B I T 



469 



B I T 



padna, and receives the Szalva, near the town of that name. 

 Among the minor streams are the Golden Bistritz. which 

 springs from the Kiihhornel and falls into the Screth this 

 stream brings down gold-dust; and the Great Bistritz, 

 which flows from Mount Piatra Dorni and joins the Sza- 

 mos, not far from the town of Bistritz. The climate, parti- 

 cularly in the more elevated districts, is inclement; and 

 even in the vale of Rodna strawberries do not ripen until 

 the month of August. The principal products of this circle 

 are grain, fruits, vegetables, llax, wine, and large quantities 

 of timber. Cattle are but partially reared ; on the other 

 hand Bistritz abounds in game and fish, and contains gold, 

 silver, lead, iron, salt, garnets, chalcedonies, magnetic -stone, 

 marble, lime, fire-stone, magnesia, and a few mineral waters. 

 The circle is divided into two minor circles, and contains 

 one town and fifty-five villages. The town of Bistritz (or 

 Besztercze), a free royal town, on the river of the same 

 name, is called by the Saxon settlers, who constitute the 

 majority of the population in these parts, ' Nosen,' or 

 ' Ndsenstadt.' It is situated in a long and delightful valley, 

 and has three gates of entrance, two suburbs chiefly tenanted 

 by Wallachians, a Protestant church within the walls, 

 and a Protestant gymnasium, a Roman Catholic church 

 and two schools, two hospitals, a monastery of Minorite 

 friars, and one of Piarists, about 800 houses, and 6000 inha- 

 bitants. The environs produce wine ; potashes are made 

 here ; and the town has large cattle-fairs. Near it are 

 the remains of an antient castle, once the residence of the 

 illustrious family of the Hunyads. 47 5' N. lat., 24 32' 

