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Kingdom of Bithynia

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The Kingdom of Bithynia was a Hellenistic state in northwestern Asia Minor, on the region bordering the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus and the Black Sea, founded in 297 BC when the local ruler Zipoites assumed the royal title of basileus. His successor, Nicomedes I, founded the prosperous city of Nicomedia, and the kingdom's fertile shores also held the cities of Nicaea, Chalcedon and Cius, with Mysia bordering it to the southwest, Paphlagonia to the northeast and Phrygia to the southeast. The kingdom's last ruler, Nicomedes IV, could not hold power against Mithridates VI of Pontus, and after Rome briefly restored him to his throne he bequeathed the kingdom to the Roman Republic in his will in 74 BC, ending Bithynian independence.

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