Early AD 124 – Hadrian spends the winter in Nicomedia, tours Bithynia and meets Antinous (#Hadrian1900) FOLLOWING HADRIAN

After sailing along the southern Black Sea coast, possibly visiting the Pontic towns of Amisus, Sinope and Amastris (see here), Hadrian is thought to have spent the winter of 123/4 in Nicomedia or possibly Byzantium. Nicomedia was the capital of the dual province of Pontus et Bithynia in what is now Izmit in northern Turkey. It was also the hometown of his lifelong friend Arrian, who may have been his host on this occasion, like in 117/8 (see here). Arrian was a Stoic philosopher and a student of Epictetus at Nicopolis in Epirus, where the pair probably met. About 12 years younger than Hadrian, Arrian shared many of Hadrian’s passions, including his enthusiasm for hunting.

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During his stay in the Bithynian province, the Emperor probably visited several major cities, including Heraclea Pontica, Claudiopolis (former Bythinium), Prusias ad Hypium and Nicaea. During one of these visits, Hadrian probably met Antinous, a beautiful young Greek boy who would accompany him on his many travels as a cherished lover and companion. Nicomedia and Nicaea were only just recovering from the damage caused by an earthquake. The date of this earthquake is not certain. It probably took place in the fifth year of Hadrian’s reign in 121, between August and December, as stated by Eusebius, but definitely before Hadrian visited the area in 124. Saint Jerome places it in the 224th Olympiad, the fourth year of Hadrian’s reign, AD 120.

After an earthquake had happened, Nicomedia lay in ruins, and many things were overturned in the city of Nicaea: for the reconstruction of which, Hadrian generously gave funds from the public treasury. Jerome, Chronicle 180

Hadrian took special care of the province and contributed to the reconstruction of both cities, as suggested by the new set of coins celebrating Hadrian as Restitor Bithyniae and Restitutor Nicomediae. Nicomedia also added the epithet ‘Hadriane’ (Ἁδριανή) to its titulature to express its gratitude (CIG 1720). The Emperor is credited with reconstructing city walls, gates and markets in the two neighbouring towns, which had a long rivalry over which city held the rank of capital of the province. Nicomedia was the metropolis or ‘first city’ of Bithynia and wanted to be the only city claiming the title, which Nicaea also claimed. Hadrian also entrusted Patrocles, a Bithynian who had commanded two Roman cohorts, with overseeing the reconstruction of his native Nicaea.

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Bithynia was a mountainous region with heavy forests and fertile valleys, lying northwest of Asia Minor, between the Propontis (now known as the Sea of Marmara) and the Black Sea. It bordered Thrace to the west with the Bosphorus Strait as its natural boundary, Mysia to the southwest, Paphlagonia to the northeast along the Pontic coast and Phrygia to the southeast towards the interior of Asia Minor. Bithynia became a Roman province in 74 BC when Nicomedes IV (c. 94–74 BC) bequeathed his entire kingdom to the Roman Republic. The Kingdom of Pontus was incorporated after the defeat of Mithridates VI Eupator (120–63 BC) in 63 BC, thanks to Pompey the Great’s decisive victory in the Third Mithridatic War. The province’s area was then expanded as part of Pompey’s annexations and organisation of the eastern provinces.

As a Roman province, Bithynia and Pontus were united for administrative purposes, as we see from inscriptions (Procos. provinciae Ponti et Bithyniae), covering the eastern part of the coast of the Propontis, the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, and the southern coast of the Black Sea up to Amisus, thus three important historical lands: Bithynia, Paphlagonia and Pontus.

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There were no legions stationed in Pontus and Bithynia, although, due to the military operations against Armenia and Parthia, the Roman army did march through the territory of Bithynia. To reach the Cappadocian frontier, troops would travel through Byzantium, Nicomedia, Nicaea, Juliopolis and Ancyra. The other main cities of Bithynia included Calchedon, a free town, and Apamea, Prusa and Heraclea Pontica, which were coloniae. In the time of Hadrian, coins were issued by centres such as Caesarea Germanica, Apamea Myrlea, Cius, Calchedon, Bithynium Claudiopolis and Nicomedia.

Greek culture flourished in Bithynia, as shown by the notable writers and intellectuals whom the province produced: Asclepiades from Prusa (c. 124 BC – 40 BC), the Greek physician who established Greek medicine in Rome, Lucius Flavius Arrianus (Arrian) from Nicomedia (c. 95–175), known mainly for his work devoted to the expeditions of Alexander the Great and his Periplus of the Euxine Sea, Cassius Dio (c. 155–235) from Nicaea, the author of the History of Rome, and Dio Chrysostom from Prusa (c. 40 – c. 110), the Greek rhetorician and philosopher who won fame in Rome and throughout the empire for his writings and speeches.

