COMANA, the only other place in Cappadocia, which it is necessary to notice, was really the chief town of a subdistrict called Cataonia. It was chiefly celebrated for its collection of priests, soothsayers, and the like, who were devoted to the worship of Mâ (the Moon), or, as some say, the Cappadocian Bellona. Strabo asserts that the votaries of this sacred institution amounted to as many as 6,000 persons, of both sexes (xii. 535). Some, on the other hand, think this goddess the Anaitis of the Persians, the Agdistis or Cybele of the Phrygians. Coins of Comana, of Antoninus Pius, show that there was a Roman colony there, which was in existence as late as Caracalla. _Pontus_, a narrow slip along the shores of the Black Sea, was chiefly memorable for its great fertility in the fruits now so common in our western lands, as cherries (perhaps so named from one of its towns, Cerasus), peaches, almonds, &c. It was also very rich in grain, timber, honey, and wax; while its mineral wealth is strikingly shown by the fact that one of its tribes, the Chalybes, famous so early as the time of Xenophon for their skill in working iron, gave their name to the Greek word for hardened iron or steel.[111] TRAPEZUS (now Trebisonde), its only considerable town, was in ancient days believed to be a colony of Sinope, the foundress of several other places along the coasts of the Black Sea. It was evidently a city of note when Xenophon came there, in B.C. 400, with the remains of the Ten Thousand, as its citizens hospitably entertained the Greek host under his command. We find it, also, in much prosperity when Arrian was governor of Pontus, under Hadrian. In later days, Trapezus was the capital of a petty empire under a branch of the princely house of the Comneni, its rulers assuming the pompous title of Emperors of Trebizonde, and claiming, though not always securing, independence of the Greek Empire. It is still a place of commercial importance. We may add that it was not far from this place, near the town of Zela, that Cæsar defeated the troops of the despicable traitor Pharnaces so quickly, that he announced his victory in the famous words, “Veni, Vidi, Vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”) (Hist. Bell. Alex. c. 72; Plut. Vit. Cæs.; Sueton. Cæs. c. 37). The history of Pontus is closely interwoven with that of the famous Mithradates; but, into this, we have not the space to enter here. Footnote 111: Æschylus, Pers., v. 715, speaks of οἱ σιδηροτέκτονες Χάλυβες.