Early AD 124 – Hadrian spends the winter in Nicomedia, tours Bithynia and “meets” Antinous (#Hadrian1900)

All types of Hadrianic cistophori have counterparts in the bronze series (RPC III, nos. 985-1021), which regularly bear the legend ΚΟΙ-ΝΟΝ ΒΕΙΘΥΝΙΑϹ. However, no trace of this provincial imperial shrine has been found. The temple’s architectural appearance is known only from these cistophori and from bronze coins issued by the koinon of Bithynia. The koinon’s primary role was to organise the cult of the Emperor, manage the regional economy, and collect taxes.

Bithynia, a senatorial province, was in disarray, both financially and administratively, before Trajan assumed direct control. In AD 110, the Optimus Princeps appointed Pliny the Younger, an experienced administrator, as legatus Augusti pro praetore (proconsular legate of the province) to exercise his imperium in the allegedly corrupt province. During his tenure, Pliny corresponded with the Emperor on administrative issues, engineering projects, and everyday life in the province and its cities. He also commented on the emergence of Christianity in the province and sought the Emperor’s advice on how to deal with this new sect (Ep. 10.96).

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Nicomedia was an important port with a well-protected harbour. The city lay on the main roads linking Byzantium to Pontus and Armenia, making it a strategic hub on the empire’s eastern frontiers. It was founded in 264 BC by Nicomedes I on the ruins of the Greek colony of Olbia, a Megarian town established in the 8th century BC. Nicomedia served as the chief residence of the Bithynian kings and the centre of pre-Roman administration. During the Roman period, it became a metropolis and the provincial capital, where the province’s chief administrator resided. Despite several destructive earthquakes (the city rests on the North Anatolian fault line), Nicomedia never lost its geographical and strategic importance, competing with Nicaea for first place in the province. It was one of 37 cities in Asia that acquired the title of neokoros on three occasions, associated with the imperial cult.

Nicomedia was largely built on picturesque hills overlooking the sea. It had strong walls with gates, some of which survive today. The city thrived particularly during the Flavian and Antonine periods. In his letters to Trajan, Pliny mentions several public buildings in the city, including a senate house, a forum, and a temple of Cybele. He also describes a great fire that engulfed Nicomedia, causing extensive destruction due to the lack of firemen (Plin. Ep. 10.33). Pliny further reports on the Nicomedian aqueduct, which cost 3.5 million sesterces but was not completed (Plin. Ep. 10.37). Nicomedia also had temples dedicated to Isis (Plin. Ep. 10.37), Zeus Bronton (TAM IV 58), and Cybele/Magna Mater (TAM IV 74). Other notable buildings included large baths, a nymphaeum, a theatre, gymnasia, numerous fountains, a circus, and an agora.

The city’s chief divinity in Nicomedia was Demeter, the Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, who presided over crops and the fertility of the earth. Nicomedia held regular games called the Demetria in her honour. Arrian, who served as priest of Demeter and her daughter Kore (as per TAM IV 402), reported that the Mysteries of Demeter and Kore originated in Nicomedia. During the imperial period, coins from Nicomedia usually depicted the patron goddess carrying a sceptre, an attribute associated with the Eleusinian goddess. The cult celebrating the earth’s fertility was among the most important in antiquity and was relatively popular in Bithynia. This may have been due to the area’s fertility, as Nicomedia had fertile valleys and coastal districts that produced a wide variety of products, including grain, grapes, and nuts.

The renowned orator from Antioch, Libanius, lived in Nicomedia from 344 to 349. He called Nicomedia “the city of Demeter” and recorded the presence of a temple dedicated to Demeter. He also documented the city’s remarkable structures, which were destroyed in the AD 358 earthquake.

“What city was more beautiful? Its public buildings were splendid, its private contiguous, rising from the lowest parts to the citadel, like the branches of a cypress, one house above another, watered by rivulets and surrounded by gardens. Its council-chambers, its schools of oratory, the multitude of its temples, the magnificence of its baths, and the commodiousness of its harbour I have seen, but cannot describe.” Libanius, Ornationes LXI 7

Nicomedia was among the cities that worshipped Antinous after his death in the Nile in Egypt. Coins confirm that the young Bithynian was heroised, as he appears on coins with the legends ‘ΗΡΩϹ ΑΝΤΙΝΟΟϹ’ (hero Antinous) on the obverse and ‘Η ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΙϹ ΝΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΙΑ’ (Nicomedia the Metropolis) on the reverse. Bithynia recognised Antinous’s importance in linking the birthplace to the empire and sought to commemorate him as a divine local hero.