Although a single Roman governor administered the dual province of Bithynia et Pontus, Bithynia retained a separate provincial assembly, the koinon of Bithynia, which met at Nicomedia at the Temple of Rome and Augustus, a provincial temple dedicated to the imperial cult, construction of which was authorised by Augustus in 29 BC (first neokoria). Augustus only permitted temples to himself if the cult of the goddess Rome accompanied his own (Suetonius, Augustus 52). The temple appeared on reverses of Hadrianic cistophori bearing the legend COM(MUNE) BI(THYNIAE), the “koinon of Bithynia”. No trace of the temple has been discovered, but its appearance has been reconstructed based on extensive numismatic evidence (RPC III, no. 968-984). It was Corinthian and octastyle, and the entablature bore the inscription Romae Senatui Populo Augusto. The temple was probably destroyed by the earthquake and restored in the reign of Hadrian.

All Hadrianic cistophoric types have parallels in the bronze series (RPC III, no. 985-1021), which regularly have ΚΟΙ-ΝΟΝ ΒΕΙΘΥΝΙΑϹ as legends. However, no trace of this provincial imperial shrine of Nicomedia has been discovered. Its architectural appearance is only known through these cistophori and bronze coins produced by the koinon of Bithynia. The principal task of the koinon was the organisation of the cult of the Emperor, but also the management of the regional economy and the collection of taxes. 

Bithynia had been a senatorial province in financial and administrative disarray before Trajan took direct control of it. In AD 110, the Optimus Princept installed the experienced Pliny the Younger as legatus Augusti pro praetore (proconsular legate of the province) to exercise his imperium in this allegedly corrupted province. While in office, he corresponded with the Emperor to discuss the situation in the province and the Bithynian cities, providing adequate information regarding administrative issues, engineering projects, and everyday life. Pliny also commented on the rise of Christianity in the province, asking the Emperor’s advice on how to treat the new sect (Ep. 10.96).

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Nicomedia was an important port with an excellent protected harbour situated on the main roads that ran directly to the eastern frontiers of the empire, connecting Byzantium to Pontus and Armenia. The city was founded by Nicomedes I in 264 BC on the site of the ruined Greek colony of Olbia, a Megarian town founded in the 8th century BC. It was the chief residence of the Bithynian kings and the centre of pre-Roman administration. It logically became a metropolis and the provincial capital during the Roman period, where the main administrator of the province resided. Despite several destructive earthquakes (the city rests on the North Anatolian faultline), Nicomedia never lost its geographical and strategic importance, competing with Nicaea for the first rank in the province. It was one of 37 cities in Asia that acquired the title of neokoros several times (three times), associated with the imperial cult.

Nicomedia was predominantly built on picturesque hills overlooking the sea, with strong walls (sections of which still survive) and gates. The city particularly flourished under the Flavians and the Antonines. In his letters to Trajan, Pliny mentions several public buildings of the city, such as a senate house, a forum, and a temple of Cybele and spoke of a great fire, during which Nicomedia suffered much because of the absence of firemen (Plin. Ep. 10.33). He also reports on the Nicomedian aqueduct, a project in which the city had invested 3.5 million sesterces but was left unfinished (Plin. Ep 10.37). Moreover, there were temples dedicated to Isis (Plin. Ep 10.37), Zeus Bronton (TAM IV 58) and Cybele/Magna Mater (TAM IV 74). Other buildings included large baths, a nymphaeum, a theatre, gymnasia, numerous fountains, a circus and an agora.

The city’s chief divinity of Nicomedia was Demeter, the Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture who presided over crops and the fertility of the earth. Regular games, called Demetria, were held in her honour. Arrian served as priest of Demeter and her daughter Kore (TAM IV 402) and reported that the Mysteries of Demeter and Kore originated in Nicomedia. The patron goddess appears on coins from Nicomedia during the imperial period, usually shown carrying a sceptre, an attribute with which the Eleusinian goddess is often adorned. The cult related to the fertility of the earth was one of the most important in antiquity and was relatively popular in Bithynia, perhaps celebrating the fertility of the area (there were very fertile valleys and coastal districts around Nicomedia offering a great variety of products from grain to grapes and nuts).

Libanius, the famous orator from Antioch who lived and taught in the city from 344 to 349, spoke of Nicomedia as “the city of Demeter” and the existence of a temple of Demeter and catalogued the city’s magnificent buildings destroyed by the earthquake of AD 358.

What city was more beautiful? Its public buildings were splendid, its private contiguous, rising from the lowest parts to the citadel, like the branches of a cypress, one house above another, watered by rivulets and surrounded by gardens. Its council-chambers, its schools of oratory, the multitude of its temples, the magnificence of its baths, and the commodiousness of its harbour I have seen, but cannot describe. Libanius, Ornationes LXI 7

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Nicomedia was among the cities that worshipped Antinous after his death in the Nile in Egypt. There are coins confirming that the young Bithynian was heroised, as he is shown on the reverse of coins bearing the inscription ‘ΗΡΩϹ ΑΝΤΙΝΟΟϹ’ (hero Antinous) on the obverse and ‘Η ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΙϹ ΝΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΙΑ’ (Nicomedia the Metropolis) on the reverse. Bithynia saw the importance of Antinous in linking the birthplace with the empire and wanted to commemorate him as a divine local hero as well.

