BITHYNIA

a country in Asia Minor, lying on the Pontus Euxinus, the Thracian Bosporus, and the Pro pont is, and bounded on the B. by Phrygia. In early times it was called Btbrycia^ from the Bebrydans who inhabited it. Before the time of Croesus, Bithynia was an independent state, under its own princes. After the death of Prusias I., in the war against Crcesus, it fell into the power of the Lydians, B.0. 560; into that of the Persians, b.c. 555; and into that of Alexander, B.c. 334. The restorer of the Bithynian throne was Bias or Bas, a native prince, at the court of one of whose succe ors, Prusias II., Hannibal took refuge, and where he ended his life by poison, B.c. 183. Nicomedes, the last king of this race, bequeathed his kingdom to the Romans, B.O. 75. The famous cities of Nioomedia, Nicsea, and Heradea were in Bithynia^ In the eleventh century Bithynia was conquered by the Seljuks. In 1298 a new kingdom was founded there by the Ottoman Turks, of which, in 1327, Prusa was capital. BITLIS. See Bbtus.