A CRITICAL VIEW ON THE ARGUMENTS OF STRABO AND PLINY ABOUT THE FOUNDATION OF PRUSA

Abstract

Prusa ad Olympum, a settlement in south Bithynia was not a remarkable city throughout
antiquity. It did not attract attention even its name is mentioned with the relentless enemy of
Roman Republic, Hannibal of Carthage. Our knowledge about how the city looked like is very
limited, if some orations of one of its citizens, Dion Chrysostomos are excluded. Very few
authors mention it with very few sentences. Some authors confuse it with other cities carrying
similar names, while others repeat what previous authors had written. Two authors, Strabo and
Pliny the Elder express genuine views on the foundation of Prusa but they claim different
founders and ages. According to Strabo it is founded by a Prusias who made war against
Croesus, king of Lydia, while Pliny said it to be founded by Hannibal, who took refuge to king
Prusias I of Bithynia. Since a founder named Prusias, contemporary of Croesus is unknown,
attempts have been made to correct Strabo’s sentence and Pliny is regarded as the correct
source for the foundation of Prusa. However to make a fair judgment it is necessary to analyse
the lives, styles, sources and historiography of two authors. Such an analysis leads to the
conclusion that Pliny's statements about Prusa should be approached more skeptically. He is
not considered as a reliable source on history and geography, the natural sciences sections of
his work attracted more attention. Since Plinius' credibility was seriously damaged, the
possibility that Prusa was founded in the 6th century BC should be reevaluated in the light of
new findings.

Authors

Alper Can

Keywords

Bithynia, Hannibal, city foundation, historiography, Prusias

Publication Information

Publication Date

June 24, 2022

Submission Date

March 22, 2022

Accepted Date

May 10, 2022

Volume

10

Issue

31

Year

2022

Pages

296-312

Language

Turkish

Status

Published

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0

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DOI

10.33692/avrasyad.1131692

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