IV. The Kingdom of Thrace, and Bithynia, &c.

This fourth kingdom, composed of several separate provinces very remote
from one another, had not any succession of princes, and did not long
subsist in its first condition; Lysimachus, who first obtained it, having
been killed in a battle after a reign of twenty years, and all his family
being exterminated by assassinations, his dominions were dismembered, and
no longer constituted one kingdom.

Beside the provinces which were divided among the captains of Alexander,
there were others which had been either formed before, or were then
erected into different states, independent of the Greeks, whose power
greatly increased in process of time.

Kings of Bithynia

(M38) Whilst Alexander was extending his conquests in the east, Zypethes
had laid the foundations of the kingdom of Bithynia. It is not certain who
this Zypethes was, unless that Pausanias,(246) from his name, conjectures
that he was a Thracian. His successors, however, are better known.

(M39) Nicomedes I. This prince invited the Gauls to assist him against his
brother, with whom he was engaged in a war.

Prusias I.

(M40) Prusias II., surnamed the Hunter, in whose court Hannibal took
refuge, and assisted him with his counsels, in his war against Eumenes II.
king of Pergamus.

Nicomedes II. was killed by his son Socrates.

Nicomedes III. was assisted by the Romans in his wars with Mithridates,
and bequeathed to them at his death the kingdom of Bithynia, as a
testimonial of his gratitude to them; by which means these territories
became a Roman province.

Kings of Pergamus

This kingdom at first comprehended only one of the smallest provinces of
Mysia, on the coast of the AEgean sea, over-against the island of Lesbos.

(M41) It was founded by Philetaerus, an eunuch, who had served under
Docimus, a commander of the troops of Antigonus. Lysimachus confided to
him the treasures he had deposited in the castle of the city of Pergamus,
and he became master both of these and the city after the death of that
prince. He governed this little sovereignty for the space of twenty years,
and then left it to Eumenes his nephew.

(M42) Eumenes I. enlarged his principality, by the addition of several
cities, which he took from the kings of Syria, having defeated Antiochus,
the son of Seleucus, in a battle. He reigned twenty-two years.

(M43) He was succeeded by Attalus I., his cousin-german, who ass