BITHYNIA bĭ thĭn’ ĭə. Bithynia lay in NW Asia Minor, a mountainous, well-watered territory, endowed with fertile valley plains, good timber, building stone, fruit and grain together with excellent harbor facilities. Bithynia fronted the Black Sea on the N, the Bosporus and Propontis (Sea of Marmara) on the W. On the S it was bounded by Phrygia and Galatia, and on the E by Paphlagonia.

The Bithynians were Thracian in origin, a vigorous stock which entered history in the 6th cent. b.c. Thanks to their cohesion and isolation, the Bithynians maintained a measure of independence even under the Pers. regime and their Seleucid successors. In 297 b.c. a dynasty was founded which endured for two centuries, until the last of the Thracian royal line bequeathed his kingdom to Rome in 74 b.c.

Progress had been real under the kings. Cities, commerce, and a measure of Hel. culture marked the land. Pompey united Bithynia with Pontus when he sought to organize the bequeathed territory in 64 b.c. as part of his settlement of the E. In early imperial days Bithynia was a senatorial province, but was early a sphere of personal control by the emperor. The financial difficulties of the cities, perhaps too prominent in Pompey’s organization, and the strategic significance of the region with its important harbors and road communications, account for this imperial interest. Under Marcus Aurelius the area formally became an imperial province.

One of the imperial legates who governed Bithynia was Pliny the Younger, who functioned as governor from a.d. 110 to 112. The governorship of Pliny is notable for the surviving vol. of correspondence with Trajan (vol. 10 of Pliny’s Letters) in which there is information on Bithynia, its problems and administration, together with an account of the Christian minority and the problems the enforcement of anti-Christian legislation involved (Pliny, Letters 10. 96, 97). It is unknown how Christianity was established in Bithynia. Paul was prevented from visiting the area (Acts 16:7), but Peter (1 Pet 1:1) knew of a church there, and in Pliny’s day it was a powerful group.

Bibliography CAH, XI, ch. XIV (1936); H. A. M. Jones, Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces, ch. VI (1937); E. M. Blaiklock, The Christian in Pagan Society (1951); M. Rostovtzeff, The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire, 2 vols. 2nd ed. (1957).