Nicomedia

(now ruins at Izmid , or Iznikmid ). A celebrated city in Asia Minor, capital of Bithynia, built by King Nicomedes I., 264 B.C. , at the northeast corner of the Sinus Astacenus (now Gulf of Izmid ). Like its neighbor and rival Nicæa, it occupied an important place in the wars against the Turks; it is memorable in history as the scene of Hannibal’s death. It surrendered to the Seljukian Turks, 1078, and to Orchan and the Ottoman Turks in 1338.