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Nicomedia

Coordinates:40°45′45″N29°55′03″E/ 40.76250°N 29.91750°E/40.76250; 29.91750
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Nicomedia
French illustration of Nicomedia, 1882
Nicomedia is located in Turkey
Nicomedia
Shown within Turkey
Nicomedia is located in Sea of Marmara
Nicomedia
Nicomedia (Sea of Marmara)
LocationTurkey
Regionİzmit,Kocaeli Province
Coordinates40°45′45″N29°55′03″E/ 40.76250°N 29.91750°E/40.76250; 29.91750

Nicomedia(/ˌnɪkəˈmiːdiə/;[1]Greek:Νικομήδεια,Nikomedeia;modernİzmit) was anancient Greekcity located in what is nowTurkey.In 286, Nicomedia became the eastern and most senior capital city of theRoman Empire(chosen by the emperorDiocletianwho ruled in the east), a status which the city maintained during theTetrarchysystem (293–324).

The Tetrarchy ended with theBattle of Chrysopolis(Üsküdar) in 324, whenConstantinedefeatedLiciniusand became the sole emperor. In 330 Constantine chose for himself the nearbyByzantium(which was renamedConstantinople,modernIstanbul) as the new capital of the Roman Empire.

The city was incorporated into theOttoman Empirewith the victory of SultanOrhan Gaziagainst theByzantine Empire.The Byzantines managed to retake it in the aftermath of theBattle of Ankara,but it fell definitively to the Ottomans in 1419.

History[edit]

It was founded in 712–11 BC as aMegariancolony and was originally known asAstacus(/ˈæstəkəs/;Ancient Greek:Ἀστακός,'lobster').[2]After being destroyed byLysimachus,[3]it was rebuilt byNicomedes I of Bithyniain 264 BC under the name of Nicomedia, and has ever since been one of the most important cities in northwesternAsia Minor.The great military commanderHannibal Barcacame to Nicomedia in his final years and committed suicide in nearby Libyssa (Diliskelesi,Gebze). The historianArrianwas born there.

This section of a belt depicting medallions honoring Constantius II and Faustina was minted in Nicomedia.[4]The Walters Art Museum.

Nicomedia was themetropolisand capital of the Roman province ofBithyniaunder theRoman Empire.It is referenced repeatedly inPliny the Younger'sEpistlesto Trajan during his tenure as governor of Bithynia.[5]Pliny, in his letters, mentions several public buildings of the city such as a senate-house, an aqueduct, a forum, a temple ofCybele,and others, and speaks of a great fire, during which the place suffered much.[6]Diocletianmade it the eastern capital city of the Roman Empire in 286 when he introduced theTetrarchysystem.

Persecutions of 303[edit]

Nicomedia was at the center of theDiocletianic Persecutionof Christians which occurred under Diocletian and hisCaesarGalerius.On 23 February 303 AD, the pagan festival of theTerminalia,Diocletian ordered that the newly built church at Nicomedia be razed, its scriptures burnt, and its precious stones seized.[7]The next day he issued his "First Edict Against the Christians," which ordered similar measures to be taken at churches across the Empire.

The destruction of the Nicomedia church incited panic in the city, and at the end of the month a fire destroyed part of Diocletian's palace, followed 16 days later by another fire.[8]Although an investigation was made into the cause of the fires, no party was officially charged, but Galerius placed the blame on the Christians. He oversaw the execution of two palaceeunuchs,who he claimed conspired with the Christians to start the fire, followed by six more executions through the end of April 303. Soon after Galerius declared Nicomedia to be unsafe and ostentatiously departed the city for Rome, followed soon after by Diocletian.[8]

Later Empire[edit]

Map of theRoman Empireduring theTetrarchysystem, showing the dioceses and the four tetrarchs' zones of influence. Nicomedia was the eastern and most senior capital city, chosen byDiocletianwho assumed the titleAugustus of the East.

