Bithynia

Bithynia, ancient country of Asia Minor, in what is now Turkey. The Persians conquered Bithynia in the 600s B.C., but the country became independent after Alexander the Great's destruction of the Persian empire. Bithynia was independent from the 3rd century B.C. until 74 B.C. when Rome annexed it. It declined in the 2nd century A.D.