Héraclée of the Bridge

See also: Héraclée

Héraclée of the Bridge or Héraclée Pontique (in Greek old Ηράκλεια Ποντική , and in Latin Heraclea Pontica ) was a Greek city of Bithynie located on the Euxine Sea. It made place at the current town of Karadeniz Ereğli.

Located at approximately 200 km in the east of the the Bosphorus, the city was founded towards 560-558 av. J. - C. by colonists of Mégare and Béotie and was named according to Héraclès, whose Greeks thought that it penetrated in the Enfers via a cave by which the Achéron joined them.

The city quickly became prosperous and establishes its own colonies (Callatis, Chersonèsos and Kidros), causing the covetousness of the Bithynie and the close Galatie. Allied of Rome since 185 av. J. - C., it suffered largely from the wars of Mithridate. Catch and destroyed by the proconsul Marcus Aurelius Cotta, then rebuilt, it never recovered its prosperity of antan.

Birthplace of the philosopher Héraclide of the Bridge, it was the subject of a history, in at least sixteen books, written in Ier century after J. - C. by Memnon d' Héraclée. This now disappeared work remains only in the form of a summary of books 9 to 16 in the Bibliothèque of Photios. This summary covers the period being spread out Tyran denies Cléarque (towards 364-353 av. J. - C.) at the last years of Jules César.

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