Bithynia
Bithyn'ia. A Roman province of Asia Minor. Mentioned only in Act_16:7, and in 1Pe_1:1.
The chief town of Bithynia was Nicaea, celebrated for the general
Council of the Church, held there in A.D. 325, against the Arian heresy.
Source:
Smith’s Bible Dictionary
Bithynia
bi-thin´i-a (Βιθυνία,
Bithunía): A coast province in northwestern Asia Minor on the
Propontis and the Euxine. Its narrowest compass included the districts on both
sides of the Sangarius, its one large river, but in prosperous times its
boundaries reached from the Rhyndacus on the west to and beyond the Parthenius
on the east. The Mysian Olympus rose in grandeur to a height of 6,400 ft. in
the southwest, and in general the face of Nature was wrinkled with rugged
mountains and seamed with fertile valleys sloping toward the Black Sea.
Hittites may have occupied Bithynia in the remote past, for Priam of
Troy found some of his stoutest enemies among the Amazons on the upper
Sangarius in Phrygia, and these may have been Hittite, and may easily have settled
along the river to its mouth. The earliest discernible Bithynians, however,
were Thracian immigrants from the European side of the Reliespont. The country
was overcome by Croesus, and passed with Lydia under Persian control, 546 bc.
After Alexander the Great, Bithynia became independent, and Nicomedes I,
Prusias I and II, and Nicomedes II and III, ruled from 278 to 74 bc. The last
king, weary of the incessant strife among the peoples of Asia Minor, especially
as provoked by the aggressive Mithridates, bequeathed his country to Rome.
Nicomedia and Prusa, or Brousa, were founded by kings whose names they bear;
the other chief cities, Nicea and Chalcedon, had been built by Greek enterprise
earlier. There were highways leading from Nicomedia and Nicea to Dorylaeum and
to Angora (see Ramsay, Historical Geography of Asia Minor, and The
Church in the Roman Empire before ad 170). Under Rome the Black Sea
littoral as far as Amisus was more or less closely joined with Bithynia in
administration.
Paul and Silas essayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them
not (Act_16:7). Other evangelists,
however, must have labored there early and with marked success. Bithynia is one
of the provinces addressed in 1Pe_1:1.
Internal difficulties and disorders led to the sending of Pliny, the
lawyer and literary man, as governor, 111 to 113 ad. He found Christians under
his jurisdiction in such numbers that the heathen temples were almost deserted,
and the trade in sacrificial animals languished. A memorable correspondence
followed between the Roman governor and the emperor Trajan, in which the moral
character of the Christians was completely vindicated, and the repressive
measures required of officials were interpreted with leniency (see E. G. Hardy,
Pliny's Correspondence with Trajan, and Christianity and the Roman
Government). Under this Roman policy Christianity was confirmed in strength
and in public position. Subsequently the first Ecumenical Council of the church
was held in Nicea, and two later councils convened in Chalcedon, a suburb of
what is now Constantinople. The emperor Diocletian had fixed his residence and
the seat of government for the eastern Roman Empire in Nicomedia.
Bithynia was for a thousand years part of the Byzantine Empire, and
shared the fortunes and misfortunes of that state. On the advent of the Turks
its territory was quickly overrun, and Orchan, sultan in 1326, selected Brousa
as his capital, since which time this has been one .of the chief Ottoman
cities.
Source: International
Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Bithynia
A province in Asia Minor, to the south of the Euxine and Propontis.
Christian congregations were here formed at an early time (1Pe_1:1). Paul was prevented by the Spirit from
entering this province (Act_16:7). It
is noted in church history as the province ruled over by Pliny as Roman
proconsul, who was perplexed as to the course he should take with the numerous
Christians brought before his tribunal on account of their profession of
Christianity and their conduct, and wrote to Trajan, the emperor, for
instructions (A.D. 107).
Source:
Easton’s Bible Dictionary