History of Anatolia

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The

Republic of Turkey
.

Prehistory

Mediterranean region
of Turkey
Göbekli Tepe, Şanlıurfa.
Wall painting of a bull, deer and man from Çatalhöyük; 6th millennium BCE; reconstruction in their original positions of the bull's heads and the human relief-figure; Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara.

historical sources related to the territory of Anatolia (c. 2000 BCE). In 2014, a stone tool was found in the Gediz River that was dated with certainty to 1.2 million years ago.[1] The 27,000 years old homo sapiens footprints of Kula[2] and Karain Cave are samples for human existence in Anatolia, in this period. Because of its strategic location at the intersection of Asia and Europe, Anatolia has been the center of several civilizations since prehistoric times. Neolithic settlements include Çatalhöyük, Çayönü, Nevalı Çori, Hacılar, Göbekli Tepe, and Mersin
.

Ancient Anatolia

Early Bronze Age

Bronze metallurgy spread to Anatolia from the Transcaucasian

Gutians.[6]

Middle Bronze Age

The

Kanesh uses an advanced system of trading computations and credit lines.[4]

The

Hattusili I
(17th century BCE).

The Anatolian Middle Bronze Age influenced the

Late Bronze Age

The Sphinx Gate (Alaca Höyük, Turkey)

The Hittite Empire was at its height in the 14th century BCE, encompassing central Anatolia, north-western

Hatti from Syria, thereby greatly affecting trade routes. The peace was kept in accordance with both empires through treaties that established boundaries of control. It was not until the reign of the Hittite king Šuppiluliuma II that Kizzuwatna was fully taken over, and the Hittites still preserved their cultural accomplishments in Kummanni (now Şar, Turkey) and Lazawantiya, north of Cilicia.[8]

After the 1180s BCE, amid general turmoil in the

cuneiform
texts found in the area of their empire, and from diplomatic and commercial correspondence found in various archives in Egypt and the Middle East.

Iron Age

Phrygia at the height of its power and Assyria, 9th–7th century BCE.

Beginning with the

Mycenaean Greeks. Over several centuries, numerous Ancient Greek city-states were established on the coasts of Anatolia. Greeks started Western philosophy on the western coast of Anatolia (Pre-Socratic philosophy).[9]

Hittite drinking cup in the shape of a fist; 1400–1380 BCE.

The

Assyrians, the Phrygian people lacked central control in their style of government, and yet established an extensive network of roads. They also held tightly onto a lot of the Hittite facets of culture and adapted them over time.[10]

Shrouded in myth and legend[

King Midas in 696 BCE.[11]

Maeonia and the Lydian Kingdom

Silver Croeseid, minted by King Croesus, circa 560–546 BCE in Lydia. The gold and silver Croeseids formed the world's first bimetallic monetary system c. 550 BCE.
The statue of the river god Kaystros with a cornucopia in İzmir Museum of History and Art at Kültürpark, İzmir, historically known as Smyrna

Cyrus II in 546 BCE.[12]

Classical Anatolia

Achaemenid Empire

Hecatomnus coin, Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology, Bodrum, Turkey.
The archaeological site of Sardis, today known as Sart in Turkey.
The ruins of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus in Bodrum, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Apollo statue from Miletus in Istanbul Archaeology Museums.

By 550 BCE, the

Persian king Cyrus the Great. In the end, Croesus was thrust back west and Cyrus burned the Lydian capital Sardis, taking control of Lydia in 546 BCE.[13]

The remaining kingdom of

Persian domination, and prepared defenses to fight them and sending for aid from Sparta. Since no aid was promised except for a warning to Cyrus from their emissary, eventually their stance was abandoned and they submitted, or they fled as in citizens from Phocaea to Corsica or citizens from Teos to Abdera in Thrace.[14]

The

Darius so much that he swore revenge upon Athens. This event brought down the hammer upon Aristagoras as the Persian army swept through Ionia, re-taking city by city. It was the eventual Battle of Lade outside Miletus in 494 BCE that put an end to the Ionian Revolt once and for all.[15]

Although the

Athenian Greece. Mausolus did not live to see his plans realized fully, and his position went to his widow Artemisia. The local control over Caria remained in Hecatomnus's family for another 20 years before the arrival of Alexander the Great.[16]

Hellenistic Anatolia

Alexander before the Battle of Issus, the best representation of his likeness
Marble head of a goddess, found in the Hadrianic Baths of Aphrodisias, 2nd century CE.

