Bithynia
Bithynia is a historical region located in northwestern Asia Minor, adjacent to the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, extending southward to Mount Olympus. Originally referring to the peninsula of Chalcedon, Bithynia grew to encompass a larger territory divided by the river Sangarius. Historically inhabited by a mix of peoples, the Bithynians were influenced by the Thracians and later faced Greek colonization, resisting both Greek and Persian dominance in their early history. The region eventually established itself as a kingdom, notable under rulers like Zipoetes and Prusias I, who expanded its political influence and trading wealth. Bithynia was later incorporated into the Roman Empire, becoming a province after Nicomedes IV bequeathed it to Rome. It was characterized by a vibrant urban culture, evidenced by the issuance of bronze coinage by its cities in the second century AD. The region also played a significant role in early Christian history, particularly with the Council of Nicaea, and was known for its agricultural abundance and valuable resources like marble and timber.
Subject Terms
Bithynia
A region of northwestern Asia Minor
The name originally referred to the peninsula of Chalcedon (Kadiköy), but was extended to a much larger region adjoining the Propontis (Sea of Marmara), the Thracian Bosphorus and the Euxine (Black) Sea, and reaching southward to Mount Olympus (Keşiş Daǧı) in Mysia. The country was divided into two sections by the river Sangarius (Sakarya), the flatter western part containing the majority of the inhabitants. The Bithynians, records Scylax of Caryanda, were formerly Mysians, but received their new name from Thracian Thynians or Bithynians—in the fourth century BC, according to Xenophon, the north coast was still called Thrace in Asia—who fought continually against the Greek colonists on their coast and became nominal, recalcitrant subjects of the Persian empire in the sixth century BC. In the fourth century, according to Xenophon, the northern Bithynian coast-land was still called Thrace in Asia. The Bithynian leader Zipoetes (328–280) avoided submission to Alexander the Great, successfully resisted his successor Lysimachus, and assumed the title of king (297), repelling Seleucus I Nicator, founder of the Seleucid empire. Nicomedes I (280–255) took the perilous step of inviting the Gauls (Galatians) into Asia Minor. Nevertheless, his kingdom, ruled from Nicomedia (İzmit), survived, and increasingly assumed the appearance of a Greek state. It achieved its maximum dimensions, political power and trading wealth under Prusias I Cholus (the Lame) (c 230–182). In spite of the presence of the Carthaginian Hannibal (d. 183/2) as a refugee at his court, Prusias avoided a breach with the Romans. Successive monarchs increasingly fell under their influence, until Nicomedes IV Philopator bequeathed them his kingdom in 75/4. It was annexed as a Roman province and united with Pontus in 63.
In the second century AD, twenty-nine Bithynian cities issued their own bronze coinage. However, to put a stop to their mismanagement of their own affairs, the emperor Trajan dispatched Pliny the Younger to the territory as special commissioner (c 110–12), and their subsequent correspondence included a famous exchange of letters about the local Christian community. Under Hadrian, Bithynia enjoyed marked imperial favor as the native country of Antinous, whom he loved. There was intense rivalry between Nicomedia and Nicaea (İznik), both of which claimed to be the first city of Bithynia; but the latter displayed its leading role when it became the location of Constantine I the Great's historic Christian Council in 325.
Bithynia possessed useful harbors and land communications, and enjoyed varied agricultural crops, extensive pasturage, abundant supplies of timber, and quarries of fine marble.