Editing Nicomedia

{{short description|Ancient city of Bithynia}}
{{Infobox ancient site
|name = Nicomedia
|native_name = 
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|image =Grande rue de Nicomédie - Texier Charles Félix Marie - 1882.jpg 
|alt = 
|caption =French illustration of Nicomedia, 1882 
|map_type = Turkey#Sea of Marmara
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|map_size = 250
|location = [[Turkey]]
|region = [[İzmit]], [[Kocaeli Province]]
|coordinates = {{coord|40|45|45|N|29|55|03|E|region:TR_type:city|display=inline,title}}
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|archaeologists = 
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'''Nicomedia''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|n|ɪ|k|ə|ˈ|m|iː|d|i|ə}};<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/Nicomedia |title="Nicomedia" in the American Heritage Dictionary |access-date=2012-07-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140930001951/https://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/Nicomedia |archive-date=2014-09-30 |url-status=dead }}</ref> {{langx|el|Νικομήδεια}}, ''Nikomedeia''; modern [[İzmit]]) was an [[ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] city located in what is now [[Turkey]]. In 286, Nicomedia became the eastern and most senior capital city of the [[Roman Empire]] (chosen by the emperor [[Diocletian]] who ruled in the east), a status which the city maintained during the [[Tetrarchy]] system (293–324). 

The Tetrarchy ended with the [[Battle of Chrysopolis]] ([[Üsküdar#Chrysopolis|Üsküdar]]) in 324, when [[Constantine the Great|Constantine]] defeated [[Licinius]] and became the sole emperor. In 330 Constantine chose for himself the nearby [[Byzantium]] (which was renamed [[Constantinople]], modern [[Istanbul]]) as the new capital of the Roman Empire.

The city was incorporated into the [[Ottoman Empire]] with the victory of Sultan [[Orhan Gazi]] against the [[Byzantine Empire]]. The Byzantines managed to retake it in the aftermath of the [[Battle of Ankara]], but it fell definitively to the Ottomans in 1419.

==History==
It was founded in 712–711 BC as a [[Megarian]] colony and was originally known as [[Astacus in Bithynia|Astacus]] ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|æ|s|t|ə|k|ə|s}}; {{Langx|grc|Ἀστακός}}, 'lobster').<ref>{{cite book |title=Guide to Greece By Pausanias |year=1971 |editor=Peter Levi |page=[https://archive.org/details/guidetogreece00paus/page/232 232] |publisher=Harmondsworth] Penguin |isbn=0-14-044225-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/guidetogreece00paus/page/232 }}</ref> After being destroyed by [[Lysimachus]],<ref>{{cite book|title=The Hellenistic settlements in Europe, the islands, and Asia Minor |first=Getzel M.|last= Cohen |year=1995|page=400 |isbn=0-520-08329-6}}</ref> it was rebuilt by [[Nicomedes I of Bithynia]] in 264 BC under the name of Nicomedia, and has ever since been one of the most important cities in northwestern [[Asia Minor]]. The great military commander [[Hannibal|Hannibal Barca]] came to Nicomedia in his final years and committed suicide in nearby Libyssa ([[Diliskelesi]], [[Gebze]]). The historian [[Arrian]] was born there.

[[File:Byzantine - Belt Section with Medallions of Constantius II and Faustina - Walters 57527.jpg|thumb|This section of a belt depicting medallions honoring Constantius II and Faustina was minted in Nicomedia.<ref>{{cite web |publisher= [[The Walters Art Museum]]
 |url= http://art.thewalters.org/detail/27951
 |title= Belt Section with Medallions of Constantius II and Faustina}}</ref> The Walters Art Museum.]]
Nicomedia was the [[metropolis]] and capital of the Roman province of [[Bithynia]] under the [[Roman Empire]]. It is referenced repeatedly in [[Pliny the Younger]]'s [[Epistulae (Pliny)|Epistles]] to Trajan during his tenure as governor of Bithynia.<ref name="W.L. MacDonald 1976">{{cite news| url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0006:entry=nicomedia| title=Nicomedia NW Turkey| author=W.L. MacDonald| work=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites| publisher=Princeton University Press| year=1976}}</ref> Pliny, in his letters, mentions several public buildings of the city such as a senate-house, an aqueduct, a forum, a temple of [[Cybele]], and others, and speaks of a great fire, during which the place suffered much.<ref>[[Pliny the Younger]], ''[[Epistulae (Pliny)|Epist.]]'' 10.33.</ref> [[Diocletian]] made it the eastern capital city of the Roman Empire in 286 when he introduced the [[Tetrarchy]] system.

