page_title: İzmit
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: İzmit / History
caption_attribution_description: Türkçe: Kocaeli Arkeoloji ve Etnografya Müzesinde sergilenen ve İzmit'in Veliahmet Mahallesi'nde bulunan Sokrates büstü. Roma dönemine tarihlenen büst mermerden imal edilmiştir.
context_page_description: İzmit, known as Nicomedia in antiquity, is a district and the capital town of Kocaeli province, Turkey. It is located at the Gulf of İzmit in the Sea of Marmara, about 100 km east of Istanbul, on the northwestern part of Anatolia. The city center has a population of 300,611. The population of the province is 1,459,772. Unlike other provinces in Turkey, apart from Istanbul, the whole province is included within the municipality of the metropolitan center.
  Nicomedia was the eastern and most senior capital city of the Roman Empire between 286 and 324, during the Tetrarchy introduced by Diocletian. Following Constantine the Great's victory over co-emperor Licinius at the Battle of Chrysopolis in 324, Nicomedia served as an interim capital city for Nova Roma.
context_section_description: In Antiquity, the city in Greek was called Astacus or Olbia (founded 712 BC). After being destroyed, it was rebuilt and founded by Nicomedes I of Bithynia in 264 BC under the name of Nicomedia. It remained one of the most important cities in northwestern Asia Minor. Hannibal came to Nicomedia in his final years and committed suicide in nearby Libyssa (Gebze). The historian Arrian was born there. Nicomedia was the metropolis of Bithynia under the Roman Empire (see Nicaea), and Diocletian made it the eastern capital city of the Roman Empire in 286 when he introduced the Tetrarchy system.
  Nicomedia remained as the eastern (and most senior) capital of the Roman Empire until Licinius was defeated by Constantine the Great in 324. Constantine mainly resided in Nicomedia as his interim capital city for the next six years; until in 330 he declared the nearby Byzantium as Nova Roma, which eventually became known as Constantinople. Constantine died in a royal villa at the vicinity of Nicomedia in 337. Owing to its position at the convergence of the Asiatic roads leading to the new capital, Nicomedia retained its importance even after the foundation of Constantinople.
  At 451, the local bishopric was promoted to a Metropolitan see under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
  Until the late 11th century it was under Byzantine rule. Then it was captured by Seljuk Turks. Soon after it was returned to Byzantine sovereignty as a consequence of the successes of the First Crusade. After capture of Constantinople in 1204 the city, with most of the Bithynia province, became a part of the Latin Empire. It was recaptured by the Byzantines around 1235 and stayed in its borders until first half of the 14th century. The city was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1337. Byzantine rule renewed in 1402 but the Ottomans reconquered it in 1419. Under Ottoman rule, it was the capital of the Sanjak of Kocaeli.
  In the early 20th century, it remained the seat of a pasha, a Greek metropolitan, and an Armenian archbishop.
  İzmit was occupied by the United Kingdom on 6 July 1920 during the Turkish War of Independence. The British left it to Greece on 27 October 1920. İzmit was re-taken by the Turks on 28 June 1921. As of 1920, the British reported that the city had a population of about 13,000. In 1920–1921 atrocities where committed in the city and its surroundings during the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) against the civilian population. An Allied report (on 1 June 1921) stated that a large number of excesses were committed by both sides during the last year, while the Turkish atrocities in the Izmit peninsula "have been more considerable and ferocious than those on the part of the Greeks".
  The 7.6 Mw  earthquake of 17 August 1999 devastated the region with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). The shock killed more than 17,000 people and left half a million homeless. It took several years for the city to recover from this disaster, and remnants remain visible.
caption: Bust of Socrates in Kocaeli Museum
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "3120", "Image ImageLength": "4160", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "LG Electronics", "Image Model": "LG-D802", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2016:05:06 21:32:15", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "308", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[40, 45, 282119/5000]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[29, 54, 42929/1250]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSAltitude": "0", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[12, 17, 9]", "GPS GPSImgDirectionRef": "M", "GPS GPSImgDirection": "7", "GPS GPSProcessingMethod": "ASCII", "GPS GPSDate": "2016:04:29", "Image GPSInfo": "684", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1030", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6515", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/14", "EXIF FNumber": "12/5", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:04:29 15:17:16", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:04:29 15:17:16", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "92511/25000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "2526069/1000000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "397/100", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1544", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2272", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "652", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1"}