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Nicomedia (Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
: ????µ?de?a, modern Izmit
Izmit

Izmit is a city in Turkey, administrative center of Kocaeli Province as well as the Kocaeli Metropolitan municipality. It is located at the Gulf of Izmit in the Sea of Marmara, about east of Istanbul, on the northwestern part of Anatolia....
) was founded by Nicomedes I of Bithynia
Nicomedes I of Bithynia

Nicomedes I , List of Kings of Bithynia king of Bithynia, was the eldest son of Zipoites I of Bithynia, whom he succeeded on the throne in 278 BC....
 at the head of the Gulf of Astacus which opens to the Propontis. In earlier antiquity, the city was called Astacus
Astacus

Astacus is a genus of crayfish found in Europe and western Asia, comprising three species.Due to the American crayfish plague, crayfish of this genus have been almost wiped out in Europe and have in many European countries been replaced by the North American signal crayfish, which is more resistant to the plague....
 or Olbia
Olbia

Olbia , is a town of approximately 51,000 inhabitants in northeastern Sardinia , in the Gallura sub-region.Called Olbia in the Roman age, Civita in the Middle Ages and Terranova Pausania before the 1940s, Olbia was again the official name of the town after the period of Fascism....
 (founded 712 BC). After being destroyed, it was rebuilt by Nicomedes I in 264 BC under the name of Nicomedia, and has ever since been one of the most important cities in northwestern Asia Minor. Hannibal came to Nicomedia in his final years and committed suicide in nearby Libyssa (Diliskelesi, Gebze
Gebze

Gebze is an industrial city in Kocaeli Province, Turkey. Situated 30 miles east of Istanbul on the northern shore of the Sea of Marmara, it is the largest district of Kocaeli; Gebze has experienced rapid growth in recent years- from 159,116 in 1990, to 253,487 in 2000....
).






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Nicomedia (Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
: ????µ?de?a, modern Izmit
Izmit

Izmit is a city in Turkey, administrative center of Kocaeli Province as well as the Kocaeli Metropolitan municipality. It is located at the Gulf of Izmit in the Sea of Marmara, about east of Istanbul, on the northwestern part of Anatolia....
) was founded by Nicomedes I of Bithynia
Nicomedes I of Bithynia

Nicomedes I , List of Kings of Bithynia king of Bithynia, was the eldest son of Zipoites I of Bithynia, whom he succeeded on the throne in 278 BC....
 at the head of the Gulf of Astacus which opens to the Propontis. In earlier antiquity, the city was called Astacus
Astacus

Astacus is a genus of crayfish found in Europe and western Asia, comprising three species.Due to the American crayfish plague, crayfish of this genus have been almost wiped out in Europe and have in many European countries been replaced by the North American signal crayfish, which is more resistant to the plague....
 or Olbia
Olbia

Olbia , is a town of approximately 51,000 inhabitants in northeastern Sardinia , in the Gallura sub-region.Called Olbia in the Roman age, Civita in the Middle Ages and Terranova Pausania before the 1940s, Olbia was again the official name of the town after the period of Fascism....
 (founded 712 BC). After being destroyed, it was rebuilt by Nicomedes I in 264 BC under the name of Nicomedia, and has ever since been one of the most important cities in northwestern Asia Minor. Hannibal came to Nicomedia in his final years and committed suicide in nearby Libyssa (Diliskelesi, Gebze
Gebze

Gebze is an industrial city in Kocaeli Province, Turkey. Situated 30 miles east of Istanbul on the northern shore of the Sea of Marmara, it is the largest district of Kocaeli; Gebze has experienced rapid growth in recent years- from 159,116 in 1990, to 253,487 in 2000....
). The historian Arrian
Arrian

File:Flavius_Arrianus.jpgLucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon , known in English as Arrian , and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Ancient Rome historian , a public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the Roman and Byzantine Greece period....
 was born there. Nicomedia was the metropolis
Metropolis

A metropolis , also referred to as a metropolitan, is a big city, in most cases with over half a million inhabitants in the city proper, and with a population of at least one million living in its Agglomeration....
 of Bithynia
Bithynia

Bithynia was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor, adjoining the Propontis, the Thrace Bosporus and the Euxine ....
 under the Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, and Diocletian
Diocletian

Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus , born Diocles and commonly known as Diocletian , was Roman Emperor from November 20, 284 to May 1, 305....
 made it the eastern capital city of the Roman Empire in 286 when he introduced the Tetrarchy
Tetrarchy

Tetrarchy can be applied to any system of government where power is divided between four individuals. The term is usually used to refer to the tetrarchy instituted by Roman Emperor Diocletian in 293 which lasted until c. 313....
 system. Nicomedia remained as the eastern (and most senior) capital of the Roman Empire until co-emperor Licinius
Licinius

