Bithynia et Pontus

Location of the province, as a region marked in yellow

Roman provinces under Trajan (117 AD)

Bithynia et Pontus was a 64 BC BC furnished. Roman province in northwestern Asia Minor (modern Turkey). It arose from the union of the 74 BC. Bithynia province , the former kingdom of Bithynia , with parts of the kingdom of Pontus after the Roman victory over its king Mithridates VI. The law regulating the administration of the province, a lex Pompeia (after the Roman general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus ), followed in the winter of 63/62 BC. Chr.

The capital of the double province was the former Bithynian royal residence Nicomedia , which always had to defend its priority against the rival Nikaia . Under Vespasian , probably in the year 73, the date as "free and allied city" was (civitas libera et foederata) applicable Byzantium (Latinized Byzantium ) affiliated to the province.

Since the time of Augustus , Bithynia et Pontus was formally a province of the Roman people (incorrectly called " senatorial province "). In the first half of the 2nd century the province was under the administration of imperial legates several times , of which Pliny the Younger is the most famous. His correspondence with Trajan gives an insight into the conditions of the province at that time, but also into the nature of Pliny as governor. Since Antoninus Pius , at the latest from the year 159, Bithynia et Pontus was an imperial province in the long run .

During the provincial reform of Emperor Diocletian in 295, Bithynia et Pontus was divided into the provinces of Bithynia , Paphlagonia and Diospontus .

literature

Christian Marek : Pontus et Bithynia. The Roman provinces in northern Asia Minor . von Zabern, Mainz 2003, ISBN 3-8053-2925-3 ( Zabern's illustrated books on archeology / special volumes of the ancient world ).
Karl Strobel : Bithynia et Pontus. A. Roman time. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 2, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01472-X , Sp. 700-702.

supporting documents

↑ Louis Robert : La titulature de Nicée et de Nicomédie. La gloire et la haine. In: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology , 81, 1977, pp. 1-39.
↑ In 73 Byzantium was bound to Rome's province of Bithynia-Pontus.
^ Christian Marek: History of Asia Minor in antiquity. CH Beck 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-59853-1 , pp. 433-434.

41.5 33.26Coordinates: 42 ° N , 33 ° E

[1] Louis Robert : La titulature de Nicée et de Nicomédie. La gloire et la haine. In: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology , 81, 1977, pp. 1-39.

[2] In 73 Byzantium was bound to Rome's province of Bithynia-Pontus.

[3] Christian Marek: History of Asia Minor in antiquity. CH Beck 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-59853-1 , pp. 433-434.