Forging the Crown 23

Home , 277 BC, Apamea (Euphrates), Apamea (Phrygia), Bithynium, Cales (Bithynia), Chalcedon

The kingdom of Bithynia arose during the age 47 of Alexander and his successors, and, thanks to Centro Ricerche e Documentazione sull’Antichità Classica MONOGRAFIE its ambitious and charismatic kings, became the C.E.R.D.A.C. dominant power in the Propontic area within a few decades. This book explores its emergence through Monografie 47 an in-depth analysis of the surviving sources in order to reassess its role in the Hellenistic political 1. Piana Agostinetti P., Documenti per la protostoria della 28. Galimberti A., Adriano e l’ideologia del principato. landscape. Val d’Ossola S. Bernardo di Ornavasso e le altre necropoli 29. Bearzot C., Vivere da democratici. Studi su Lisia e la preromane. democrazia ateniese. 2. Ianovitz O., Il culto solare nella «X Regio Augustea». 30. Carsana C.-Schettino M.T. (a cura di), Utopia e Utopie 3. Letta C., I Marsi e il Fucino nell’antichità. nel pensiero storico antico. 4. Cebeillac M., Les «quaestores principis et candidati» aux Ier 31. Rohr Vio F., Publio Ventidio Basso. Fautor Caesaris, tra et IIeme siècle de l’empire. storia e memoria. 5. Poggio T., Ceramica e vernice nera di Spina: le oinochoi 32. Lo Cascio E., Crescita e declino. Studi di storia dell’eco- ELOISA PAGANONI was awarded her doctorate trilobate. nomia romana. from the University of Padua in 2017 and is 6. Gambetti C., I coperchi di urne con figurazioni femminili nel 33. Migliario E.-Troiani L.-Zecchini G. (a cura di), So- Museo Archeologico di Volterra. cietà indigene e cultura greco-romana. Atti del Convegno currently a post-doctoral fellow at Ca’ Foscari 7. Letta C.-D’Amato S., Epigrafia della regione dei Marsi. Internazionale Trento, 7-8 giugno 2007. University of Venice. Her research interests focus 8. Zecchini G., Aezio: l’ultima difesa dell’Occidente Romano. 34. Zecchini G., Ricerche di storiografia latina tardoantica II. on the history of Hellenistic Asia Minor, Greek 9. Gillis D., Eros and Death in the Aeneid. Dall’Historia Augusta a Paolo Diacono. epigraphy, and local historiography. She has 10. Gallotta B., Germanico. 35. Raimondi M., Imerio e il suo tempo. published several articles on these topics. 11. Traina G., Paludi e Bonifiche nel mondo antico. Saggio di 36. Cristofoli R.-Galimberti A.-Rohr Vio F. (a cura di), archeologia geografica. Lo spazio del non-allineamento a Roma fra tarda Repubbli- 12. Rocchi G.D., Frontiera e confini nella Grecia Antica. ca e primo principato. 13. Levi M.A., I Nomadi alla frontiera. 37. Zecchini G. (a cura di), L’Augusteum di Narona. 14. Zecchini G., Ricerche di storiografia latina tardoantica. 38. Hölkeskamp K.-J., Modelli per una Repubblica. 15. Agostinetti A.S., Flavio Arriano. Gli eventi dopo Alessandro. 39. Bearzot C. Landucci F. (a cura di), Alexader’s Legacy. 16. Levi M.A., Adriano Augusto. 40. Bianchi E., 17. Levi M.A., Ercole e Roma. Vulci. Storia della città e dei suoi rapporti con 18. Landucci Gattinoni F., Duride di Samo. Greci e Romani. 19. AA.VV., L’Ecumenismo politico nella coscienza dell’Occi- 41. Cristofoli R.-Galimberti A.-Rohr Vio F. (a cura di), dente. Alle radici della casa comune europea. Costruire la Memoria. Uso e abuso della storia fra tarda 20. AA.VV., L’ultimo Cesare. Scritti riforme progetti poteri repubblica e primo principato. congiure. 42. Pellizzari A., Maestro di retorica, maestro di vita: le lettere 21. AA.VV., Identità e valori. Fattori di aggregazione e fattori teodosiane di Libanio di Antiochia. di crisi nell’esperienza politica antica. 43. Casella M., Galerio. Il tetrarca infine tollerante. 22. AA.VV., Integrazione mescolanza rifiuto. Incontri di popoli, 44. Schettino M.T. - Zecchini G. (a cura di), L’età di Silla. lingue e culture in Europa dall’Antichità all’Umanesimo. Atti del Convegno “Istituto italiano per la storia antica” - FORGING THE CROWN 23. AA.VV., Modelli eroici dall’antichità alla cultura europea. Roma, 23-24 marzo 2017. 24. AA.VV., La cultura storica nei primi due secoli dell’Impero 45. Schettino M.T., Prospettive interculturali e confronto poli- Romano. tico da Augusto ai Severi. A HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF BITHYNIA 25. Prandi L., Memorie storiche dei Greci in Claudio Eliano. 46. Prandi L. (a cura di), EstOvest. Confini e conflitti tra

26. Chausson F., Stemmata aurea: Constantin, Justine, Théodose. Vicino Oriente e mondo Greco-Romano. 27. Colonnese C., Le scelte di Plutarco. Le vite non scritte di 47. Paganoni E., Forging the Crown. A history of the Kingdom FROM ITS ORIGIN TO PRUSIAS I greci illustri. of Bithynia from its origin to Prusias I.

