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The ancient province of Bithynia in north-western Anatolia
centered on the fertile plain bordered by the Sea of Marmara and the Bosphorus
in the west and the Black Sea in the north and, inland, stretched as far
as the mountain passes east of Bolu and, to the
south, down to the Uludag mountains in Bursa south
of the Gulf of Izmit and the Köroglu Daglari
hills. Geologically speaking parts of its north-western
edge still belong to Thrace, while to the east and south chalk and palaeozoic
slate and limestone come together to form hills and mountains, peaking
in the Uludag, the classical Bithnyian Olympus (2500m/ 8205ft). Verdant
forests of beech, pine, fir, oak and rhododendron grow on Bithnyia's well-watered Black Sea slopes and farming benefits from the sunshine higher
up. More intensive farming in some parts is carried out by such settlers
such as the Muhacir who were driven out of the Balkans, Caucasus, Crimea,
etc. when the Ottoman Empire was stripped of
these provinces in the late 19th c. One of Turkey's most densely settled
areas, the Bithnyian plain nowadays carries the main routes from Istanbul
to Ankara and also forms part of the industrial
sector of the north- west, much of it concentrated around Izmit,
Adapazari and Bursa.
At the crossroads of Europe and Asia Minor, the territory of ancient Bithynia was constantly being fought over. Settled originally by the Thracians, around 550 BC. it was taken by the Lydians then later by the Persians. Since the wooded mountains of the north remained outside the dominion of Alexander the Great and his successors, Bithynia under the Seleucids was able to develop more or less independently and by the 2nd c. BC, had become a kingdom in its own right, flourishing around its ancient capitals of Nikomedeia (Izmit) and Nicaea (lznik). In 74 BC. it was made a Roman province. The Greek colony founded on the Bosphorus around 675 BC., where the Istanbul suburb of Kadikoy stands today, became the Romans' capital and in the Byzantine era, when it was the seat of the archbishopric, provided the venue for the fourth ecumenical council in 451. In the 11th c Bithynia was ruled by the Seljuks. Since the 14th c. it has been Ottoman, and, in Bursa, it also supplied the Ottomans' first capital.
Ancient Galatia, at the centre of Asia Minor
with its capital Ancyra (Ankara), was part of
Phrygia and Cappadocia
in early antiquity. The first Galatians crossed the straits from Europe
into Anatolia in 278 BC. These Gallic tribes
of eastern Celts had been forced back to the Danube by Alexander
the Great and Lysimachus and descended on Macedonia in 279 only to
be soundly beaten at the Dardanelles. King
Nicomedes of .Bithynia brought them in as mercenaries
the following year to provide support in his power struggle with the Seleucid
Antiochos I, and the arrival of these Celtic hordes made serious inroads
into the flourishing civilizations of Asia Minor.
The local rulers, summoning up their own forces, succeeded in containing
the "barbarians" in the area between Pergamum,
.Bithynia, Pontus and Cappadocia,
and Antiochos I defeated them in the famous Ankara
"Battle of Elephants".
Employed as mercenaries by the Hellenistic kings they renewed their pillaging raids on Anatolia's cities until Attalos I, King of Pergamum (241-197 BC.), defeated them in two battles between 235 and 225 BC (Altar of Zeus in Pergamum) and forced them to settle. For over a thousand years the Galatians lived around the Phrygian city of Ancyra, hence the name of the region. M. Vulso was finally responsible for the collective defeat of their tribes in 189 BC, and it was around AD 55 that the Apostle Paul wrote his famous Epistle to the Galatians concerning the independence of his Gospel and the freedom from Jewish law of any Galatians he converted to Christianity.
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