As previously noted, an earthquake severely damaged Nicomedia and Nicaea before Hadrian’s visit. Later chroniclers explicitly report that the Emperor provided funds for the necessary restoration work. ‘He [Hadrian] restored Nicomedia and Nicaea of Bithynia, which had collapsed in an earthquake’ (Eus. Hist. 164). The Historia Augusta also records that Hadrian granted tax exemptions to communities damaged by “famines, plagues, and earthquakes” (SHA, Hadrian, 21.5). Malalas claims that Hadrian “bestowed” money on the surviving citizens (Malalas, 279). Moreover, on a high-relief frieze block found within the nymphaeum at Nicomedia, the name Hadrian appears in the nominative case (TAM IV, 1 10). This is believed to relate to the original building or its reconstruction.

People attempted to assist those affected by the earthquake. A funerary monument was built to honour a male tutor named Hermes, who risked his own safety to protect the children in his care. The memorial stele depicts Hermes embracing the young boys, shielding them from falling debris.

Thraso, son of Diogenes, erected this stele for his two sons, Dexiphanes, aged five and Thraso, aged four, and for Hermes, aged twenty-five, who was bringing them up. In the earthquake collapse, he held them in his arms.

From this time on, Nicomedia was plagued by large-scale, destructive earthquakes. Other emperors, such as Commodus and Julian, contributed to the city’s reconstruction. Commodus also granted Nicomedia its second neokoros title, while Julian spent several years in the city and donated a significant sum to its restoration. After the earthquake of 533/4, Nicomedia lost its grandeur, but it continued to exist in the Byzantine era. During Justinian‘s rule, the city was revitalised through the rebuilding of churches, aqueducts, and bathhouses.

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After Nicomedia, Hadrian went on to assist its rival located to the southeast on the bank of Lake Ascania.

“[Hadrian] surrounded with strong walls Nicaea and Nicomedea, which had suffered in an earthquake.” (Niceph. 256/i. 944).

Although our knowledge of Hadrian’s response to the earthquake in Nicomedia is limited to ancient sources, the city of Nicaea has yielded valuable epigraphic and archaeological evidence that sheds light on Hadrian’s efforts to rebuild it. Among the most significant epigraphic evidence is the long dedication to Hadrian above the Lefke (eastern) and Istanbul (northern) city gates.

Nicaea was a wealthy city in a vast, fertile valley surrounded by mountains. The settlement was linked to the nearby Propontis by the main highway from Thrace to central Anatolia, which ran southeast towards Syria. Nicaea is said to have been colonised by Bottiaeans from Central Macedon, who named the city Helikore, but the Mysians later destroyed the first colony. After Alexander the Great‘s death, Nicaea was rebuilt by the Macedonian king Antigonus I, who named it Antigoneia after himself. Shortly after, in 301 BC, Lysimachus conquered the city following the Battle of Ipsus and renamed it Nikaea in honour of his wife.

As Strabo records (Strab. 12.4), the town was laid out as a square measuring 16 stadia in circumference (approximately 700 sq. km). The city’s streets were planned using the Hippodamian system, with all intersections at right angles. This system remains visible in Iznik’s modern street layout. The city had two main streets leading to four gates, all visible from a fixed stone at the centre of the gymnasium, which stood at the heart of the town.

As Strabo also noted, Nicaea had a smaller ring of walls during the Hellenistic period. The Hellenistic walls fell into disuse and disappeared in the Roman period. Instead, freestanding triumphal arches were erected under Vespasian at the ends of Nicaea’s main streets. The city walls were reconstructed after the Goths threatened the region in the late 3rd century AD. These walls formed an irregular pentagon, approximately 5 km long, as depicted on the reverses of bronze coins minted under the emperors Valerian and Gallienus.

During the reign of Augustus, Nicaea developed significantly, to the point that it rivalled Nicomedia as the seat of the provincial governor. A temple was built for Roman citizens, dedicated to Roma, the personification of the city of Rome, and to Julius Caesar. Additionally, during this period, the koinon of Bithynia established agonistic games in Nicaea, held every four years in honour of the Emperor.