Eloisa Paganoni

E. PAGANONI - FORGING THE CROWN ISBN 978-88-913-1895-4

On the Front cover: Statuette of satyr from Nicomedia, 2nd century B.C. Eloisa Paganoni Eloisa Paganoni di BRETSCHNEIDER «L’ERMA» FORGING THE CROWN A HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM BITHYNIA FROM ITS ORIGIN TO PRUSIAS I «L’ERMA» di BRETSCHNEIDER Archaeological Museum of Istanbul, inventory 5985.

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CENTRO RICERCHE E DOCUMENTAZIONE SULL’ANTICHITÀ CLASSICA MONOGRAFIE

47 ELOISA PAGANONI

Forging the Crown

A History of the Kingdom of Bithynia from its Origin to Prusias I

«L’ERMA» di BRETSCHNEIDER Roma - Bristol ELOISA PAGANONI Forging the Crown A History of the Kingdom of Bithynia from its Origin to Prusias I

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1. Ancient History

This Volume has been made possible with the Contribution of the Dipartimento di Culture e Civiltà dell’Università degli Studi di Verona TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface ...... VII

Introduction ...... IX

CHAPTER ONE. BITHYNIA BEFORE THE KINGDOM OF BITHYNIA ...... 1 1. The Origin of the Bithynians ...... 1 2. Bithynia and the Bithynians in the Archaic and Classical Ages . 10

CHAPTER TWO. THE BIRTH OF A NEW KINGDOM. BITHYNIA IN THE AGE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND THE DIADOCHS (334-280 BC) ...... 23 1. The Turning-Point. Bas and Zipoites in the Late 4th Centu- ry BC ...... 23 2. Troubled Years 301-280 BC. Zipoites’ Politics between Ex- pansion and Defence ...... 29 3. Zipoites: from Ruler to King ...... 37 4. Independence ...... 43

CHAPTER THREE. BUILDING THE HEGEMONY. THE KINGDOM OF BITHYNIA UNDER NICOMEDES I AND ZIAELAS (279-229 BC) ...... 45 1. 279-277 BC Nicomedes I’s Wars ...... 45 2. Fragments of Nicomedes I’s Politics ...... 58 3. International Recognition ...... 68 4. The Traditional Portrayal of Nicomedes I, Hellenisation and Peer Polity Interaction ...... 70 5. From Nicomedes I to Ziaelas ...... 76 6. Ziaelas in His Father’s Footsteps ...... 81 7. An Appraisal of the Reigns of Nicomedes I and Ziaelas ...... 95

CHAPTER FOUR. BITHYNIA AND THE RISE OF ROME IN THE EAST (229-182 BC) ...... 97 1. The Early Years of Prusias I ...... 97 2. Great Expansion in a Changing World. Prusias I’s Politics in the Turn of the 2nd Century BC ...... 110 3. Prusias I’s Last Years. Deescalation to West and Escalation to East ...... 129 4. Prusias I’s Politics between Economy and Propaganda, Hel- lenising and National Claims ...... 140 5. A Final Assessment of Prusias I ...... 148

Conclusion ...... 151

Appendix. Epigraphic Evidence ...... 157

Abbreviations ...... 191

Bibliography ...... 195

Kings of Bithynia ...... 239

Tables ...... 241

Index ...... 251 PREFACE

This work originates from my PhD dissertation Bithynia. Politics of a Hellenistic Kingdom, which I submitted to the University of Padua in March 2017. I owe a debt of gratitude to many people, fi rst of all, to my supervisors, Luisa Prandi and Thomas Corsten, for their generous advice, constant encouragement and endless patience. Words cannot express my gratitude to Franca Landucci, who initiated me into Hellenistic history and drew my attention to the kingdom of Bithynia. She has carefully followed my work during these years, providing me with insights and thought-provoking suggestions. My research has benefi tted from feedback from many scholars who commented on individual parts of this work. I am particularly indebted to Domitilla Campanile, Andrew Meadows, Federicomaria Muccioli, Christof Schuler, Giuseppe Squillace, and Peter Thonemann. Michael Wörrle disclosed to me the meaning of a mysterious abbreviation. Marco Bonechi suggested many good readings to me, one of which was fundamental to this work. Raffaela G. Rizzo helped me with designing the maps. Thomas R.P. Coward kindly proofread the English for me. My warmest thanks to all of them. Any mistakes that remain are my own. I thank several institutions for their support in making this work possible. The University of Padua awarded me a three-year PhD fellowship, which also funded my stays in Vienna (2014-2016) and Oxford (spring 2016). The Jacobi Fellowship from the Deutsches Archäologisches Insti- tut allowed me to spend some fruitful weeks at the Kommission für Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik in Munich in summer 2016. I prepared and revised the manuscript for publication while I was a research fellow at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. In the fi nal stages of revision I benefi tted from a fellowship of the Istituto Italiano per la Storia Antica. My parents, Angelo and Margherita, have always supported and en- couraged me. This book is dedicated to them.

