Nicaea

Nicaea (nīsē`ə), city of Bithnyia, N Asia Minor, built in the 4th cent. B.C. by Antigonus I as Antigonia and renamed Nicaea by Lysimachus for his wife. It flourished under the Romans and was the scene of the ecumenical council called in A.D. 325 by Constantine I. Another council held in 787 sanctioned the devotional use of images. The city, captured by the Turks in 1078 and by the Crusaders in 1097, passed finally to the Turks in 1330. It is sometimes called Nice. The modern Iznik, Turkey, is on the site.

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Nicaea

Independent principality (1204–61) of the fragmented Byzantine Empire. Founded in 1204 by Theodore I Lascaris, it was the political and cultural centre from which a restored Byzantium arose in the mid-13th century under Michael VIII Palaeologus. It extended from the Black Sea coast east of the Sangarius River southwest across western Anatolia to Miletus and the Menderes (Maeander) River. It became a centre of Greek education, especially under Theodore II Lascaris, who founded an imperial school. It declined after 1261, when Michael VIII regained the Byzantine capital of Constantinople.

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Nicaea

an ancient city in NW Asia Minor, in Bithynia: site of the first council of Nicaea (325 ad), which composed the Nicene Creed