Alexander the Great

In 336 BCE, King

Issus in search of Alexander. At this moment, Alexander realized that the terrain favored his smaller army, and the Battle of Issus began. Darius's army was effectively squeezed by the Macedonians, leading to not only an embarrassing defeat for Darius, but that he fled back across the Euphrates river, leaving the rest of his family in Alexander's hands. Thus, Anatolia was freed from the Persian yoke for good.[17]

Wars of the Diadochi and division of Alexander's empire

The Sebasteion of Aphrodisias

In June 323 BCE,

Macedon, putting all he had worked for at risk. Being that his half-brother Arrhidaeus was unable to rule effectively due to a serious disability, a succession of wars over the rights to his conquests were fought known as the Wars of the Diadochi. Perdiccas, a high-ranking officer of the cavalry, and later Antigonus, the Phrygian satrap, prevailed over the other contenders of Alexander's empire in Asia for a time.[18]

Ptolemaic Empire; Lysimachus controlled western Anatolia and Thrace, while Seleucus claimed the rest of Anatolia as the Seleucid Empire. Only the kingdom of Pontus under Mithridates I managed to gain their independence in Anatolia due to the fact that Antigonus had been a common enemy.[19]

Seleucid Empire

Seleucus I Nicator, namesake of the Seleucid Empire

Macedon, in Lysimachia.[20]

After the death of Seleucus, the empire he left faced many trials, both from internal and external forces.

Antiochus II's son from his first wife, Seleucus II Callinicus, ended up as ruler of the Seleucids after this tragedy. These turn of events made Ptolemy III very angry, and led to the invasion of the empire (the Third Syrian War) in 246 BCE. This invasion leads to victory for Ptolemy III at Antioch and Seleucia, and he grants the lands of Phrygia to Pontus's Mithridates II in 245 BCE as a wedding gift.[22]

Parthia and Pergamon before 200 BCE

The ruins of the ancient city of Pergamon
The "Dying Gaul" representing the defeat of the Galatians by Attalus I.

Events in the east showed the fragile nature of the

Euphrates river at the height of its power.[24]

The kingdom of

Seleucus III reestablished control of his empire, but Attalus was allowed to retain control of former territories of Pergamon.[25]

The dealings with

Seleucus's heirs would never again expand their empire.[18]

The Roman theatre in Aspendos has been preserved remarkably well.

Roman Anatolia

Anatolia after the Treaty of Apamea in 188 BCE.
Ancient city of Didyma
Thales

Roman intervention in Anatolia

In the

Macedon was supremely necessary. The Roman general Titus Quinctius Flamininus not only soundly defeated Philip's army in the Battle of Cynoscephalae in 197 BCE, but also brought further hope to the Greeks when he said that an autonomous Greece and Greek cities in Anatolia was what Rome desired.[4]

During the period just after Rome's victory, the

Seleucids to obtain it. Despite warnings by Rome, Antiochus left Thrace and ventured into Greece, deciding to ally himself with the League. This was intolerable for Rome, and they soundly defeated him in Thessaly at Thermopylae before Antiochus retreated to Anatolia near Sardis.[4] Combining forces with the Romans, Eumenes II of Pergamon met Antiochus in the Battle of Magnesia
in 189 BCE. There Antiochus was thrashed by an intensive cavalry charge by the Romans and an outflanking maneuver by Eumenes.

Because of the

Pharnaces I of Pontus, he delved too deeply into Roman affairs and the Roman senate became alarmed. When Eumenes put down an invasion by the Galatians in 184 BCE, Rome countered his victory by freeing them, providing a heavy indicator that the scope of Pergamon's rule was now stunted.[26]

Mithridatic War
, 90 BCE.

The interior of Anatolia had been relatively stable despite occasional incursions by the

Prusias II of Bithynia when that relationship was strained it did not cause much trouble.[20]

The rule of Rome in Anatolia was unlike any other part of their empire because of their light hand with regards to government and organization. Controlling unstable elements within the region was made simpler by the bequeathal of Pergamon to the Romans by its last king, Attalus III in 133 BCE. The new territory was named the province of Asia by Roman consul Manius Aquillius the Elder.[26]

The Mithridatic Wars

Anatolia as divided by Pompey, 63 BCE.
Statue of Artemis of Ephesus

The

Mithridates with only Pontus in the Treaty of Dardanos.[4]

In 74 BCE, another Anatolian kingdom passed under Roman control as

Mithridates was driven back into the mountains.[4]

The failure of

Taurus mountains, and Rome claimed his lands as a province, leaving Anatolia completely in Roman hands.[28]

