Cius
| Cius | |
|---|---|
| Currently Gemlik, Turkey | |
| |
| 40°25′57″N 29°09′23″E / 40.432468°N 29.156389°E | |
| Location | Anatolia, in present-day Turkey |
| Region | Bithynia |
Cius (/ˈsaɪəs/; Ancient Greek: Kίος or Κῖος Kios; Currently Gemlik, Turkey) was an Ancient Greek city bordering the Propontis (now known as the Sea of Marmara), in Bithynia and in Mysia (in modern northwestern Turkey). The city was later renamed to Prusias after King Prusias I of Bithynia, who once restored the city.[1]
Etymology
According to the Greek geographer Strabo in his book Geographica, the eponym of the city is, according to a founding myth, an Argonaut who founded the city after returning from Colchis, at the place where the nymphs took away Hylas.[1]
And here is the scene of the myth of Hylas, one of the companions of Herakles who sailed with him on the Argo, and who, when he was going out to get water, was carried off by the nymphs. [...] And still to this day a kind of festival is celebrated among the Prusians, a mountain-ranging festival, in which they march in procession and call Hylas, as though making their exodus to the forests in quest of him.[1]
Greek author Apollonius of Rhodes provided another origin, in Argonautica, that the city of Cius was named after a nearby river and was founded by the Argonaut Polyphemus.[2]
History
During the Ionian Revolt (499–493 BC), Cius was captured by the Persians under their general Hymaees on their counter-offensive against the Ionians that had marched on the capital of the Persian Satrapy of Lydia, Sardis, during the Ionian rebellion.[3] Later, Cius was a member of the Delian League.[4] Sometime during the Cretan War (205–200 BC), King Philip V of Macedon put Cius, that was then a member of the Aetolian League, under siege. He then razed the city down and ceded it to King Prusias I of Bithynia, who assisted him in capturing Cius.[5] Prusias later restored it under the name Prusias.[1]
According to numismatist Katja I. L. Sommer, during the Roman rule, Cius issued a revert back from the name Prusias around the reign of Emperor Claudius (r. 41–54) at the latest, possibly in order to gain autonomy, and was later renamed back to Prusias during the Flavian period.[6] It was an important chain in the ancient Silk Road and became known as a wealthy town.
Geography
Cius was strategically placed at the head of a gulf in the Propontis, called the Gulf of Cius, or Cianus Sinus. Historians Herodotus and Xenophon both reverred to it as Cius in Mysia.[3][7] Naturalist Pliny the Elder reports that Cius was a Milesian colony.[8] It was at the foot of Mount Arganthonius, which Strabo claimed as the place where Hylas was kidnapped by the Nymphs in a myth.[1] Pliny mentioned the rivers Hylas and Cius here, one of which reminds us of the name of the youth who was stolen by the nymphs, and the other of the mythical founder.
The Cius may be the channel by which the lake Ascania (currently known as Lake Iznik) discharges its waters into the gulf of Cius; though Pliny speaks of the Ascanium flumen as flowing into the gulf, and we must assume that he gives this name to the channel which connects the lake and the sea. If the river Cius is not identical with this channel, it must be a small stream near Cius. As Ptolemy speaks of the outlets of the Ascanius,[9] it has been conjectured that there may have been two, and that they may be the Hylas and Cius of Pliny; but the plural ἐκβολαί does not necessarily mean more than a single mouth; and Pliny certainly says that the Ascanius flows into the gulf. However, his geography is a constant cause of difficulty. The position of Cius made it the port for the inland parts, and it became a place of much commercial importance. Pomponius Mela calls it the most convenient emporium of Phrygia, which was at no great distance from it.
Coins
There are coins of Cius, with the legend Κιανων, belonging to the Roman imperial period; and there are coins of Prusias with the epigraph, "Προυσιεων των προς θαλασσαν".
Ecclesiastical History
Cius became an early Christian bishopric. Its bishop, Cyrillus, took part in the First Council of Nicaea in 325, and Theosebius attended the Council of Ephesus. The names of many of his successors in the first millennium are known from extant contemporary documents. At first a suffragan of Nicomedia, it soon became an autocephalous archdiocese, being listed as such in Notitiae Episcopatuum from the 7th century onward.[10] No longer a residential bishopric, Cius is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.[11]
Modern history
Following the population exchange in 1923, the Greek refugees from Cius established the town of Nea Kios, in Argolis, Greece and the village of Paralia, in Pieria, Greece. There are only few remnants of the ancient town and its harbour today. Somewhat more to the west, the town of Gemlik, Bursa Province is enstablished.
