Nicaea [key], city of Bithnyia, N Asia Minor, built in the 4th cent. b.c. by Antigonus I as Antigonia and renamed Nicaea by Lysimachus for his wife. It flourished under the Romans. It was the scene of the ecumenical council called in a.d. 325 by Constantine I, and a second council held there in 787 sanctioned the devotional use of images (see Nicaea, First Council of and Nicaea, Second Council of). The city, captured by the Turks in 1078 and by the Crusaders in 1097 (see also Nicaea, empire of), passed finally to the Turks in 1330. It is sometimes called Nice. The modern İznik, Turkey, is on the site.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Ancient History, Middle East
