Apollonia Pontica: The rise and fall of a Greek city

It was a treacherous stretch of coast. The ancient Greek historian Xenophon, writing in the 4th century BC, describes the perils of the Black Sea shore in the region around Salmydessos, a town in ancient Thrace and modern Turkey. Xenophon records that the hazardous shoals had wrecked many an unfortunate ship. For the crews, though, the ignominy of running aground was often only the beginning of their ordeal. The local Thracians were well aware of the dangers posed to shipping, and the rich pickings that could be placed within their grasp. The desire to plunder wrecked vessels was so widespread that we are told boundary stones were erected to mark out specific stretches of shore as the preserve of particular Thracian groups. For crews that successfully ran the gauntlet of this region as they headed up the west Black Sea coast, the first glimpse of Apollonia Pontica must have come as a welcome relief. This town offered a point of safety at the southern end of Burgas Bay.

Tradition has it that Apollonia Pontica was founded by Greek colonists from Miletus in 610 BC. The settlement was situated on a fine, natural harbour, created by a rocky peninsula jutting into the Black Sea, and the small island – now known as St Kirik – that lay just offshore. The Greeks were not the first to appreciate its potential, as traces of occupation dating back to the Chalcolithic in the late 5th millennium BC have also been found at the site. Equally, there was more to Apollonia Pontica’s renown than its status as a maritime refuge. While this quality was emphasised on coins bearing an anchor that were minted in the city, it lay close to metal deposits in the Thracian hinterland, too. One expression of the wealth this created took the form of a colossal statue of Apollo Ietros (Apollo the Healer), which stood 13m high and dominated the main sanctuary at Apollonia Pontica. The discovery of temples associated with this complex is just one of the highlights from a wealth of activity undertaken by dozens of archaeologists over the last couple of decades at Apollonia Pontica. Cumulatively, the results force us to rethink some traditional views of the settlement, while also shedding compelling new light on the ebb and flow of the city’s fortunes.

Seeking the sanctuary

One crucial piece of information about Apollonia Pontica that was never lost is its location. Today, the modern town is known as Sozopol, and a Late Antique source notes the change of name from Apollonia Pontica – in honour of Apollo – to the Christian Sozopolis, or ‘city of salvation’. Thanks to this, people have been taking an interest in its antiquities since at least the 19th century. The first documented excavations were undertaken in 1904 by a French consul, Alexandre Degrand. He sought the famous sanctuary of Apollo, which the Roman-era geographer Strabo noted lay on an island. The strongest candidate for this was St Kirik, which at the time was a small, bare area of ground that was home to little more than the remains of a medieval chapel and some fishermen’s houses. Degrand duly opened a series of trenches, but any hopes he had of finding monumental architecture were dashed. Instead, he unearthed graves and material dating to the Archaic period, prompting him to conclude that the island was a necropolis and the famous sanctuary lay elsewhere.