These notes are from the same book as in the preceding post.

Amongst Bithynia’s urban centres, the city of Chalcedon enjoyed that equivocal privilege of independence. Its prosperity resulted from the trade that passed between the Euxine and the Aegean and also across the Bosporus; additional sources of wealth were the copper-mines and the semi-precious stones of its dependency, the island of Chalcitis. During the fifth and fourth centuries, amid wars and other vicissitudes, Chalcedon preserved its freedom, although for a time after 387 it was subject to the Persians. The city probably submitted to Alexander and later it was held in subjection by Lysimachus. After his overthrow in 281 Chalcedon again became free, and as an independent state it formed an alliance with Byzantium, Heracleia and Mithradates I, king of Pontus, against Seleucus I and later with Nicomedes I of Bithynia. It recovered its status of free city when Philip was defeated in 197. In gratitude for this deliverance the city became an ally of Rome and contributed its quota of ships for the war against Philip’s son, Perseus. From this time onward Chalcedon succeeded in preserving its independence. As a Roman ally, it shared the terrible defeat of Rome’s land and naval forces when in 73 Bithynia was invaded by Mithradates Eupator.

In contrast to Chalcedon’s freedom, the other cities in Bithynia were subject to the kings. The most important of these was Nicomedeia, the seat of the royal court. It was the successor of the ancient Megarian settlement of Astacus, which had been destroyed by Lysimachus at the beginning of the third century. A few years after its destruction, the remnants of the population were moved by King Nicomedes I to a neighbouring site at the eastern end of a gulf. Here the King founded a new city, naming it after himself and fortifying it with walls of which the foundations are still preserved. Nicomedeia, in the innermost recess of the long narrow gulf, was built on a narrow strip of land lying between the water’s edge and the curving hills which rise behind it like the tiers of a huge theatre. The situation was both picturesque and commercially advantageous. Not only did the gulf afford a deep-water harbour of unusual excellence, but the city lay at the end of the great trade-route which traversed the whole length of northern Asia Minor from the Propontis to Pontus and Armenia. As a result, the carrying-trade of Nicomedeia developed rapidly, and its commerce, combined with its importance as the royal capital and the buildings with which it was adorned by the monarchs, gave the city a pre-eminence which lasted for centuries.

Nicomedeia’s rival for the primacy among the cities of Bithynia was Nicaea, originally founded by Antigonus on the site of an earlier settlement. Lysimachus enlarged and fortified it, renaming it Nicaea after his wife. It lay at the eastern end of Lake Ascania, in a luxuriant plain framed by the mountain-ring that surrounds the lake. Without natural defences, Nicaea was protected by a massive wall; within this, the city was laid out on a rectangular plan, so that from the centre all four gates could be seen. This inland situation lacked the commercial advantages of Nicomedeia, and for its communications by sea the city was dependent on the harbour-town of Cius, about thirty miles distant. With this port it was connected by a road leading along the southern shore of the lake. The eastern prolongation of this route afforded communication with the valley of the Sangarius and thus with Phrygia and Galatia. Another road, running across the mountain-range on the north, connected it with Nicomedeia. Thanks to the trade thus established, but perhaps also to the fertility of its immediate territory, Nicaea attained to great prosperity. During the Roman imperial era, it was noted for its scarlet silk, dyed by means of the kermes-gall.