INTRODUCTION

The dominant view reduces the Hellenistic world to the realms of the Antigonids, Seleucids, Ptolemies and Attalids. A cursory look at the main reference works, encyclopaedias, handbooks and companions confi rms this perception. Among the countless contributions, three works can serve as an example. In the second edition of the Cambridge Ancient History, the seventh (divided into two parts), eighth and ninth volumes deal with the Hellenistic centuries1. The fi rst part of the seventh volume has the illustrative subtitle The Hellenistic World and its chapters on the historical account focus on the establishment of the kingdoms of the Diadochs. The second part and the eighth volume are entitled The Rise of Rome to 220 BC and Rome and the Mediterranean to 133 BC respectively. Their titles reveal that the history of the Greek world in the 2nd-1st centuries BC is conceived as the history of the rise of Rome in the East. It follows that the historical narrative pivots on Rome, its enemies (Philip V, Perseus, and Antiochus III) and its friends (the Attalids). This approach is confi rmed by the ninth volume on The Last Age of the Roman Republic 146-43 BC. The narrative of the history of the Hellenistic East is limited to a chapter of roughly thirty-pages (from a volume of more than nine hundred pages), which deals with the wars against Mithridates VI, the last enemy of Rome in the East. The 2003 A Companion to the Hellenistic World introduces the reader to many aspects of the Hellenistic period2. The second section entitled Pro- tagonists is composed of four chapters on The Ptolemies and Egypt, The Seleukids and Asia, Macedon and the Mainland, 280-221, and The Attalids of Pergamon. In 2017 the second edition of Le monde hellénistique appeared3. It in- cludes chapters on the rise of the Hellenistic kingdoms down to 276 BC, Egypt in the 3rd-1st century BC, the Seleucid empire in the 3rd century BC,

1 CAH2 VII.1 and 2; VIII; IX. 2 ERSKINE 2003. 3 GRANDJEAN et. al. 2008, 2nd ed. 2017. X ELOISA PAGANONI

Macedonia until the end of the Antigonids, followed by two chapters on the Eastern Mediterranean and Greece in the later Hellenistic era. Like the two aforementioned works, the 2017 handbook ‘selects’ the protagonists of the Hellenistic age according to the ‘traditional’ approach. Furthermore, as far as we can see from the table of contents, the kingdoms ‘disappear’ from the account when they enter the sphere of Roman inﬂ uence. The chapters about the second half of the Hellenistic age, indeed, are devoted to Greece, the East, and the Ptolemies, the last dynasty to capitulate to Rome. The reader has the overall impression that the Hellenistic era was, broadly speaking, the ‘age of the kingdoms’, and that this era came to an end when Rome entered the East. This idea is not new in scholarship. Johann Gustav Droysen, the father of Hellenism, planned to describe the history of the Eastern Mediterra- nean from Alexander’s to Cleopatra’s death. But in fact he concluded his Geschichte des Hellenismus with the account of the Greek and Asiatic situation in the 220s, that is, before the arrival of Rome4. In the historical account at the beginning of The Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World, Michail Rostovtzeff called this ‘age of the kingdoms’ the ‘Hellenistic balance’, in contrast with the following decades between the 220s and the 130s BC, when, he thought, the ‘decay of the Hellenistic monarchies’ took place5. The picture of the Hellenistic world is deeply affected by Rome. Its entrance in the East is considered a turning-point. Afterwards, the history of the Hellenistic world is presented as a step of Roman imperialism. The years between the age of Alexander and the coming of Rome are reduced to a mere preamble to Rome’s conquest of the East. The account of them focuses on the Macedonian monarchies and the Attalids, in other words, those kingdoms that were the most involved in the rise of Rome in the East. Modern scholars are not solely responsible for this situation. Due to the loss of nearly all of Greek local and general Hellenistic historiography, they mostly depend on the Histories of Polybius, the Historical Library of Dio- dorus of Sicily, the Ab urbe condita of Livy, the Roman History of Appian and Justin’s summary of the Philippic Histories of Trogus. In what survives of the ﬁ rst four works, the narrative on the Hellenistic centuries coincides with the account of Roman imperialism. As a consequence, it focuses on the Hellenistic kingdoms (Macedonia, Syria, Egypt and Pergamum) that were in contact with Rome, and information is limited on Rome’s relations with

4 DROYSEN 1952-1953. Cf. MARI 2019, p. 18. 5 ROSTOVTZEFF 1941, pp. 24-73. INTRODUCTION XI them. Nearly nothing is said about the Eastern situation; the inter-state relations between the kingdoms and with other Hellenistic entities are com- pletely overlooked unless they concern Rome. The universal history of Tro- gus has been defi ned as ‘una storia «non romana» e, se non proprio contro Roma, almeno senza Roma’6. The unique perspective of this work, however, cannot remove the fact that only a summary of Justin survives. It often offers a viewpoint different to events told in other sources and testifi es to episodes otherwise unknown. On the other hand, Justin’s information turns out to be unreliable in some cases. When trustworthy, it is sometimes diffi cult to contextualise within the historical frame the Roman focused sources depict. In fact, the history of the Hellenistic realities between the age of the Diadochs and the oncoming of Rome in the East is barely known to us.

