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Genoese Heraldry and Inscriptions at Amastra

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2013

F. W. Hasluck
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Extract

The town of Amastra (anc. Amastris, med. Samastro), one of the most important of the ancient Greek colonies on the Euxine, and later a Genoese trading-post, lies on the neck and landward slopes of a steep peninsula forming a safe harbour on either side. The peninsula is connected by a bridge with an adjacent island, on which are a few houses still protected on the harbour side by the mediaeval town-wall. The bridge is defended on either side by a gate-tower, and the city proper and castle, which are on the peninsula, retain their lofty walls and towers, built of squared blocks evidently plundered from Roman ruins (Fig. 1). Despite this plundering and the recent construction of the new road (still unfinished in 1910) to Bartin, extensive ancient remains still survive above ground on the mainland opposite the town, notably the large Roman building of brick and opus reticulatum called the Bezestein, two columns of a temple or mausoleum, many built tombs, and considerable remains of masonry embankment and vaulting about the stream which debouches into the smaller (W.) harbour. Saving the change of ownership, the place has altered but little since Clavijo's description in 1404:—

‘The town of Samastro belongs to the Genoese, and is near the sea…. on a very high hill. Opposite this hill, but more inland, there is another on which the town is built; and from one hill to another there is a great arch, like a bridge, by which people pass, and it has two gates, one at each end.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 17 , November 1911 , pp. 132 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1911

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References

page 132 note 1 Amastra is still considered after Sinope the best harbour of refuge for small craft on the Turkish coast of the Black Sea, but has no commercial importance on account probably of bad communications with its hinterland.

page 133 note 1 Hakluyt Society's Edition p. 57.

page 133 note 2 R. Geog. Journ. ix. 233; Travels, i. 54–8.

page 133 note 3 Asie Mineure, Atlas, Pl. XXIV.

page 133 note 4 Voy. en Turquie, i. 331 ff., iv. Pll. XIX., XX.

page 133 note 5 Rottiers, , Itin. de Tiflis à Cons'ble, p. 273Google Scholar; Boré, , Corresb. et Mém. i. 229 ff., 408 f.Google Scholar; von Diest, W. in Petermann's Mitt., Ergänzungsheft 94, pp. 68–71Google Scholar; cf. Mendel, G. in B.C.H. xxv. 25.Google Scholar

page 134 note 1 Pll. XXI.–XXIV.

page 134 note 2 Vol. v. p. 47 and pl. I.

page 134 note 3 The best account is given by Heyd, (Comm. du Levant ii. 358)Google Scholar: see also Tomaschek, , Sitzber. Ak. Wien, cxxiv. (1891), 77Google Scholar; Canale, , Della Crimea (1855–1856).Google Scholar

page 134 note 4 Atti Soc. Lig. xiv. 103, 110.

page 134 note 5 Rev. Or. Lat. iv. 90, note.

page 134 note 6 Cf. Atti Soc. Lig. xiii. 269 (document of 1454): … Si de dando tributa pro Samastra urbe quicquam proponetur vobis in curia Regis … respondendum erit tributum illius civitatis jam dudum solvi capitaneo seu rectori qui in illa regione praepositus est ab ipso rege Machometo … etc.

page 134 note 7 Memoirs Odessa Hist. Soc. v. 810. The connection with Caffa was probably close throughout: in 1427 we read … civitas [Amastra] Januensium est, tamen locuntur grecum et thartarescum sicut in Capha literas Grecorum habentes (Νέος ῾Ελληνομνημων vii. 365).

page 134 note 8 Critobulus, iii. 17: for the date see Müler's exhaustive note.

page 136 note 1 Atti Soc. Lig. xiii. 221.

page 136 note 2 Mem. Odessa Soc. vii. pl. IV.

page 136 note 3 At f. 81 of the Pasqua heraldic MS., in the possession of the Società Ligure at Genoa, which the Society kindly allowed me to consult. The name Luxardo occurs in the consular lists of Caffa as early as 1415 (Schlumberger, , Num. Or. Lat. 463).Google Scholar

page 137 note 1 ƒ. 87 (1380), 101 (1382).

page 137 note 2 Belgrano, Documenti di Pera (Atti Soc. Lig. xiii.), Nos. xxxiv., xxxvi., xxxvii.

page 137 note 3 Ibid, lxxiii.

page 137 note 4 ff. 133, 135.

page 137 note 5 No. 290: cf. Pasqua MS. f. 103 (1369).

page 137 note 6 Bohn, p. 335: see also notes in Schefer's edition.

page 138 note 1 Vol. iv. pl. XX2.

page 138 note 2 Mem. Odessa Soc. v. pl. I. 10 (1467).

page 138 note 3 pl. XXIV.

page 138 note 4 A Perote inscription of the same date (Atti Soc. Lig. xiii. Pl. XI.) has the central shield defaced, the only other of the period being battered all over (ibid. pl. X). A stone at Famagusta has shields of Genoa and Adorno flanking a defaced shield, and the foreign insignia seem to have been effaced in the same way by the Genoese of Chios, (B.S.A. xvi. 146 ]4]; cf. 147 [9]).Google Scholar

page 138 note 5 Rietstap, s.v.; Fransone, pl. XVII.

page 138 note 6 B.S.A. xi. 55; cf. Mem. Odessa Soc. v. pl. I. 16.

page 138 note 7 Atti Soc. Lig. xiii. 193.

page 141 note 1 The table-like rock on which this fort stands, not the Byzantine site, is obviously the original Trebizond, though no one save Mr. Bryce seems to recognise it as such. It is significant that with the decay of the artificial Byzantine harbour the anchorage under Guzel Hissar has again come into use.

page 141 note 2 Fallmerayer, , Gesch. Trebiz. 161 ff.Google Scholar; Originalfragmente, ii. 23, and note xviii.; Heyd, , Hist. du Commerce du Levant, ii. 95 ff.Google Scholar

page 141 note 3 Stella, s.a. 1381: there was a church of this dedication also at Chios, (Νεαμονήσια, 191Google Scholar; Rhodokanakes, , Ἰουστινιάναι 182Google Scholar, note 48). S. Eleutherios is of course recognised by both communions.

page 142 note 1 Cf. Rott, H., Kleinas. Denkm. 322.Google Scholar

page 142 note 2 Fallmerayer, , Gesch. Trebiz. 200Google Scholar; Finlay, iv. 380; Desimoni, , Intorno dell' Impresa di M. I in Atti Soc. Lig. xiii. 513 ff., 527 ff.Google Scholar; Heyd, loc. cit. 98.

page 142 note 3 Mem. Odessa Soc. vii. 821–2; Schlumberger, , Numismatique de l'Orient latin, p. 463.Google Scholar

page 142 note 4 Mem. Odessa Soc. ii. 319, Fig. 3.

page 142 note 5 Atti Soc. Lig. xiii. 334 (31).

page 142 note 6 B.S.A. xi. 54: the gate is shewn on p. 53, Fig. 3 (1).

page 144 note 1 Ibid. p. 60.

page 144 note 2 Pl. XXV.

page 144 note 3 Νέος ῾Ελληνομνημων vi. 342–4; better in Βυζαντις ii. 266.