Prusa (Bithynia)

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Prusa or Prousa (Ancient Greek: Προῦσα), or Prusa near Olympus or Prusa under Olympus (Προῦσα ἐπὶ τῷ Ὀλύμπῳ, Προῦσα πρὸς τῷ Ὀλύμπῳ), was a town located between Bithynia and Mysia, situated at the northern foot of the Mysian Olympus. Its site is occupied by the modern city of Bursa.[1][2]

Bronze statue of the goddess Athena
Ancient Greek hydria

Pliny the Elder states that the town was built with the help of Hannibal during his stay with Prusias I of Bithynia, whose name it bears.[citation needed] It is acknowledged by Dio Chrysostom, a native of the town in the 1st and 2nd centuries, that it was neither very ancient nor very large.[3] It was however, as Strabo remarks, well governed, and continued to flourish under the Roman and Byzantine periods,[4][5] and was celebrated for its warm baths that bore the name of the "royal waters".[6][7]

Coin depicting Prusias I

The town suffered much during the Ottoman conquests of the region.[8] It fell into their hands in 1326, following a lengthy siege, serving as their capital for more than a century . The name Prusa evolved into Mprusa, which later became the modern name of the city of Bursa.[9]

Ecclesiastical history

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By 1318 the metropolis of Prusa was described as being "under heavy pressure" because of Ottoman invasions. In the same year, it assumed the administration of the archbishopric of Apamea Myrlea and the monastery of Hosius Eustratius. In 1327 and in 1331 the metropolitan of Prusa appears as Proedros of the church of Bizye, and a legitimate metropolitan appears only in 1347. Between 1347 and 1386 Prusa had no metropolitan, and Nicaea was to receive the metropolis in 1381 as per decision of a synod. However, in 1386 a new metropolitan assumed the seat of Prusa, and the metropolis would go on to administer the metropolis of Kotyaion in the same year, and the metropolis of Nicomedia in 1401.[10]

Byzantine depiction of a seraph

Notable people

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Herm of the god Attis
Bronze statue of the god Apollo
Byzantine box with Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki
Byzantine box with a skull

See also

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References

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  1. Talbert, Richard, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-691-03169-9, with accompanying Map-by-Map Directory.
  2. Lund University. Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.
  3. Orat. xliv.9, p. 585.
  4. Strabo. Geographica. Vol. xii. p. 564. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  5. Pliny the Younger, Ep. 10.85.
  6. Athenaeus. Deipnosophistae. Vol. 2.43.
  7. Stephanus of Byzantium. Ethnica. Vol. s.v. Θέρμα.
  8. Nicet. Chon. pp. 186, 389
  9. Belke, Klaus (2020). Bithynien und Hellespont. Part 2. Tabula Imperii Byzantini, vol. 13,2. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, ISBN 978-3-7001-8329-7, p. 952.
  10. Vryonis, Speros (1971). The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamisation from the Eleventh through the Fifteenth Century. Berkeley: California University Press. pp. 299-301

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Prusa". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.

Further reading

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  • Corsten, Thomas (1991/1993). Die Inschriften von Prusa ad Olympum. 2 vols., Bonn: Habelt.

40°11′05″N 29°03′41″E / 40.184818°N 29.061495°E / 40.184818; 29.061495