Akcakoca
On the Black Sea 56 km NW of Bolu is a town near which may have been the site of ancient Dia. According to ancient sources Dia was a town on the Pontos (Steph. Byz.) 60 stadia E of the mouth of the Hypios (Marcian Herakl. Epit. Peripl. Menipp. 1.8) now the Melen Deresi, and a harbor for small ships (Anon. Peripl. Pont. Eux., which also places it 60 stadia E of the Hypios). Ptolemy (5.1.2) mentions a Diospolis in Bithynia. These references have been believed to identify the same site, generally placed at or near Akçakoca. An Imperial inscription found at nearby Kepenç mentions harbor improvements to an unnamed city, and sherds from the Roman to the Turkish period have been found on a hill near the coast 3 km W of Akçakoca. Dia may have been the port for Prusias ad Hypium, ca. 30 km inland and reached from the coast by a modern road which may survive from antiquity.
BIBLIOGRAPHYG. Perrot, Exploration Archéologique de la Galatie et de la Bithynie (1862) 20; G. Mendel, “Inscriptions de la Bithynie,” BCH 25 (1901) 49-55; F. Dörner & W. Hoepfner, “Vörlaufiger Bericht über eine Reise in Bithynien 1961,” ArchAnz (1962) 572-79MI; id., AnzWien (1962) 30-35.
T. S. MACKAY