the sixth century A.D., vol. II, G. Bell and sons, ISBN 978-1-4212-5069-4, p. 728-730
  15. ↑ Natural History by Pliny Book VI/Chapter 4
Retrieved from "http://www.jatland.com/w/index.php?title=Poti_Georgia&oldid=559370"