Strabo describes Bithynium as lying above
Tius and it possessed the country around Salone or Salon, which was a good feeding country for cattle, and noted for its cheese. It was the capital of Salone district. Bithynium was the birthplace of
Antinous, the favourite of
Hadrian, as
Pausanias tells us, who adds that Bithynium is beyond, by which he probably means east of, the river
Sangarius; and he adds that the remotest ancestors of the Bithynians are
Arcadians and
Mantineans. In this case a Greek colony settled here. Bithynium was afterwards called
Claudiopolis (
Greek: Κλαυδιόπολις), a name which it is conjectured it first had in the time of
Tiberius; but it is strange that Pausanias does not mention this name.
Dio Cassius speaks of it under the name of Bithynium and Claudiopolis also. It later bore the name
Hadriana after the emperor. The names of Claudiopolis and Hadriana appear on coins minted here. ==Titular see==