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As mentioned before, Nicomedia had been severely damaged by an earthquake shortly before Hadrian’s visit, as did Nicaea. As late chroniclers explicitly report, the Emperor provided funds for the necessary restoration work. ‘He [Hadrian] restored Nicomedia and Nicaea of Bithynia, which had collapsed in an earthquake.’ (Eus. Hist. 164). The Historia Augusta mentions that Hadrian gave tax exemptions to communities which had been damaged by “famines, plagues, and earthquakes” (SHA, Hadrian, 21.5). Malalas claims Hadrian “bestowed” money on the surviving citizens (Malalas, 279). In addition, on a high-relief frieze block retrieved from within the nymphaeum at Nicomedia, the name of Hadrian is read in the nominative case. This is interpreted as probably related to the original building or its reconstruction (TAM IV,1 10).

People tried to help others caught in the earthquake’s destruction in Nicomedia. An inscription on a stele put up after the earthquake praises a tutor called Hermes, who tried to protect his young tutees. The stele shows Hermes covering the young boys with his arms in an attempt to protect them from falling debris.

Thraso, son of Diogenes, erected this stele for his two sons, Dexiphanes, aged five and Thraso, aged four, and for Hermes, aged twenty-five, who was bringing them up. In the earthquake collapse, so did he hold them in his arms.

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From this time on, Nicomedia was plagued by large-scale destructive earthquakes up to the present day. Other benefactor emperors who helped rebuild the city included Commodus, who also presented it with its second neokoros title, and Julian (r. AD 331-363), who spent many years there and donated a sizable amount of money towards its restoration. After the earthquake of 533/4, Nicomedia lost its magnificent importance but continued to exist in the Byzantine period. During the rule of Justinian, churches, aqueducts and bathhouses were rebuilt, which revived the city again.

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Inscriptions in Hadrian’s honour above the gates of Nicaea supply more evidence of the Emperor’s restoration programme following the AD 120 earthquake. After Nicomedia, Hadrian went on to assist its rival located to the southeast on the bank of Lake Ascania.

[Hadrian] surrounded with strong walls Nicaea and Nicomedea, which had suffered in an earthquake.’ (Niceph. 256/i. 944).

While our knowledge of Hadrian’s response to the earthquake in Nicomedia is limited to ancient writers, Nicaea has delivered epigraphical and archaeological material. One of the most important pieces of epigraphical evidence for Hadrian’s rebuilding of the city is the long dedication to Hadrian above the Lefke (eastern) and Istanbul (northern) city gates.

Nicaea was a wealthy city situated in a vast and fertile valley surrounded by mountains. The settlement was connected to the nearby Propontis via the main highway leading from Thrace to central Anatolia and extending southeast towards Syria. Nicaea is said to have been colonised by Bottiaeans from Central Macedon, who had named the city Helikore, but the Mysians subsequently destroyed the first colony. In the wake of Alexander the Great‘s death, Nicaea was rebuilt by the Macedonian king Antigonus I, who named the city Antigoneia after himself. Shortly after that, in 301 BC, after the battle of Ipsus, Lysimachus conquered the town and changed its name to Nikaea in honour of his wife.

As Strabo records (Strabo 12.4), the town was built as a square measuring 16 stadia in circumference (approx. 700 sq. km). All its streets intersected at right angles per the Hippodamian plan, which is still visible in Iznik’s modern street system. Two main streets crossed the city, and the extensions led to four gates visible from a fixed stone placed at the centre of the gymnasium, which stood at the heart of the town.

In the Hellenistic Period, Nicaea had a smaller ring of walls, as Strabo records. The Hellenistic walls fell into disuse and disappeared in the Roman period. Rather than continuous walls, freestanding triumphal arches were built under Vespasian at the ends of Nicaea’s main street. The reconstruction of the city walls started in the late 3rd century AD, soon after the Goths had threatened the region. These walls formed an irregular pentagon around 5 km long, as seen on the reverses of bronze coins minted under the emperors Valerian and Gallienus.

Nicaea was embellished under Augustus to the point of contending with Nicomedia for the seat of the provincial governor. A temple dedicated to Roma (the personification of the city of Rome) and Julius Caesar was erected for Roman citizens. Furthermore, in this same period, the koinon of Bithynia instituted agonistic games in Nicaea, held every four years in honour of the Emperor.

Caesar, meanwhile, besides attending to the general business, gave permission for the dedication of sacred precincts in Ephesus and in Nicaea to Rome and to Caesar, his father, whom he named the hero Julius. These cities had at that time attained chief place in Asia and in Bithynia respectively. Dio 51.20.6

During the Flavian period, four new monumental gates (north, east, west and south) were built from local marble and dedicated by the Bithynian proconsul M. Plancius Varus after AD 70 (IK Iznik 25–28). They honoured Vespasian and his son Titus and “the first city of the province, Nicaea”. Each gate had an arched central passage flanked by two minor rectangular gateways. They were embellished with statues in the niches on either side of the archway and perhaps over the gates. As part of the re-fortification project of the 3rd century, the walls were raised, and the gates were completely rebuilt with a new brick superstructure and towers.

