Prusias
（
Προυσίας).
1.
I. King of Bithynia from about B.C. 228 to 180, though the date neither of his accession
nor of his death is exactly known. He was the son of Zielas, whom he succeeded. He appears to
have been a monarch of vigour and ability, and raised his kingdom of Bithynia to a much
higher pitch of power and prosperity than it had previously attained. It was at his court
that Hannibal took refuge; and when the Romans demanded the surrender of the Carthaginian
general, the king basely gave his consent, and Hannibal only escaped falling into the hands
of his enemies by a voluntary death.
2.
II. King of Bithynia, son and successor of the preceding, reigned from about B.C. 180 to
149. He courted assiduously the alliance of the Romans. He carried on war with Attalus, king
of Pergamus, with whom, however, he was compelled by the Romans to conclude peace in 154. He
was slain in 149 by order of his son Nicomedes, as is related in the life of the latter. (See
Nicomedes II.) Prusias is described to us as a
man in whom personal deformity was combined with a character the most vicious and degraded.
His passion for the chase is attested by the epithet of the “Huntsman”
(
Κυνηγός) given to him (Polyb. xxiv. 1).