Nicomedia remained as the eastern (and most senior) capital of the Roman Empire until co-emperorLiciniuswas defeated byConstantine the Greatat theBattle of Chrysopolis(Üsküdar) in 324. Constantine mainly resided in Nicomedia as his interim capital city for the next six years, until in 330 he declared the nearbyByzantium(which was renamedConstantinople) the new capital. Constantine died in a royal villa in the vicinity of Nicomedia in 337. Owing to its position at the convergence of the Asiatic roads leading to the new capital, Nicomedia retained its importance even after the foundation of Constantinople.[9]

A majorearthquake,however, on 24 August 358, caused extensive devastation to Nicomedia, and was followed by a fire which completed the catastrophe. Nicomedia was rebuilt, but on a smaller scale.[10]In the sixth century under EmperorJustinian Ithe city was extended with new public buildings. Situated on the roads leading to the capital, the city remained a major military center, playing an important role in the Byzantine campaigns against theCaliphate.[11]From inscriptions we learn that in the later period of the empire Nicomedia enjoyed the honour of aRoman colony.[12]

In 451, the local bishopric was promoted to aMetropolitan seeunder the jurisdiction of theEcumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.[13]The metropolis of Nicomedia was ranked 7th in theNotitiae Episcopatuumamong the metropolises of the patriarchate.[14]In the eighth century the EmperorConstantine Vestablished his court there for a time, when plague broke out in Constantinople and drove him from his capital in 746–47.[15]From the 840s on, Nicomedia was the capital of thethemaof theOptimatoi.By that time, most of the old, seawards city had been abandoned and is described by the Persian geographerIbn Khurdadhbihas lying in ruins, with settlement restricted to the hilltop citadel.[11]In the 1080s, the city served as the main military base forAlexios I Komnenosin his campaigns against theSeljuk Turks,and theFirstandSecondCrusades both encamped there.

The city was briefly held by theLatin Empirefollowing thefall of Constantinopleto theFourth Crusadein 1204: in late 1206 theseneschalThierry de Loosmade it his base, converting the church of Saint Sophia into a fortress; however, the Crusader stronghold was subjected to constant raids by theEmperor of NicaeaTheodore I Laskaris,during which de Loos was captured by Nicaean soldiers; by the summer of 1207 EmperorHenry of Flandersagreed to evacuate Nicomedia in exchange for de Loos and other prisoners Emperor Theodore held.[16]The city remained in Byzantine control for over a century after that, but following the Byzantine defeat at theBattle of Bapheusin 1302, it was threatened by the risingOttoman beylik.The city was twice sieged and blockaded by the Ottomans (in 1304 and 1330) before finally succumbing in 1337.[11]

The city remained in Ottoman hands until theBattle of Ankaraand subsequentOttoman Interregnumweakened them enough for the neighbouring states to demand the return of their conquered lands from the warring Ottoman princes in exchange for their support against the other princes.In this waythe Byzantines secured considerable territorial concessions including Nicomedia and other lands on the east side of the Bosphorus. However, this last period of Byzantine rule was rather short-lived, as Nicomedia was definitively taken by the Ottomans around 1419.

Infrastructure[edit]

During the Empire, Nicomedia was a cosmopolitan and commercially prosperous city which received all the amenities appropriate for a major Roman city. Nicomedia was well known for having a bountiful water supply from two to three aqueducts,[17]one of which was built inHellenistictimes. Pliny the Younger complains in hisEpistulaetoTrajan,written in 110 AD, that the Nicomedians wasted 3,318,000sesterceson an unfinished aqueduct which twice ran into engineering troubles. Trajan instructs him to take steps to complete the aqueduct, and to investigate possible official corruption behind the large waste of money.[18]Under Trajan, there was also a large Roman garrison.[19]Other public amenities included a theatre, a colonnaded street typical of Hellenistic cities and a forum.[20]

The major religious shrine was a temple ofDemeter,which stood in a sacred precinct on a hill above the harbor.[5]The city adopted official cults of Rome avidly, there were temples dedicated to the EmperorCommodus,[21]a sacred precinct of the city dedicated toAugustus,[22]and a temple ofRomadedicated during the late-Republic.[5]