Pliny the Younger further enlarged the city and completed the construction of new buildings. While discussing matters related to the situation of Nicaea’s public works, he reports on investments in unfinished buildings such as the theatre and the gymnasium (Plin. Ep10.39). The theatre’s construction had begun shortly before Pliny inspected the Bithynian cities, which had already cost more than ten million sesterces. The building was sinking, with cracks appearing, and despite Pliny’s suggestion that it should be demolished, the building was completed as requested by Trajan.

Located in the southwest part of the city between the lake and eastern gate, the theatre was built largely on vaulted substructures in opus caementicium and was faced with marble. It measured 85 by 55 m and belonged to the Hellenistic type, although it had undergone several alterations. Over the centuries, the theatre became an open-air quarry. Its stones were used as construction materials, especially in restoring the city walls during the Byzantine and Ottoman periods.

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Following the earthquake of 120, Hadrian provided funds for the necessary restoration work. The Paschal Chronicle states that Hadrian repaired the city walls, gates and the market. Nicaea’s northern and eastern gates were rededicated to him in honour of his benefactions and visit. The long dedication to Hadrian on both sides of the gates’ architrave also mentions the titles metropolis and neokoros conferred by the Emperor to the city. This indicates that the earliest known neokoros temple at Nicaea belonged to Hadrian. Another text (IK Iznik 56) shows that Patrocles, a local man, was chosen to supervise the rebuilding of the city in accordance with Hadrian’s instructions. The existence of an aqueduct dedicated to Hadrian is known from inscriptions.

“To the emperor king Trajan Hadrian Augustus, son of the god Trajan Particus, grandson of the god Nerva, he who bears upon himself the authority of the people’s sovereignty, Nikaia, descended from the line of Dionysos and Herakles, the first (city) of Bithynia and Pontus, metropolis by the decrees of the emperors and the sacred Roman senate, offers the most pious Neokoros of the Augusti”. (IK Iznik 29)

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Two inscriptions, one in Greek (IK Iznik 1) and the other in Latin (IK Iznik 55), indicate that Hadrian was the dedicatee of the city’s aqueduct and that he imposed strict regulations for its protection. According to the Greek decree, Hadrian ordered people living near the aqueduct not to interfere with the water conduit in any way, or they shall pay a fine to the treasury. Most of the visible remains of this aqueduct extend to the east of Iznik from the Lefke Gate. The total length of the aqueduct was about 1.5 km. According to Procopius (De aedificiis, V, 3), it was restored at the time of Justinian. Restorations were also done by Theodore I Lascaris (1205–1222) in the 13th century AD.

Hadrian is called Zeus Soter Olympios in a small altar (IK Iznik 32) unearthed in Nicaea, an epithet likely related to the emperor’s actions and benefactions to the city. The use of the epithet Olympios for Hadrian is attested for the first time in 128 but becomes regular after 131/2, the year in which the Olympieion in Athens was finished, and the Panhellenion (a league of Greek cities with headquarters in Athens) was established.

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Hadrian’s tour of Bithynia likely brought him to the metropolis of Bithynium-Claudiopolis (modern-day Bolu), located in the highlands to the east of Nicomedia in the interior of Bithynia beyond the Sangarius River. The city stood on the great west-east Roman highway, parallel to the coastal ridge from Nicomedia to Ancyra in Galatia. Bithynium was one of the leading cities of the Kingdom of Bithynia, celebrated for its pastures and cheese, as Strabo describes it. Bithynium is generally believed to be a Hellenistic foundation of the kings of Bithynia, and there is no evidence of an earlier city on its territory. An inscription found at Bolu may indicate that the founder was King Prousias I (IK Klaudiupolis 50). However, according to Pausanias, Bithynium was founded by Arcadians from Mantinea (Paus. 8.9.7), a belief which may date from the time of Hadrian. The Bithynian city was renamed Claudiopolis under Claudius but had reverted to Bithynium by Hadrian’s day.

Bithynium was built on a low hill and was surrounded by well-watered plains. It was equipped with the usual buildings that made up a city, markets, gymnasium and palaestra, a theatre, and a massive bath-house at the foot of the mountain, which Pliny complained about. Concerned about possible overspending and bad engineering, Pliny requested that Trajan send out an architect to inspect the projects, to which Trajan gave his famous rejoinder: “There must be plenty of architects to advise you, for there is no province which is without some men of experience and skill in that profession, and remember again that it does not save time to send one from Rome when so many of our architects come to Rome from Greece.” (Ep. 10.39-40).

As Pausanius tells us, Bithynium-Claudiopolis was the birthplace of Antinous, although the travel writer “never saw him in the flesh” and adds that the remotest ancestors of the Bithynians were Mantineans from Arcadia. The Mantineans, who, as A. Birley notes, “were later to honour Antinous with particular fervour”, certainly claimed him as one of their own.  Dio confirms the place of birth, adding that Bithynium is now called Claudiopolis (Dio Cass. 69.11.2).

