Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Gephyra, cilt.30, ss.135-142, 2025 (Scopus)
This paper reassesses the role of Phaselis in the First Mithradatic War through a newly discovered inscription honouring King Mithradates VI Eupator. Found in what is called today the “South Harbour Trade Centre” and dated to 89-85 BC, the text offers the first epigraphic evidence of Mithradatic presence in the city, confirming its integration into Pontic–pirate alliances active along the eastern Lycian and western Pamphylian coasts. Drawing on literary and epigraphic sources, the study situates Phaselis within the contested maritime frontier where local powers, pirates, and Pontic forces resisted Roman authority. Although the city’s strategic harbours facilitated this co-operation for a while, it was besieged and punished by the Roman counterattack under Servilius Vatia (78-74 BC) and lost its territory for a while.