 E. long. 



BITHY'NIA, a country of Asia Minor, including part 

 of the Turkish district of Khodavendkiar and the peninsula 

 of Khodjaili. We cannot exactly determine the antient 

 boundaries, for it is uncertain whether the Mariandyni are 

 to be included in this country. If not, Bithyniawas bounded 

 on the west by the river Rhyndacus, on the east by the 

 river Sangarius, or Sagaris, on the north and north-west 

 by the Euxine and the Propontis, and on the south by 

 Phrygia and Galatia. It had the advantage of an exten- 

 sive line of sea-coast, indented by two deep bays, the Cian 

 and the Astacene. Xenophon, who was in the country pro- 

 bably more than once, describes the part along the Euxine 

 in the neighbourhood of Calpe as covered with inhabited 

 villages, and fertile in every kind of natural produce except 

 olives. (Anabas. vi. c. 4, $ 5, 6.) Dionysius Periegetes 

 (v. 793) also says that the Bithyni inhabited a fertile coun- 

 try (Xnrapijv yftova vauraovai). Mr. Kinneir found it a 

 beautiful and romantic country, abounding in vines and 

 forests; and Mr. Browne (Walpole's Turkey, ii. 108) speaks 

 in the highest terms of the plenty which prevailed near 

 Brusa when he was there. The forests consist principally 

 of oak, occasionally intermingled with beech, chestnuts, and 

 walnuts. But this country, one of the most interesting in 

 Asia Minor, is yet comparatively unknown. In the southern 

 part, the immense mass of Olympus, at the base of which 

 Brusa stands, occupies a large part of the country, and in- 

 cludes between two of its branches the extensive plain of 

 Brusa. The summit of Olympus is a grey granite; the 

 sides are marble. Still farther to the west two branches of 

 Olympus form the boundary of the extensive basin of Lake 

 Apollonna : one of these branches, the eastern, separates 

 the basin of this lake from the plain of Brusa. The northern 

 part of Bithynia, which consists of the peninsula, is occu- 

 pied by a chain of hills running westward from the banks 

 of the Sangarius, and terminating on the channel of Con- 

 stantinople. Between this range and the lake of Iznek, the 

 antient Ascania, is a plain country which contains the 

 lake of Sabanja or Nicomedia. From Gueve, where there is 

 a fine bridge over the Sangarius, to Sabanja, the country is 

 described as an alluvium, with sand and small hills of sand- 

 stone : from Sabanja to Ismit (Nicomedia) a plain, with 

 sand and forests : the rest of the line to Scutari through 

 Gebizc is mainly calcareous rock of different kinds. The 

 basin of Lake Ascania appears to be bounded on the south 

 by one of those branches of Olympus which enclose the 

 plain of Brusa, and on the north by the high land which 

 fills up the promontory between the Astacene and Cian 

 gulfs : the maps mark the Lake Ascania as communicating 

 by a stream with the Cian gulf; but our maps of this coun- 

 try are not to be trusted. The Sangarius, which probably 

 formed the eastern boundary of Bithynia, Hows through an 

 immense plain which spreads out S.W. of Gueve : before it 

 enters the Euxine it traverses the high lands which occupy 



the northern peninsula and terminate at the channel of 

 Constantinople. (Fontanier, Voyages en Orient.) 



The principal cities in this district were Astacus on the 

 gulf of Astacus, which was founded at the beginning of the 

 seventeenth Olympiad by the Megarians, who were after- 

 wards joined by some Athenian settlers ; Calchedon, or 

 Chalcedon (Bekker, Anec. iii. 1207; the coins have the 

 former: see Eckhel, Doctr. Num. ii. p. 411), opposite to 

 Byzantium, was also founded by the Megarians (Olympiad 

 26, 2), and was the birth-place of the great sophist Thrasy- 

 machus ; Prusa ad Olympum, now called Brusa, or Broussa, 

 was founded, according to Pliny, by Hannibal, according 

 to Strabo by a Prusias who lived in the time of Croesus ; 

 it was the capital of the Ottoman Empire before the capture 

 of Constantinople, and is still one of the most flourishing 

 towns of Anatolia. Of its warm baths some are chalybeate 

 and others sulphureous ; they were celebrated in antient 

 times (Athenaeus, 43, a) and are still much used. [See 

 BRUSA.] Cius, founded by the Milesians, and restored by 

 Prusias after its destruction by Philip in B.C. 203, was by 

 him called Prusias ; Nicsea, on the Lake Ascania, is cele- 

 brated as the birth-place of Hipparchus the astronomer 

 and Dion Cassius the historian ; and Nicomedia, founded 

 by Nicomedes I., B.C. 264, was the birth-place of Flavius 

 Arrianus. 



The earliest inhabitants of Bithynia seem to have been 

 the same with those of the neighbouring districts of Mysia 

 and Phrygia (Horn. Iliad, B. 812, N. 792) ; they were called 

 Bebryces. But we have positive information that they were 

 afterwards conquered or displaced by a Thracian immigra- 

 tion from the European side of the Propontis (Herod, i. 28, 

 vii. 75) ; the invading tribe was called the Thyni, or Bithyni, 

 and there is reason to believe that they were intimately 

 connected with a European race of that name (Xenoph. 

 Anab. vii. 2, 22), although it is the opinion of a learned 

 writer that the word must be understood in a geographical, 

 not an ethnographical sense. (Philol. Mas. i. p. 1 1 2.) They 

 appear to have had chiefs of their own from the earliest 

 times, who held a subordinate authority, even under the 

 Persian government. Thus Dydalsus and Boteiras reigned 

 between the commencement of the Peloponnesian war and 

 376 B.C. (Clinton, Fast. Hel. iii. p. 411, n. c.) Bithyniawas 

 conquered by Croesus, and passed with the rest of his domi- 

 nions into the hands of the Persians. When Darius divided 

 his empire into twenty satrapies (Herod, iii. 90-95) the Bithy- 

 nians formed one with the Asiatic Hellespontians, Phrygians, 

 Paphlagonians, Mariandynians, and Syrians, and were rated 

 at 360 talents. This satrapy was called the Dascylian, from 

 Dascylium, the residence of the satrap on the Propontis. 



[Vespasian. Copper. Brit. Mus. 235 grains.] 



The following is a list of the satraps drawn up by Dr. Arnold 

 (on Thucyd. viii. 5) : Mitrobates (Herod, iii. 120), Oroetes 

 (iii. 127), and Olbares (vi. 33) in the reign of Darius I.; 

 Megabates and Artabazus, the son of Pharnaces (Thucyd. 

 i. 129), in the reign of Xerxes ; Pharnaces (Thucyd. u. 67, 



