Nicaea

(still working on it)

Nicaea (now Iznik) is a city in Asia Minor (now part of Turkey) which is known primarily as the site of two major meetings (or Ecumenical councils) in the early history of the Christian church.

Description

The city lies in a fertile basin at the eastern end of the Ascanion Lake, bounded by ranges of hills to the north and south. It is situated with its west wall rising from the lake itself, providing both protection from siege from that direction, as well as a source of supplies which would be difficult to cut off. The lake is large enough that it cannot be blockaded from the land easily, and the city was large enough to make any attempt to interdict the boats from shore-based siege weapons very difficult.

The city is surrounded on all sides by 5km of walls about 10m high. These are in turn surrounded by a double ditch on the land portions, and also include over 100 towers in various locations. Large gates on the three landbound sides of the walls provide the only entrance to the city.

Today the walls are pierced in many places for roads, but much of the early work survives and as a result it is a major tourist destination. The town has a population of just over 45,000.

History

Nicaea was originally founded in the 4th century BC by the Macedonian king Antigonus, who had taken control of much of Asia Minor upon the death of Alexander the Great (under whom he served as a general). Several other of Alexander generals (known together as the Diadochi) later conspired to remove Antigonus, and after defeating him the area was given to Lysimachus in 301BC as his share of the lands. He renamed it Nicaea, in tribute to to his wife.

The city was built on an important crossroads between Galatia and Phrygia, and thus saw steady trade. It appears to have lost some of its importance during the early Roman era a few hundred years later, but this changed dramatically with the split of the empire into west and east. The eastern half, better known as the Byzantine Empire, made the city an important defensive stop to the south of Constantinople. Much of the existing architechture and defensive works date to this time, around 300-350AD. Major earthquakes struck in 358, 362 and 368, ruining much of the early city.

It was during this time that the early Christian leaders met in Nicaea in 325AD under the direction of Constantine, in what would later be known as the First Council of Nicaea, the first of many Ecumenical councils. They met to consider the issues of Arianism, resulting in the current concept of the Trinity and the creation of the Nicene Creed. The church of Haghia Sophia was built by Justinian in the middle of the city in the 6th century, and it was there that the Second Council of Nicaea met in 787AD to discuss the issues of iconography.

The city saw a long period of peace under Byzantine rule, which lasted until the rise of the Seljuk Turks. In 1077AD they took the city, which exchanged hands several times in the next year until it was firmly in their control by 1078. This event was instrumental in starting the First Crusade, and armies from Europe along with smaller units from Byzantine later converged on the city in 1097. After the European armies laid seige to the city and penetrated the walls, they were surprised to awake the next morning to see the Greek flags of the Byzantine's flying over the city.

Constantinople later fell to the Europeans in the Fourth Crusade, which led to the creation of several successor states, including Epirus and Trebizond. However it was Nicaea that formed the core of the original empire, and in 1261 the controlling Palaeologian dynasty re-took Constantinople and re-formed the Byzantine Empire.