Cabira

Cabira (/kəˈbaɪrə/; Greek: τὰ Κάβειρα), a place in Pontus, at the base of the range of Paryadres, about 150 stadia south of Eupatoria or Magnopolis, which was at the junction of the Iris and the Lycus. Eupatoria was in the midst of the plain, but Cabira, as Strabo says (p. 556), was at the base of the Paryadres. Mithridates the Great built a palace at Cabira; and there was a water-mill there (Greek: ὑδραλέτης), and places for keeping wild animals, hunting grounds, and mines. Less than 200 stadia from Cabira was the remarkable rock or fortress called Caenon (Greek: Καινόν), where Mithridates kept his most valuable things. Cn. Pompeius took the place and its treasures, which, when Strabo wrote, were in the Roman Capitol. In Strabo's time a woman, Pythodoris, the widow of King Polemo, had Cabira with the Zelitis and Magnopolitis. Pompeius made Cabira a city, and gave it the name Diopolis. Pythodoris enlarged it, and gave it the name Sebaste, which is equivalent to Augusta; and she used it as her royal residence. Near Cabira probably (for the text of Strabo is a little uncertain, and not quite clear; Groskurd, transl. vol. ii. p. 491, note) at a village named Ameria, there was a temple with a great number of slaves belonging to it, and the high priest enjoyed this benefice. The god Men Pharnaces was worshipped at Cabira. Mithridates was at Cabira during the winter that L. Lucullus was besieging Amisus and Eupatoria. (Appian, Mithrid. c. 78.) Lucullus afterwards took Cabira. (Plutarch, Lucullus, c. 18.) There are some autonomous coins of Cabira with the epigraph "Καβηρων".