Cyzicus was a town of Mysia.
Cyzicus ( ) was an ancient
town of Mysia in Anatolia
, situated in
Balıkesir
Province
on the shoreward side of the present peninsula of
Kapu-Dagh (Arctonnesus), which is said to have been originally an
island in the Sea of
Marmara
, and to have been artificially connected with the
mainland in historic times.
Now,
Cyzicus is protected by the Turkey
's Ministry
of Culture, and located on the Erdek
and Bandırma
roads in Turkey.
History
The city
was probably founded by Pelasgians from
Thessaly, according to tradition at the
coming of the Argonauts; later it received
many colonies from Miletus
, allegedly
in 756 BC, but its importance began only after the Peloponnesian
war, when the decay of Athens and Miletus set in. Alcibiades defeated the Lacedaemonians there (410
BC). The era of its Olympiads was reckoned from 135 or 139.
Owing to its advantageous position it speedily acquired commercial
importance, and the gold
staters of Cyzicus
were a staple currency in the ancient world till they were
superseded by those of
Philip of
Macedon. Its unique and characteristic coin, the
Cyzicenus, was worth 28 drachmae.
During the
Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC)
Cyzicus was subject to the Athenians
and Lacedaemonians
alternately. In the naval
Battle of Cyzicus in 410 during the
Peloponnesian War, an Athenian
fleet routed and completely destroyed a Spartan fleet. At the peace
of
Antalcidas (387 BC), like the other
Greek cities in Asia, it was made over to
Persia.
Alexander the Great later captured it
from the Persians in 334 BC.
The history of the town in Hellenistic times is closely connected
with that of the
Attalids of
Pergamon, with whose extinction it came
into direct relations with Rome. Cyzicus was held for the Romans
against king
Mithridates VI of
Pontus who besieged it with 300,000 men in 74 BC, but it
withstood him stoutly, and the siege was raised by
Lucullus: the loyalty of the city was rewarded by
an extension of territory and other privileges. The Romans favoured
it and recognized its municipal independence. Cyzicus was the
leading city of Northern
Mysia as far as
Troas.
Bas-relief of a charioteer, late 6th
century B.C., shows Hittite influence at Cyzicus.
Under
Roman Emperor Tiberius it was incorporated with the empire, but
remained the capital of
Mysia, afterwards of
Hellespontus, and became one of the greatest cities in the ancient
world.
Cyzicus was captured temporarily by the Arabs in 675. It appears to
have been ruined by a series of earthquakes since 443 — the last in
AD 1063; it began to be deserted as early as the eleventh century
and the population was transferred to Artaki at least as early as
the 13th century, when the peninsula was occupied by the
Crusades.
In the
Ottoman era it was part of the
caza of Erdek, in the
Anatolian vilayet of Brusa.
Ecclesiastical history
A
titular see of Asia Minor,
metropolitan of the ancient ecclesiastical province of
Hellespontus. As ecclesiastical metropolis of the Roman
Hellespontus province, Cyzicus had a catalogue of bishops beginning
with the first century;
Michel Le
Quien (I, 747) mentions fifty-nine. A more complete list is
found in Nicodemos, in the Greek "Office of St. Emilian"
(Constantinople, 1876), 34-36, which has eighty-five names. Of
particular importance are the famous
Arian;
Eunomius of Cyzicus;
Saint Dalmatius;
Proclus of Constantinople and
Germanus of Auxerre, who became
Patriarchs of Constantinople; and Saint Emilian, a martyr in the
eighth century. Another Saint who came from Cyzicus is Saint
Tryphaena of Cyzicus. Tryphaena
is the patron saint of the city.
Gelasius, a historian of Arianism, who
wrote about 475, was born at Cyzicus.
Lequien (III, 941) mentions a Latin bishop in
1477.
Cyzicus is still a
metropolitan
title for the Greek Orthodox, the metropolitan residing at
Artake (Erdek), a little port on the western shore of the
peninsula. Opposite to Artake is another port, Peramos (Perama),
where an Assumptionist Father founded a Greek parish. At Panormos
(Panderma), another more important port nine miles (14 km)
south-east of the ruins of Cyzicus (10,000 inhabitants), there is a
Catholic Armenian parish. At the Dardanelles there is also a Latin
parish. It remains a Catholic titular see.
Monuments
The site amid the marshes of Balkiz Serai is known as
Bal-Kiz and entirely uninhabited, though under
cultivation. The principal extant ruins are the walls, dating from
the fourth century, which are traceable for nearly their whole
extent, and the substructures of the temple of
Hadrian, the ruins of a Roman aqueduct and a
theatre.
The picturesque amphitheatre, intersected by a stream, built in the
third century B.C., was one of the largest in the world; its
diameter was nearly . Of this magnificent building, sometimes
ranked among the seven wonders of the ancient world, thirty-one
immense columns still stood erect in 1444. These have since been
carried away piecemeal for building purposes.
Colossal
foundations of a temple dedicated to the Emperor Hadrian are still visible: the columns were 21.35
metres high (about 70 feet), while the highest known elsewhere,
those at Baalbek
in Syria are
only 19.35 metres (about 63 feet).
The monuments of Cyzicus were used by the Byzantine emperor
Justinian as a quarry for the building of his Saint Sophia
cathedral, and were still exploited by the Ottomans.
See also
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