===Persecutions of 303===
Nicomedia was at the center of the [[Diocletianic Persecution]] of Christians which occurred under Diocletian and his [[Caesar (title)|Caesar]] [[Galerius]]. On 23 February 303 AD, the pagan festival of the [[Terminalia (festival)|Terminalia]], Diocletian ordered that the newly built church at Nicomedia be razed, its scriptures burnt, and its precious stones seized.<ref>{{cite book| title=Constantine & Eusebius| author=Timothy D. Barnes| date=1981| page=22}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Patricia Southern 2001">{{cite book| title=The Roman Empire: From Severus to Constantine| url=https://archive.org/details/romanempirefroms00sout| url-access=limited| author=Patricia Southern| year=2001| page=[https://archive.org/details/romanempirefroms00sout/page/n180 168]}}</ref> 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 palace [[eunuchs]], 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.<ref name="Patricia Southern 2001"/>

===Later Empire===
[[File:Tetrarchy map3.jpg|thumb|Map of the [[Roman Empire]] during the [[Tetrarchy]] system, showing the dioceses and the four tetrarchs' zones of influence. Nicomedia was the eastern and most senior capital city, chosen by [[Diocletian]] who assumed the title ''Augustus of the East''.]]

Nicomedia remained as the eastern (and most senior) capital of the Roman Empire until co-emperor [[Licinius]] was defeated by [[Constantine the Great]] at the [[Battle 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 nearby [[Byzantium]] (which was renamed [[Constantinople]]) 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.<ref>See C. Texier, ''Asie mineure'' (Paris, 1839); V. Cuenet, ''Turquie d'Asie'' (Paris, 1894).</ref>

A major [[Cecropius of Nicomedia#Earthquake of Nicomedia|earthquake]], 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.<ref>See Ammianus Marcellinus 17.7.1–8</ref> In the sixth century under Emperor [[Justinian I]] the 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 the [[Caliphate]].<ref name="ODB">{{citation | editor-first = Alexander | editor-last = Kazhdan | title = [[Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium]] | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]] | year = 1991 | isbn = 978-0-19-504652-6 | pages=1483–1484}}</ref>  From inscriptions we learn that in the later period of the empire Nicomedia enjoyed the honour of a [[Roman colony]].<ref>{{Cite DGRG|title=Nicomedeia}}</ref>

In 451, the local bishopric was promoted to a [[Metropolis of Nicomedia|Metropolitan see]] under the jurisdiction of the [[Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Kiminas|first=Demetrius|title=The Ecumenical Patriarchate|year=2009|publisher=Wildside Press LLC|isbn=978-1-4344-5876-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QLWqXrW2X-8C&pg=PA81|page=79}}</ref> The metropolis of Nicomedia was ranked 7th in the ''[[Notitiae Episcopatuum]]'' among the metropolises of the patriarchate.<ref>{{cite web|last=Terezakis|first=Yorgos|title=Diocese of Nicomedia (Ottoman Period)|url=http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=8729|publisher=Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Μ. Ασία|access-date=13 November 2012}}</ref> In the eighth century the Emperor [[Constantine V]] established his court there for a time, when plague broke out in Constantinople and drove him from his capital in 746–47.<ref>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), p. 428</ref> From the 840s on, Nicomedia was the capital of the ''[[Theme (Byzantine district)|thema]]'' of the ''[[Optimatoi]]''. By that time, most of the old, seawards city had been abandoned and is described by the Persian geographer [[Ibn Khordadbeh|Ibn Khurdadhbih]] as lying in ruins, with settlement restricted to the hilltop citadel.<ref name="ODB"/> In the 1080s, the city served as the main military base for [[Alexios I Komnenos]] in his campaigns against the [[Seljuk Turks]], and the [[First Crusade|First]] and [[Second Crusade|Second]] Crusades both encamped there.

