BITHYNIA, hi-thin/I-it (Gk. &Curia). An an cient division of Asia I.Nlino•, separated from Europe by the Propontis (Sea of Marmora) and the Thracian Bosporus (Strait of Constantino ple). It was bounded north by the Euxine, south by Galatia, Phrygia, and Mysia, and east by Paphlagonia. It contained the famous Greek colonies of Chalcedon and Heraelea; at a later period, Nicomedia, Nie:ra, and Prusa were the chief cities. The inhabitants of Bithynia were supposed to he of Thracian origin. The country was subdued by Cnesus of Lydia. and later fell under the Persian dominion, though the native princes seem to have been left in power. In the confusion which followed the death of Alexander. the native dynasty secured an inde pendent position. and in B.C. 297 Zipoitcs seems to have assumed the title of king. His son Nieomedes I. founded in n.c. 264 the city of Nieomedia, which became the capital. Prusa was
founded about tt.c. 185 by King Prusia* I., and was for a time the chief city. The last king, N icomedes Ill., made the Romans his heirs, and with a large addition from the Politic kingdom, J;ithynitt became a province of the Republic DIA% 741. Under Trojan, Bithynia was gov erned by Pliny the Younger, whose letters to the Emperor on the administration and condi tion of the province contain the well-known passage the Christians. The Emperor Diocletian made Nicomedia his habitual resi dence. In 1298 Osman the Turk broke into the country, and in 1328 Prusa or Brusa, then the chief town of Bithynia, became the capital of the kingdom of the Osmanli, and in its mosque are the tombs of the earliest Sultans. Consult Ramsay, Historical Geography of Asia Minor (London, 1890).