Sanctuaries, Festivals, and Worship in the Pontic Kingdom

From the formation of the Mithridatid kingdom around 281 BCE to its defeat and dissolution in the first century BCE, religious life in Pontus took place in varied settings. Coastal cities had their own cults, while inland sanctuaries could control extensive estates and gather people from surrounding communities. These practices belonged to a kingdom with diverse local and cultural traditions, not to a single uniform religious system.

Strabo, a native of Amaseia, wrote in the early Roman period and distinguished the kings’ arrangements from those introduced after the conquest. His descriptions of Comana Pontica, Zela and Ameria show worship supported by land, labour and public authority. In each place, a sacred institution also organised relationships with the surrounding community.

On this page5 sections

Sanctuary estates and royal authority

Some Pontic sanctuaries formed temple districts that held land, drew income from cultivation and managed local affairs. Under the Mithridatid kings, they retained substantial local autonomy while remaining part of the kingdom.

Priests managed sanctuary property and its dependent population. The chief priest could hold a position of exceptional rank: Strabo describes the priest at Comana Pontica as second in status only to the king. The priesthood also connected religious administration to royal politics. Dorylaos, whom Strabo identifies as a relative, held priestly office at Comana; accounts associate his appointment with the reign of Mithridates VI.

At Comana, fertile land and vineyards supplied income, while festivals brought people from cities and countryside. Strabo also describes Armenian merchants trading there. A large gathering needed food, accommodation and goods as well as a focus for worship. The sanctuary’s estate and market connected its religious calendar with recurring economic activity.

Comana Pontica: Ma, people, and processions

Comana Pontica stood on the Iris, now called the Yeşilırmak, in inland Pontus. Its principal sanctuary was dedicated to Ma, a local Anatolian goddess whom Greek writers compared with Enyo, a war goddess. This was the Pontic centre of her cult, distinct from the better-known sanctuary at Comana in Cappadocia.

Strabo reports at least 6,000 temple servants in his description of Comana’s administration under Pompey. These hierodouloi were people attached to the sanctuary and under its priest’s authority. The count belongs to that later account, while his description of the twice-yearly processions explicitly looks back to the kings’ time.

Twice a year, the goddess’s image was taken out in processions called exoduses. The priest wore a diadem, a headband associated with royal dignity, and ranked second in honour after the king. Strabo describes men and women coming from towns and rural districts for the celebration. Others remained at the sanctuary to fulfil vows through continuing sacrifices.

The combination of religious gatherings, sanctuary property, and trade made Comana a meeting place as well as a cult centre. Festival visitors and merchants entered a district whose economic activity was closely tied to the institution of Ma’s sanctuary.

Zela and Ameria: festivals and royal oaths

Zela offers a different example of a major sanctuary in central Pontus. Its religious traditions predated the Mithridatid kingdom, and Strabo associated the site with the goddess Anaïtis. He also described an annual festival called the Sakaia. According to the tradition he reported, the celebration recalled a Persian victory over the Sakae, a group identified in the account as Scythians. Strabo describes men wearing Scythian clothing and women drinking wine during festivities he characterized as Bacchic. The reported origin is a tradition about the festival, not independent proof of the event it commemorated.

At Ameria, a settlement Strabo described as a village-town, the sanctuary was associated with Men Pharnakou. Its importance was reflected in royal oaths: kings swore by the king’s Tyche, or fortune, and by Men Pharnakou. Such an oath placed royal commitments within a religious setting and linked the ruler’s authority to a local cult.

Royal ritual beyond the sanctuary estates

Religious practice was not confined to the great temple districts. In coastal cities, local cults could reflect the work and resources of the surrounding area. Dionysus, for example, was worshipped in places including Amisos, where his associations with wine and agriculture suited the city’s productive hinterland. Mithridates VI also promoted the cult of Apollo, a popular god in Black Sea cities, to royal standing.

Royal ritual could draw on more than one tradition. Appian describes Mithridates VI making a sacrifice to Zeus Stratios, a form of Zeus associated with warfare and with Iranian religious traditions. On a high mountain, the king first carried wood for a large pyre. Offerings of milk, honey, wine, oil, and incense were placed on it, while bread and other food were set on a lower pyre for those attending. Appian presents the rite as an ancestral custom. The account shows the king leading the ritual while food and offerings brought participants into the event.

From Mithridatid rule to Roman control

The defeat of Mithridates VI in 63 BCE ended the kingdom as a unified Mithridatid power, but it did not mean that every local religious institution immediately disappeared. The later political setting was different: Rome annexed western Pontus, while eastern territories remained under Roman client kings for a time. Pharnaces II, the son of Mithridates VI and ruler of the Bosporan kingdom, attempted to recover Pontus in 48 BCE, but his defeat by Julius Caesar did not restore the Mithridatid order.

Pompey appointed Archelaus as priest of Comana and enlarged the territory under his authority. Archelaus later married Berenice IV in Egypt and died there in 55 BCE. His son, also called Archelaus, succeeded to the priesthood before Caesar replaced him in 47 BCE. The sanctuary’s priestly succession had become closely tied to decisions made by Roman leaders.

For the wider setting, see Life in the Pontic Kingdom: Coastal Cities and Inland Communities.