The city was briefly held by the [[Latin Empire]] following the [[Siege of Constantinople (1204)|fall of Constantinople]] to the [[Fourth Crusade]] in 1204: in late 1206 the [[seneschal]] [[Thierry de Loos]] made it his base, converting the church of Saint Sophia into a fortress; however, the Crusader stronghold was subjected to constant raids by the [[Emperor of Nicaea]] [[Theodore I Laskaris]], during which de Loos was captured by Nicaean soldiers; by the summer of 1207 Emperor [[Henry of Flanders]] agreed to evacuate Nicomedia in exchange for de Loos and other prisoners Emperor Theodore held.<ref>[[Geoffrey de Villehardouin]], translated by M. R. B. Shaw, ''Joinville and Villehardouin: Chronicles of the Crusades'' (London: Penguin, 1963), pp. 147, 154–156</ref> The city remained in Byzantine control for over a century after that, but following the Byzantine defeat at the [[Battle of Bapheus]] in 1302, it was threatened by the rising [[Ottoman beylik]]. The city was twice besieged and blockaded by the Ottomans (in 1304 and 1330) before finally succumbing in 1337.<ref name="ODB"/>

==Infrastructure==
[[File:Parti in bronzo di un carro romano, forse di uso trionfale, dalle rovine di una casa nicomedia in bitinia, III-IV secolo dc. 02.jpg|thumb|Parts of a 2nd or 3rd-century bronze Roman chariot from Nicomedia, now in the [[National Archaeological Museum, Athens|National Archaeological Museum]] of [[Greece]].]]

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,<ref>{{cite book|title=Oratories| author=Libanius| page=61.7.18}}</ref> one of which was built in [[Hellenistic period|Hellenistic]] times. Pliny the Younger complains in his ''[[Epistulae (Pliny)|Epistulae]]'' to [[Trajan]], written in 110 AD, that the Nicomedians wasted 3,318,000 [[sesterces]] on 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.<ref>{{cite book| title=Epistulae| author=Pliny the Younger| page=10.37 & .38}}</ref> Under Trajan, there was also a large Roman garrison.<ref>{{cite book| title=Epistles| author=Pliny the Younger| page=10.74}}</ref> Other public amenities included a theatre, a colonnaded street typical of Hellenistic cities and a forum.<ref>{{cite book| title=Epistles| author=Pliny the Younger| page=10.49}}</ref>

The major religious shrine was a temple of [[Demeter]], which stood in a sacred precinct on a hill above the harbor.<ref name="W.L. MacDonald 1976"/> The city adopted official cults of Rome avidly, there were temples dedicated to the Emperor [[Commodus]],<ref>{{cite book| title=Roman History| author=Dio Cassius| page=73.12.2}}</ref> a sacred precinct of the city dedicated to [[Augustus]],<ref>{{cite book| title=Roman History| author=Cassius Dio| page=51.20.7}}</ref> and a temple of [[Roma (mythology)|Roma]] dedicated during the late-Republic.<ref name="W.L. MacDonald 1976"/>

The city was sacked in AD 253 by the [[Goths]], 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.<ref name="W.L. MacDonald 1976"/>

