Older historians, such as George Finlay and William Miller had identified his city with Amisos or Samsun on the Black Sea coast, and thought Sabas had his base there; however in a 1935 article, G. de Jerphanion proved that his center of power was Sampson on the coast of the Aegean Sea.A. A. Vasiliev, "The Foundation of the Empire of Trebizond (1204-1222)", Speculum, 11 (1936), p. 24
