Bithynia has come increasingly under the control of Rome, although the decade following the restoration of Nicomedes IV has been relatively peaceful.

Young Gaius Julius Caesar, sent in 80 BCE, to raise a fleet using Bithynia's resources, had dallied so long with the King that a rumor of a homosexual relationship had surfaced, leading to the disparaging title, "the Queen of Bithynia", an allegation of which Caesar's political enemies will make much use later in his life.

Nicomedes, like Attalus of Pergamon, bequeaths his entire kingdom to Romei n 74 BCE as one of his last acts as king of Bithynia.

The Roman Senate quickly votes it as a new province.

Rome's old enemy Mithridates VI has other plans for Bithynia, however, and Nicomedes’ death and bequest lead directly to the Third Mithridatic War.