This contributes to the bi-dimensional, simpliﬁ ed, and incomplete view of the Hellenistic world still in vouge. It allows little room for the other protagonists of that world, which are generally called with the diminishing designation of ‘minor kingdoms’ in contrast to the monarchies ruled by Macedonian dynasties, Macedonia, Syria and Egypt7. Nonetheless, from the 1980s onwards, scholarship has taken a fresh interest in these kingdoms, testiﬁ ed by a growing number of monographs on Pontus, Cappado- cia, Galatia, Commagene, Armenia, Parthia, and Bactria8. With regard to the kingdom of Bithynia, recent contributions include the monographs by Henri-Louis Fernoux and Christoph Michels9. These works provide fresh insights on the society of Hellenistic Bithynia and the cultural politics of its kings respectively. The historical account, which informs the background of their studies, dates back to some decades ago, though. It was elaborated in a long season of studies that began in the late 19th century. In 1861 Karl A. E. Nolte presented the dissertation De rebus gestis regum Bithynorum usque ad Prusiae I mortem10. A few years later Theodor Reinach devoted two essays on the history and coinage of the kingdom of Bithynia11. In 1925 Jo- hann Sölch published the paper Bithynische Städte im Altertum12. In 1953

6 SANTI AMANTINI 1981, p. 26. 7 Cf. GABELKO 2017, pp. 319-321. 8 SCHOTTKY 1989; STROBEL 1996; LERNER 1999; ARSLAN 2004; PRIMO 2004; FACELLA 2006; COLOROU 2009; PANICHI 2018. 9 FERNOUX 2004; MICHELS 2009. 10 NOLTE 1861. 11 REINACH 1888; REINACH 1902. 12 SÖLCH 1925. XII ELOISA PAGANONI

Giovanni Vitucci wrote the fi rst monograph on the Bithynian kingdom with the title Il regno di Bitinia13. It was the only volume on Hellenistic Bithynia for decades. Notwithstanding, it never became a reference work. This purpose was fulfi lled by the entries about Bithynia and the Bithynian kings, which appeared in the Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertum- swissenschaft between the 1890s and 1970s14. In 2005, fi fty-two years after Vitucci’s work, Oleg Gabelko presented the monumental monograph NСтОрия ВиϕинСKОго царСтва, an updated history of the kingdom of Bithynia15. Regrettably, it has remained unknown to non-Russian speaking scholarship. Nearly no European or American scholar mentions it, and it is diffi cult to fi nd a copy in Western libraries. In fact, the current inter- pretation of the politics of the kingdom of Bithynia is based on contributions published in the 1970s. They show the faults of the traditional storia evenemenziale, among which the little effort to contextualise events. This traditional approach conceived the history of a political entity just as a se- quence of events. Its politics were not interpreted in light of the wider historical context, and they did not contribute to the defi nition of this context.

Despite recent progress, an easily accessible and updated study on the history of Hellenistic Bithynia is still lacking. This book aims to contribute to ﬁ lling this gap through a reassessment of the emergence of the Bithyni- an kingdom in the Hellenistic world. It is a political history of Bithynia in the ‘age of the kingdoms’. It points out the conditions that allowed the rise of the kingdom and investigates the agency of the kings, who ruled before Bithynia entered Rome’s sphere of interest, Zipoites, Nicomedes I, Ziaelas and Prusias I. This work explores their domestic and foreign policies, as far as can be ascertained from the sources, in order to determine the role of the kingdom of Bithynia in the Hellenistic world. Outlining the rise and consolidation of this kingdom involves reassessing the history of the whole of northern Asia Minor in the ﬁ rst decades of the Hellenistic era. It reconsiders the history of this region taking Bithynia as the focus of the historical analysis. The investigation of Bithynian politics reveals the contact networks of powers involved in this region. In this way, it contributes to the understanding of the interests that shaped the history of this area. Although the evidence from the 3rd-early 2nd century BC is scanty, the

13 VITUCCI 1953. 14 MEYER 1897; GEYER 1936; GEYER 1936a; GEYER 1936b; GEYER 1936c; HABICHT 1957; HABICHT 1957a; HABICHT 1972; HABICHT 1972c. 15 GABELKO 2005. INTRODUCTION XIII state of sources about the kingdom of Bithynia is appreciably different from others. To outline the role of Bithynia in the ‘age of the kingdoms’, we can rely not only on sources mentioned above but also on Memnon’s On Hera- clea. What survives of this work is a long summary of Books IX-XVI, that constitutes Codex 224 of Photius’ Bibliotheca. It is a detailed account of the history of the Propontic area from the 4th to the 1st centuries BC. It provides a decisive contribution to the understanding of the history of the kingdom of Bithynia, especially in its earliest decades. Here and there, it is affected by the consequences of works which are preserved as a summary. Photius’ narrative is in some cases unclear or imprecise. Some episodes for which it is the only testimony are difﬁ cult to contextualize. However, scholars agree that the historical information that Photius preserves is reliable16. The wealth of information and the local perspective of the summary of Memnon’s work, which also provides a glimpse into domestic events, is a source of regret for the loss of local literary production on Bithynia. It should have been remarkable, judging from the number of the authors who are known to have devoted a work to this region or one of its cities. Two fragments sur- vive from the On Nicaea by a certain Menecrates, who is often identiﬁ ed with the 2nd-century-BC Menecrates of Tralles17. Demosthenes of Bithynia, who is supposed to have lived in the Hellenistic age, wrote the Bithyniaka, an epic poem in at least ten books18. In the second half of the 2nd century BC, Nicander of Chalcedon composed the Misadventures of Prusias, a satiric work on Pru- sias II19. The works of Asclepiades of Myrlea, active in the 2nd-1st century BC included a Bithyniaka in at least ten books20. Alexander Polyhistor wrote an On Bithynia21. The obscure Artemidorus of Ascalon was the author of an On Bithynia of which nothing is extant but the title22. Arrian of Nicomedia wrote his Bithyniaka in ten books recounting the history of his country from the origin to the end of the kingdom23. A few fragments of these works are extant and most of them concern geographical and mythological information. However,

