Nicomedes
- Son of Prusias, a king of Bithynia, Cic. de Or. 2, 61, 229; id. Verr. 2, 1, 24, § 63.—
- II The son of the former, who declared himself a freedman of the Roman people, Just. 34, 4; 38, 5; Suet. Caes. 2.
(Νικομήδης), king of Bithynia, was the eldest son of Zipoetes, whom he succeeded on the throne, B. . 278. (Memnon, 100.20, ed. Orell.; Clinton, vol. iii. p. 411.) Like many other Eastern potentates it appears that he commenced his reign by putting to death two of his brothers, but the third, Zipoetes, raised an insurrection against him, and succeeded in maintaining himself for some time in the independent sovereignty of a considerable part of Bithynia. Meanwhile, Nicomedes was threatened with an invasion from Antiochus I., king of Syria, who had already made war upon his father, zipoetes, and to strengthen himself against this danger, he concluded an alliance with Heracleia, and shortly afterwards with Antigonus Gonatas. The threatened attack, however, passed over with little injury. Antiochus actually invaded Bithynia, but withdrew again without risking a battle. It was apparently as much against his revolted subjects as his foreign enemies that Nicomedes now called in the assistance of more powerful auxiliaries, and entered into an alliance with the Gauls, who, under Leonnorius and Lutarius, were arrived on the opposite side of the Bosporus, and were at this time engaged in the siege of Byzantium, B. C. 277. Having furnished them with the means of crossing over into Asia, he first turned the arms of his new auxiliaries against his brother, Zipoetes, whom he defeated and put to death, and thus reunited the whole of Bithvnia under his dominion. (Memonon, 100.16, 18, 1.); Liv. 38.16; Just. 25.2.) Of the events that followed we have little information; it is probable that the Gauls subsequently assisted Nicomedes against Antiochus (Trog. Pomp. prol. xxv; comp. Droysen, Hellenism. vol. ii. p. 178), but no particulars are recorded either of the war or the peace that terminated it. It appears, however, that Nicomedes was left in the undisturbed possession of Bithynia, which he continued to govern from this time till his death, and which rose to a high degree of power and prosperity during his long and peaceful reign. In imitation of so many others of the Greek rulers of Asia, he determined to perpetuate his own name by the foundation of a new capital, and the site which he chose, in the immediate neighbourhood of the Megarian colony of Astacus, was so judiciously selected that the city of Nicomedeia continued for more than six centuries to be one of the richest and most flourishing in Asia. (Memnon, 100.20; Strab. xii. p.563; Steph. Byz. v. Νικομήδεια, who erroneously calls Nicomedes son of Zeilas Euseb. Chron. Ol. 129. 1; Paus. 5.12.7; Tzetz. Chil. 3.950.) The foundation of Nicomedeia is placed by Eusebius (l.c.) in B. C. 264. The duration of the reign of Nicomedes himself after this event is unknown, but his death is assigned with much probability by the Abbé Sevin (Mém. de l'Acad. des inscr. tom. xv. p. 34) to about the year B. C. 250. He had been twice married; by his first wife, Ditizela, a Phrygian by birth (who had been accidentally killed by a favourite dog belonging to the king), he had two sons, Prusias and Zielas, and a daughter, Lysandra; but his second wife, Etazeta, persuaded him to set aside his children by this former marriage, and leave his crown to her offspring. The latter were still infants at the time of his death, on which account he confided their guardianship by his will to the two kings, Antigonus Gonatas and Ptolemy, together with the free cities of Heracleia, Byzantium and Cius. But, notwithstanding this precaution, his son Zielas quickly established himself on the throne. [Zielas.] (Memnon. 100.22; Arrian ap. Tzetz. Chil. 3.960; Plin. Nat. 8.40 (61), who calls the first wife of Nicomedes, Consingis.) It is probably this Nicomedes who sought to purchase from the Cnidians the celebrated statue of Venus, by Praxiteles, by offering to remit the whole public debt of the city. (Plin. Nat. 7.39, 36.4.21.) [E.H.B]