Notable people
- Asclepiades of Bithynia (c. 129/4–40 BC), Greek physician
- Caius Calpurnius Asclepiades (88–158 AD), Greek physician
See also
From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
Cius — (Kios.)
A titular see of Asia Minor. Kios was a Milesian colony on the Bithynian coast in the Kianos Kolpos, a bay formed by the Propontis. It was captured by Hymeos, a general of Darius, was destroyed by Philip III, and restored by Prusias, whence its new name Prusias ad Hippum. Its episcopal see was suffragan to Prusa. Bishop Cyrillus was present at Nicaea in 325. At an early date the see was raised to a higher rank; according to Ramsay (Asia Minor, 428) Julianus, who played an important part at Constantinople and Chalcedon as apocrisiarus of Pope Leo, was Bishop of Kios, not of Kos. At the Council of Constantinople, under the Patriarch Menas, in 546 Hedistus subscrlbes as metropolitan of Cius, but this must be a later interpolation, for at the sixth and seventh Oecumenical Councils the see holds again only episcopal rank; at the Eighth General Council and as late as the twelfth century we find archbishops. Of the sixteen titulars quoted by Lequien ( I, 631) the most worthy of notice is St. Eustathius, a confessor under the Iconoclasts. Kios may be Civitot, the landing-place of the Crusaders on their way to Nicaea though this is placed by many geographers at Yalova. The Turks call it Ghemlek. It has 5000 inhabitants (4600 Greeks, 300 Mussulmans, 100 Armenians), and is the chief town of caza in the vilayet of Brusa, and also the residence of the Greek metropolitan of Nicaea. There remain yet some ruins of its ancient walls. The little haven exports chrome.
References
- Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 Back to citation occurrence 1.2 Back to citation occurrence 1.3 Back to citation occurrence 1.4 "Strabo's Geographica Book XII.4.3". LacusCurtius. Retrieved 9 November 2025.
- Back to citation "Apollonius Rhodius' The Argonautica Book I". Project Gutenberg. Archived from the original on 4 October 2025. Retrieved 29 December 2025.
- Back to citation occurrence 3.0 Back to citation occurrence 3.1 "Herodotus' Histories. Vol. 5.122.1". Perseus Digital Library. Archived from the original on 15 September 2025. Retrieved 10 October 2025.
- Back to citation Corsten 1985, pp. 23–24 and p. 179; see entries in the Athenian Tribute Lists
- Back to citation Hammond & Walbank 1988, p. 413.
- Back to citation Sommer 1996, pp. 149, 151, 153.
- Back to citation "Xenophon's Hellenica Vol. 1.4.7". Perseus Digital Library. Archived from the original on 3 July 2025. Retrieved 10 October 2025.
- Back to citation Pliny. Naturalis Historia. Book 5.32. See Corsten 1985, pp. 5–6 and p. 22.
- Back to citation Ptolemy. The Geography. Vol. 5.1.
- Back to citation Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. I, coll. 631-636; Raymond Janin, v. Cius, in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. XII, Paris 1953, coll. 1024-1026; Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 443
- Back to citation Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 870
Bibliography
- Corsten, Thomas (1985). Die Inschriften von Kios. Inschriften griechischer Städte aus Kleinasien, vol. 29. Bonn: Habelt, ISBN 3-7749-2194-6, see esp. the introduction on pp. 1–72.
- Richard Talbert, Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World (ISBN 0-691-03169-X), p. 52.
Books and Journals
- Hammond, N. G. L.; Walbank, Frank W. (1988). A History of Macedonia, Vol. 3: 336-167 BC. Clarendon Press. ISBN 9780198148159 – via Internet Archive Books.
- Anthon, Charles (1851). A Classical Dictionary. New York: Harper. ISBN 9781419173844. Retrieved 14 November 2025 – via Internet Archive Books.
- Sommer, Katja I. L. (1996). "Cius or Prusias?". The Numismatic Chronicle. 156: 149–155 – via JSTOR.