Cyzicus, a great free Greek city on the Sea of Marmara, on an island connected to the mainland of Asia Minor. Its successful resistance to Mithridates in the long siege of 73-72 BC, broken by Lucullus, made it a famous Roman ally; its statuary was admired (Verr. 2.4.135) and its civic records were a model of orderly government (Pro lege Manilia 20; Pro Archia 21).