Apollonia in 218 B.C.

Apollonia — Spring 218 BC · The City of Apollo the Healer.

Apollonia Pontica — the foremost of the old Milesian colonies along the Thracian shore of the Euxine, an ancient and wealthy trading polis set upon a rocky island and headland of the south-western Black Sea coast. Its heart is the island sanctuary of Apollo Ietros, Apollo the Healer, who gives the city its name; within the precinct towers a colossal bronze statue of the god, wrought by the sculptor Calamis — a marvel known the length of the Pontic coast and the pride of the Apolloniates. Through its harbours pass the grain, salt-fish, timber and copper drawn from the Thracian hinterland in exchange for the wares of the Greek world. A leading member of the west-Pontic Greek cities — kinsman and rival of Mesambria and Odessos up the coast, with Agathopolis in its shadow and the kingdom of the Odrysians at its back among the Thracian tribes.

Where the south-western horn of the Euxine bends toward the lands of Thrace, Apollonia rises on its rocky island and headland — the oldest and richest of the Greek colonies that the Milesians planted along this coast. The sea is its wealth: through the city flows the trade between the Greek world and the Thracian interior, grain and salt-fish, timber and copper going out, the wine and oil and wrought goods of the Aegean coming in. But the soul of the place is its sanctuary. On the holy island stands the precinct of Apollo Ietros, the Healer, and within it the colossal bronze Apollo of Calamis, towering over worshippers and sailors alike — a wonder spoken of all round the Pontus. Ringed by the Thracian tribes and flanked along the coast by her sister-colonies, Apollonia keeps her freedom and her god, a Greek city among the barbarians of the Euxine shore.