Bithynium

Bithynium or Bithynion (Ancient Greek: Βιθύνιον) was an ancient city in Bithynia. Its site is occupied by the modern town of Bolu, Asiatic Turkey.^[1]^[2]

History

Strabo describes Bithynium as lying above Tius^[3] and it possessed the country around Salone or Salon, which was a good feeding country for cattle, and noted for its cheese.^[4] It was the capital of Salone district. Bithynium was the birthplace of Antinous, the favourite of Hadrian, as Pausanius tells us,^[5] who adds that Bithynium is beyond, by which he probably means east of, the river Sangarius; and he adds that the remotest ancestors of the Bithynians are Arcadians and Mantineans. In this case a Greek colony settled here. Bithynium was afterwards called Claudiopolis (Greek: Κλαυδιόπολις), a name which it is conjectured it first had in the time of Tiberius; but it is strange that Pausanias does not mention this name. Dio Cassius speaks of it under the name of Bithynium and Claudiopolis also.^[6] It later bore the name Hadriana after the emperor.^[1] The names of Claudiopolis and Hadriana appear on coins minted here.

Titular see

The town was Christianised early and became an archbishopric. An archbishop suffered martyrdom under Diocletian. No longer a residential see, it remains a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church under the name Claudiopolis in Honoriade.^[7] A former titular see under the name of Claudiopolis in Bithynia was suppressed.^[8]

References

^ ^a ^b Richard Talbert, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 86, and directory notes accompanying. ISBN 978-0-691-03169-9.
^ Lund University. Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.
^ Strabo. Geographica. Vol. p. 565. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
^ Pliny. Naturalis Historia. Vol. 11.97.
^ Pausanias (1918). "9.1". Description of Greece. Vol. 8. Translated by W. H. S. Jones; H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann – via Perseus Digital Library.
^ Dio Cassius, 69.11. ed. Reimarus, and his note.
^ Catholic Hierarchy
^ Catholic Hierarchy

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Bithynium". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.