Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Biographies for wider area of: "VITHYNION Ancient city TURKEY" .
VITHYNION (Ancient city) TURKEY
Antinous. A youth of extraordinary beauty, born at Claudiopolis in Bithynia, was the favourite of the emperor Hadrian, and his companion in all his journeys. He was drowned in the Nile, A.D. 122. The grief of the emperor knew no bounds. He enrolled Antinous among the gods, caused a temple to be erected to him at Mantinea, and founded the city of Antinoopolis in honour of him. Beautiful statues and busts of him still exist.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Dec 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Antinous, a youth, probably of low origin, born at Bithynium or Claudiopolis in
Bithynia. On account of his extraordinary beauty he was taken by the emperor Hadrian
to be his page, and soon became the object of his extravagant affection. Hadrian
took him with him on all his journeys. It was in the course of one of these that
he was drowned in the Nile. It is uncertain whether his death was accidental,
or whether he threw himself into the river, either from disgust at the life he
led. or from a superstitious belief that by so doing he should avert some calamity
from the emperor. Dion Cassius favours the latter supposition. The grief of the
emperor knew no bounds. He strove to perpetuate the memory of his favourite by
monuments of all kinds. He rebuilt the city of Besa in the Thebais, near which
Antinous was drowned, and gave it the name of Antinoopolis. He enrolled Antinous
amongst the gods, caused temples to be erected to him in Egypt and Greece (at
Mantineia), and statues of him to be set up in almost every part of the wo rld.
In one of the sanctuaries dedicated to him oracles were delivered in his name.
Games were also celebrated in his honour. (Dict. of Ant. s. v. Antinoeia.) A star
between the eagle and the zodiac, which the courtiers of the emperor pretended
had then first made its appearance, and was the soul of Antinous, received his
name, which it still bears. A large number of works of art of all kinds were executed
in his honour, and many of them are still extant. They have been diffusely described
and classified by Konrad Levezow in his treatise Ueber den Antinous dargestellt
in den Kunstdenkmalern des Alterthums. The death of Antinous, which took place
probably in A. D. 122, seems to have formed an era in the history of ancient art.
(Dion Cass. lxix. 11; Spartian. Hadrian. 14; Paus. viii. 9.4.)
There were various medals struck in honour of Antinous in the Greek
cities, but none at Rome or in any of the Roman colonies. In one, which was struck
at Bithynium, the birthplace of Hadrian, the inscription is E PATRIS ANTINOON
THEON, that is, "His native country (reverences) the god Antinous". The inscription
on the reverse is nearly effaced on the medal from which the drawing was made:
it was originally ADRIANON BITHUNIEON. On it Mercury is represented with a bull
by his side, which probably has reference to Apis (Eckhel, vi. p. 528, &c.).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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