II., surnamed Epiphanes, king of Bithynia, was son of Prusias II., and fourth in descent from the preceding. He is first mentioned as accompanying his father to Rome in B. C. 167, where they were favourably received by the senate (Liv. 45.44) At this time he must have been a mere child; but, as he grew up, the popularity of the young prince incurred the jealousy of Prusias, who, wishing to remove him out of the sight of the Bithynians, sent him to Rome as a kind of hostage. Here we find him in B. C. 155, supporting the ambassadors of Prusias, who were sent to defend that monarch against the complaints of Attalus II., king of Bithynia. (Plb. 32.26.) Nicomedes remained at Rome till B. C. . 49, and had, during his residence there, risen to a high place in the favour of the senate; but this only served to increase the suspicions and enmity of Prusias, who at length despatched Menas to Rome with an embassy to the senate, but with secret instructions to effect the assassination of the prince. But Menas, on finding the favour which Nicomedes enjoyed at Rome, instead of executing his instructions, divulged them to the prince himself, and in conjunction with Andronicus, the ambassador of Attalus, urged him to dethrone his father, who had rendered himself by his vices the object of universal contempt and hatred. Nicomedes readily listened to their suggestions, and departing secretly from Rome landed in Epeirus, where he openly assumed the title of king, and proceeded to the court of Attalus, who received him with open arms, and prepared to support his pretensions with an army Prusias, abandoned by his subjects, took refuge in the citadel of Nicaea, from whence he wrote to Rome to solicit the intervention of the senate. But, although three deputies were despatched by the Romans to investigate the matter, they ultimately retired without effecting anything. The inhabitants of Nicomedeia, where Prusias. had sought protection, opened the gates of the city to Nicomedes, and the old king was assassinated at the altar of Jupiter, by the express order of his son, B. C. 149. (Appian. Mithr. 4-7; Just. 34.4; Zonar. 9.28; Liv. Epit. 1.; Strab. xiii. p.624; Diod. xxxii. Exc. Pilot. p. 523, Exc. Vat. p. 92.)
Nicomedes retained, during a period of no less than fifty-eight years, the crown which he had thus gained by parricide. But of his long and tranquil reign very few events have been transmitted to us. He appears to have uniformly courted the friendship of the Romans, whom he assisted in the war against Aristonicus, B. C. 131. (Strab. xiv. p.646; Oros. 5.10; Eutrop. 4.20.) At a later period, B. C. 103, Marius applied to him for auxiliaries in the wav against the Cimbri, which he, however, refused on account of the exactions and oppressions exercised by the Roman farmers of the revenue upon his subjects. (Diod. xxxvi. Exc. Pilot. p. 531.) But it is clear that Nicomedes was not wanting in ambition when an opportunity of aggrandizement presented itself, and we find him uniting with Mithridates VI. (apparently about B. C. 102) in the conquest of Paphlagonia, the throne of which had been left vacant by the death of Pylaemenes. The Roman senate, indeed, quickly ordered the two kings to restore their new acquisition, but Nicomedes merely transferred the crown to one of his own sons, who had taken the name of Pylaemenes, and whom lie pretended to regard as the rightful heir. (Just. 37.4.) Not long after (about B. C. 96, see Clinton, vol. iii. p. 436), an opportunity seemed to offer itself of annexing Cappadocia also to his dominions, Laodice, the widow of Ariarathes VI., having thrown herself upon his protection in order to defend herself and her sons from the designs of Mithridates. Nicomedes (though he can hardly have been less than eighty years of age at this time) married Laodice, and established her in the possession of Cappadocia, from which, however, she was quickly again expelled by Mithridates. After the death of her two sons [Ariarathes] Nicomedes had the boldness to set up an impostor, whom he alleged to be a third son of Ariarathes VI., and even sent Laodice herself to Rome to bear witness in his favour. The senate, however, rejected his claim, as well as that of Mithridates; and while they compelled the latter to abandon Cappadocia, in order to preserve an appearance of fairness, they deprived Nicomedes also of Paphlagonia. (Just. 38.1, 2.) This is the last event recorded of his reign; his death must have taken place in or before B. C. 91. (Id. ib. 3; Clinton, vol. iii. p. 419.) There appears to be no foundation for the statement of some modern writers that he was murdered by his son, Socrates. (See Visconti, Iconogr. Grecrque. vol. ii. p. 188.) [E.H.B]
