Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/423

BITHYNIA. the Propontis. He also took Tias at the moatfa of the Billaeus, and thus hemmed in the Heracleotae on hotb sides: but he lost his life in an attempt on Heracleia. His successor (b. c. 1 80) was Prusias II., who was followed by Nicomedes II. (b. c. 149); and the successor of Nicomedes II. was his son Nicomedes III. (b. c. 91). This last king of Bithynia after being settled in his kingdom bj the Romans in b. c. 90, was driven oat bj Mithridates Eapator B.C. 88 (Liv. Ep. 76), but he was restored at the peace in b. c. 84. He died childless, and left his kingdom to the Romans b. c. 74. (Appian, Mfthrid.c.7.) The history and chronology of the kings of Bithynia are given in Clinton's Fasti. Mithridates Eupator added to his dominions, or kingdom of Pontus, the sea coast of Asia Minor westward as iar as Heracleia. The parts beyond Heracleia, that is, west of it to the straits, and to Chalcedon, remained to the Bithynian king; but when the kings were put down (as Strabo expresses it), the Romans preserved the same limits, so that Heracleia was attached to Pontus, and the parts on the otlier side belonged to the Bithyni. (Strab. p. 541.) On the death of Nlcomeides III. the Romans reduced his kingdom, according to their phrase, into the form of a province (Liv. Epit. 93) ; and after the death of Ifithridates, they added to Bithynia the western part of the Pontic kingdom, or the coast from Heracleia to Sidene, east of The- miscyra; and Cn. Pompeins divided it into eleven communities or municipalities. (Dion Cassius, xxxviii. 10 — 12; Strab. p. 541.) It is proved that Amisus belonged at this time to Bithynia, from the coins of Amisus, on which the name of G. Papirius Caibo, the first known proconsul of BiUi^nia, occurs; and Themiscyra and Sidene be- longed to the territory of Amisus. That part of the kingdom of Mithridates which Pompeius gave to the descendants of Pylaemeues, was in the in- terior, about mount Olgassys, a range which lies between the Billaeus and the Halys; and this part Augustas appears to have added to Bithynia in B. c. 7, together with the Pontic town of Amasia an the Iris. So large a part of Pontus being added to Bithynia, the province may be more properly called Bithynia and Pontus, a name which it had at least from A. d. 63, as we see from inscriptions (Procos. provinciae Ponti et Bithyniae), though it is sometimes simply called Bithynia. (Tacit. Ann, i. 74.) The correspondence of Pliny, when he was governor of Bithynia, shows that Sinope and Anusus were within his jurisdiction, and Amisus is east of the Halys. (Plin. Ep. x. 93, 111.) And in several passages of his letters, Pliny speaks of the " Bithynae et Ponticae civitates," or d[ the " Bithyni et Pontici,** from which it appears that his province, which he calls Bithynia, comprehended the original Bithynia and a large part of the Mithridatic kingdom of Pontus. The governor of Bithynia was first a Propraetor, sometimes called Proconsul. (Tacit. Arm. i. 74; xvi. 18.) On the division of the provinces under Augustus, Bithynia was given to the senate; but under Trajan it be- longol to the emperor, in return for which the senate had Pamphylia. Afterwards the governors were called Legati Aug. Pr. Pr. ; and in place of Praetores there was Procuratores. The regulations (Lex Pompeia) of Cn. Pompeius for the administration of Bithynia, are mentioned several tunes by the younger Plinius {Ep. x. 84, 85, &c.). The chief town of Bithynia, BITHYNIA. 405 properly so called, or of the part west of Heracleia, was Nicomedeia, which appears with the title of Metropolis on a coin of the time of Germanicus, though Nicaea disputed this title with it ; but Nicaea is said to have got the title of Metropolis under Valentinian and Valens. The Ora Pontica had for its metropolis the city of Amastris ; this Bithynia was the part which Pompeius distributed among eleven municipalities. (Strab. p. 541.) The third division, already mentioned as made in B. o. 7, had two metropbleis ; Pompeiopolis for Paphlagonia ; and Amasia, on the Iris, for the portion of Pontus that was joined to this Paphla- gonia. The remaining part of Pontus commenced south of Amasia, about the city of Zela, and was probably bounded on the south by the mountains which form the southern side of the basin of the Iris. On the coast it extended from Side to Trapezus (7re6i- zond). This country was given by M. Antonius, B. c. 36, to king Polemo, and this kingdom, after passing to his widow and to his son Polemo, was made into a separate province by Nero, a. d. 63 ; but the administration seems to have been some- times joined to that of Galatia. This explanation is necessary to remove the con- fusion and error that appear in many modem books, which make the Parthenius the eastern boundary of Bithynia. In the maps it is usual to mark Paphlagonia as if it were a separate division like Bithynia, and the limits of Bithynia are consequently narrowed a great deal too much. In fact, at one time even Byzantium belonged to the government of Bithynia (Plin. Ep. x. 57), though it was after- wan^ attached to Thrace. Prusa, under Trajan, was raised to the condition of an independent town. Among the to^vns of Bithynia and Pontus in the imperial period, Chalcedon, Amisus, and Trapezus, in Pontus, were free towns (liberae); and Apameia, Heracleia, and Sinope, were made coloniae, that is they received Roman settlers who had grants of land. (Strab. pp. 564, 542, 546.) Sinope was made a colony by the dictator Caesar, B.C. 45. Ni(K)medeia is not mentioned as a colonia till the third century a. d. It was not till after Hadrian's time that the Province of Bithynia was allowed to have a common religious festival; the place of assembly for this great solemnity was, at least at one time, Nicomedeia. The Romans also were very jealous about the formation of clubs and guilds <^ handicraftsmen in this province, for such associa- tions, it was supposed, might have political objects. (Plin. Ep. X. 36, 96.) Durinz the administration of the younger Pliny in Bithynia, he was much troubled about the meetings of the Christians, and asked for Trajan's advic«, who in this matter vras more liberally du>posed than his go>'emor. (Plin. Ep. X. 97, 98.) The southern boundary of Bitliynia may be de- tennined, in some degree, by the towns that are reckoned to belong to it. Prusa (jBra*a), in the western part, is at the foot of the northern face of Olympus; and Hadriani, south of Brusa, belongs to Bithynia. East of Prusa, and a little more north, is Leucae {Lefks)^ on a branch of the Sangarius, and perhaps within the limits of Bithynia. Clau- diopolis, originally Bithynium, was a Bithynian town. Amasia, on the Iris, has been mentioned as ultimately included in the province of Bithynia; but to fix precisely a southern boundary seenui impossible. DD 8