SINOPE, or in Turkish Sinûb, a town and seaport on the north coast of Asia Minor, on the isthmus and peninsula of Boztepeh, which forms part of the most northerly projection of the Anatolian seaboard. Though it possesses the finest natural harbour save one in the Black Sea, defective communication with the interior, and the consequent rivalry of Ineboli (since about 1848), have prevented Sinope taking its natural position as a great commercial centre. But between 1882 and 1885 roads have been constructed which give direct access southward to Caesarea and even to Tarsus, near the south coast. The town still bears the stamp of its former importance. On the isthmus stands a huge but for the most part ruined castle, originally Byzantine and afterwards strengthened by the Seljuk sultans; and the old town is surrounded by Byzantine walls. Of early Roman or Greek antiquities there is little trace; but the ancient local coinage furnishes a very beautiful and interesting series of types (see M. J. P. Six’s paper in The Numismatic Chronicle, 1885). The population has not greatly changed since 1868, when it was found to be 9668 inhabitants, of whom 7299 were Mohammedans and 2369 Greeks and others....
Sinope (∑ιvὠπη ), whose origin was mythically assigned by its own ancient inhabitants to Autolycus, a companion of Hercules, was colonized by the Milesians, and ultimately became the most flourishing Greek settlement on the coast of the Euxine. In the 5th century b.c . it received a colony of Athenians; and by the 4th it had extended its authority over a considerable tract of country and become itself the mother of several colonies—Cerasus (Kerasûn ), Trapezus (Trebizond), Cotyora, &c. Its fleet was practically dominant in the Euxine, except towards the west, where it shared the field with Byzantium. When in 220 b.c. Sinope was for the first time attacked by the king of Pontus, the assistance of the Rhodians enabled it to maintain its independence. But where Mithradates IV. failed Pharnaces succeeded; and the city, taken by surprise in 183 b.c., became the capital of the Pontian monarchy. Under Mithradates, the Great, who was born in Sinope, it had just been raised to the highest degree of prosperity, with fine buildings, naval arsenals, and well-built harbours, when the Romans under Lucullus and Pompey effected the subjugation of Poutus. In 64 b.c. the body of the murdered Mithradates was brought home to the royal mausoleum. Under Julius Caesar the city received a Roman colony. In the Middle Ages it became subject to Trebizond, and in 1470 it passed into the hands of the Turks. In November 1853 the Russian vice-admiral Nakhimoff destroyed here a division of the Turkish fleet and reduced a good part of the town to ashes.
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