The city was sacked in AD 253 by theGoths,but when Diocletian made the city his capital in 283 AD he undertook grand restorations and built an enormous palace, an armory, mint, and new shipyards.[5]

Notable natives and residents[edit]

Remains[edit]

Ruins of a Nicomedian aqueduct in İzmit

The ruins of Nicomedia are buried beneath the densely populated modern city ofİzmit,which has largely obstructed comprehensive excavation. Before the urbanization of the 20th century occurred, select ruins of the Roman-era city could be seen, most prominently sections of the Roman defensive walls which surrounded the city and multiple aqueducts which once supplied Nicomedia's water. Other monuments include the foundations of a 2nd-century AD marblenymphaeumon İstanbul street, a large cistern in the city's Jewish cemetery, and parts of the harbor wall.[5]

The1999 İzmit earthquake,which seriously damaged most of the city, also led to major discoveries of ancient Nicomedia during the subsequent debris clearing. A wealth of ancient statuary was uncovered, including statues ofHercules,Athena,Diocletian and Constantine.[23]

In the years after the earthquake, the Izmit Provincial Cultural Directorate appropriated small areas for excavation, including the site identified as Diocletian's Palace and a nearby Roman theatre. In April 2016 a more extensive excavation of the palace was begun under the supervision of theKocaeli Museum,which estimated that the site covers 60,000 square meters (196,850 square feet).[24]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^""Nicomedia" in the American Heritage Dictionary ".Archived fromthe originalon 2014-09-30.Retrieved2012-07-03.
  2. ^Peter Levi, ed. (1971).Guide to Greece By Pausanias.Harmondsworth] Penguin. p.232.ISBN0-14-044225-1.
  3. ^Cohen, Getzel M. (1995).The Hellenistic settlements in Europe, the islands, and Asia Minor.p. 400.ISBN0-520-08329-6.
  4. ^"Belt Section with Medallions of Constantius II and Faustina".The Walters Art Museum.
  5. ^abcdeW.L. MacDonald (1976)."NICOMEDIA NW Turkey".The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites.Princeton University Press.
  6. ^Pliny the Younger,Epist.10.33.
  7. ^Timothy D. Barnes (1981).Constantine & Eusebius.p. 22.
  8. ^abPatricia Southern (2001).The Roman Empire: From Severus to Constantine.p.168.
  9. ^See C. Texier,Asie mineure(Paris, 1839); V. Cuenet,Turquie d'Asie(Paris, 1894).
  10. ^See Ammianus Marcellinus 17.7.1–8
  11. ^abcKazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991),Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium,Oxford University Press,pp. 1483–1484,ISBN978-0-19-504652-6
  12. ^Public DomainSmith, William,ed. (1854–1857). "Nicomedeia".Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography.London: John Murray.
  13. ^Kiminas, Demetrius (2009).The Ecumenical Patriarchate.Wildside Press LLC. p. 79.ISBN978-1-4344-5876-6.
  14. ^Terezakis, Yorgos."Diocese of Nicomedia (Ottoman Period)".Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Μ. Ασία.Retrieved13 November2012.
  15. ^David Turner, The Politics of Despair: The Plague of 746–747 and Iconoclasm in the Byzantine Empire, The Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. 85 (1990), p428
  16. ^Geoffrey de Villehardouin,translated by M. R. B. Shaw,Joinville and Villehardouin: Chronicles of the Crusades(London: Penguin, 1963), pp. 147, 154–56
  17. ^Libanius.Oratories.p. 61.7.18.
  18. ^Pliny the Younger.Epistulae.p. 10.37 &.38.
  19. ^Pliny the Younger.Epistles.p. 10.74.
  20. ^Pliny the Younger.Epistles.p. 10.49.
  21. ^Dio Cassius.Roman History.p. 73.12.2.
  22. ^Cassius Dio.Roman History.p. 51.20.7.
  23. ^"Ancient underground city in izmit excites archaeology world".Hürriyet Daily News. 2016-03-04.Retrieved2018-01-14.
  24. ^"Ancient underground city in izmit excites archaeology world".Hürriyet Daily News. 2016-03-04.Retrieved2018-01-14.

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

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