Antinous was by birth from Bithynium beyond the river Sangarius, and the Bithynians are by descent Arcadians of Mantineia. Paus. 8.9.7

A rural locality called Mantineion existed just outside Bithynium-Claudiopolis in the upper valley of the Ladon River (Socrates Hist. eccl. 2.38), which may have been the precise birthplace of Antinous. The pastoral nature of the landscape in which Antinous grew up proved key for the later presentation of the Bithynian youth as a woodland boy (Robert, 1980). In addition, the obverses of a series of medallions struck at Bithynium towards the end of Hadrian’s reign show Antinous as a divinised herdsman or as Hermes Nomios, “the protector of pastures and shepherds”.

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Although the exact circumstances remain unknown, it is reasonable to infer that Hadrian first encountered Antinous during his journey through the province. He may have been noticed at some public ceremony where Antinous was participating. This could have occurred at Claudiopolis, if not at Nicomedia or at Heraclea Pontica, where athletic contests for boys and men were instituted in Hadrian’s honour, in which Antinous could have been a competitor (Birley, 1997). The boy would have been sent to Rome at this time to attend the imperial paedagogium, where he would receive further education, before becoming part of the large entourage of Hadrian and his wife, Sabina. But whenever Antinous joined Hadrian, whether in 124 or later, his public presence with the Emperor is not attested before the tour in Egypt in 130.

Hadrian was to grant Bythinium numerous privileges as the hometown of Antinous and establish a local cult to Antinous after his death, as the remains of marble columns and frieze fragments from a temple can likely attest. The existence of a theatre, estimated to be located on the southern slope of the Acropolis, and a stadium with a length of approximately 93 m are among the examples of urban architecture attributed to Hadrian in Bithynium.

The architectural fragments from a temple dedicated to Antinous and the Hadrianic theatre are now displayed at the Bolu Müzesi, while the clearest depiction of the temple is left to us on a single coin minted in Claudiopolis during the reign of Elagabalus (218–22), which is now displayed in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (see here). The Temple of Antinous would have stood above the city’s stadium, which itself hosted the Hadrianeia Antinoeia, the sacred games dedicated to Hadrian and Antinous. There is evidence of the institution of mystic rites (IKlaudiupolis 65), and an agon mystikos is mentioned in an inscription from Ancyra as having travelled to Claudiopolis to participate in a mystical context (I.Ancyra 143).

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Antinous was also worshipped in private or domestic settings. A small limestone altar (IK Klaudiupolis 56) indicates that he was worshipped as a god. A small limestone altar dedicated to Antinous is inscribed in Greek: νέωι θεῶ[ι] / Ἀντινόωι / εὐχν / Σωσθένη[ς] (‘to the new god Antinous. Sosthenes (set this) as a prayer’). The formula indicates that Antinous has answered Sosthenes’s prayer (Smith 2018, 53).

Parts of the stadium, which served as the venue for the Hadrianeia Antinoeia games, were recently uncovered in the city centre of Bolu on the southern slopes of Hisartepe. Built using limestone cut stones, without using mortar, the stadium was an elongated U-shaped structure comprising a running track surrounded by seats on the east, south, and west. The estimated capacity was 3,500 spectators. The stadium hosted athletic contests, particularly boxing and wrestling, and agonistic games, which probably included poetry, music and drama competitions.

Seven thin marble slabs composing a 20 m-long inscription (IK Klaudiupolis 53) were found in the stadium during excavations in 2008. The inscription, written in Greek and engraved in two lines with fairly regular letters, reveals that the stadium was dedicated to Hadrian and the Demos of Claudiopolis and that Gn. Domitius Ponticus Iulianus had made a pledge to have the building built at his own expense. Unfortunately, he died at a young age before the completion of the project, which was carried out by Claudia Procla and Aelius Plotius Iulianus, who, as legal foster parents of the daughters of Domitius, managed the property of Ponticus Iulianus.

A series of coins honouring Antinous was issued, with one even referring to him as “the god”. The other main centre of Antinous worship was Mantinea in Arcadia, traditionally regarded as Bithynium’s mother city. Like Bithynium, Mantinea also had a stadium for the integral Hadrianeia Antinoeia. Pausanias would visit Mantinea, reporting that a room in the gymnasium contained multiple Antinous statues, most conflating the young man with Dionysus. He also mentions a temple, the institution of annual mysteries and quadrennial games.

So far, three statue bases of Hadrian (IKlaudiupolis 51-53), dated between AD 131 and 135, have been identified in Bithynium-Claudiopolis. The strong bond between the emperor and the city was ultimately expressed by renaming the city Hadriane, as seen on the local coinage and the milestones. Furthermore, two phylai were renamed Hadriane and Antinois.

The relatively high number of Aelii (25) in Bithynium-Claudiopolis suggests that Hadrian granted citizenship to individuals and larger groups during his visit. Henri-Louis Fernoux (2004) has studied the occurrence of imperial gentilicia and demonstrated that at least 84 families of local origin had obtained Roman status sometime during the reign of Hadrian. Marcia Domitia, Aelia Magna, Aelia Antipatris and Flavia Valentia from Claudiopolis are examples of local families who named their daughters according to Roman traditions.

