Eupatoria (Pontus)

Eupatoria or Magnopolis was a Hellenistic city in the Kingdom of Pontus. The city was founded by Mithridates VI Eupator just south of where the Lycus flows into the Iris, the west end of the fertile valley of Phanaroea.

Eupatoria was the crossing-point of two great roads through the Pontus: the east-west from Armenia Minor to Bithynia; and the north-south from Amisus to Caesarea Mazaca. The east-west road followed the valley of the Lycus from Armenia Minor to Phanaroea; it continued over the mountains into the Destek to Laodicea Pontica (modern Ladik), the Halys (Kızılırmak) and the Amnias (Gökırmak) through Paphlagonia to Bithynia; the north-south road went from Amisus (modern Samsun) up the Iris to Amaseia (Amasya), Zela (Zile), up to the Anatolian Plateau and Caesarea Mazaca (Kayseri).

Pompey refounded the city under the name Magnopolis and extended its territory to include the western Phanaroean plain.