MYSIA, a district of north west Asia Minor, bounded by Lydia and Phrygia on the south, by Bithynia on the north-east, and by the Propontis and Aegean Sea on the north and west. Its precise limits are difficult to as sign, the Phrygian frontier being vague and fluctuating; while in the north-west the Troad was sometimes included in Mysia, sometimes not.
The most important cities were Pergamum (q.v.) in the valley of the Caicus and Cyzicus (q.v.) on the Propontis. But the whole sea-coast was studded with Greek towns, several of which were places of considerable import ance ; thus the northern portion included Parium, Lampsacus and Abydos, and the southern Assus, Adramyttium, and farther south, on the Elaitic Gulf, Elaea, Myrina and Cyme.
Ancient writers agree in describing the Mysians as a distinct people, like the Lydians and Phrygians, though they never appear in history as an independent nation. That they were kindred with the Lydians and Carians, is attested by their common par ticipation in the sacred rites at the great temple of Zeus at Labranda, as well as by the statement of the historian Xanthus of Lydia that their language was a mixture of Lydian and Phrygian. Strabo was of opinion that they came originally from
Thrace (see BITHYNIA), and were a branch of the same people as the Mysians or Moesians (see MoEsIA) who dwelt on the Danube. The Mysians appear in the list of the Trojan allies in Homer; the first historical fact we learn is their subjugation, to gether with all the surrounding nations, by Croesus of Lydia. After the fall of the Lydian monarchy they remained under the Persian empire until its overthrow by Alexander; they continued to form a part of the Syrian monarchy until the defeat of Anti ochus the Great (190 B.c.), after which they were transferred by the Romans to the dominion of Eumenes of Pergamum. After the extinction of the Pergamenian dynasty (130 B.c.) Mysia became a part of the Roman province of Asia.
See J. A. R. Munro in Geogr. Journal (1897, Hellespontica) ; W. von Diest, Petermanns Mitth. (Erganzungsheft 94, Gotha, 1889; Per gamene). Cambridge Ancient History, vol. iii. (with useful bib liography).