Gorgippia

an ancient city on the eastern shore of the Black Sea (modern Anapa). Gorgippia arose on the site of an earlier Sind settlement (Sind Harbor) with the appearance of Greek colonizers in the sixth-fifth centuries B.C. The city became part of the kingdom of the Bosporus and was renamed Gorgippia in honor of Gorgipp, a ruler of the city from the Spartocid dynasty. Gorgippia was a major trade and artisan center and an important military stronghold on the Bosporus. In the second and third centuries there was a large religious union of shipowners (naukler) in Gorgippia. This was the period of Gorgippia’s greatest prosperity. In the fourth century it fell into decline in connection with the general crisis of the slave-owning system.