“Caesar, meanwhile, besides attending to the general business, gave permission for the dedication of sacred precincts in Ephesus and in Nicaea to Rome and to Caesar, his father, whom he named the hero Julius. These cities had at that time attained chief place in Asia and in Bithynia respectively.” Dio 51.20.6

During the Flavian era, the city of Nicaea was adorned with four new monumental gates, constructed from local marble. These gates were dedicated to Vespasian and his son Titus, as well as to Nicaea itself, by the Bithynian proconsul M. Plancius Varus after AD 70 (IK Iznik 25–28). The four gates were located on the north, east, west and south sides of the city. Each gate consisted of an arched central passage flanked by two smaller rectangular gateways. The gates were decorated with statues in the niches on either side of the archway, and possibly above the gates. In the 3rd century AD, the walls were raised, and the gates were completely rebuilt with new brick superstructures and towers as part of a refortification project.

Pliny the Younger further enlarged the city and completed new buildings. In discussing the state of Nicaea’s public works, he reported on investments in unfinished buildings, including the theatre and gymnasium (Plin. Ep 10.39). Construction of the theatre had begun shortly before Pliny inspected the Bithynian cities, at a cost of more than ten million sesterces. However, the building was sinking, with cracks appearing. Despite Pliny’s suggestion that it be demolished, Trajan requested that it be completed.

The theatre was located in the south-western part of the city, between the lake and the eastern gate. It was built largely on vaulted substructures in opus caementicium and faced with marble. It measured 85 by 55 m and was of the Hellenistic type, though it had undergone several alterations. Over the centuries, the theatre became an open-air quarry. Its stones were used as building materials, especially for restoring the city walls during the Byzantine and Ottoman periods.

After the AD 120 earthquake, Hadrian funded the restoration of Nicaea. The Paschal Chronicle reports that Hadrian repaired the city’s walls, gates, and market. In recognition of his contributions and visit, the northern and eastern gates of Nicaea were rededicated to him. The long dedication to Hadrian on both sides of the architrave of the gates also mentions the titles metropolis and neokoros conferred by the Emperor on the city, suggesting that the earliest known neokoros temple at Nicaea was Hadrian’s. Additionally, a text (IK Iznik 56) reveals that a local man named Patrocles was appointed to oversee the city’s rebuilding under Hadrian’s instructions. Finally, inscriptions indicate an aqueduct dedicated to Hadrian.

“To the emperor king Trajan Hadrian Augustus, son of the god Trajan Particus, grandson of the god Nerva, he who bears upon himself the authority of the people’s sovereignty, Nikaia, descended from the line of Dionysos and Herakles, the first (city) of Bithynia and Pontus, metropolis by the decrees of the emperors and the sacred Roman senate, offers the most pious Neokoros of the Augusti”. (IK Iznik 29)

Two inscriptions related to the aqueduct of Nicaea, one in Greek (IK Iznik 1) and the other in Latin (IK Iznik 55), indicate that it was dedicated to Hadrian. The Emperor also imposed strict regulations to protect the aqueduct. According to the Greek decree, Hadrian ordered those living near the aqueduct not to interfere with the water conduit in any way. Offenders were to pay a fine to the treasury. The remains of the aqueduct visible today extend east of Iznik from the Lefke Gate. The total length of the aqueduct was about 1.5 km. According to Procopius (De aedificiis, V, 3), it was restored during Justinian’s reign. Theodore I Lascaris (1205–1222) also carried out restorations in the 13th century AD.

On a small altar (IK Iznik 32) found in Nicaea, Hadrian is referred to as Zeus Soter Olympios. The epithet Olympios for Hadrian is first attested in 128. However, it became regular after 131/2, the year the Olympieion in Athens was completed, and the Panhellenion (a league of Greek cities with headquarters in Athens) was established.

