Roads in Pontus, Royal and Roman1

The territory once occupied by the Mithridatic kingdom of Pontus lies between the Euxine and the northern edge of the high Anatolian plateau. It consists of a long strip of seaboard and a broader central tract of alternate river valleys and mountain ranges. The mountains and valleys run more or less parallel to the coast, and rise one behind another up the slope, like lines of gigantic entrenchments scored along a hillside. The channels whereby the Iris and the Halys pierce their way northwards are mere rifts cleft across through the ridges. The main trend of hill and dale is from east to west.The northernmost chain of mountains steeply overhangs the Euxine and cuts off the seaboard from the country behind. Roads across this barrier are few and difficult. In the whole stretch of coast, from Amastris on the west to Trapezus on the east, Amisus is the only open door into the interior. Here, between the Paphlagonian mountains and the Paryadres range, the Halys and the Iris find an exit to the sea, and there is a slight dip—it cannot be called a gap—over which a great road penetrates to Amasia and Cappadocia. The road is not really difficult, but it is toilsome, for although this central section of the country is relatively low, yet the ridges and valleys pursue their course without interruption across the hollow, and if the former are not quite so high as in the east and west the latter are deeper.