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Bithynium-Claudiopolis was also located on the Roman highway that ran northward to Heraclea Pontica and Tium (Tios/Tieion), two important Greek centres on the Euxine shores in Paphlagonia. Heraclea Pontica (identified with the present city of Ereğli), with a history going back to 560 BC, is the oldest of the two, having been founded by Dorian Megarians from Attica (Arrian, Periplus 13.3) or, according to Strabo by Miletus (Strabo, 12.3.4) in the 8th century BC. The city owes its name to Hercules, who, according to Greek belief, descended into the underworld through a cave located at the adjoining Archerusian peninsula to capture the three-headed dog Cerberus as part of the twelfth labours assigned to him by the Mycenean king Eurystheus (now the Cehennemağzı Caves).

Prospering from the rich and fertile adjacent lands and the sea fisheries, the Heracleans Heraclea quickly developed as an important trading centre, eventually establishing colonies on the Black Sea (Callatis and Tauric Chersonesos). The area was also rich in pines, firs and beeches, indicating the development of woodcutting. Heraclea had a sheltered natural harbour, praised by Strabo (12.542), which provided sufficient space for merchant ships. There were two moles, and the lighthouse (known from coins) presumably stood. Sea trade, transport, and fishing dominated the economy and shaped the city’s social structure.

According to Strabo, a Roman colony was established in Heraclea by Julius Caesar, later ruined by the Galatian chieftain Adiatorix, who killed all the Roman colonists and was removed by Octavian (Strabo, 12.3.6). Under the reign of Trajan, Heraclea became a metropolis as seen on coins bearing the legend ΗΡΑΚΛΕΩΤΑΝ ΜΑΤΡΟΠΟΛΙΤΑΝ (RPC III, 1172). Heraclea must have had a theatre and a stadium as a Greek city. In Roman times, an amphitheatre, shown on coins (RPC VII.2, 2080), was built but has not been located. A road network leading from Heraclea Pontica to Amastris that passed through Tium existed as early as the reign of Vespasian, according to surviving milestones.

Pliny wrote little about the city. The only information in his letters is an annotation about one Julius Largus of Pontus, who bequeathed his estate to Heraclea and Tium. He donated 50,000 sesterces to embellish the cities and to establish games in honour of Trajan (Plin. Ep 10.75). The Traiania games are not attested in epigraphic evidence from Heraclea nor mentioned in victory lists found elsewhere. There is, however, a reference to the Heracleia Hadrianeia Isaktion (ἐν Ἡρακλε[ί]-ᾳ τῇ πρὸς τῷ Πόντῳ Ἁδρι(ά)νηο[νἩράκλειον ἰσάκτ(ι)ον), the isactian (of Actium), Hadrianic, and Heraclean competitions (Chingyuan, 2018).

An inscription from Aphrodisias (I.Aphr. 12.215), dated to the early 3rd century (after AD 211), honours an athlete named Marcus Aurelius […]os, a long-distance runner (dolichos) who won the boys’ long race at both the Hadrianeia Herakleia Isaktia in Heraclea Pontica and Hadrianeia Antinoeia in Antinous’ hometown Bithynium-Claudiopolis. He also won contests in Ancyra, Chalcedon, Nicomedia and Nicaea, competing in this circuit both as a boy and as an adult.

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The lack of epigraphic documentation does not allow to shed light on the exact time when the Hadrianeia Herakleia Isaktia was founded. They either replaced the Traianea Heracleia as the new Emperor ascended the throne (Chingyuan, 2018) or were founded ex novo under the reign of the Emperor, as in other cities (Hervás, 2018). The new Hadrianic festival, associated with the imperial cult, was also assimilated to Hercules, the patron deity of Heraclea Pontica, and was regarded as equal in rank to the contests of Actium (Boatwright, 2000). As the name of the games suggests, the organisation probably followed the same pattern as the Actian games instituted by Augustus in Nicopolis in 27 BC after the Battle of Actium, where the program consisted of musical competition, athletic games and horse races, with three age categories (boys, younger ephebes, older ephebes). The games were held every four years, and the prize was a crown of reeds.

“in almost every city [Hadrian] both built something and gave games” (HA, Hadr. 19.2)

Another rather interesting inscription from Heraclea Pontica (I.Heraclea 2) attests to the renaming of the thymelic synod of artists in Rome after Hadrian and Antinous in the year 130, in honour of the Emperor’s beloved, who was divinised after his death and at Rome syncretised with Hermes (IGUR I 143). Around that time, the thymelic synod issued a decree in Rome for its member Marcius Xenokrates, a copy of which was sent to his hometown Heraclea Pontica. A large number of cities created games and festivals (agones) carrying Hadrian’s name. At least nineteen of these Hadrianeia are known to us, and four Antinoeia, including the one at Bithynium-Claudiopolis, are mentioned in the inscription (Fauconnier, 2023).

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Another Bithynian city which should have been favoured with a visit is Prusias ad Hypium (Konuralp), an important city on the road between Nicomedia and Amastris on the Euxine in the Pontus region. Prusias ad Hypium was founded as Kieron east of the Hypius River in the 4th century BC by settlers from Heraclea Pontica. It was conquered by King Prusias I of Bithynia in the early 3rd century BC, who renamed the city after himself. The city was situated on a hillside overlooking the plain around the Hypius River and facing Mt. Olympus. It lay on an important road linking Nicomedia, Amastris and other settlements in the northern part of Anatolia.