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During his tour of Bithynia, Hadrian most likely visited Bithynium-Claudiopolis (modern-day Bolu), located in the highlands east of Nicomedia, beyond the Sangarius River. Bithynium-Claudiopolis stood on the great Roman highway that ran parallel to the coastal ridge, linking Nicomedia to Ancyra in Galatia. The city was known for its pastures and cheese and was one of the leading cities of the Kingdom of Bithynia. It is believed to have been founded by the kings of Bithynia in the Hellenistic period, as there is no evidence of an earlier settlement on its site. An inscription found at Bolu indicates that King Prusias I founded the city. However, according to Pausanias, Bithynium was founded by Arcadians from Mantinea (Paus. 8.9.7), a belief that may date back to Hadrian’s time. The Bithynian city was renamed Claudiopolis under Claudius, but by Hadrian’s time it had reverted to its original name, Bithynion (Bithynium).

Bithynium was a city built on a low hill, surrounded by well-watered plains. It had the usual city buildings, such as markets, gymnasiums and palaestras, a theatre, and a massive bathhouse at the foot of the hill. However, Pliny had concerns about possible overspending and poor engineering. As a result, he asked Trajan to send an architect to inspect the projects. In response, Trajan gave his famous rejoinder: “There must be plenty of architects to advise you, for there is no province which is without some men of experience and skill in that profession, and remember again that it does not save time to send one from Rome when so many of our architects come to Rome from Greece.” (Ep. 10.39-40).

According to Pausanias, Antinous was born in Bithynium-Claudiopolis, although he himself “never saw him in the flesh”. He adds that the Bithynians’ ancestors were Mantineans from Arcadia. The Mantineans, as A. Birley notes, “were later to honour Antinous with particular fervour”, certainly claimed him as one of their own. Dio confirms the place of birth, adding that Bithynium is now called Claudiopolis (Dio Cass. 69.11.2).

Antinous was by birth from Bithynium beyond the river Sangarius, and the Bithynians are by descent Arcadians of Mantineia. Paus. 8.9.7

A rural area called Mantineion lay outside Bithynium-Claudiopolis in the upper valley of the Ladon River (Socrates Hist. eccl. 2.38) and may have been Antinous’s exact birthplace. The pastoral landscape in which Antinous grew up proved key to the later presentation of the Bithynian youth as a woodland boy (Robert, 1980). In addition, the obverses of a series of medallions struck at Bithynium towards the end of Hadrian’s reign depict Antinous as a divinised herdsman or as Hermes Nomios, “the protector of pastures and shepherds”.

Although the exact circumstances remain unknown, Hadrian’s probable visit to the city has often been proposed as the occasion when the emperor first encountered the young Bithynian. No ancient source, however, records when or where they met, so the association must remain conjectural. Hadrian may have noticed Antinous at a public ceremony in which Antinous was participating. This could have occurred at Claudiopolis, or at Nicomedia or Heraclea Pontica, where athletic contests for boys and men were held in Hadrian’s honour. Antinous could have competed in these contests (Birley, 1997). After this meeting, Antinous would have been sent to Rome to attend the imperial paedagogium for further education before joining the large entourage of Hadrian and his wife, Sabina. However, we don’t know for certain when Antinous first joined Hadrian on his travels. His public presence with the emperor was confirmed only during their tour of Egypt in 130.

Hadrian was to grant Bithynium numerous privileges as Antinous’s hometown and to establish a local cult to Antinous after his death. A theatre on the southern slope of the Acropolis and a stadium approximately 93 m long are examples of urban architecture in Bithynium attributed to Hadrian. Marble column fragments from a temple provide evidence of Hadrian’s commitment to honouring Antinous and his hometown.

The architectural fragments from a temple dedicated to Antinous and from the Hadrianic theatre are now displayed at the Bolu Müzesi, while the clearest depiction of the temple survives on a single coin minted in Claudiopolis during the reign of Elagabalus (AD 218–22), now held in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (see here). The Temple of Antinous would have stood above the city’s stadium, which hosted the Hadrianeia Antinoeia, the sacred games dedicated to Hadrian and Antinous. There is evidence of the institution of mystic rites (IK Klaudiupolis 65), and an agon mystikos is mentioned in an inscription from Ancyra as having travelled to Claudiopolis to participate in a mystical context (I.Ancyra 143).

