The
Kingdom of Bithynia became a Roman ally around 149 BC. In 74 BC, during the
Third Mithridatic War, King
Nicomedes IV of Bithynia died and, hoping to secure his kingdom from further
Pontic aggression, bequeathed his kingdom to Rome. The Senate immediately voted to annex the kingdom as a
province directly governed by the Republic. The province of
Pontus, which was conquered and created by the
Roman Empire's from the
Pontus in 65 BC, was combined with the province of
Bithynia, which was created in 74 BC when the last Bithynian king
Nicomedes IV, left the Kingdom of Bithynia to the
Roman Empire with a will, and was attached to the province of Bithynia and Pontus.
Republican civil wars Bithynia and Pontus became an important player during the
Roman Republican civil wars. When
Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River in 49 BC and started
his civil war, many of members of the
Roman Senate under the leadership of
Pompey fled to the East. The Galatian client king
Deiotarus, ruler of the
rump state of eastern Pontus (
Lesser Armenia), sided with his old patron Pompey against Caesar. However, following Pompey's defeated at the
Battle of Pharsulus and subsequent death in 48 BC, Deiotarus faced execution by Caesar's forces until the Roman orator
Marcus Tullius Cicero pleaded his case and secured his pardon from Caesar. Caesar subsequently named
Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus as his chief lieutenant in Asia Minor while Caesar traveled to
Ptolemaic Egypt. With the Caesar in Egypt,
Pharnaces II, the Roman client king of the
Bosporan Kingdom and the youngest son of
Mithridates VI, seized the opportunity and conquered
Colchis and
Lesser Armenia. The rulers of Cappadocia and
Galatia,
Ariobarzanes III and
Deiotarus respectively, appealed to Calvinus for protection and soon the Roman forces sought battle with Pharnaces II. They met at the
Battle of Nicopolis in eastern
Anatolia in 48 BC, where Pharnaces II soundly defeated the Roman army and overran much of Cappadocia, Pontus, and Bithynia. After defeating the Ptolemaic forces at the
Battle of the Nile, Caesar left Egypt in 47 BC and travelled through Syria, Cilicia, and Cappadocia to face Pharnaces II. As Pharnaces II gained word of Caesar's approach with his veteran army, he sent envoys to seek a peace, which Caesar refused. Caesar met Pharnaces II at the
Battle of Zela, decisively defeating the Pontic king and reassessing Roman dominance over Asia Minor. Upon his return to the Bosporan Kingdom, Pharnaces II was assassinated by his son-in-law
Asander. In return, Caesar named Asander as the kingdom's new Roman client king. Caesar then incorporated Lesser Armenia into the Roman client kingdom of
Cappadocia to serve as a buffer between Rome's interests in Asia Minor against future aggression from Eastern kingdoms. In 45 BC, Caesar, now
dictator of Rome, appointed
Quintus Marcius Crispus as governor of Bithynia and Pontus. Following Caesar's assassination on March 15, 44 BC, by the members of the Roman Senate,
Marcus Junius Brutus and
Gaius Cassius Longinus fled from Italy and assumed command of the Republic's eastern provinces, including Bithynia and Pontus, in 43 BC. When Crispus refused to serve the assassin of his patron, Cassius had him removed from office and forced into retirement. Following the defeat of Brutus and Cassius by the
Second Triumvirate at the
Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, Triumvir
Mark Antony assumed command of the Republic's eastern provinces. The Second Triumvirate expired in 33 BC, ending Antony's legal right to govern the Eastern half of the Republic. With the Triumvirate lapsed, the struggle for dominance between Antony and
Octavian intensified. As Octavian built up his support in the West, Antony drew ever closer to Egyptian Queen
Cleopatra. When
Octavian declared war on Egypt, Antony, supported by the Eastern provinces (including Bithynia and Pontus) went to Egypt's aid against Octavian. Octavian's victory over Antony at the
Battle of Actium in 31 BC ensured Octavian's position as undisputed master of the Roman world. In 27 BC, Octavian became "Augustus": the first
Roman Emperor.
Rump State in the early 1st century AD with Pontus as a Roman client state In 39 BC, Antony stripped control of
Lesser Armenia (the
remnants of the former
Kingdom of Pontus) from the rulership of the Cappadocian king
Ariarathes X of Cappadocia and made
Darius of Pontus, son of
Pharnaces II of Pontus, the Roman client king of Pontus. Antony also granted to Darius the rulership of the Roman client kingdom of
Cilicia. His reign lasted until his death in 37 BC, after which Antony appointed
Polemon I of Pontus as client king of Cilicia and
Arsaces of Pontus as client king of Lesser Armenia. Following Arsaces' untimely death the next year in 36 BC, Antony appointed Polemon I as client king of Pontus. Years later, in 16 BC, Polemon I, at the request of
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and with the approval of
Roman Emperor Augustus, married
Queen Dynamis of the
Bosporan Kingdom, becoming ruler of that realm in addition to Pontus and Cilicia. Polemone I would later add
Colchis to his realm of client kingdoms he ruled on behalf of Rome. Following Polemon I's death in 8 BC, he was succeeded by his stepson
Tiberius Julius Aspurgus as client king of the Bosporan Kingdom and by his second wife
Pythodorida of Pontus became client queen of Pontus, Cilicia, and Colchis. Pythodorida would marry then King
Archelaus, the Roman client king of Cappadocia, in 8 BC, thereby joining the several eastern client kingdom under a single family. Following Archelaus' death in 14 AD and the subsequent transformation of Cappadocia into a directly governed province in 18 AD, Pythodorida lost her title as queen of Cappadocia. Pythodorida was succeeded by her stepson
Polemon II of Pontus following her death in 38 AD. Polemon II ruled as a Roman client king over Pontus and Cilicia until the
Roman Emperor Nero deposed him in 62 AD. Cilicia was then annexed into a directly governed Roman province and Pontus was re-incorporated in Cappadocia, then a directly governed Roman province.
Principate As part of the
Constitutional Reforms of Augustus, which transformed the
Roman Republic into the
Roman Empire, Rome's
territories were divided into
imperial provinces and
senatorial provinces. Imperial provinces were border lands which required a permanent military presence to protect the Empire from invasion. As such, only the Emperor (as supreme commander of the army) had the right to appoint the governors of those provinces. Senatorial provinces, conversely, were centered along the
Mediterranean Sea and did not possess any significant military force; the province of Bithynia and Pontus, being located along the southern
Black Sea coast, was an exception although it too lacked any significant garrison.
Augustus allowed the Senate to appoint the governors of these provinces as it had done with all provinces under the Republican system: a
sortition was used to select a
proconsul who would have
imperium over the territory, and be assisted by a
legatus or a lieutenant governor, and
quaestor who handled financial issues. The Roman writer
Pliny the Younger was governor of the province in AD 110-113. His
Epistulae ("Letters") to emperor
Trajan (ruled 98-117) are a major source on Roman provincial administration. The cities of Bithynia took on many features of Roman cities (e.g. councils of
decuriones) in the Imperial period, to a much greater degree than the rest of Roman Asia Minor. According to
Cassius Dio, around AD 134 the Senate ceded control of Bithynia and Pontus to the Emperor in return for
Lycia et Pamphylia.
Dominate Under the administrative reforms of emperor
Diocletian, c.295, Bithynia et Pontus was divided into 3 smaller provinces:
Bithynia,
Honorias and
Paphlagonia (replaced by the
Theme of Paphlagonia around 820). These belonged to the
diocese of
Pontica (established 314), in turn part of the
Prefecture of the East (established 337). == Legacy ==