Tomis

Tomi, Tomai, later Constantia (ConstanŢa)

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A city of Scythia Minor (Dobrogea) on the Rumanian coast of the Euxine (Black) Sea, colonized by Miletus in Ionia (western Asia Minor) c 500–475 BC. Its founder was said to have been a certain Tomos. Built on a promontory protecting a south-facing harbor, and presiding over a trade-route across the neck of the Dobrogea to the Danube, the colony conducted active commerce not only with the rest of the Greek world but also with the Scythian interior, as finds preserved in the local museum confirm.

Nevertheless, it was only in about the third century that Tomis ceased to be overshadowed by its neighbor Istrus (Histria). From the time of Alexander the Great's successor Lysimachus (d. 281) gold and silver coins bearing his name were issued at the local mint. About 262, according to Memnon, the control of the Tomians' merchandise was the issue in a war between Byzantium (İstanbul) and Istrus' ally Callatis (Mangalia), which vainly tried to take over Tomis' port. Occupied by Marcus Licinius Lucullus in 72, the city suffered raids from hinterland tribes until its incorporation in the province of Moesia created by Augustus and Tiberius, within which it became the head of a Federation (koinon) of neighboring Pontic (Euxine) cities. Tomis owes its fame to its selection by Augustus as the place of banishment of the poet Ovid (AD 8), who paints a gloomy picture of a superficially Hellenized, spiritually and culturally arid frontier town subject to ferocious tribal attacks and a depressingly bleak climate.

When Domitian divided the province into two (AD 85/86), Tomis became the capital of Lower Moesia. During the third century local prosperity was gravely affected by Gothic invasions. But the city recovered in the later empire, when it became capital of the new province of Scythia, under the name of Constantia (for the Dobrogea rampart, see Axiopolis). When the empire became Christianized, Tomis was the seat of a bishop. During this period shipping and ship-building were major activities.

The town-wall which closed off the promontory in the second century AD, and was rebuilt several times thereafter, has been preserved at a number of points. But the principal monument that excavators have unearthed is the `Mosaic Building,’ a large complex of commercial structures of fourth-century date, designed on three levels and supporting a sixty-foot-high cliff. The edifice opens onto adjacent quays, where warehouses filled with amphorae (employed for storing grain) have been uncovered, in addition to the ruins of a large bathing establishment. Other finds include a cache of twenty-four pieces of pagan sculpture of various dates, including the best known representation of the sheep-headed snake-god Glycon, whose worship was professed by the second-century charlatan Alexander of Abonuteichus or Ionopolis (Inebolu) in Paphlagonia (northern Asia Minor).

Another statue depicts Tyche (Fortuna), accompanied by a small bearded figure of Pontus (standing for the Euxine [Black] Sea coastland, not Pontus in northern Asia Minor), whose presence testifies to an ancient consciousness of the economic and cultural unity of the region. This statuary group also seems to be shown on early third-century coins. Other issues describe Tomis as the `metropolis of Pontus,’ and depict a trophy between captives. In addition, Tomis has yielded more than seven hundred inscriptions. Four early Christian basilicas have come to light, including one, of considerable size, that is built over a huge seven-roomed cruciform crypt.