Antinous was worshipped not only in public but also in private or domestic settings. A small limestone altar (IK Klaudiupolis 56) indicates that he was worshipped as a god. A small limestone altar dedicated to Antinous is inscribed in Greek: νέωι θεῶ[ι] / Ἀντινόωι / εὐχν / Σωσθένη[ς] (‘to the new god Antinous. Sosthenes (set this) as a prayer’). The formula indicates that Antinous answered Sosthenes’s prayer (Smith 2018, 53). Recently, parts of a stadium have been uncovered in the city centre of Bolu, on the southern slopes of Hisartepe. The stadium served as the venue for the Hadrianeia Antinoeia games. It was built from limestone cut stones without mortar. The stadium had an elongated U-shaped structure, with a running track surrounded by seating on the east, south, and west sides. Its estimated capacity was 3,500 spectators. The stadium hosted athletic contests, including boxing and wrestling, as well as agonistic games, which probably included poetry, music, and drama competitions.Seven marble slabs were discovered during excavations at the stadium in 2008. They form a 20-metre-long inscription (IK Klaudiupolis 53), written in Greek and engraved in two lines with regular letters. The inscription reveals that the stadium was dedicated to Hadrian and the Demos of Claudiopolis. It also states that Gn. Domitius Ponticus Iulianus pledged to fund the stadium’s construction but died before it was fully completed. Claudia Procla and Aelius Plotius Iulianus, the legal foster parents of Domitius’s daughters, took over the project and managed his property.

A commemorative series of coins was issued in honour of Antinous, bearing the inscription Η ΠΑΤΡΙΣ ΑΝΤΙΝΟΟΝ ΘΕΟΝ, meaning “The Fatherland (honours) the god Antinous” (RPC III, 1110-1120). Mantinea in Arcadia was another major centre of Antinous worship and was traditionally regarded as Bithynium’s mother city. Like Bithynium, Mantinea also had a stadium for the Hadrianeia Antinoeia festival. During his visit to Mantinea, Pausanias reported that a room in the gymnasium contained multiple statues of Antinous, most of which represented him in the guise of Dionysus. He also mentions a temple, the institution of annual mysteries, and quadrennial games.

So far, three Hadrianic statue bases (IK Klaudiupolis 51–52–53), dated between AD 131 and 135, have been identified in Bithynium-Claudiopolis. The strong bond between the emperor and the city was ultimately expressed through the city’s renaming to Hadriane, as evidenced by local coinage and milestones. Additionally, two phylai were renamed Hadriane and Antinois.

The relatively high number of Aelii (25) in Bithynium-Claudiopolis suggests that Hadrian granted citizenship to individuals and groups during his visit. According to Henri-Louis Fernoux (2004), at least 84 families of local origin obtained Roman status at some point during Hadrian’s reign. Examples of local families from Claudiopolis who named their daughters according to Roman traditions include Marcia Domitia, Aelia Magna, Aelia Antipatris, and Flavia Valentia.

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Bithynium-Claudiopolis was also located on the Roman highway that headed north to Heraclea Pontica and Tium (Tios/Tieion), two important Greek centres on the Euxine shores in Paphlagonia. Heraclea Pontica (identified with the present-day city of Ereğli) is the older of the two centres, with a history dating back to 560 BC. It was founded by Dorian Megarians from Attica, or, according to Arrian (Periplus 13.3), by Miletus in the 8th century BC, or, according to Strabo (12.3.4), by Miletus in the same century. The city owes its name to Hercules, who, according to Greek legend, descended into the underworld through a cave on the adjoining Archerusian peninsula to capture the three-headed dog Cerberus as part of the twelfth labour assigned to him by the Mycenaean king Eurystheus (now the Cehennemağzı Caves).

Heraclea thrived thanks to its proximity to fertile lands and to the sea’s fisheries. It quickly became an important trading centre and even established colonies on the Black Sea, namely Callatis and Tauric Chersonesos. The area was also rich in pines, firs, and beeches, indicating that woodcutting was a common industry. Heraclea boasted a natural harbour, sheltered and spacious enough to accommodate merchant ships. The harbour had two moles and a lighthouse, presumably still standing (as evidenced by coins). The city’s social structure was shaped by the dominance of sea trade, transport, and fishing, which also drove its economy.

