The Bithyni originally lived in the area of the lower Strymon river,[1] due to which the ancient Greeks claimed that they were originally called the Strymoni (
Ancient Greek: Στρυμονιοι,
romanized: Strymonioi;
Latin: Strymonii).[2]
Around
c. 700 BC, the Paeonians displaced the Bithynians in the Strymon valley, after which they Bithyni migrated eastwards, and crossed the
Thracian Bosporus and settled in northwestern Anatolia, where they assimilated the
Phrygians and the
Bebryces, with the region becoming known as
Bithynia after them.[3][1] The
Dolonci tribe, who lived in the
Thracian Chersonese and whom Greek mythology claimed were related to the Bithyni,[4] might have been remnants of the Bithyni who were left behind on the European side of the Thracian Bosporus.[5]
By the mid-6th century BC, the Bithyni had come under the rule of the
Lydian empire,[6] after which it became part of the Persian
Achaemenid Empire when
Cyrus II annexed Lydia.[7]
Culture
The Bithyni used the round
peltē shield in warfare.[8]