16 YARROW 2006, pp. 109-110; PAGANONI 2015, pp. 61-62. On Photius, see HÄGG 1973; HÄGG 1975; SCHAMP 1987; WILSON 1992; BEVEGNI 1996. On Memnon and his work, see JANKE 1963; DESIDERI 1967; DE- SIDERI 1970-1971; DUECK 2006; YARROW 2006, passim; ARSLAN 2011; HEINEMANN 2010; Billows, Nymphis BNJ 432, Biographical Essay; DAVAZE 2013; TOBER 2013, pp. 387-414; GALLOTTA 2014; PAGANONI 2015. 17 Trachsel, Menekrates, BNJ 701. 18 Trachsel, Demosthenes, BNJ 699. 19 Trachsel, Nikandros, BNJ 700. 20 Trachsel, Asklepiades, BNJ 697. 21 Blakely, Alexandros Polyhistor, BNJ 273 FF 12-13, 125 with Commentary and Biographical Essay. 22 Trachsel, Artemidoros BNJ 698. 23 Jacoby, FGrHist 156, FF 14-29, 57-109 with Commentary; STADTER 1980, pp. 152-161; DANA – DANA 2014, pp. 27-32. XIV ELOISA PAGANONI they attest to the existence of a thriving local tradition, that was probably in part produced at the Bithynian court24. The research on some aspects about Hellenistic Bithynia, such as international relations and cultural and economic politics, benefi ts from numismatic and epigraphic evidence as well as from literary sources25. The coinage of the Bithynian kingdom has raised the attention of scholars since the time of Theodor Reinach. The achievements of decades of studies have been recently concentrated in the handbook on the coinage of northern Anatolia by Oliver D. Hoover, which is now the standard reference work26. The documents from Bithynia are collected in the catalogues of inscriptions from Cius/Prusias ad Mare, Prusa ad Olympum, Bithynium, Myrlea/Apamea, Pylai, Cierus/Pru- sias ad Hypium and Nicaea of the series Inschriften griechischer Städte aus Kleinasien27. The absence of a volume about Nicomedia is remarkable. For this city the only reference remains the fi rst part of the fourth volume of the Tituli Asiae Minoris28. Other inscriptions relevant to this research are published in other corpora. It is therefore diffi cult to acquire an overall overview of this evidence, its value and the matters it raises. For this reason, I collect it in an appendix. It intends to be a useful tool for the reader looking for texts and translations as well as an update of the scholarship about each document. It reassesses the main matters and provides a proper space for issues that would be relegated to a footnote in the historical account.

NOTE

Translations from Greek and Latin are my own.

Personal and place names have been Latinized (e.g. Byzantium, Nicaea instead of Byzantion, Nikaia) except for unfamiliar names or names usually quoted in the Greek form (e.g. Tios). Words, such as institutions, epithets, and special designa- tions, are transliterated (e.g. boulē).

24 PAGANONI 2016 with further literature on the authors of these works. 25 Archaeologic sources too could offer a valuable contribution to the historical investigation, but no extensive excavations, bringing to the light the Hellenistic layers, have been so far conducted in the Pro- pontis. 26 HOOVER 2012, pp. 206-226. 27 IK Kios; IK Prusa ad Olympum; IK Klaudiu Polis; IK Apameia und Pylai; IK Prusias ad Hypium; IK Nikaia. MAREK – ADAK 2016 collect the inscriptions from Bithynia that have been found after the publication of these corpora. Unforunately, they do not provide new evidence for the history of the kingdom of Bithynia. 28 TAM IV, 1. See also DÖRNER 1941; DÖRNER 1952; ROBERT 1980. CHAPTER ONE

BITHYNIA BEFORE THE KINGDOM OF BITHYNIA

1. THE ORIGIN OF THE BITHYNIANS

Ancient sources often call the Bithynians Θρήικες οἱ ἐν τῇ Ἀσίῃ1, Βιθυνοὶ Θρᾷκες2, Θρᾷκες Βιθυνοί3, Θρᾷκες οἱ περὶ Βιθυνίαν4 or Θρᾷκες οἱ Βιθυνοί5 and their region – broadly corresponding to the Propontic peninsula – Βιθυνὶς Θρᾴκη6, Θρᾴκη ἡ ἐν τῇ Ἀσίᾳ7, Asiae Bithynia8 or Thracium Bosphorum9. These names refer to the Thracian ethnicity of the Bithynians, which is confi rmed by onomastics and archaeological evidence10. Literary sources explain that they were among the Thracian tribes that passed from Europe to Asia in remote time. The information is fragmentary, occasion- ally unclear and sometimes not trustworthy, as usual for distant events, but it produces a suffi ciently detailed account of the peopling of the Propontic peninsula. Herodotus fi rst relates the migration of the Thracians:

the Thracians... who crossed over to Asia were called Bithynians. Formerly, they were called Strymonians – as they themselves say – since they lived by the Strymon11.