== Notable natives and residents ==
*[[Diocletian]] (c. 244 – 311), Roman emperor from 284 to 305
*[[Arrian]] (c. 86/89 – c. after 146/160), Greek historian, civil servant, military commander and philosopher of the Roman period
*[[Saint George]] (d. 303), martyr
*[[Saint Barbara|Barbara of Nicomedia]] (3rd century), martyr
*[[Saint Pantaleon|Pantaleon of Nicomedia]] (d.305), martyr
*[[Adrian of Nicomedia]] (d. 306), martyr
*[[Anthimus of Nicomedia]] (d. 303 or 311-12), bishop, martyr
*[[Juliana of Nicomedia]] (d. 304), martyr
*[[Theopemptus of Nicomedia]] (d. 303), bishop, Hieromartyr
*[[Theophylact of Nicomedia]] (d. 845), bishop, recognized as a Saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church
*[[Michael Psellos]] (1017 or 1078 – c. 1078 or 1096) Greek writer, philosopher, politician, and historian
*[[Maximus Planudes]] (c. 1260 – c. 1305) Greek scholar, anthologist, translator and grammarian
*[[Aaron ben Elijah]] (1328/1329-1369) [[Karaite Jewish]] philosopher 
<gallery>
File:S. Pantaleon from Nicomedian catacomb (10-11 c., GIM) by shakko.jpg|St. Pantaleon
File:Arrian7.jpg|Arrian
File:Istanbul - Museo archeol. - Diocleziano (284-305 d.C.) - Foto G. Dall'Orto 28-5-2006.jpg|Diocletian
File:Licinius gold multiple CdM Beistegui 232 (cropped).jpg|Licinus
File:Saint_Barbara_(National_Gallery_of_Slovenia,_copy_of_church_fresco_from_1453).jpg|[[Saint Barbara]]
</gallery>

==Remains==
[[File:Nicomedia Aqueduct, Izmit, Turkey (39171950052).jpg|thumb| Ruins of a Nicomedian aqueduct in İzmit]]
The ruins of Nicomedia are buried beneath the densely populated modern city of [[İzmit]], 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 marble [[nymphaeum]] on İstanbul street, a large cistern in the city's Jewish cemetery, and parts of the harbor wall.<ref name="W.L. MacDonald 1976"/>

The [[1999 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 of [[Hercules]], [[Athena]], Diocletian and Constantine.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/ancient-underground-city-in-izmit-excites-archaeology-world--96000| title=Ancient underground city in izmit excites archaeology world| publisher=Hürriyet Daily News| date=2016-03-04| access-date=2018-01-14}}</ref>

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 the [[Kocaeli Museum]], which estimated that the site covers 60,000 square meters (196,850 square feet).<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/ancient-underground-city-in-izmit-excites-archaeology-world--96000| title=Ancient underground city in izmit excites archaeology world| publisher=Hürriyet Daily News| date=2016-03-04| access-date=2018-01-14}}</ref>

== See also ==
*[[20,000 Martyrs of Nicomedia]]
*[[Nicaea]] (present-day [[İznik]], another important city in [[Bithynia]], and the interim [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] capital city between 1204 and 1261 ([[Empire of Nicaea]]) following the [[Fourth Crusade]] in 1204, until the recapture of [[Constantinople]] by the Byzantines in 1261. Earlier, the site of the [[Nicene Creed]] as well as the [[First Council of Nicaea]] and [[Second Council of Nicaea]].)
*[[List of ancient Greek cities]]

==References==
{{reflist|33em}}
{{DGRG|title=Nicomedeia}}

{{Former settlements in Turkey}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:264 BC]]
[[Category:260s BC establishments]]
[[Category:Populated places established in the 3rd century BC]]
[[Category:Greek colonies in Bithynia]]
[[Category:Megarian colonies]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Turkey]]
[[Category:Populated places of the Byzantine Empire]]
[[Category:Cities in Turkey]]
[[Category:Roman towns and cities in Turkey]]
[[Category:History of Turkey by location]]
[[Category:Former populated places in Turkey]]
[[Category:History of Izmit]]
[[Category:Populated places in Bithynia]]
[[Category:Former national capitals]]
[[Category:Lysimachian colonies]]
[[Category:Hellenistic colonies]]
[[Category:Hellenistic colonies in Anatolia]]
[[Category:Bithynian colonies]]
[[Category:Coloniae (Roman)]]