According to Strabo, Julius Caesar established a Roman colony at Heraclea. However, the colony was later destroyed by the Galatian chieftain Adiatorix, who killed all the Roman colonists. Octavian re-established the colony (Strabo, 12.3.6). During Trajan’s reign, Heraclea became a metropolis, as evidenced by coins bearing the legend ΗΡΑΚΛΕΩΤΑΝ ΜΑΤΡΟΠΟΛΙΤΑΝ (RPC III, 1172). As a Greek city, Heraclea is believed to have had a theatre and a stadium. In the Roman era, an amphitheatre was built, as depicted on coins (RPC VII.2, 2080), but its location remains unknown. According to surviving milestones, a road network from Heraclea Pontica to Amastris passed through Tium, which was built as early as the reign of Vespasian.

Pliny wrote little about Heraclea, mentioning it only once. In his letters, he noted that a man named Julius Largus of Pontus bequeathed his estate to Heraclea and Tium. He also donated 50,000 sesterces to embellish the cities and to establish games in honour of Trajan (Plin. Ep 10.75). However, there is no evidence of these Traiania games in inscriptions from Heraclea or in any other victory lists. There is, however, a reference to the Heracleia Hadrianeia Isaktion (ἐν Ἡρακλε[ί]-ᾳ τῇ πρὸς τῷ Πόντῳ Ἁδρι(ά)νηο[νἩράκλειον ἰσάκτ(ι)ον), the isactian (of Actium), Hadrianic, and Heraclean competitions (Chingyuan, 2018).

An inscription from Aphrodisias (I.Aphr. 12.215), dated to the early 3rd century (after AD 211), commemorates the victory of an athlete named Marcus Aurelius […]os. He was a long-distance runner who won the boys’ distance race at both the Hadrianeia Herakleia Isaktia, held at Heraclea Pontica, and the Hadrianeia Antinoeia, held at Bithynium-Claudiopolis. He also won contests in Ancyra, Chalcedon, Nicomedia and Nicaea, competing in this circuit as both a boy and an adult.

Due to the lack of epigraphic documentation, it is unclear when the Hadrianeia Herakleia Isaktia was founded. It is suggested that it either replaced the Traianea Heracleia when a new emperor ascended the throne (Chingyuan, 2018) or was founded ex novo during the emperor’s reign, as in other cities (Hervás, 2018). The new Hadrianic festival associated with the imperial cult was assimilated to Hercules, the patron deity of Heraclea Pontica, and was considered equal in rank to the contests of Actium (Boatwright, 2000). The names of the games imply that their organisation probably followed the same pattern as the Actian games, established by Augustus in Nicopolis in 27 BC after the Battle of Actium. The programme consisted of musical competitions, athletic games, and horse races, with three age categories: boys, younger ephebes, and older ephebes. These games were held every four years, and the winner was awarded a crown of reeds.

“…in almost every city [Hadrian] both built something and gave games” (HA, Hadr. 19.2)

An interesting inscription from Heraclea Pontica (I.Heraclea 2) records that the thymelic synod of artists in Rome was renamed in honour of Hadrian and his beloved Antinous in 130. After Antinous’ death, he was divinised and syncretised with Hermes in Rome (IGUR I 143). At that time, the thymelic synod issued a decree in Rome for one of its members, Marcius Xenokrates, and a copy was sent to his hometown, Heraclea Pontica. Many cities created games and festivals (agones) named after Hadrian. At least nineteen of these, including Hadrianeia and four Antinoeia, such as the one at Bithynium-Claudiopolis, are known to us (Fauconnier, 2023).

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Another Bithynian city that should have been visited is Prusias ad Hypium (Konuralp), an important city between Nicomedia and Amastris on the Euxine in the Pontus region. Settlers from Heraclea Pontica founded the city in the 4th century BC, and it was originally known as Kieron. In the early 3rd century BC, King Prusias I of Bithynia conquered the city and renamed it after himself. Prusias ad Hypium lay on a hillside overlooking the plain around the Hypius River and facing Mt. Olympus. It was strategically located on a major road linking Nicomedia, Amastris, and other settlements in northern Anatolia.

Prusias ad Hypium was a thriving trading centre that became part of the Roman Republic in 74 BC. The city grew from four local tribes (Megaris, Thebias, Dionysias, and Prusias) during the Hellenistic period to twelve by the end of the 2nd century AD, including two named after Hadrian and Sabina (Hadriane and Sabiniane). Prusias ad Hypium enjoyed a degree of autonomy in local governance and even issued its own currency. The city’s earliest Roman coins were minted under Vespasian (see here). Prusias ad Hypium was home to temples dedicated to Zeus, Asclepius, Aphrodite, Hermes, Dionysus, and Tyche. An altar unearthed at Prusias referred to Hadrian as “Olympios” (IK Prusias 35).