1 Hdt. VII, 75. 2 Thuc. IV, 75, 2. 3 Xen. An. VI, 4, 2; Ps. Scylax 92. 4 Diod. XIV, 38, 3. 5 Arr. An. I, 29, 5. In his account of the arrival of the Bithynians in the Propontis, Appian (Mithr. 1) uses the words τὴν Θρᾳκῶν τῶν Βιθυνῶν to describe a region near to Byzantium (therefore in Europe). For the whole passage, see below in this chapter. 6 Xen. Hell. III, 2, 1. 7 Xen. An. VI, 4, 1; cf. 2, 17, where the Asiatic coast of the Propontis is referred to as τῆς Θρᾴκης. 8 Sall. Hist. III, 50. 9 Mela I, 14. 10 About onomastics and toponymy, see DURIDANOV 1980; CORSTEN 2007; MICHELS 2009, pp. 12-13 n. 5. ÖZLEM-AYTAÇLAR 2010; AVRAM 2013; OnomThrac, pp. LXXIX-LXXXII. About archaeological sources, see below p. 6 n. 42. 11 Hdt. VII, 75: Θρήικες... δὲ διαβάντες μὲν ἐς τὴν Ἀσίην ἐκλήθησαν Βιθυνοί, τὸ δὲ πρότερον ἐκαλέοντο, ὡς αὐτοὶ λέγουσι, Στρυμόνιοι, οἰκέοντες ἐπὶ Στρυμόνι. 2 ELOISA PAGANONI

Herodotus focuses on the name change of the Thracians who moved to Asia, identifi ed here with the Bithynians only. In doing so he locates the region they inhabited in Europe. It was the area along the Strymon, today’s Stryma, which has its source in the Vitosha Mountains and fl ows into the Aegean Sea near Amphipolis12. Elsewhere, Herodotus13 lists the Thracians among the peoples subject to Croesus, and what seems a gloss14 clarifi es that they were Thynians and Bithynians. In this case, the Bithynians are associated with another Thra- cian tribe, similar by name, which supposedly passed into Asia with them. In this regard Strabo is explicit. In Book VII, he records both the Bithyni- ans and the Thynians among the Thracian tribes migrating to Asia15, and in Book XII, he says:

It is commonly accepted that the Bithynians, who formerly were Mysians, changed their name after the Thracians, the Bithynians and Thynians, who settled in the region16.

As with these passages, sources often couple the Thynians with the Bithynians17. The assonance of their name created some confusion already in ancient times18, but actually they were two distinct tribes that inhabited different areas in Europe. The Bithynians, as we have seen, lived in the Strymon valley, while the Thynians occupied the south-eastern Thrace, bordering the Black Sea19. Most of them were still living there in the Clas- sical and Hellenistic periods. This suggests that just a few of them passed to Asia. The same conclusion cannot be drawn conﬁ dently for the Bithyni-

12 For the identiﬁ cation of the European land of the Bithynians with the Strymon’s valley, see also Jacoby, FGrHist 156, F 77a (deriving from Herodotus); Eus. II, 66-67 Schoene. Cf. Pliny (NH V, 142-143), who says that Asiam Bithyniamque... ea appellata est Cronia, dein Thessalis, dein Malianda et Strymonis (‘Asia Bithynia... was called Cronia, then Thessalis, then Malianda and Strymonis’). 13 Hdt. I, 28. 14 MACAN 1908, p. 99 n. 75. 15 Strabo VII, 3, 2. 16 Strabo XII, 3, 3: οἱ μὲν οὖν Βιθυνοὶ διότι πρότερον Μυσοὶ ὄντες μετωνομάσθησαν οὕτως ἀπὸ τῶν Θρᾳκῶν τῶν ἐποικησάντων, Βιθυνῶν τε καὶ Θυνῶν, ὁμολογεῖται παρὰ τῶν πλείστων. 17 Jacoby, FGrHist 156, F 77a; Eust. De capta Thess. p. 30 l. 26; Porphyr. Quaest. homericarum ad Il. XIII, 3, 5. 18 Pliny (NH V, 145) says that the Bithynians were the Thynians who changed name after crossing over to Asia and also HANNESTAD 1996, p. 68 thinks so. 19 On the Thynians, see MEYER 1897, col. 513; LENK 1936; FOL [– MARAZOV] 1977, pp. 141-142; LENDLE 1995, pp. 431-433; MIHAILOV 1991, pp. 604-605; STRONK 1995, pp. 185-186; MÜLLER 1997, p. 959; VON BREDOW 2002; WEBBER 2011, pp. 203-204. About the Thynias region near Salmydessus, see OBERHUMMER 1936; MÜLLER 1997, pp. 922-924; VON BREDOW 2002b. BITHYNIA BEFORE THE KINGDOM OF BITHYNIA 3 ans, as their presence in Europe in the historical time is too scarcely at- tested20. The Bithynians and Thynians came from different areas of Thrace and continued to live separately when they settled in Asia. Fragment 77a of Arrian, probably from Book I of the Bithyniaka for content21, records the migration of the Thracians into Asia and describes the land the Thynians and Bithynians inhabited:

It is also said that at that time the Bithynians occupied the region from the Bos- porus to the Rhebas. The Thynians inhabited the mountainous region bordering on the Pontus as far as the river Cales, as the Thynians and the Bithynians were neighbouring peoples22.

