Prusias was the son of King
Ziaelas of Bithynia and an unknown woman. He was crowned king in , succeeding his father. A vigorous and energetic leader; he fought a war against
Byzantium in 220 BC, seizing its Asiatic territory. Then, Prusias defeated the
Galatians, whom
Nicomedes I had previously invited across the
Bosphorus to a territory called
Arisba, and putting to death all of their women and children and letting his men plunder their baggage. At some point during his reign, Prusias formed a marriage alliance with
King Demetrius II of Macedon, receiving the latter's daughter, Apama, as his wife. Prusias expanded the territories of Bithynia in a series of wars against
King Attalus I of Pergamon and
Heraclea Pontica on the
Black Sea, taking various cities formerly owned by the Heracleans and renaming one of them,
Cierus, to Prusias after himself. He was brother-in-law of King
Philip V of Macedon. Philip V granted him the cities of
Kios and
Myrleia in 202 BC. Prusias renamed these cities as Prusias (present-day
Bursa, Turkey) and Apameia respectively. Although he granted sanctuary to
Hannibal, who successfully employed an odd stratagem against the Pergamene for him at sea, he remained neutral during
the war between the Roman Republic and the Seleucid Empire, refusing an alliance with the
Seleucid King Antiochus III. He agreed on peace terms with presumably
Eumenes II of Pergamon in 183 BC, in the city of
Cyzicus. Apama bore him
a son with the same name, who later succeeded him. ==See also==