Asia, ancient Roman province, the first and westernmost Roman province in Asia Minor, stretching at its. The provincial assembly, called the koinon of Asia, to which the cities sent representatives, was already active during the late republic.
The district of Asia Minor, or Anatolia of the Greek World, is among the first cradles of human civilization. Some of the earliest Neolithic settlements in the Middle East have been found in Asia Minor.Early in its history, it was home to one of the most advanced and powerful civilizations prior to the Bronze Age. The Hittites ruled the region from approximately 1900 to 1200 BC. Toward the end of this period, Asia Minor was swept by the Phyrgians and the Hittite Empire was destroyed. The city of Troy, legendary in Greek epics and mythology, likely fell in this time period.The semi-mythical, semi-historical King Croesus ruled from the throne of Lydia in the mid 6th century BC. He brought the Greek colonies of the region under his control, but was later removed from power by the Persian King Cyrus.
In the period between this Persian take-over and the conquests of Alexander the Great, Asia Minor was a battleground for Greek and Persian dominance. Legendary names like Darius, Miltiades and Xerxes all played major roles in the shaping of Asia Minor as it passed back and forth from Greek to Persian rule.Alexander the Great launched his great expedition to the east in 334 BC and quickly established Macedonian rule in Asia Minor.
His campaigns brought the entire Middle East under his rule, but his successes were cut short by illness. Within 10 years of the beginning of his conquests, he died of fever, and the lack of heirs broke his fledgling empire into several pieces. The eastern section of Asia Minor's governing fell to Seleucus and his Seleucid Dynasty, which would remain intact until the Romans interfered some 2 centuries later. Migrating Celtic tribes settling the coastal regions and wars with the Parthians challenged the rule of these Syrian Kings, but it was their own aggressiveness which brought about their undoing.In the west, the Kingdom of Pergamum was established in the early 3rd century BC by Philetairos. Later Kings, Eumanes and Attales, established relationships with the expanding Roman Republic and defended the territory from the Seleucids. In 196 BC, attempting to expand his own empire, the Seleucid King Antiochus III moved through Asia Minor and crossed the Hellespont planning to conquer Thrace.Rome was occupied and expanding into Macedonia, and the Greeks of Achaea, fearful of conquest, welcomed Syrian interference.
Other neighbors and enemies of the Seleucids, such as the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Kingdom of Pergamum pleaded with Rome to stop the invasion and Rome, using its tried and true method of conquering when asked for help, was all too happy to oblige. Ignoring the advice to invade Italy from Carthaginian ally Hannibal, who had recently been utterly defeated, Antiochus pressed into Achaean territories. The Romans, under Manius Glabrio crushed his army in 191 BC at the historic battle site of Thermopylae. The Syrians were forced to abandon Greece and returned to Asia Minor in an attempt to spread their control of that area.
The following year, Roman ally, King Eumenes II of Pergamum, found himself under siege and called for the Romans to help. The Romans under Lucius Cornelius Scipio, and the famed Publius Scipio Africanus had already crossed into Asia, for the first time, and moved against Antiochus. In 190 BC, the battle was joined at Magnesia and the Syrians were routed once again.The ancients paint a ridiculously overwhelming picture of the victory with Antiochus' losses at 50,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry, 15 elephants and 1,400 captured. Conversely, Roman losses were said to be only 300 infantry and 49 cavalry. Regardless of biased accuracy, the Battle of Magnesia decimated the plans of Antiochus and within 2 years, 188 BC, the entire territory of Asia Minor would be surrendered to Rome and placed under the control of Pergamum.Over the course of the next 50 years, Rome's bond with Pergamum grew stronger. In 133 BC, King Attalus III, having no heirs to succeed him, willed his kingdom to Rome, opening Asia Minor to the Roman control. The city, however, remained an independent in many regards, but gradual annexation of the neighboring territories caused fear among the inhabitants and would lead to eventual revolt.
Led by Mithradates VI of Pontus, the Pergamenes joined him against Rome in a final effort for independence. He ravaged Roman properties and slaughtered colonists throughout the region. He also moved into Greece with visions of re-establishing an Alexandrian Empire while Rome was pre-occupied with internal fighting between Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla.Rome, however, was never too pre-occupied with internal rivals to extend her dominance over foreign foes. Between 88 and 84 BC, Sulla defeated Mithradates in the first Mithraditic war, followed by Lucullus in 83 BC. By 74 BC, unwilling to accept defeat, Mithradates was back at war with Rome, and this time it was Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus who led the legions.
In 63 BC, Pompey finalized the defeat of Pontus incorporating or reestablishing control of Asia Minor, Syria, Bythnia et Pontus, Cilicia, Galatia and Cappadocia, Lycia et Pamphylia and the vassal state of Armenia, into the ever growing Roman Empire.Asia Minor was now a permanent province of Rome and would remain so long after the fall of the west. With the reign of Augustus the 'Pax Romana' was never more evident than it was in this region. The new Roman province of Asia Minor was a land of prosperity and highly defined culture. Already heavily Hellenized in the Greek custom, with Persian artistic influence, Roman civilization in the east thrived and culminated in Asia. Fantastic building projects spread throughout cities like Pergamum and Ephesus and today Western Turkey is home to some of the best preserved and remarkable Roman ruins.The Acropolis of Pergamum, modeled after that in Athens, the Altar of Zeus, the theatre of Pergamum and the Palace of Ephesus are just a few examples of Roman and Greek combined achievement. Asia Minor, too, was home to a magnificent library rivaling even that of Alexandria.In 326 AD, the Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Empire from Rome to Byzantium, later renamed Constantinople and had a highly profound effect.
