PAPHLAGONIA, a district of Asia Minor, situated on the Euxine Sea between Bithynia and Pontus, separated from Galatia by a prolongation to the east of the Bithynian Olympus. Although the Paphlagonians play scarcely any part in history, they were one of the most ancient nations of Asia Minor (Iliad; ii. 851). They were among the races conquered by Croesus (Herod. i. 28), and they sent a contingent to the army of Xerxes in 480 B.C. Paphlagonia passed under the Macedonian kings, and after the death of Alexander the Great it was assigned to Eumenes. It continued, however, to be governed by native princes until it was absorbed by the encroaching power of Pontus. The rulers of that dynasty became masters of the greater part of Paphlagonia as early as the reign of Mithridates III. (302-266 B.c.), but it was not till that of Pharnaces I. that Sinope fell into their hands (183 B.c.). From this time the whole province was incorporated with the kingdom of Pontus until the fall of the great Mithradates (q.v.) in 65 B.C. Pompey united the coast districts of Paphlagonia with the province of Bithynia, but left the interior of the country under the native princes, until the dynasty became extinct and the whole country was incorporated in the Roman empire. All these rulers appear to have borne the name of Pylaemenes, as a token that they claimed descent from the chieftain of that name who figures in the Iliad as leader of the Paphlagonians. Under the
Roman empire Paphlagonia with the greater part of Pontus, was united into one province with Bithynia.
Paphlagonia is a rugged mountainous country, but it contains fertile valleys, and produces great abundance of fruit. The moun tains are clothed with dense forests, which are conspicuous for the quantity of boxwood which they furnish. The coasts were from an early period occupied by Greek colonies among which the flourishing city of Sinope, founded from Miletus about 63o B.C., stood pre-eminent. The most considerable towns of the in terior were Gangra, in ancient times the capital of the Paphlago nian kings, afterwards called Germanicopolis, situated near the frontier of Galatia, and Pompeiopolis, in the valley of the Amnias (a tributary of the Halys), near which were extensive mines of the mineral called by Strabo sandarake (red sulphuret of arsenic), which was largely exported from Sinope.
See W. M. Ramsay, Hist. Geog. of Asia Minor (189o) ; Cambridge Ancient History, vol. iii. (with useful bibliography).