Unfortunately, the ancient city of Prusias ad Hypium lies largely buried beneath the modern settlement. Only the theatre survives as a preserved monumental structure. Although inscriptions record a stadium, a gymnasium, an agora, and a bathhouse, these structures have yet to be located. The city’s importance is evident in the finds on display at the local Konuralp Museum. The museum houses a collection of 6,237 items, including 1,848 archaeological artefacts, 491 ethnographic objects, and 3,898 coins. Visitors can also see a floor mosaic depicting Orpheus (see here). The most impressive find, a marble statue of Tyche, was uncovered in 1931 and is on display at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum.

Several inscriptions provide information about a city’s cultural level. Many athletes and artists participated in the Augusteia games, held every four years to honour the reigning Emperor. The imperial priest organised the games (IK Prusias 31). Kallikleanos Kallikles, who founded one of these games, was honoured with a monument by the sacred, travelling athletic and theatrical synods (I Prusias 49). The importance of theatre performances in the city is confirmed by an epitaph recording the death and burial of a tragedian named Philoksenos from Athens in Prusias (I Prusias 97). Philoxenus’ tomb was restored by another visiting tragedian from Corinth, Isthmus.

The theatre of Prusias ad Hypium was built on a natural slope at the top of a hill overlooking the plain south of the settlement. It is a remarkable building with a semicircular orchestra, a stage building with three doors and six windows, and a cavea divided into three sections – ima, media and summa – with six vaulted entrances at the eastern and western ends. The stage building, a single-storey rectangular structure, measures 50 metres long, 12 metres wide, and 6 metres high. It was constructed entirely of limestone blocks in opus isodomum, similar to the analemma wall. The theatre exhibits both Greek and Roman influences and was built towards the end of the 1st century BC. It was expanded during the Roman period. The relief of a shield and wreath on the west aditum maximus (entrance to the orchestra) suggests it may have been used for sports competitions or gladiator shows. The pancratiast Aelius Aurelius Menandros, a citizen of Aphrodisias, won the men’s pancration in the mid-2nd century AD in Prusias ad Hypium and many other cities in Bithynia (IAph 2007, 12.920), indicating that the theatre was also used for boxing and wrestling.

Based on architectural elements and epigraphic evidence, the theatre underwent a large-scale renovation in the 2nd century AD, and the stage building dates to the Hadrianic period. An architrave block records M. Iulius Proclus as the donor of the proscenium, but only one-third of the original c. 47.5 m-long inscription survives. However, M. Iulius Proclus is the same person mentioned on the base of a statue dedicated to Hadrian (I.Prusias 34). As a result, the stage building may also have been dedicated to Hadrian, as well as to the Roman Senate and people.

The theatre of Prusias ad Hypium was intricately decorated. Over the past four years of excavations, archaeologists have uncovered numerous architectural fragments adorned with carved reliefs. In 2022, archaeologists found a marble block depicting the myth of Actaeon being devoured by his hunting dogs in the theatre’s orchestra. Other highly decorated architectural fragments, including entablatures featuring tragedy and comedy masks that were once part of the theatre’s stage structure, were also discovered. In 2023, a lion mosaic was unearthed in a rectangular room adjacent to the portico, at the midpoint of the theatre axis. Finally, a well-preserved portrait head of Alexander the Great, dating to the 2nd century, was discovered (see here).

Hadrian may have visited other places in Bithynia, such as Apamea-Myrlea, Cius, and Prusa ad Olympum (Bursa). Apamea was the patria of Lucius Catilius Severus (suff. 110, cos. II 120). After Hadrian acceded to the throne in Antioch, he appointed Severus governor of Syria, allowing him to return to Rome (see here). Birley suggests that Severus could have sailed home to welcome Hadrian in person. Apamea, located on the eastern shore of the Sea of Marmara and serving as a port, was the only Roman colony in Bithynia, named Colonia Iulia Concordia Apamea, established during the reign of Julius Caesar or Augustus. It was granted the privileges of a free city, and provincial officials were prohibited from intervening in its affairs. However, Pliny visited Apamea and consulted Trajan to have the city’s accounts and expenditures audited (Plin. Ep. 10.47). Trajan insisted that the examination be conducted “without prejudice to their existing privileges” (Plin. Ep. 10.48).

