Pompeiopolis

Pompeiopolis (Πομπηιούπολις, city of Pompeius) was a Roman city in ancient Paphlagonia, identified in the early 19th century with the ruins of Zımbıllı Tepe, located near Taşköprü, Kastamonu Province in the Black Sea Region of Turkey. The exact location is 40 km north-east of Kastamonu and a short distance across the river from modern Taşköprü, in the valley of the Gökırmak or Gök River (Αμνίας, Amnías). The borders of Pompeiopolis reached the Küre mountains to the north, Ilgaz mountains to the south, Halys river to the east and Pınarbaşı valley to the west.

Pompeiopolis was one of the seven cities founded by the Roman general Pompey the Great along the fluvial plains of Iris, Halys and Amnias in 64/63 BC, when he conquered the Pontic Kingdom in Northern Anatolia and incorporated the region into the new Roman double province of Bithynia-Pontus. It was later assigned by Mark Antony to the vassal princes of Paphlagonia, and in 6/5 BC was re-integrated into the Roman Empire and placed under the governor of the province of Galatia. During its peak in the 2nd Century AD the city was capital of the Roman Province Paphlagonia as some inscriptions on stone and coins bear the title "Metropolis of Paphlagonia". During the imperial era, several families from Pompeiopolis rose to the imperial aristocracy, such as those of Gaius Claudius Severus (consul suffectus in AD 112), Gnaeus Claudius Severus Arabianus (consul in AD 146) and Gnaeus Claudius Severus (consul in AD 173) and possibly Tiberius Claudius Subatianus Aquila (praefectus of Egypt in AD 206–211) and Tiberius Claudius Subatianus Proculus (governor of Numidia in AD 208–210). Being a bishopric since the early 4th century at latest, Pompeiopolis received the title of autocephalous archdiocese at some time during the reign of Justinian I. Within the church province of Paphlagonia, Pompeiopolis always ranked immediately after Gangra, and above the other bishoprics. This region was conquered by the invading Turks in the early 13th century. In the 10th/11th century, Pompeiopolis was a metropolitan see until the 14th century, when this diocese was suppressed. Among the fourteen known titular holders of the Christian diocese are Philadelphus at the First Council of Nicaea, Severus of Constantinople and Theodore of Constantinople. The bishopric of Pompeiopolis in Paphlagonia is included in the Catholic Church's list of titular sees. In the early 13th century, Pompeiopolis fell under the Seljuk rule and its name changed to Taşköprü (Stone Bridge).

In 2006, an international project for a holistic investigation of Pompeiopolis was initiated with extended surveys and goal-oriented excavations. Since 2017 the Kastamonu Museum is carrying out the annual excavations and conservation activities for the touristic development of the site. Although no remains were visible on the surface in 2005, a systematic geophysical survey over Zımbıllı Tepe detected the outline of a large city with roads, public buildings, and two theaters that were successively archaeologically investigated. The excavations in the major theatre unearthed the lowest marble seat rows as well as inscribed architraves with decorated friezes from the scaenae frons. From the inscription, it is understood that at least the stage was built around AD 150. The theatre was dismantled within the 5th century. Scarce remains of an octagonal building were previously identified as the tholos of a macellum, while few Christian graves excavated in 2016 in this area have suggested a later use as a church of the octagonal building.

A multiphase Roman domus at the north-eastern foot of Zımbıllı Tepe was first discovered in 1984 by a rescue intervention of the Museum of Kastamonu and reopened in 2006-2008 by the German team. This grand-house occupies a whole block within a network of orthogonal roads that organize the urban plan of this part of the city. The north-eastern blocks were built around the mid-3rd century AD and were progressively deserted since the beginning of the 7th century, with few episodes of partial reoccupation recorded until the 12th century. The grand-house is 2550 square metres wide, its layout is organized around a central peristyle and the northern side is provided by an honour court with direct accesses to wealthy reception rooms decorated with opus sectile wall revetments and mosaic floors. At least four rooms were equipped with a hypocaust heating system. The extensive excavation of the grand-house, still in progress, is accompanied by a systematic conservation program financed by the Meda Foundation, aimed at preserving and developing the monument into a public archaeological area with the involvement of local expertise and stakeholders.

It is argued that Pompeiopolis was founded to take over the administrative function of the Hellenistic fortress Pimolisa located in today´s Boyabat which was abandoned and destroyed in the aftermath of the Mithridatic Wars. Although no architectural remains in hitherto excavated areas can yet be assigned to the early phase of the city several coin-finds from this period leave no doubt about the localization of Pompeiopolis on the Zımbıllı Tepe. The stone bridge which spans the Amnias River (Gökirmak)linked the Roman period urban center on the Zımbıllı Tepe with the opposite riverbank where the farmlands of the city were situated. The city center was gradually moved to the floodplain at the southern riverbank during the early Byzantine period. The Byzantine Pompeiopolis is covered today by Taşköprü where building remains and finds are observed in the construction pits of the underground car park of Cumhuriyet Meydanı. The excavated archaeological finds are exhibited or stored in the Museum of Archaeology of Kastamonu. A small museum adjacent to the excavation house, created in 2014, exhibits stone monuments like inscriptions, architectural elements, grave stelae from the city. The municipal history museum in Taşköprü established in 2017 presents some hypothetical digital reconstructions of the city´s lost appearance alongside objects from the younger history of Taşköprü.