Bithynia

BITINIA. — Western region of northern Anatolia, bordered on the north by the Black Sea, on the east by Paphlagonia, on the west by the Propontis (Sea of Marmara) and the Bosporus, and on the south by Galatia and the province of Asia. Its most important centers were Chalcedon on the Bosporus, Nicomedia (now Ismid) to its south, and, farther south, Nicaea and Prusa (now Brussa), the ancient residence of the Bithynian kings. Occupied by the Romans in 74 B.C., after the death of its last king, Nicomedes III, who had ceded it by testament, it became one of the six Roman provinces of Anatolia, at first administered by the senate and later by the emperor. In 65 or 64 B.C., after Mithridates had been defeated, the western part of the Pontic Kingdom, with the Paphlagonian coast, was annexed to it, and the province was called Bithynia et Pontus. But the ethno-religious differences between the two regions, B. and Pontus, remained: thus we find the chief priests and presidents of the people distinguished from one another, namely, the Bithyniarch and the Pontarch. B. is one of the regions of Asia Minor in which Christianity made the most rapid progress. It is mentioned in I Peter 1:1 among the recipients of the epistle, which suggests that it was evangelized by the Apostle Peter himself. The first bishop is said to have been Prochorus, one of the first seven deacons. In the famous letter of Pliny the Younger to Trajan (Ep. 10 ad Trai.) we read that the Christian religion was widely spread not only in the great centers but also in the villages and countryside, and that the persecutory laws against Christians exposed a great multitude of people of every age and condition to death («multi omnis aetatis, omnis conditionis»). On that occasion many shed their blood for the cause of the faith. Other martyrs appeared during the persecution of Decius, among them Tryphon, to whom a «titulus» was dedicated in Rome. But the greatest number of martyrs occurred under Diocletian (v.), who in 285 had established his residence at Nicomedia and, at the instigation of his son-in-law Galerius, became the fiercest persecutor of Christians, with the edict of 303. The great church of Nicomedia and the other sacred buildings were destroyed; there were many martyrs. Lactantius (v.), whom Diocletian had summoned to Nicomedia to occupy the chair of eloquence, was led to the Christian religion by the example of these martyrs. The persecution continued under Galerius and Maximinus Daia, until the Edict of Milan (313) restored peace to the Church of B. Shortly afterward the Arian controversies broke out, and B. became involved in them, especially through the influence of Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia. The First Nicaea (v.) in B. (325), to suppress the Arian heresy. Two other ecumenical councils were held in B.: Chalcedon (v.) against Monophysitism (451), and the Seventh Ecumenical Council at Nicaea (787). Monastic life also flourished extensively in B., and many monasteries were scattered throughout the region, particularly on Bithynian Olympus. The Persian invasion and the Turkish conquest almost completely erased the traces of so glorious a past.