Constanţa (Ancient Greek: Tόμις - Tomis, Latin: Tomis Constantiana, Greek Κωνστάντζα - Konstandza, Aromanian Custantsa, Ottoman Turkish كو ستنجه - Köstendje, Turkish Köstence, Bulgarian Кюстенджа - Kiustendja) is the capital city of Dobrogea County , Romania, consisting of the component localities Constanţa (the capital), Mamaia and Palazu Mare.
Constanta is one of the oldest certified cities in Romania. The first documentary record dates back to 657 î.Hr. when a Greek colony called Tomis was formed on the site of the current peninsula (and even under the waters of today, next to the Casino). [4] The settlement was conquered by the Romans in 71 î.Hr. and renamed Constantiana after the sister of Emperor Constantine the Great. During the thirteenth century the Great Sea (as it was then called the Black Sea) was dominated by Italian merchants in Genoa who helped develop the city. Subsequently, Constanta suffered a decline under Ottoman rule, becoming a simple village inhabited by Greek fishermen and Tatar breeders of horses and sheep. The locality became a city again after the construction of the Cernavoda-Constanța railway and of the port, in 1865, for the export of the Romanian grain. After the War of Independence (1877-1878), when Dobrogea became part of Romania, Constanta, the main port of the state, has grown continuously, holding this role until today. [5]
The port of Constanta covers an area of 39.26 km²,[6] has a length of almost 30 km, is the largest port in the Black Sea basin and is on the 4th place in Europe.
Constanta was founded following the Greek colonization of the Black Sea basin (Greek Pontos Euxeinos) by millennial settlers in the VII-V centuries î.Hr., under the name of Tomis. This name is probably derived from the Greek word τομή (tomí) meaning cut, cleft. According to legend, Jason and his Argonauts would have stopped here after being sent to the Caucasus to steal the "Golden Fleece". Pursued by the fleet of the King of Colhida, Aietes the "Hawk", they would have cut into pieces his son, Absyrtos, until then held hostage on board, in order to force the king to search and collect the remains for the funeral ceremony, thus giving the Argonauts time to flee to the Bosphorus[7]. But archaeologists consider it more plausible that the cut (from the shoreline) would have designated rather the ancient port, today submerged, in front of the Casino. Another possible origin of the name would be Tomiris, mythical queen of the Masages, a Scythian people living between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, quoted by Herodotus.
The Millenians found on these places a Getic settlement, the new city reaching the level of a polis only in the IV-III century î.Hr. The port used by the Greeks for trade with the inhabitants of these regions (Dacians, Scythians and Celts) allowed the development of an urbanistic center. Tomis became a part of the Roman Empire in 46 AD, and Publius Ovidius Naso, the Roman poet, was exiled here between 8–17 AD, spending the last eight years of his life in Tomis.
The port city withstood the turbulent times of the third and fourth centuries, troubled by numerous Gothic, Scythian and Hunic invasions, becoming the residence of the province of Scythia Minor (Latin Scythia Minor, Greek Μικρά Σκυθία / Mikrá Skithía). After the partition of the Roman Empire, Tomis, along with all of Scythia Minor, reverted to the Eastern Roman Empire and was renamed Constantiana. It remained a fortress and a port of the Eastern Empire until the seventh century, when it was deserted due to the invasions of the Slavs and Proto-Bulgarians, who conquered Scythia Minor in 680 after the Battle of Ongal.
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