The creation of the city of Neocaesarea near the southern coast of the Black Sea can be dated to the establishment of direct Roman rule in the region (64 CE); it was established as a Greco-Roman city in the inland region of Pontus as a beachhead for Roman authority in this region, a region that was considered to be culturally backward (Magie, 1950, 513–514, 561, 1417; Jones, 1971, 170). The people of this region shared Cappadocian cu…