The city was a bustling trading centre integrated into the Roman Republic in 74 BC. It grew from four (Megaris, Thebias, Dionysias and Prusias in the Hellenistic period) to twelve phylai (local tribes) by the end of the 2nd century AD, including two named after Hadrian and Sabina (Hadriane and Sabiniane). The city boasted a degree of autonomy in local governance, issuing its own currency. The early Roman coins from this city started under Vespasian. The depiction of Hercules with the legend “τόν χτιστην προυσϊς” (founder of the city) on the city coins minted during the reign of Domitian shows the connection with Herakleia Pontika (RPC II, 623). Zeus, Asclepius, Aphrodite, Hermes, Hercules, Dionysus and Tyche were all worshipped in the city. Hadrian is called ‘Olympios’ in an altar unearthed at Prusias (IK Prusias 35).

Unfortunately, the ancient city of Prusias ad Hypium is largely under the modern settlement. The theatre is the only monumental structure of this city preserved until today. It is one of the best-preserved theatres not only in Bithynia but also in Anatolia, and excavations are ongoing. A stadium, a gymnasium, an agora and a bathhouse were identified through inscriptions but have yet to be located. The finds, emphasising the importance of the city, are on show in the local Konuralp Museum, which boasts a collection of 6,237 items, including 1,848 archaeological artefacts, 491 ethnographic objects and 3,898 coins and a floor mosaic depicting Orpheus (see here). However, the most impressive find, a marble statue of Tyche uncovered in 1931, was put on display at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum.

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Several other inscriptions give us some information about the city’s cultural level. Many athletes and artists participated in the Augusteia games in honour of the reigning Emperor. The games were organised every four years by the imperial priest (IK Prusias 31). The founder of one of these games, Kallikleanos Kallikles, was honoured with a monument by the sacred, travelling athletic and theatrical synods (I Prusias 49). An epitaph gives us information about theatre performances, which were also important in the city. A tragedy player from Athens called Philoksenos died and was buried in Prusias (I Prusias 97). Philoxenus’ tomb was restored by another visiting tragoedus from Corinth, with the name Isthmus.

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The theatre of Prusias ad Hypium was built on a natural slope at the top of the hill overlooking the plain south of the city. It is a magnificent building with a semicircular orchestra, a stage building with three doors and six windows, and a cavea with three sections (ima, media and summa) and six vaulted entrances at the eastern and western ends. The stage building, considered a single-storey building, is currently 50 m long, 12 m wide, 6 m high and has a rectilinear form. It was built entirely of limestone blocks in opus isodomum, similar to the analemma wall. The theatre, which shows Greek and Roman features, was built at the end of the 1st century BC and was expanded during the Roman Period. The relief of a shield and wreath on the west aditum maximus (entrance to the orchestra) suggests that the theatre may have been used for sports competitions or gladiator shows. The pancratiast Aelius Aurelius Menandros, a citizen of Aphrodisias, won the men’s pancration in the mid-2nd century AD in Prusias ad Hypium and many other cities in Bithynia (IAph 2007, 12.920), suggesting that the theatre was also used for boxing and wrestling.

Architectural elements and epigraphic evidence indicate that the theatre underwent a large-scale renovation in the 2nd century AD, with the stage building dating to the Hadrianic period. An architrave block mentions M. Iulius Proclus as the donator of the proscenium. Only one-third of the original c. 47,5 m long inscription is preserved, but M. Iulius Proclus is the same person mentioned on the base of a statue dedicated to Hadrian (I.Prusias 34). As a result, the stage building, too, has been dedicated to Hadrian (besides the Roman senate and people).

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The theatre of Prusias ad Hypium was elaborately decorated, and over the past four years of excavations, archaeologists have uncovered many architectural fragments with carved reliefs. In 2022, a marble block with a relief depicting the mythological story of Actaeon being devoured by his hunting dogs was unearthed in the theatre. The Actaeon block was discovered in the orchestra along with many other highly decorated architectural fragments, such as entablatures with tragedy and comedy masks, that were once part of the theatre stage structure. In 2023, archaeologists unearthed a lion mosaic in a rectangular room connected to the portico in the middle of the theatre axis. Finally, a well-preserved 2nd-century portrait head of Alexander the Great was discovered (see here).

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Hadrian may have visited other places in Bithynia, such as Apamea-Myrlea, Cius and Prusa ad Olympum (Bursa), as mentioned by Birley. Apamea was the patria of Lucius Catilius Severus (stuff. 110, cos. II 120), the man whom Hadrian appointed to replace him as governor of Syria after he acceded to the throne in Antioch so he could return to Rome (see here). Birley suggests that Severus could have sailed home to welcome Hadrian in person. Apamea, located on the eastern shore of the Sea of Marmara, also serving as a port, was the only Roman colony in all of Bithynia, thus named Colonia Iulia Concordia Apamea, established during the reign of Julius Caesar or Augustus. Apamea received the privileges of a free city, and provincial officials were not allowed to intervene in its affairs. However, Pliny visited Apamea and consulted Trajan to have the city’s accounts and expenditures audited (Plin. Ep. 10.47). Trajan insisted on the examination being conducted “without prejudice to their existing privileges” (Plin. Ep. 10.48).

