Izmit

• Izmit is a port city located on the southern coast of the Sea of Marmara, and is the capital of the Kocaeli Pronce in northwestern Turkey. It was known in Classical Antiquity as Nicomedia.
• It became part of the Roman empire in 74 BCE and was the capital of the Province of Bithynia.

History

• It was an important City located opposite nearby Byzantium, on a crossroads of Trade Routes between East and West.
• Nicomedia briefly became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire between 283-330 CE under the Reforms by Diocletian.
• Constantine I continued to use Nicomedia as the Capital of the Eastern Roman Empire between 324-330 CE, until Byzantium was ready to become the new capital.

Roman Sites

• Diocletian's Palace at Nicomedia
  • Very little remains to be seen of the Palace.

Museums

• Kocaeli Museum
  • The Museum is also known as the Kocaeli Archeology and Ethnography Museum or the Izmit Museum.
  • It is located at Demiryolu Caddedi, Kemalpasa, Kocaeli.
  • The museum holds Finds from the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Periods.

Roman Roads

• Northern coastal road
  • Chalcedon–Byzantium–Nicomedia-Heraclea-Sinope-Trabzon
• A central road
  • Chalcedon–Nicomedia–NIcaea–Ankara-then onto the frontier Fortresses in the East.

Nicomedia (Izmit), Turkey