Valerius Licinianus Licinius was Roman emperor from 308 to 324.Of Dacian peasant origin, born in Moesia Superior, Licinius accompanied his close childhood friend, the Emperor Galerius, on the Persian expedition in 297....
 was defeated by Constantine the Great at the Battle of Chrysopolis
Battle of Chrysopolis

The Battle of Chrysopolis was fought on 18 September 324 in Chrysopolis , near Chalcedon , between the two Roman emperors Constantine I and Licinius....
 (Üsküdar
Üsküdar

?sk?dar is a large and densely populated district of Istanbul, on the Anatolian shore of the Bosphorus right opposite the heart of the great city, next to Kadik?y....
) in 324. Constantine mainly resided in Nicomedia as his interim capital city for the next six years, until in 330 he declared the nearby Byzantium
Byzantium

Byzantium was an Ancient Greece city, which was founded by Greeks colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas or Byzantas ....
 as Nova Roma
New Rome

The term "New Rome" has been used in the following contexts.* It was a common name applied to Constantinople, the city founded by Roman Emperor Constantine the Great in 324 ....
, which eventually became known as Constantinople
Constantinople

Constantinople was the empire capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire . Strategically located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe meets Asia, Byzantine Constantinople had been the capital of a Christendom empire, successor to ancient ancient Greece...
 (present-day Istanbul
Istanbul

Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey, List of metropolitan areas in Europe by population, and List of cities proper by population in the world with a population of 12.6 million....
). Constantine died in a royal villa at the vicinity of Nicomedia in 337. Owing to its position at the convergence of the Asiatic roads leading to the new capital, Nicomedia retained its importance even after the foundation of Constantinople.

However a major earthquake on 24 August, 358 caused devastation to Nicomedia and was followed by a fire which completed the catastrophe. Nicomedia was rebuilt, but on a smaller scale. In the sixth century under Emperor Justinian the city was extended with new public buildings.

Notable people

  • Michael Psellos
    Michael Psellos

    Michael Psellos or Psellus was a Byzantine writer, philosopher, politician, and historian. He was born in 1017 or 1018, and died some time after 1078....
     (11th century) Greek writer, philosopher, politician, and historian
  • St George
  • Adrian of Nicomedia
    Adrian of Nicomedia

    Saint Adrian or Hadrian of Nicomedia was a Herculians of the Roman Emperor Galerius Maximian. After becoming a convert to Christianity with his wife Natalia, Adrian and was martyred at Nicomedia on March 4, 306....


See also

  • Nicaea (present-day Iznik
    Iznik

    Iznik is a city in Turkey which is known primarily as the site of the First Council of Nicaea and Second Council of Nicaea Councils of Nicaea, the first and seventh Ecumenical councils in the early history of the Christianity church, the Nicene Creed, and as the capital city of the Empire of Nicaea....
    , another important city in Bithynia
    Bithynia

    Bithynia was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor, adjoining the Propontis, the Thrace Bosporus and the Euxine ....
    , and the interim Byzantine
    Byzantine Empire

    Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
     capital city between 1204 and 1261 (Empire of Nicaea
    Empire of Nicaea

    The Empire of Nicaea was the largest of the three Byzantine Greeks states founded by the aristocracy of the Byzantine Empire that fled after Constantinople was conquered during the Fourth Crusade....
    ) following the Fourth Crusade
    Fourth Crusade

    The Fourth Crusade was originally designed to conquer Islam Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, in April 1204, the Crusaders of Western Europe invaded and conquered the Christianity city of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire....
     in 1204, until the recapture of Constantinople
    Constantinople

    Constantinople was the empire capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire . Strategically located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe meets Asia, Byzantine Constantinople had been the capital of a Christendom empire, successor to ancient ancient Greece...
     by the Byzantines in 1261. Earlier, the site of the Nicene Creed
    Nicene Creed

    The Nicene Creed is the creed or profession of faith that is most widely used in Christianity liturgy. It is called Nicene because, in its original form, it was adopted in the city of Iznik by the first ecumenical council, which met there in 325....
     as well as the First Council of Nicaea
    First Council of Nicaea

    The First Council of Nicea was convened in Nicaea in Bithynia by the Roman Emperors Constantine I in 325 CE. The Council was historically significant as the first effort to attain consensus decision-making in the church through an legislature representing all of Christendom....
     and Second Council of Nicaea
    Second Council of Nicaea

    The Second Council of Nicaea was the seventh ecumenical council of Christianity , and the last to be accepted by both Eastern and Western churches....
    .)