Listed 28 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "KOCAELI Province TURKEY" .
KARAMURSEL (Town) TURKEY
ASTAKOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Astacus (Astakos: Eth. Astakenos, Astakios), a city of Bithynia, on
the gulf of Astacus, and a colony from Megara and Athens. (Strab. p. 563.) Memnon
(Phot. Bibl. 224) says that the first colonists came from Megara, in the beginning
of the seventeenth Olympiad, and those from Athens came afterwards. Mela (i. 19)
calls it a colony of Megara. It appears that this city was also called Olbia;
for Scylax, who mentions the gulf of Olbia and Olbia, does not mention Astacus;
and Strabo, who names Astacus, does not mention Olbia. The mythical story of Astacus
being founded by Astacus, a son of Poseidon and the nymph Olbia, favours the supposition
of the identity of Astacus and Olbia. (Steph. s. v. Astakos.) Astacus was seized
by Doedalsus, the first king of Bithynia. In the war between Zipoetes, one of
his successors, and Lysimachus, the place was destroyed or damaged. Nicomedes
II., the son of Zipoetes, transferred the inhabitants to his city of Nicomedia
(Ismid), B.C. 264. Astacus appears to have been near the head of the gulf of Astacus,
and it is placed by some geographers at a spot called Ovaschik, and also Bashkele.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
NIKOMIDIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Nicomedeia (Nikomedeia: Eth. Nikomedeus: Isnikmid or Ismid), the capital
of Bithynia, situated on the north-eastern coast of the Sinus Astacenus, a part
of the Propontis. The town of Astacus, a little to the south-east of Nicomedeia,
was destroyed, or greatly damaged, by Lysimachus; and some time after, B.C. 264,
Nicomedes I. built the town of Nicomedeia, to which the inhabitants of Astacus
were transferred (Steph. B. s. v.; Strab. xii. p. 563; Paus. v. 12. §5; Euseb.
Ckron. Ol. 129. 1). The founder of the new city made it the capital of his kingdom,
and in a short time it became one of the largest and most flourishing cities,
and continued to prosper for more than six centuries. Pliny, in his letters to
the emperor Trajan, mentions several public buildings of the city, such as a senate-house,
an aqueduct, a forum, a temple of Cybele, &c., and speaks of a great fire, during
which the place suffered much (Epist. x. 42, 46). Respecting its rivalry with
Nicaea, see NICAEA. According to Pliny (v. 43), Nicomedeia was 62 1/2 miles to
the south-east of Chalcedon, while according to others it was only 60 or 61 miles
distant (It. Ant. pp. 124, 140; It. Hieros. p. 572; Tab. Peut.) Under the Roman
Empire Nicomedeia was often the residence of the emperors, such as Diocletian
and Constantine, especially when they were engaged in war against the Parthians
or Persians. (Aurel. Vict. de Caes. 39; Nicephor. vii. in fin.) The city often
suffered from earthquakes, but owing to the munificence of the emperors it was
always restored (Amm. Marc. xvii. 7; Philostorg. iv. p. 506). It also suffered
much from an invasion of the Scythians (Amm. Marc. xxii. 9, 12, 13). The orator
Libanius (Orat. 62, tom. iii. p. 337, ed. Reiske) mourns the loss of its thermae,
basilicae, temples, gymnasia, schools, public gardens, &c., some of which were
afterwards restored by Justinian (Procop. de Aed. v. 1; comp. Ptol. v. 1. § 3,
viii. 17. § 4; Hierocl. p. 691). From inscriptions we learn that in the later
period of the empire Nicomedeia enjoyed the honour of a Roman colony (Orelli,
Inscript. No. 1060). The city is also remarkable as being the native place of
Arrian, the historian of Alexander the Great, and as the place where Hannibal
put an end to his chequered life. Constantine breathed his last at his villa Ancyron,
near Nicomedeia (Cassiod. Chron. Const.; Philostorg. ii. p. 484). The modern Ismid
still contains many interesting remains of antiquity, respecting which see Pococke,
vol. iii. p. 143, &c.; Description de l'Asie Mizneure, tom. i.; comp. Rasche,
Lexic. Rei Num. iii. 1. p. 1435, &c.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
THYNIAS (Island) TURKEY
Thynias (Thunias), a small island in the Euxine at a distance of one
mile from the coast of Thynia or Bithynia; its distance from the port of Rhoe
was 20 stadia, and from Calpe 40. (Plin. vi. 13; Arrian, Peripl. P. E. p. 13.)
The island had only 7 stadia in circumference, and had at first been called Apollonia
from a temple of Apollo which existed in it. (Plin., Arrian, ll. cc.; Apollon.
Rhod. ii. 177, 675; Anon. Peripl. P. E. p. 3.) According to Ptolemy (v. 1. § 15)
it was also called Daphnusia, and obtained its name of Thynias from the Thyni,
who inhabited the opposite coast. The island had a port and a naval station belonging
to Heracleia (Scylax, p. 34; Arrian, l. c.); and Mela (ii. 7) is probably mistaken
in believing that the island contained a town of the same name. (Comp. Strab.
xii. p. 543, where it is called Thynia; Marcian, p. 69; Steph. B. s. v.; Orph.
