Nicæa

(anc. Nicæens is , Nicensis ). Formerly one of the most celebrated cities of Asia, stood on the eastern side of Lake As can i a (now Iznik ), in Bithynia. At the battle of Nice, 194, the emperor Severus defeated his rival, Niger, who was again defeated at I us, and soon after taken prisoner and put to death. Under the later emperors of the East, Nicæa long served as a bulwark of Constantinople against the Arabs and Turks; it was taken by the Seljuks in 1078, and became the capital of the sultan Soliman; it was retaken by the first Crusaders in 1097. After the taking of Constantinople by the Venetians and the Franks, and the foundation of the Latin empire there in 1204, the Greek emperor, The odor us Lascar is, made Nicæa the capital of a separate kingdom, in which his followers maintained themselves with various succe against the Latins of Constantinople on the one side, and the Seljuks of Iconium on the other, and in 1261 regained Constantinople. At length, in 1330, Nicæa was finally taken by Orchan, the son of the founder of the Ottoman empire, Othman.