Prilopator, king of Bithynia, was the son of Nicomedes II., by his wife Nysa (Memnon, 100.30), though his enemy Mithridates VI. pretended that he was the son of a concubine, a female dancer (Just. 38.5.1). It was probably on this pretext that the latter set up against him his brother Socrates, surnamed the Good (ὁ Χρηστος), whom he persuaded to assume the title of king and the name of Niconiedes, and invade the territories of his brother at the head of an army furnished him by Mithridates. Nicomedes was unable to cope with a competitor thus supported, and was quickly driven out of Bithynia; but lie now had recourse to the protection of the Roman senate, who, it seems, had already ackowledged his. title to the throne, and who now immediately issued a decree for his restoration, the execution of which was confided to L. Cassius and M'. Aquilius. To this Mithridates did not venture to offer any open opposition, and Nicomedes was quietly reseated on the throne of his father, B. C. 90 (Appian, App. Mith. 7,10, 11, 13; Memnon, 100.30; Just. 38.3, 5; Liv. Epit. lxxiv.). But, not satisfied with this, the Roman deputies urged Nicomedes to make reprisals, by plundering excursions into the territories of Mithridates himself; and the king, however unwilling to provoke so powerful an adversary, was compelled to listen to their suggestions, in order to gratify the avarice of his Roman allies. Mithridates at first sent ambassadors to complain of these aggressions, but, as may be supposed, without effect. Thereupon lie assembled a large army, and prepared to invade Bithynia, B. C. 88. Nicomedes on his part gathered together a force of 50,000 foot and 6000 horse, with which he met the army of MIithridates under his generals Archelaus and Neoptolemus, at the river Amnius in Paphlagonia, but was totally defeated with great slaughter. The Roman officers, who had inconsiderately brought on this danger, without having a Roman army to support them, soon shared the same fate, and Nicomedes himself, after a vain attempt in conjunction with L. Cassius, to raise a fresh armny in Phrygia, abandoned the contest without farther struggle, and took refuge at Pergamus, from whence he soon after fled to Italy (Appian,. Mithr. 11-19; Memnon, 100.31; Just. 38.3; Liv. Epit. lxxvi.; Strab. xii. p.562). Here he was compelled to be a passive spectator of the contest between his victorious adversary the Romans; but in B. C. 84 the restoration of Nicomedes was one of the conditions of the peace concluded between Sulla and Mithridates, and C. Curio was deputed by the Roman general to reinstate the Bithynian monarch in the possession of his kingdom (App. Mith. 60; Plut. Sull. 22, 24; Memnon, 100.35; Liv. Epit. lxxxiii.). Nicomedes reigned nearly ten years after this second restoration, but of the events of this period we know nothing, and it was probably one of peace and prosperity. The only occasion on which his name is mentioned is in B. C. 81, when Caesar, then very young, was sent to him by the praetor M. Minucius Thermus, to obtain the assistance of the Bithynian fleet. The young man was received with the greatest favour by Nicomedes; and the intercourse between them gave rise to the most injurious suspicions, which were never afterwards forgotten by the enemies of Caesar (Suet. Jul. 2, 49; Plut. Caes. 1). Nicomedes died at the beginning of the year B. C. 74, and having no children, by his will bequeathed his kingdom to the Roman people. Mithridates, however, set up an impostor, whom he pretended to be the legitimate son of Nicomedes, and whose claims to the throne he prepared to support by arms. For the events that followed see Mithiridates. (Eutrop. 6.6; Liv. Epit. xciii.; App. Mith. 71; Epist. Mithr. ad Arsac. ap. Sall. Hist. iv. p. 239, ed. Gerlach.)
Great confusion has been made by many modern writers in regard to the later kings of Bithynia, and it has been frequently supposed that there were not three but four kings of the name of Nicomedes. It is, however, certain from Appian (App. Mith. 10), that Nicomedes III., who was expelled by Mithridates, was the grandson of Prusias II.; nor is there any reasonable doubt that he was the same who bequeathed his kingdom to the Romans, and was consequently the last king of Bithynia. A passage of Appian (App. Mith. 7) which seems to assert the contrary, is certainly either erroneous or corrupt; and Syncellns (p. 276c.), who reckons eight kings of Bithynia, beginning with Zipoetes, probably included Socrates, the brother of Nicomedes III., in his enumeration. (See on this subject Eckhel, vol. ii. pp. 444, 445; Visconti, Iconographie Grecque, vol. ii. p.191; Orelli, Onomast. Tull. p. 420; and Clinton, F. H. vol. iii. p. 418-420.)