Argon. 717, where it bears the name Thyneis.) The modern name of the island is
Kirpeh.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ASTAKOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
A celebrated city of Bithynia, on the Sinus Astacenus, a bay
of the Propontis, was a colony from Megara, but afterwards received fresh colonists
from Athens, who called the place Olbia. It was destroyed by Lysimachus, but was
rebuilt on a neighbouring site by Nicomedes I., who named his new city Nicomedia.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
DREPANON (Ancient city) VITHYNIA
Al (Drepanon). A sickle.
Also Drepane, a town in Bithynia, the birthplace of Helena, mother of Constantine
the Great, in whose honour it was called Helenopolis and made an important place.
NIKOMIDIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
(Nikomedeia). A celebrated city of Bithynia, built by King Nicomedes
I. (B.C. 264), at the northeastern corner of the Sinus Astacenus. Under the Romans
it was a colony, and a favourite residence of several of the later emperors, especially
of Diocletian and Constantine the Great. It is memorable in history as the scene
of Hannibal's death, and was the birthplace of the historian Arrian.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
KARAMURSEL (Town) TURKEY
Damages between Golcuk and Yalova
NIKOMIDIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
NIKOMIDIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
About 91 km E-SE of Istanbul at the head of the Gulf of Nicomedia;
the modern Ismit. Nicomedia was founded about 264 B.C. by Nicomedes I of Bithynia
(Strab. 12.4.2) on the site of the Greek colony of Olbia. First the capital of
the Bithynian kingdom (Memnon 20.1), and later of the Roman province of Bithynia,
Nicomedia was astride the great highroad connecting Europe and the East, and was
a port as well; Nicaea was its rival. It is mentioned frequently in the Letters
of the younger Pliny (esp. Book 10) and by Dio Cassius (esp. in Books 73, 78,
and 79). Sextus Pompeius, in flight, halted there in 36 B.C. (Dio Cass. 49.18.3);
a few years later Octavian allowed the Bithynians to consecrate a precinct to
his name in the town (Dio Cass. 51.20.7). Passages in Dio Chrysostom (Or. 38,
and 47.16) evoke a prosperous and growing metropolis, and the city's buildings
and water supply came repeatedly to the attention of Trajan and Pliny when the
latter was governor of Bithynia. Emperors visited and wintered there (Dio Cass.
78.18-19, and 79.8 and 35), a garrison existed (Plin. Ep. 10.74), and the city,
a major one in later antiquity, housed a statio of the imperial post and a fleet
headquarters. Sacked by the Goths in A.D. 256, Nicomedia became, in Diocletian's
time, the much adorned E capital of the Empire (Lactant. De mort. pers. 17.2-9),
but the foundation of Constantinople and severe earthquakes in the 4th and 5th
c. greatly reduced its importance (Amm. Marc. 22.9.3). Something of a renaissance
resulted from the care of Theodosius II (A.D. 408-50). There is a varied and important
coinage.
Little excavation has taken place, and much that could be seen in
the last century is no longer visible. Vestiges of a Hellenistic building of unknown
function have come to light. Along the contours of Nicomedia's hilly site exist
stretches of the Roman walls (with Byzantine and Turkish restorations and additions);
they are of late antique construction--rows of brick alternating with rows of
stone. At their NE limit are the remains of a high tower, and beside this is the
gate to the road leading N to the Euxine. Parts of the harbor wall, which could
be seen until a generation ago, were of typically Roman brickwork. Marble elements
of a very large nymphaeum of the 2d c. A.D. have been found (Istanbul street),
and E of the city there are the remains of two if not three aqueducts (Plin. Ep.
10.37), one of which appears to rest on foundations of Hellenistic date (Libanius,
Or. 61.7.18, speaks of the copious supply of water to Nicomedia in the 4th c.
A.D.). In the E district of the city, at the old Jewish cemetery, there are the
ruins of a late Roman cistern of considerable size, built of reduplicated bays
roofed with saucer domes of brick carried on piers. Major ancient drains were
in use in Ismit until 1933.
Inscriptions, coins, and texts record, among others: a Temple of Roma
(29 B.C., the meeting place of the provincial assembly); a Temple of Demeter,
and satellite structures, in a large rectangular precinct on the hill visible
from the harbor; a theater nearby; a colonnaded street (a few bits were once seen)
probably leading from Demeter's precinct to the harbor; a forum (Plin. Ep. 10.49);
a Temple of Isis and a hall for the Gerusia (10.33); a Temple of Commodus (Dio
Cass. 73.12.2); and, for Diocletian, a palace, an armory, a mint, and new shipyards
were built. Evidence of necropoleis abounds, and about 8 km N of the city are
tumuli which may be the tombs of the Bithynian kings. One coin hails Hadrian as
Restitutor Nicomedine.
Pliny (and Justinian and Suleiman the Magnificent after him) hoped
to finish the canal, long proposed, between the Propontis and the Euxine via Nicomedia,
the Sabanja Gol (Lake Sunonensis in Amm. Marc. 26.8.3) and the Sangarios system
(E p. 41 and 61); the project was never realized. There is a modest museum in
the town, and objects from Nicomedia can be seen in the archaeological museums
of Istanbul and Izmir.
W. L. Macdonald, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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