Tomis
- a town of Moesia, on the Pontus Euxinus, famous as the place to which Ovid was banished.—Form Tomis, Ov. P. 4, 14, 59; id. Tr. 3, 9, 33.—Form Tŏmi, ōrum, m., Stat. S. 1, 2, 254; Claud. Epith. Pall. et Celer. 70; Sid. Carm. 23, 159.—And after the Greek orthog., Tŏmoe, Mel. 2, 2, 5. — Hence,
- A Tŏmītae, ārum, m., the inhabitants of Tomis, Ov. Tr. 1, 2, 85.—
- B Tŏmītānus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to Tomis, Tomitan: terra, Ov. P. 1, 1, 1: harena, id. ib. 1, 6, 49: nurus, id. ib. 3, 8, 10.
TOMISor TOMI(Τόμις, Strab. 7. p. 319; Ov. Tr. 3.933; Geogr. Rav. 4.6, &c.: Τόμαι, Ptol. 3.10.8; Tomi, Plin. Nat. 4.11. s. 18; Stat. S. 1.2, 255; Itin. Ant. p. 227, &c.; in Mela, 2.2, Tomoe: we also find the Greek form Τομεύς, Steph. B. s. v.;Arrian, Per. P. Eux. p. 24), a town of Lower Moesia, on the Euxine, and the capital of the district of Scythia Minor (Sozom. H. Eccl. 7.25; Hierocl. p. 637). It was situated at a distance of about 300 stadia or 36 miles from Istros or Istropolis (Anon. Per. P. Eux. p. 12; Itin. Ant. p. 227), but according to the Tab. Peut. 40 miles. It was a Milesian colony, and according to the legend the place where Medea cut up her brother's body, or where their father Aeëtes got together and buried the pieces (Ov. l. c.;Apollod. 1.9, 25; Hyg. Fab. 13.) The legend is no doubt connected with the name of the town, which, however, is still better known as the place of banishment of Ovid. Now Tomisvaror Jeni Pangola. COIN OF TOMIS OR TOMI.
[T.H.D]A Milesian colony on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea, between Istros (to the N) and Kallatis (to the S). It was probably founded in the 6th c., although its name does not appear in the texts until the 3d c. In the Hellenistic period, the only known phase of its history, it was involved in the war between Byzantium and Kallatis (allied to Istros), which in fact was fought for control of the Tomis emporium (Memnon, fr. 21 = FHG 3, p. 537). Tomis was a member of the Pontic koinon created toward the end of the 1st c. B.C. and immediately annexed by Rome (the period when Ovid, sent into exile by Augustus, came to Tomis to die), and quickly became the chief city of the Dobruja region as well as the metropolis of the whole W part of Pontus.
This prosperity was gravely threatened in the 3d c. A.D. by the invasions of the Goths, and was not reaffirmed until the time of the Tetrarchy, when Tomis was made chief city of the new province of Scythia. Under the protection of Constantine and his successors, Tomis, now Christianized and the seat of a bishop, was to flourish for the last time. Toward the end of the 7th c. it was abandoned by its inhabitants as were all the Scythian cities.
The ancient Milesian colony has not been excavated systematically because it lies under the modern city. However, there have been chance finds of epigraphic and architectural monuments.
The most important of these monuments is the circuit wall that protected Tomis on the N-NW and S-SW sides by closing off the promontory on which the city was built. This wall seems to have been built in the 2d c. A.D., but it was rebuilt several times up to the end of antiquity. Roughly 3 m thick, it has an external facing of large squared blocks; semicircular towers flank the gates. One of these towers apparently dates from Justinian's reign, but constructions of the same type are attested in the reigns of Diocletian and Anastasius.
Another significant monument, unearthed in 1959, is the so-called mosaic building. This is a huge complex of commercial buildings designed on three levels, which also served to cover and support the cliff, which is 20 m high at this point. The upper terrace, which overlooked the sea, had a mosaic floor surrounded on three sides by walls faced with polychrome marble. The mosaic covers an area of roughly 2000 sq. m and is fairly well preserved. It gives the impression of a brightly colored carpet decorated with geometric and plant motifs. The story below consists of 11 vaulted rooms designed to be used as warehouses. Some of them were found to contain dozens of amphorae along with several anchors and some iron clamps. On the first floor up from ground level, which gives directly onto the nearby quays, a certain number of warehouses were found, also filled with amphorae; others are in the process of excavation. Close by this fine complex several warehouses designed for storing grain are being excavated, along with the ruins of a bath building (one large room that has been uncovered measures not less than 300 sq. m).
The port installations date from the 4th c. A.D. By this time Tomis had been Christianized and its four basilicas date to the 4th and 5th c. One, on the W cliff, is small and somewhat poorly preserved. A second is in the courtyard of No. 2 secondary school. It has not been possible to excavate this building completely, but it is larger than the first basilica and more carefully built. Near the altar is a rectangular crypt, its walls covered with paintings. The third, in the W section of the city, is ca. 35 m long and 18.8 m wide; it has an apse 8 m in diameter and a vaulted crypt, poorly preserved. The fourth is the largest in the whole of Dobruja. It had three naves, separated by marble columns and a huge crypt divided into seven interconnecting rooms arranged in the shape of a cross. Close by this great basilica a cache of 23 statues and reliefs was found, no doubt a remnant of the religious war that raged throughout the Empire in the 4th c.
BIBLIOGRAPHYV. Pârvan, An. Acad. Rom., Mem. Sect. Ist. 37 (1915) 415-50; R. Vulpe, Hist. anc. de la Dobroudja (1938); I. Stoian, Tomitana (1962); A. Rădulescu, Monumente romano-bizantine din sectorul de vest al cetăţii Tomis (1966); D. M. Pippidi, I Greci nel Basso Danubio (1971); V. Barbu, Tomis (1972).
D. M. PIPPIDI