Little is known today of the architecture of Apamea. However, the local council built a Balineum Hadrianum (small public bath) dedicated to the Emperor, Sabina and the Senate. An inscription dated 128/9 AD testifies to Hadrian’s donation –balineum Hadrianum pecunia publica dedicauit- (CIL III 6992).

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As well as the competition between Nicomedia and Nicaea for “first city” of their province, a conflict existed between Apamea and Prusa that lasted for many years. As its name suggests, Prusa was another city founded by King Prusias at the advice of Hannibal, who had sought refuge with the Bithynian king. The city was well-sited at the foot of Bithynian Mount Olympus (today’s Uludağ) and was famous for its hot baths that bore the name “royal waters” and were still appreciated in the Byzantine age. The Acropolis was a rocky plateau c. 600 m across, bounded by steep slopes on three sides and the fourth by the rising flank of the mountain. Walls further strengthened the natural defences of the Acropolis.

Pliny did much to embellish Prusa through the erection of new public buildings. Among these were the baths that he found “in a neglected and dilapidated state” and needed to be rebuilt to suit “the dignity of the city” (Plin. Ep. 10.23). In a letter to the city of Prusa (IK Prusa ad Olympum 4), Hadrian writes about a controversy over its hot springs. The dispute likely involved financial questions comparable to the difficulties Pliny dealt with (Boatwright, 2000). A bronze coin of the late Severan period minted in Prusa shows two water nymphs of the springs reclining in front of a building that may represent the façade of the thermal bath (RPC VI, 3027).

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One might also postulate a visit to Cius (later renamed Prusias ad Mare) on the very eastern tip of the gulf in the Propontis, called the Gulf of Cius. The city was colonised by Ionians from Miletus. It achieved size and importance through the trade routes it connected, particularly those leading eastward to the Sangarius and southeastward into Phrygia. The city was razed around 202 BC, along with Apamea, by Philip V of Macedon in the Second Macedonian War (200-197) before being rebuilt by Prusias I (Strabo 12.4.3). Inscriptions and coins show that Cius appointed a Bithyniarch (chief priest linked both to the imperial cult and to the koinon) who erected a statue of Hadrian and a temple (IK Kios 12) and named the city Hadriane (RPC III, 1050).

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A member of Hadrian’s entourage at the time was the famous sophist and teacher of rhetoric, Marcus Antonius Polemo of Smyrna, who mentions the next journey in his Physiognomica (preserved only in Arabic translation). Polemo wrote, “I once accompanied the greatest of emperors on his travels, and we set out from Thrace to Asia with soldiers and carriages escorting the emperor” (Birley, 1997). This passage fits Hadrian’s journey of AD 124 and suggests that before entering Asia, where his presence is well-documented, Hadrian crossed the Sea of Marmara to Thrace.

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References & sources:

• Birley A.R. (1997), Hadrian The Restless Emperor, London, Roman Imperial Biographies
• Boatwright, M.T. (2000), Hadrian and the Cities of the Roman Empire, Princeton
• Price, S. (1998), Rituals and Power. The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor, 2, Cambridge
• Marek, C. (2002), Die Phylen von Klaudiupolis, die Geschichte der Stadt und die Topographie Ostbithyniens’, Museum Helveticum 59: 31–50.
• Smith, R. (2018), Antinous: boy made god. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum.
• Vout, C. (2005), Antinous, Archaeology and History. The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol.95, 80-96.
• Robert, L. (1978), Documents d’Asie Mineure. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 102.1, 395–543.
• Robert, L. (1980), À travers l’Asie Mineure. Poètes et prosateurs, monnaies grecques, voyageurs et géographie (Paris).
• Mellink, M.J. (1979), Archaeology in Asia Minor, American Journal of Archaeology 83, no. 3: 331–344 [342]
• Adak, M., Akyürek Şahin, N.E. and Güneş, M.Y. (2008): ‘Neue Inschriften im Museum von Bolu (Bithynion/ Klaudiupolis)’. Gephyra 5, 73–120.
• Fernoux, H. (2004) Notables et élites des cités de Bithynie aux époques hellénistique et romaine (IIIe siècle av. J.-C. – IIIe siècle ap. J.-C.), Essai d’histoire social (Collection de la Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée 31, Serie Épigraphique et Historique 5), Paris.
• Chingyuan, Wu (2018), The Local Impact Of The Koinon In Roman Coastal Paphlagonia, Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 3204.
• Hervás, RG. (2018), Competing for the emperor: games and festivals in honour of Hadrian, ARYS. Antigüedad: Religiones y Sociedades, 177-205
• Fauconnier, B. (2023). In Athletes and Artists in the Roman Empire: The History and Organisation of the Ecumenical Synods (pp. iii–iii). title-page, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Emre Okan, Ahmet Bilir, Doğuş Çalışkan (2022). Ancient Theater of Prusias Ad Hypium: New Excavations, First Data. Höyük, (9), 33-66. doi:10.37879/hoyuk.2022.033

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