Christianity had already become deeply rooted here, and the moving of the capital, along with inclusion of Christianity into Roman religion, made Asia Minor an even more important cultural hub. The province was the center of Roman and Hellenized culture in the east for centuries, and the territory remained part of the Byzantine Empire until the 15th century AD.
Ancient Asia Minor is a geographic region located in the south-western part of Asia comprising most of what is present-day Turkey. The earliest reference to the region comes from tablets of the Akkadian Dynasty (2334-2083 BCE) where it is known as 'The Land of the Hatti' and was inhabited by the Hittites. The Hittites themselves referred to the land as 'Assuwa' (or, earlier, Aswiya) which actually only designated the area around the delta of the river Cayster but came to be applied to the entire region. Assuwa is considered the Bronze Age origin for the name 'Asia' as the Romans later designated the area. It was called, by the Greeks, 'Anatolia' (literally, 'place of the rising sun', for those lands to the east of Greece).
Name & Regions
The name 'Asia Minor' (from the Greek 'Mikra Asia' - Little Asia) was first coined by the Christian historian Orosius (c. 375-418 CE) in his work Seven Books of History Against the Pagans in 400 CE to differentiate the main of Asia from that region which had been evangelized by Paul the Apostle (which included sites known from Paul’s Epistles in the Bible such as Ephesus and Galicia). The Byzantine Empire of the 9th century CE referred to the region as 'East Thema' which meant, simply, Eastern Administrative Division, and later sailors called it 'The Levant' which meant 'the rising' or 'to rise' referring to how the land rose up out on the horizon of the sea.
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In the ancient world, Asia Minor was the seat of the kingdoms and cities of:
- Thrace
- Bithynia
- Paphlagonia
- Aeloia
- Galicia
- Pontus
- Pamphylia
- Pisidia
- Lycaonia
- Caria
- Mysia
Asia Minor boasted some of the most famous people, places & events in ancient history.
Famous Sites & People
The accomplishments and advancements of the people of Asia Minor are vast and comprise a catalogue of some of the most famous people, places, and events in ancient history. According to the historian Philo of Byzantium (writing in 225 BCE) and later writers, Asia Minor was the site of two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (in the region of Ionia) and the Tomb of Mauslos at Halicarnassus (also known as The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, in Caria). In the city of Miletus, in Ionia, the first western philosopher Thales, and his followers Anaximander and Anaximenes, sought the First Cause of existence, the matter which gave birth to all things, and initiated scientific inquiry and method. Herodotus, the 'Father of History' was born at Halicarnassus. The great philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras was born on the island of Samos and Heraclitus, another important figure of Greek philosophy, at Ephesus, where he lived and wrote. Cilicia included the city of Tarsus where the Apostle Paul was born, a region known for its expertise in tent making, which was Paul’s vocation.
Mythology & History
Lydia was the kingdom of the great King Croesus who defied the Persian Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great and claimed to be the happiest man in the world until his defeat and capture by the Persians. Lydia was also the site where, in Greek mythology, the Titan called Asia lived and, earlier, where the great mother goddess Potnia Aswiya (Mistress of Assuwa) was worshipped (who became Artemis and whose great temple was dedicated in the capital of Lydia, at Ephesus). Phrygia was the mythological birthplace of Rhea, the Greek Mother of the Gods and the City of Troy was made famous in Homer’s 8th-century BCE works the Iliad and the Odyssey. The region of Asia Minor is regarded as the birthplace of coinage and the first to use coined money in trade; which of the kingdoms were the first to do this, however, is much disputed.
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Greek colonists settled the coastline of Asia Minor from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea.
Between 1250 and 1200 BCE the Sea Peoples invaded from the south, making incursions into Greece, harassing Egypt, and finally driving the Hittites from the region of Assuwa. The Sea Peoples did not remain to colonize the area, however (at least not to any important degree) and eventually moved on to settle, in part, to the south in Canaan. Greek colonists, mainly from Athens and surrounding Attica, settled the coastline of Asia Minor from the Mediterranean up to the Black Sea. It was these Ionian colonies which, supported and funded by Athens and Eretria, rose in revolt when the area came under Persian control, provoking the wrath of the Persian king Darius I and the first invasion of Greece in 490 BCE which was repelled at the Battle of Marathon.
Alexander the Great defeated the Persians in 334-333 BCE and conquered Asia Minor. In Gordium, capital of Phrygia, he is claimed to have famously cut the Gordian Knot which the oracles claimed meant Alexander would be king of Asia. Following his death, the land was governed by his general Antigonus I in the north and west and his other general Seleucus I Nicator to the south and east and was prominently involved in the Wars of the Diadochi (the wars of Alexander's successors). The region remained unstable throughout the rule of the Hellenistic governors until the coming of Rome in 133 BCE (King Attalus III of Pergamon left his city the Roman Republic in his will and thus invited the Roman presence into the region). After 133 BCE, Rome steadily conquered or annexed the cities of Asia Minor until it was wholly a Roman province.
Under Roman rule, the land became stabilized; roads were built and the infrastructures of many of the cities improved. The coastal communities flourished and Ephesus, especially, enjoyed great prosperity until the rise of Christianity when 'earthly' advances in the region were neglected in anticipation of the Second Coming of Christ. The ByzantineEmpire controlled the region after the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 CE and, after the rise of Islam, the later Byzantine Christians fought the Islamic Caliphates for the land until the coming of the Seljuq Turks in 1068 CE. Turkish control increased in the region until 1299 CE when Asia Minor became part of the Ottoman Empire and, after its collapse, became Turkey.
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