For the comb jelly genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

, see Cabira (ctenophore).

Cabira , a place in Pontus

Pontus

Pontus or Pontos is a historical Greek designation for a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in modern-day northeastern Turkey. The name was applied to the coastal region in antiquity by the Greeks who colonized the area, and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: Πόντος...

, at the base of the range of Paryadres, about 150 stadia south of Eupatoria

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....

 or Magnopolis, which was at the junction of the Iris and the Lycus

Lycus

Lycus or Lykos , a common name for Greek rivers, seems to have originated in the impression made upon the mind of the beholder by a torrent rushing down the side of a hill, which suggested the idea of a wolf rushing at its prey.Lycus or Lykos may refer to:* Lycus , several people in Greek...

. Eupatoria was in the midst of the plain, but Cabira, as Strabo

Strabo

Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...

 says (p. 556), was at the base of the Paryadres. Mithridates the Great built a palace at Cabira; and there was a water-mill there (Greek: ὑδραλέτης), and places for keeping wild animals, hunting grounds, and mines. Less than 200 stadia from Cabira was the remarkable rock or fortress called Caenon (Greek: Καινόν), where Mithridates kept his most valuable things. Cn. Pompeius

Pompey

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...

 took the place and its treasures, which, when Strabo wrote, were in the Roman Capitol. In Strabo's time a woman, Pythodoris, the widow of King Polemo, had Cabira with the Zelitis and Magnopolitis. Pompeius made Cabira a city, and gave it the name Diopolis. Pythodoris enlarged it, and gave it the name Sebaste, which is equivalent to Augusta; and she used it as her royal residence. Near Cabira probably (for the text of Strabo is a little uncertain, and not quite clear; Groskurd, transl. vol. ii. p. 491, note) at a village named Ameria, there was a temple with a great number of slaves belonging to it, and the high priest enjoyed this benefice. The god Men Pharnaces was worshipped at Cabira. Mithridates was at Cabira during the winter that L. Lucullus

Lucullus

Lucius Licinius Lucullus , was an optimate politician of the late Roman Republic, closely connected with Sulla Felix...

 was besieging Amisus and Eupatoria. (Appian

Appian

Appian of Alexandria was a Roman historian of Greek ethnicity who flourished during the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius.He was born ca. 95 in Alexandria. He tells us that, after having filled the chief offices in the province of Egypt, he went to Rome ca. 120, where he practised as...

, Mithrid. c. 78.) Lucullus afterwards took Cabira. (Plutarch

Plutarch

Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...

, Lucullus, c. 18.) There are some autonomous coins of Cabira with the epigraph "Καβηρων".

Strabo, a native of Amasia, could not be unacquainted with the site of Cabira. The only place that corresponds to his description is Niksar

Niksar

Niksar is a city in Tokat Province, Turkey. It has been settled by many empires over the centuries, and it was once the capital city of the province.At 350 m...

, on the right bank of the Lycus, nearly 43 km from the junction of the Iris and the Lycus. But Niksar is the representative of Neocaesarea, a name which first occurs in Pliny

Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...

 (vi. 3), who says that it is on the Lycus. There is no trace of any ancient city between Niksar and the junction of the two rivers, and the conclusion that Niksar is a later name of Cabira, and a name more recent than Sebaste, seems certain. (Hamilton's Researches, &c. vol. i. p. 346.) Pliny, indeed, mentions both Sebastia

Sebastia

Sebastia can refer to:* Sebastia: Sivas, Turkey is the provincial capital of Sivas Province in Turkey. Sivas first appears in history as Seabaste...

 and Sebastopolis

Sebastopolis

Sebastopolis may refer to:* Sulusaray, Turkey* Sukhumi, Abkhazia* Sebastopolis * Sebastopolis * Myrina...

 in Colopena, a district of Cappadocia

Cappadocia

Cappadocia is a historical region in Central Anatolia, largely in Nevşehir Province.In the time of Herodotus, the Cappadocians were reported as occupying the whole region from Mount Taurus to the vicinity of the Euxine...

, but nothing certain can be inferred from this. Neocaesarea seems to have arisen under the early Roman emperors. Cramer (Asia Minor, vol. i. p. 315) states that the earliest coins of Neocaesarea bear the effigy of Tiberius

Tiberius

Tiberius , was Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced Nero and married Augustus in 39 BC, making him a step-son of Octavian...

; but Sestini, quoted by Forbiger (Geog. vol. ii. p. 428), assigns the origin of Neocaesarea to the time of Nero

Nero

Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....

, about 64 CE

64

Year 64 was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Bassus and Crassus...

, when Pontus Polemoniacus was made a Roman province. The simplest solution of this question is that Neocaesarea was a new town, which might be near the site of Cabira. It was the capital of Pontus Polemoniacus, the birth-place of Gregorius Thaumaturgus, and the place of assembly of a church council in 314

314

Year 314 was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rufius and Annianus...

. Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus Marcellinus was a fourth-century Roman historian. He wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Antiquity...

 (xxvii. 12) calls it the most noted city of Pontus Polemoniacus: it was, in fact, the metropolis. According to Paulus Diaconus the place was destroyed by an earthquake.

Cramer supposes that Neocaesarea is identical with Ameria, and he adds that Neocaesarea was the principal seat of pagan idolatry and superstitions, which affords another presumption that it had risen on the foundation of Ameria and the worship of Men Pharnaces. But Ameria seems to have been at or near Cabira; and all difficulties are reconciled by supposing that Cabira, Ameria, Neocaesarea [p. 463] were in the valley of the Lycus, and if not on the same spot, at least very near to one another. Stephanus of Byzantium

Stephanus of Byzantium

Stephen of Byzantium, also known as Stephanus Byzantinus , was the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled Ethnica...

 (s. v. Νεοκαισάρεια: Eth. Νεοκαισαριεύς) adds to our difficulties by saying or seeming to say that the inhabitants were also called Adrianopolitae, suggesting the city's name was Adrianopolis or Hadrianopolis. Where he got this from, nobody can tell.

Hamilton was informed at Niksar that on the road from Niksar to Sivas, and about fourteen hours from Niksar, there is a high perpendicular rock, almost inaccessible on all sides, with a stream of water flowing from the top, and a river at its base. This is exactly Strabo's description of Caenon.