Nicomedes III., as well as his father, takes on his coins the title of Epiphanes. They can be distinguished only by the difference of physiognomy, and by the dates, which refer to an era commencing B. C. 288, during the reign of Zipoetes [Zipoetes].
[E.H.B]
(Νικομήδης), literary.
1. A commentator on Orpheus. (Athen. 14.637a. b.)
2. Of Acanthus, quoted regarding the age of Perdiccas. (Ath. 5.217, d.)
3. A commentator on Heracleitus. (D. L. 9.15.)
4. The writer of annotations on the Ἀναλυτικὰ πρότερα of Aristotle, which exist in some libraries, but are unedited. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iii. p. 215.)
5. Of Pergamus, a rhetorician, and a pupil of Chrestus, flourished in the second century of the Christian era. (Philost. Vit. Soph. 2.11.)
6. Of Smyrna, a physician and epigrammatist. Brunck has inadvertently attributed to him eight epigrams that belong to Nicodemus. We have two epigrams written by him, both votive, and engraved on the same statue, which was one of Aesculapius, fabricated by the sculptor Boethus. The style proves that they were written long after the time of Boethus. Indeed the first epigram bears this expressly, χειρῶν δεῖγμα παλαιγενέων. We have also an epitaph on Nicomedes. (Anthol. Graec. vol. iii. p. 92, &c. x. p. 131, &c. xiii. p. 924. &c. ed. Jacobs.) [W.M.G]
(Νικομήδης). (1) Nicomēdes I., king of Bithynia, was the eldest son of Zipoetes, whom he succeeded, B.C. 278. With the aid of the Gauls, whom he invited into Asia, he defeated and put to death his brother Zipoetes, who had for some time held the independent sovereignty of a considerable part of Bithynia. The rest of his reign appears to have been undisturbed, and under his sway Bithynia rose to a high degree of power and prosperity. He founded the city of Nicomedia, which he made the capital of his kingdom. The length of his reign is uncertain, but he probably died about 250. He was succeeded by his son Zielas.
(2) Nicomēdes II., surnamed Epiphănes, king of Bithynia, reigned B.C. 149-91. He was the son and successor of Prusias II., and fourth in descent from the preceding. He was brought up at Rome, where he succeeded in gaining the favour of the Senate. Prusias, in consequence, became jealous of his son, and sent secret instructions for his assassination. The plot was revealed to Nicomedes, who thereupon returned to Asia, and declared open war against his father. Prusias was deserted by his subjects, and was put to death by order of his son, B.C. 149. Of the long and tranquil reign of Nicomedes, few events have been transmitted to us. He courted the friendship of the Romans, whom he assisted in the war against Aristonicus, 131. He subsequently obtained possession of Paphlagonia, and attempted to gain Cappadocia by marrying Laodicé, the widow of Ariarathes VI. He was, however, expelled from Cappadocia by Mithridates; and he was also compelled by the Romans to abandon Paphlagonia, when they deprived Mithridates of Cappadocia.
(3) Nicomēdes III., surnamed Philopator, king of Bithynia (B.C. 91-74), son and successor of Nicomedes II. Immediately after his accession, he was expelled by Mithridates, who set up against him his brother Socrates; but he was restored by the Romans in the following year (90). At the instigation of the Romans, Nicomedes now proceeded to attack the dominions of Mithridates, who expelled him a second time from his kingdom (88). This was the immediate occasion of the First Mithridatic War, at the conclusion of which (84) Nicomedes was again reinstated in his kingdom. He reigned nearly ten years after this second restoration. He died at the beginning of B.C. 74, and, having no children, by his will bequeathed his kingdom to the Roman people.
(4) A geometrician famous for the invention of the “conchoid curve,” much used by the ancients in solid geometry. See Ball's Short History of Mathematics, p. 78 (London, 1888).
- Paus. 4.14.8
- Paus. 1.29.15, Paus. 3.19.4, Paus. 4.31.12
- statue of: Paus. 5.12.7