Mesambria in 218 B.C.

Mesambria — Spring 218 BC · A Dorian City of the Pontic Shore.

Mesambria — a Dorian Greek city on a rocky little peninsula of the west Pontic coast of Thrace, planted by colonists out of Megara by way of Byzantium and Chalcedon in the days of Darius and his march against the Scythians. Built upon the old Thracian Menebria, it has grown into a strong and prosperous trading polis, walled upon its neck of land, minting fine silver coin and handling the commerce of the Euxine shore. It stands between Apollonia Pontica to the south and Odessos to the north, the Thracian tribes pressing on its narrow hinterland from the heights of Haemus, while across the water lie the great Greek cities of the strait, Byzantium foremost among them. A free Dorian city of the Pontic shore, it keeps its independence by its walls, its harbour and the goodwill of trade.

Mesambria sits on a low rocky peninsula thrust out into the Euxine, joined to the Thracian mainland by so narrow a neck that the city is half an island — a natural fortress walled across its isthmus and open to the sea on every other side. It is a Dorian foundation, settled from Megara through Byzantium and Chalcedon when Darius the Persian crossed into Europe against the Scythians, and it keeps the speech and temper of the Dorian Greeks among the Thracians who hold the hill-country at its back. From its two roadsteads it works the trade of the west Pontic coast, sending out the grain, hides, honey and salt-fish of the Thracian shore and taking in the wine and oil of the Aegean. Between Apollonia Pontica to the south and Odessos to the north, beneath the great ridge of Haemus, it lives by its walls and its harbour, a free and prosperous polis minting some of the finest coin of the Euxine.