Little information survives about Apamea’s architecture. However, the local council built a small public bath, the Balineum Hadrianum, in honour of Hadrian, Sabina, and the Senate. An inscription from 128/9 AD confirms that Hadrian donated public funds to the project. The inscription reads balineum Hadrianum pecunia publica dedicauit (CIL III 6992).

Nicomedia and Nicaea competed to become the “first city” of their province. Similarly, a long-standing conflict existed between Apamea and Prusa. King Prusias founded Prusa with the guidance of Hannibal, who had taken refuge with the Bithynian king. The city was well situated at the foot of Bithynian Mount Olympus (today’s Uludağ) and was famous for its hot baths, known as “royal waters,” which were still appreciated in the Byzantine era. The Acropolis was a rocky plateau c. 600 m across, bounded on three sides by steep slopes and on the fourth by the mountain’s rising flank. Walls further strengthened the Acropolis’s natural defences.

Pliny made significant contributions to the embellishment of Prusa by constructing new public buildings. Among these were the baths, which he found “in a neglected and dilapidated state” and needed to be rebuilt to suit “the dignity of the city” (Plin. Ep. 10.23). In a letter to the city of Prusa (IK Prusa ad Olympum 4), Hadrian writes about a controversy over its hot springs. The dispute likely involved financial questions similar to those Pliny faced (Boatwright, 2000). A bronze coin from the late Severan period, minted in Prusa, depicts two water nymphs of the springs reclining before a building that may represent the façade of a thermal bath (RPC VI, 3027).

One might also postulate a visit to Cius (later renamed Prusias ad Mare), located at the eastern tip of the Propontis, also known as the Gulf of Cius. The city was founded by Ionians from Miletus and became an important trading centre because of its strategic location on trade routes leading eastward to the Sangarius and southeastward into Phrygia. In 202 BC, Philip V of Macedon destroyed the city during the Second Macedonian War (200-197 BC), along with Apamea. However, Prusias I rebuilt it. Inscriptions and coins indicate that Cius appointed a Bithyniarch, the chief priest responsible for the imperial cult and the Koinon. This Bithyniarch erected a statue of Hadrian and a temple (IK Kios 12) and renamed the city Hadriane (RPC III, 1050).

A member of Hadrian’s entourage at the time was the renowned sophist and rhetoric teacher Marcus Antonius Polemon, who records the next journey in his Physiognomica (preserved only in an Arabic translation). Polemo wrote, “I once accompanied the greatest of emperors on his travels, and we set out from Thrace to Asia with soldiers and carriages escorting the emperor” (Birley, 1997). This passage aligns with Hadrian’s journey in AD 124 and clearly indicates that he crossed the Sea of Marmara to Thrace before entering Asia, where his presence is well documented in ancient records.

References & sources:

• Birley A.R. (1997), Hadrian The Restless Emperor, London, Roman Imperial Biographies pp. 157-161.
• Boatwright, M.T. (2000), Hadrian and the Cities of the Roman Empire, Princeton
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• Fernoux, H. (2004) Notables et élites des cités de Bithynie aux époques hellénistique et romaine (IIIe siècle av. J.-C. – IIIe siècle ap. J.-C.), Essai d’histoire social (Collection de la Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée 31, Serie Épigraphique et Historique 5), Paris.
• Chingyuan, Wu (2018), The Local Impact Of The Koinon In Roman Coastal Paphlagonia, Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 3204. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3204
• Hervás, RG. (2018), Competing for the emperor: games and festivals in honour of Hadrian, ARYS. Antigüedad: Religiones y Sociedades, 177-205
• Fauconnier, B. (2023). In Athletes and Artists in the Roman Empire: The History and Organisation of the Ecumenical Synods (pp. iii–iii). title-page, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Emre Okan, Ahmet Bilir, Doğuş Çalışkan (2022). Ancient Theater of Prusias Ad Hypium: New Excavations, First Data. Höyük, (9), 33-66. doi:10.37879/hoyuk.2022.033

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