ASIA
MINOR
Asia
Minor Maps :
![](89848-004-84A9402B.gif)
![](650px-Byzantine_Empire_Themata-750-en.svg.jpg)
![](AsiaMinor-map.jpg)
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.
In
the ancient world, Asia Minor was the seat of the kingdoms and cities
of :
•
Thrace
• Bithynia
• Paphlagonia
• Aeloia
• Phrygia
• Galicia
• Pontus
• Armenia
• Urartu
• Assyria
• Cilicia
• Pamphylia
• Lycia
• Pisidia
• Lycaonia
• Caria
• Mysia
• Ionia
• Lydia
• Troy
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.
![](807.jpg)
Lydian
silver stater from the reign of Croesus, 560 - 546 BCE. O: Foreparts
of a lion and ox. (R: Two incuse squares). By Mark Cartwright (CC
BY-NC-SA)
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.
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.
![](691.jpg)
Library
of Celsus, Ephesus by Mark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA)
Completed
in 117 CE, the Library of Celsus at Ephesus was ordered built by
Tiberius Julius Acquila in memory of his father Tiberius Julius
Celsus Polemaeanus, proconsul (governor) of the Asian province c.
105 to 114 CE.
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 Byzantine
Empire 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.
Source
:
https://www.ancient.eu/
Asia_Minor/