It is clear from the reference to ‘that time’ that Arrian is dealing with the situation in a distant past, probably close to the arrival of the Thynians and the Bithynians in Anatolia. According to him, the territory of the Thynians extended as far as the river Cales, the current Alaplı Çayı, which fl ows into the sea a few kilometres south-west of the promontory of Heraclea Pontica23. The Bithynians inhabited the area between the Bosporus and the river Rhebas, that was – Arrian said above – a tributary of the river Sangarius. It corresponds to the modern Gökçe Suyu, that fl ows south of Askania Lake24. The rivers Cales and Rhebas constituted the southern bor- ders of the Thynians and the Bithynians who inhabited the eastern and the western Propontic peninsula respectively, as confi rmed by other sources. Toponymy suggests the presence of the Thynians on the shores bordering

20 According to the edition of MEINEKE 1877, Strabo XII, 3, 3 says: καὶ σημεῖα τίθενται τοῦ μὲν τῶν Βιθυνῶν ἔθνους τὸ μέχρι νῦν ἐν τῇ Θρᾴκῃ λέγεσθαί τινας Βιθυνούς (‘[As for the migration of the Bithyni- ans] they present as evidence of the Bithynians that in Thrace some people are still called Bithynians’). In his edition, LASSERRE 1981 ad loc. prefers the alternative reading handed down by the manuscript tradition: καὶ σημεῖα τίθενται τοῦ μὲν τῶν Βιθυνῶν ἔθνους τὸ μέχρι νῦν ἐν τῇ Θρᾴκῃ λέγεσθαί τινας Μαιδοβιθυνούς (‘they present as evidence of the Bithynians that in Thrace some people are still called Maidobithynians’). It is risky to turn this passage into the only evidence of the presence of the Bithynians in Europe in historical times, most of all in the light of the alternative reading that refers to the Maidobithyoi. They are generally identifi ed with the Maidoi, who are attested by other sources. About them, see LENK 1928; DANOV 1972, p. 185 n. 1; VON BREDOW 1999; BORA 2017. 21 Cf. PAGANONI forth. 22 Jacoby, FGrHist 156, F 77a: Λέγεται δὲ καὶ ὅτι τὴν ἀπὸ Βοσπόρου γῆν ἕως ἐπὶ Ρήβαντα Βιθυνοί ποτε κατέσχον. Τὴν δὲ αὐτοῦ ἐπέκεινα ἐπὶ Πόντον ὀρεινὴν οἱ Θυνοὶ ἔσχον ἄχρι ποταμοῦ Κάλητος, ὡς εἶναι ὁμόρους τούς τε Θυνοὺς καὶ τοὺς Βιθυνούς. 23 ŞAHIN 1986, p. 146; STROBEL 1996, pp. 193-194; TALBERT 2000, Map 52, E-G 2. 24 DÖRNER 1964, col. 909; ŞAHIN 1986, pp. 144-147; STROBEL 1996, p. 192 n. 149; ROELENS-FLOUNEAU 2018, p. 297. About the homonymous river Rhebas fl owing through the northern Propontic peninsula, corresponding to the modern Riva Deresi, see ŞAHIN 1986, pp. 144-147; STROBEL 1996, p. 192 n. 149. 4 ELOISA PAGANONI the Black Sea: about thirty-fi ve kilometres north-west of the Sangarius’ mouth, there was the island of Thynias25. As for the Bithynians, Arrian’s information fi ts with what is known about their spread in the Hellenistic and Imperial times when they are attested in the today’s Yalova peninsula between the Astacenean Gulf and the area of Cius and Myrlea26. Only Arrian and a few other authors27 set a clear distinction, at least for what concerns geography, between the Bithynians and Thynians. Most sources just speak of ‘Bithynians’ and ‘Bithynia’ in regard to the inhabitants of the Propontic peninsula and the region they occupied. Ar- rian himself does so in his Anabasis, where he describes the Propontic area at the time of Alexander28. Moreover, literary evidence testifi es to the presence of the Bithynians in the area originally occupied by the Thynians. According to Xenophon29, the Bithynians were settled on the eastern Propontic shores and according to Mela30, the island of Thynias was inhabited by the Bithynians. Pliny says that Bithyniae Thynias had got to be called Bithynia31. Again, there is nearly no historical information about the Thynians of Asia. These elements invite us to con- clude that the Thynians assimilated themselves to the Bithynians32. This process was presumably facilitated by the ethnic similarity of these two tribes. Although it was already in an advanced stage in Xenophon’s time, it was not yet complete at the beginning of the 3rd century BC when the latest information about the Thynians dates back33. The accounts of the Thracian migrations connect the Bithynians to the Mysians and the Bebrycians. These were two other Thracian tribes that seem to have occupied the Propontic peninsula before the Bithynians and Thynians34. Some sources35 claims that the Bithynians (and Thynians) set-

