Editing Cyzicus (section)

==History==

[[File:Naiskos_stele_Cyzicus_Louvre_Ma2854.jpg|left|thumb|275px|Marble, 2nd quarter of the 2nd century BC. From Cyzicus]]
[[File:Cyzicus_amphitheatre_15.jpg|left|thumb|275px|Cyzicus ruins in [[Turkey]]]]
[[File:MYSIA, Kyzikos. Circa 550-500 BC.jpg|thumb|275px|Coin of Kyzikos, Mysia. Circa 550–500 BC]]
[[File:Coin of Cyzicus minted in the Achaemenid Empire.jpg|thumb|275px|Coin of Cyzicus, minted in the [[Achaemenid Persian Empire]]. '''Obv''': bearded Persian archer, testing arrow held in right hand, left hand holding bow, seated on a [[tuna|tunny]]. '''Rev''': Quadripartite incuse square. According to some numismatists, the archer may represent [[Pharnabazus II]]. The representation of the archer later became the canonical form used on the ''drachms'' of the [[Parthian Empire]]]]
[[File:MYSIA, Kyzikos. Early–mid 4th centuries BC. Portrait of Timotheos.jpg|thumb|275px|[[Electrum]] stater of Cyzicus, mid 4th century BC. On the obverse is a possible portrait of [[Timotheus (general)|Timotheos]], wearing a victory wreath, with a tuna fish below.<ref>Leo Mildenberg, "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43580495 The Cyzicenes, a Reappraisal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181205062229/https://www.jstor.org/stable/43580495 |date=5 December 2018 }}", ''American Journal of Numismatics'', Vol. 5/6 (1993–94), pp. 1–12.</ref>]]
[[File:Mysia Kyzikos AR Tetradrachm LionsHead Pixodarus2D P631.xcf|alt=ancient Greek coin from Cyzicus|thumb|275x275px|Ancient Greek Coin from Cyzicus dated circa 390–341/0 BC]]

===Ancient===
The city was said to have been founded by [[Pelasgians]] from [[Thessaly]], according to tradition at the coming of the [[Argonauts]]; later it received many colonies from [[Miletus]], allegedly in 756 BC, but its importance began near the end of the [[Peloponnesian War]] when the conflict centered on the sea routes connecting Greece to the Black Sea. At this time, the cities of Athens and Miletus diminished in importance while Cyzicus began to prosper. Commander of the Athenian fleet [[Alcibiades]] defeated the Spartan fleet in a major naval engagement near Cyzicus known as the [[Battle of Cyzicus]] in 410 BC. Famed ancient philosopher [[Eudoxus of Cnidus]] established a school at Cyzicus and went with his pupils to Athens, visiting [[Plato]]. Later he returned to Anatolia to his hometown of [[Cnidus]], and died circa 350 BC.<ref>Florian Cajori, [[wikiquote:A History of Mathematics|''A History of Mathematics'']] (1893)</ref> The era of [[Olympiad]]s in Cyzicus was reckoned from 135 or 139.

Owing to its advantageous position it speedily acquired commercial importance, and the gold [[stater]]s of Cyzicus were a staple currency in the ancient world till they were superseded by those of [[Philip II of Macedon|Philip of Macedon]].{{sfn|Hasluck|1911}} Its unique and characteristic coin, the ''cyzicenus'', was worth 28 drachmae.
[[File:Cyzicus amphitheatre 10.jpg|thumb|Cyzicus amphitheatre]]

During the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) Cyzicus was subject to the [[Athens|Athenians]] and [[Lacedaemon]]ians alternately. In the naval [[Battle of Cyzicus]] in 410 during the [[Peloponnesian War]], an Athenian fleet routed and completely destroyed a Spartan fleet. At the peace of [[Antalcidas]] (387 BC), like the other Greek cities in Asia, it was made over to [[Achaemenid Empire|Persia]].{{sfn|Hasluck|1911}} [[Alexander the Great]] later captured it from the Persians in 334 BC and was later claimed to be responsible for connecting the island to the mainland.

The history of the town in [[Hellenistic]] times is closely connected with that of the [[Attalid dynasty|Attalids]] of [[Pergamon]], with whose extinction it came into direct relations with [[Ancient Rome|Rome]]. Cyzicus was held for the Romans against King [[Mithridates VI of Pontus]] who besieged it with 300,000 men in 74 BC, the [[Siege of Cyzicus]], but it withstood him stoutly, and the siege was raised by [[Lucullus]]: the loyalty of the city was rewarded by an extension of territory and other privileges.{{sfn|Hasluck|1911}} The Romans favored it and recognized its municipal independence. Cyzicus was the leading city of Northern [[Mysia]] as far as [[Troad|Troas]].
[[Image:Mysia map ancient community.jpg|thumb|250px|Cyzicus was a town of Mysia]]

Under [[Tiberius]], it was incorporated into the [[Roman Empire]] but remained the capital of [[Mysia]] (afterwards, [[Hellespontus (province)|Hellespontus]]) and became one of the great cities of the ancient world.

There was a women's cult at Cyzicus worshiping the goddess [[Artemis]], which was called Dolon (Δόλων).<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-entries/delta/1345 |title=Suda, delta, 1345 |access-date=9 September 2021 |archive-date=23 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723165923/https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-entries/delta/1345 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Medieval===
Cyzicus was [[First Arab Siege of Constantinople|captured temporarily]] by the Arabs led by [[Muawiyah I]] in AD 675. It appears to have been ruined by a series of earthquakes beginning in 443, with the last in 1063. Although its population was transferred to [[Artake]] before the 13th century when the peninsula was occupied by the [[Fourth Crusade|Crusaders]],{{sfn|Hasluck|1911}} in 1324 the metropolitan of Cyzicus was one of three sees in Anatolia which was able to contribute a temporary annual subsidy to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Following its conquest by the Ottomans it underwent hard times. From a point between 1370 and 1372 until 1387, the metropolitan was empty; Speros Vryonis speculates this was due to financial difficulties. Later in the 14th century, the sees of [[Chalcedon]] and certain patriarchal possessions in Bithynia and Hellespont were bestowed on the metropolitan of Cyzicus.<ref>Vryonis, ''The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamization from the Eleventh through the Fifteenth Century'' (Berkeley: University of California, 1971), pp. 299f</ref>

In the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman era]], it was part of the [[kaza of Erdek]] in the [[Brusa Vilayet|province of Brusa]].