MYSIA mĭsh’ ĭ ə (Μύσια). A region in western Asia Minor bounded by the Aegean, the Hellespont, the Propontis, Bithynia, Phrygia and Lydia, including the historic Troas and the areas of Aeolian Gr. settlement on the Aegean coast. In Gr. times it shared the fortunes of the western stub of the peninsula, fell to the Romans in 133 b.c. as part of the royal legacy of Attalus III, and in Rom. days was part of the province of Asia. This is why Mysia, never itself an independent political entity, lacks precise boundaries. It was a mountainous and, in early times, well-forested region, traversed by some of the main trade routes. The Troas area was part of Mysia, and Pergamum itself lay within its somewhat vague boundaries. The early inhabitants of Mysia were prob. of Thracian origin. Like the Trojans, who held their strategic foothold in Mysia near the entrance to the Hellespont, and the Hittites, whose great empire at times held dominance this far, they prob. were an Indo-European stock, an early wave of the great invasions of the peoples who, with their kindred dialects, were to settle all Europe. Mysia was traversed by Paul in the course of his second journey (Acts 16:7, 8), but no pause was made there save at Troas. There is evidence, however, of church foundations of a very early date.