25 About this island, see ZIEGLER 1936; DÖRNER – HOEPFNER 1989; VON BREDOW 2002a; BITTNER 1998, pp. 125-126; RADT 2008, p. 354. 26 Polyb. IV, 50, 2-4; 52, 6-9; Strabo XII, 3, 7. 27 Plin. NH V, 150: tenent oram omnem Thyni, interiora Bithyni (‘the Thynians occupy the coast, the Bithynians the hinterland’); Steph. Byz. s.v. Ψίλιον: ποταμὸς μεταξὺ Θυνίας καὶ Βιθυνίας (‘a river between Thynia and Bithynia’). 28 Arr. An. I, 29, 5. 29 Xen. An. VI, 4, 1-2. 30 Mela II, 98. 31 Plin. NH V, 151. 32 BURSTEIN 1976, p. 9. 33 Memnon BNJ 434, F 1, 9, 5. On the Thynians see also Nep. Datames 2. 34 On their ethnicity, Strabo VII, 3, 2. On the Bebrycians, see RUGE 1897; PRÊTEUX 2005, esp. pp. 246-250; FERRARI 2011, pp. 164-165; CHIAI 2017, p. 109. On the Mysians, see SCHWERTHEIM 2000; DEBORD 2001; WEST 2013. 35 App. Mithr. 1; Eus. II, 66-67 Schoene; cfr. Sall. Hist. III, 50. BITHYNIA BEFORE THE KINGDOM OF BITHYNIA 5 tled in the lands of the Bebrycians, while others36 say it was in those of the Mysians. Strabo37, then, says that the Mysians established themselves in the lands of the Bebrycians. These pieces of information set in one area – the Propontic peninsula and the nearby region – four Thracians tribes, the Bithynians, Thynians, Mysians and Bebrycians. They suggest that these tribes migrated in different waves and that the Bosporus was the ‘gate of Asia’ for them38. The Bebrycians arrived ﬁ rst, the Mysians followed, then it was the turn of the Bithynians and Thynians. These two latter pushed the Mysians westwards to the region they inhabited in the historical age. As for the Bebrycians, they left no signiﬁ cant trace in the ethnic landscape of northern Asia Minor. As we read in Pliny, Eratosthenes already listed them among the perished peoples39; they were probably assimilated to the other inhabitants of the region like the Thynians. In the passage on the establishing of the Bithynians in Asia at the beginning of the Mithridatikē Appian covers historical information with the veil of myths:

The Greeks think that the Thracians who marched to Ilion with Rhesus – Rhesus was killed by Diomedes by night in the manner Homer says in the poems – ﬂ ed to the outlet of the Pontus at the site where the crossing to Thrace is shortest. Some say that since they found no ships they remained there and took posses- sion of the country called Bebrycia. Others say that after crossing over to the country beyond Byzantium, which is said to be of the Thracian Bithynians, they settled by the river Bithya and were forced by hunger to return to Bebrycia. They called the region Bithynia, instead of Bebrycia, from the river by which they had previously settled. Or perhaps the name was changed by them insensibly with the lapse of time since Bithynia is not very much different from Bebrycia. Some think so. Others say that the ﬁ rst one who ruled them was Bithys, the son of Zeus and Thracia. (Bithys and Thracia) gave name to the two countries40.

36 Strabo XII, 3, 3; 4, 8. According to Herodotus (VII, 75), the Mysians and the Teucrians expelled the Bithyinians from their lands in Europe. Arrian (Jacoby, FGrHist 156, F 97) and Pliny (NH V, 143) hint at the presence of the Halizones in the area occupied by the Bithynians (cf. DANA 2016, p. 222 n. 294). These almost unknown people, that is already attested by Homer (Il. II, 856; V, 39) and lived in northern Asia Minor, might be part of the indigenous substratum on which the Thracian tribes overlapped. On the Halizones, see DAN 2012-2013. 37 Strabo XII, 3, 3; XIII, 1, 8. 38 Cf. SIEGERT 1983, pp. 75-76; ÖZLEM-AYTAÇLAR 2010, pp. 507-508 and n. 8. 39 Plin. NH V, 127. 40 App. Mithr. 1: Θρᾷκας Ἕλληνες ἡγοῦνται τοὺς ἐς Ἴλιον μετὰ Ῥήσου στρατεύσαντας, Ῥήσου [γὰρ] νυκτὸς ὑπὸ Διομήδους ἀναιρεθέντος ὃν τρόπον Ὅμηρος ἐν τοῖς ἔπεσι φράζει, φεύγοντας ἐπὶ τοῦ Πόντου τὸ στόμα, ᾗ στενώτατός ἐστιν ἐς Θρᾴκην ὁ διάπλους, οἳ μὲν οὐκ ἐπιτυχόντας πλοίων τῇδε καταμεῖναι καὶ τῆς γῆς κρατῆσαι Βεβρυκίας λεγομένης, οἳ δὲ περάσαντας ὑπὲρ τὸ Βυζάντιον ἐς τὴν Θρᾳκῶν τῶν Βιθυνῶν