Fasis

Fasis , or Phasis ( dr. Greek Φάσις ) - founded in the VI century BC. e. Milesian colony at the mouth of the river of the same name on the coast of Colchis (not far from modern Poti , Georgia), the exact location is unknown.

The first epigraphic monument is a round silver bowl with the inscription "I belong to the Apollo the Leader in Fasis" (Απόλλωνος Ήγεμόνος είμ τõμ Φάσι), found in the Zubovsky farm in the Kuban dates from the end of V - the beginning of the IV century BC. e. ^[1] , in written sources, the earliest mentions date back to the end of the 5th – 4th centuries: Fasis is mentioned by Plato in the dialogue “ Fedon ” as a metaphor for the extreme east of the ecumenical community and as the “Hellenic city of Fasis” by Skilik of Cariades (4th century BC. .).

Strabo in his “ Geography ” mentions Fasis - “a Kolkhov trade center, fenced, on the one hand, by a river, on the other by a lake, and by the sea on the third” ^[2] , and in the description of the Black Sea coast Fasis is one of the points from which distance, it is also mentioned that Fasis was the starting point during the campaign of Mithridates Eupator upon his exile to the Bosporus .

Fasis, being a harbor, was also the starting point of the Transcaucasian trade route, going from the sea along the Fasis navigable river to the Suram pass and further to the interior of Transcaucasia.

In Roman times, Fasis was considered the northern border of possessions (the Bosporus kingdom located to the north, although it was part of the Roman influence, but was independent of the Roman Empire) and was a fortress with a permanent garrison, status in the 3rd century AD e. unknown, however, Zosim in the " New History " reports that during the "Scythian war" of the III century, the Goths , who received the Bosporus ships, unsuccessfully tried to take the sanctuary of Fassian Artemis .

With the strengthening of the Laz kingdom in the IV-V centuries BC. e. Fasis is likely becoming Laz possession; Procopius of Caesarea reports on the intensive foreign sea trade of Lazika, probably carried out through Fasis ^[3] .

C XI century Fasis - the residence of Metropolitan Lazika .