Ancient Cities Codexery

Nicomedia

Ancient Greek city, Roman eastern capital, center of Christian persecution.

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Where it is

Street map of the area around Nicomedia; the red dot marks 40°45′47″N 29°55′05″E
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors

Coordinates: 40°45′47″N 29°55′05″E (40.7630, 29.9180) · Open in OpenStreetMap

Coordinates and connected clubs: the infobox of Wikipedia: Nicomedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Map: drawn by Codexery from OpenStreetMap tiles.

Nicomedia, modern İzmit in Turkey, was an ancient Greek city founded as a Megarian colony in 712–711 BC under the name Astacus.[1][2] It was rebuilt by Nicomedes I of Bithynia in 264 BC and became the capital of the Roman province of Bithynia.[2][3]

Geography and history

The city was originally called Astacus, meaning 'lobster', and was destroyed by Lysimachus before being refounded as Nicomedia.[2] Under the Roman Empire, Nicomedia served as the metropolis and capital of Bithynia.[3] Pliny the Younger's Epistles to Trajan mention its public buildings, including a senate-house, aqueduct, forum, and temple of Cybele, as well as a great fire that damaged the city.[3] A Jewish diaspora community is attested in Roman Nicomedia, with a third-century CE tomb inscription showing Jewish symbols and identifying a "reader" of Hebrew scriptures.[4]

In 303 AD, Diocletian ordered the destruction of the newly built church at Nicomedia, initiating the Diocletianic Persecution of Christians.[5] After fires damaged Diocletian's palace, Galerius blamed Christians and oversaw executions of palace eunuchs.[6] Nicomedia remained the eastern capital of the Roman Empire until Constantine the Great defeated Licinius in 324, and Constantine resided there until moving the capital to Constantinople in 330.[7] A major earthquake on 24 August 358 devastated the city, followed by a fire, but it was rebuilt on a smaller scale and later expanded under Justinian I.[8]

Ottoman forces besieged Nicomedia in 1304 and again in 1330, and the city fell to them in 1337.[9]

What the cited sources add

The Open Library record for ISBN 9781107043442 lists "Religious Networks in the Roman Empire" as a 2013 publication of 336 pages.[10] The Open Library record for ISBN 9780195046526 lists "The Oxford dictionary of Byzantium" as a 1991 publication of 2232 pages.[11] The Open Library record for ISBN 0140442251 lists "Guide to Greece" as a 1979 Penguin publication.[12]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Nicomedia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ""Nicomedia" in the American Heritage Dictionary" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Nicomedia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Guide to Greece By Pausanias", Harmondsworth] Penguin, 1971, p. 232; Cohen, "The Hellenistic settlements in Europe, the islands, and Asia Minor", 1995, p. 400 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Nicomedia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: W.L. MacDonald, "Nicomedia NW Turkey", The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, 1976; Pliny the Younger, Epist. 10.33. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Nicomedia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Collar, "Religious Networks in the Roman Empire: The Spread of New Ideas", Cambridge University Press, 2013, p. 186–187 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Nicomedia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Timothy D. Barnes, "Constantine & Eusebius", 1981, p. 22 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Nicomedia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Patricia Southern, "The Roman Empire: From Severus to Constantine", 2001, p. 168 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Nicomedia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: See C. Texier, Asie mineure (Paris, 1839); V. Cuenet, Turquie d'Asie (Paris, 1894). (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Nicomedia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: See Ammianus Marcellinus 17.7.1–8 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Nicomedia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium", Oxford University Press, 1991, p. 1483–1484 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Open Library record, ISBN 9781107043442 ("Religious Networks in the Roman Empire"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org
  11. Open Library record, ISBN 9780195046526 ("The Oxford dictionary of Byzantium"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org
  12. Open Library record, ISBN 0140442251 ("Guide to Greece"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Nicomedia (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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