Xenia (Greek) in the context of "Ctesippus"

Bithynia and Pontus (Latin: Provincia Bithynia et Pontus; Ancient Greek: Ἐπαρχία Βιθυνίας καὶ Πόντου, romanized: Eparkhía Bithynías kaì Póntou) was the name of a province of the Roman Empire on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). It was formed during the late Roman Republic by the amalgamation of the former kingdoms of Bithynia (made a province by Rome 74 BC) and Pontus (annexed to Bithynia 74 BC). The amalgamation was part of a wider conquest of Anatolia and its reduction to Roman provinces.

In 74 BC, Nicomedes IV of Bithynia willed his kingdom to the Romans, whom he hoped would defend it against its old enemy, Pontus. Due to the influence of Julius Caesar, then a young man and a guest-friend of Nicomedes, and an impassioned speech by the deceased king's sister Nysa before the Senate, the gift was accepted. Contemporary Rome was divided into two parties, the Populares, party of the "people," and the Optimates, party of the "best." The guest-friendship had been offered to Caesar, a popular, to save his life by keeping him from Rome during a proscription (a kind of witch-hunt) by Sulla, an optimate in power. Forever after Caesar had to endure scurrilous optimate slander about his relationship to Nicomedes, but Bithynia became a favored project of the populares.

Xenos (from Ancient Greek ξένος (xénos); pl. xenoi) is a word used in the Greek language from Homer onwards. The most standard definition is 'stranger'. However, the word itself can be interpreted to mean different things based upon context, author and period of writing/speaking, signifying such divergent concepts as 'enemy' or 'stranger', a particular hostile interpretation, all the way to 'guest friend', one of the most hallowed concepts in the cultural rules of Greek hospitality.