Christianity in Anatolia during Roman times

Philip the Apostle lived and buried in Hierapolis, Turkey

Jewish influences in Anatolia were changing the religious makeup of the region as Rome consolidated its power. In about 210 BCE,

Antiochus III of the Seleucid Empire relocated 2,000 families of Jews from Babylonia to Lydia and Phrygia, and this kind of migration continued throughout the remainder of the Empire's existence. Additional clues to the size of the Jewish influence in the area were provided by Cicero, who noted that a fellow Roman governor had halted the tribute sent to Jerusalem by Jews in 66 BCE, and the record of Ephesus, where the people urged Agrippina to expel Jews because they were not active in their religious activities.[29]

The blossoming religious following of Christianity was evident in Anatolia during the beginning of the 1st century. The letters of

Seven Churches of Asia: Ephesus, Magnesia, Thyatira, Smyrna, Philadelphia, Pergamon, and Laodicea.[30] Even other non-Christians started to take notice of the new religion. In 112 the Roman governor in Bithynia writes to the Roman emperor Trajan that so many different people are flocking to Christianity, leaving the temples vacated.[31]

Anatolia before the 4th century: Peace and the Goths

Aureus of emperor Valerian.
Paul the Apostle lived in Ephesus, Turkey. Ephesus was one of the seven cities addressed in the Book of Revelation.

From the rule of

Nicaea.[32]

By the middle of the 3rd century, everything that had been built by peace was being threatened by a new enemy, the Goths. As the inroads to central Europe through Macedonia, Italy, and Germania were all defended successfully by the Romans, the Goths found Anatolia to be irresistible due to its wealth and deteriorating defenses. Using a captured fleet of ships from the Bosphorus and flat-bottomed boats to cross the Black Sea, they sailed in 256 around the eastern shores, landing in the coastal city of Trebizond. What ensued was a huge embarrassment for Pontus — the wealth of the city was absconded, a larger number of ships were confiscated, and they entered the interior without much to turn them back. A second invasion of Anatolia through Bithynia brought even more terror inland and wanton destruction. The Goths entered Chalcedon and used it as a base by which to expand their operations, sacking Nicomedia, Prusa, Apamea, Cius, and Nice in turn. Only the turn of the weather during a fall season kept them from doing any more harm to those outside the realm of the province. The Goths managed a third attack upon not only the coastline of western Anatolia, but in Greece and Italy as well. Despite the Romans under their emperor Valerian finally turning them away, it did not stop the Goths from first destroying the Temple of Diana in Ephesus and the city itself in 263.[33]

Byzantine Anatolia

Nicaean Creed
.
Fresco depicting the First Council of Nicaea.
Constantine the Great was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity

The constant instability of the Roman Empire as a whole gradually made it more and more difficult to control. Upon the ascension of the emperor Constantine in 330, he made a bold decision by removing himself from Rome and into a new capital. Located in the old city of Byzantium, now known as Constantinople after the emperor, it was strengthened and improved in order to assure more than adequate defense of the whole region. What added to the prestige of the city was Constantine's favor of Christianity. He allowed bishops and other religious figures to aid in the government of the empire, and he personally intervened in the First Council of Nicaea to prove his sincerity.

The next forty years after the death of Constantine in 337 saw a power struggle amongst his descendants for control of the empire. His three sons,

Tarsus resulted in a bloodless transfer of power in 361. Julian did not survive but a scant year and a half thanks to a Persian spear, but during that time he tried to revert what progress Christianity had made after the founding of the empire. Even on his deathbed he was supposed to have said "Thou hast conquered, Galilean.", a reference to Christianity besting him.[34]

The threat of barbarian invasion and its effects upon the Roman Empire in the west carried over into the east. After a short rule by the emperor

Theodosius the Great died, the east was so strong that it could now be considered an equal.[35]

Byzantine
shops and the Bath-Gymnasium Complex in Sardis
Constantinople in Byzantine times
As a symbol and expression of the universal prestige of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Justinian I built the Church of the Holy Wisdom of God, Hagia Sophia, which was completed in the short period of four and a half years (532–537).

The Byzantine Empire was the predominantly Greek-speaking continuation of the

Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Its capital city was Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), originally known as Byzantium. Initially the eastern half of the Roman Empire (often called the Eastern Roman Empire in this context), it survived the 5th century fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks
in 1453.

Persian intervention

The Sassanid Persians, after having fought centuries of wars against the Byzantines and at their peak sieged Constantinople together with the Avars, paved the way for a new threat to enter onto the scene; the Arabs.

Arab conquests and threats

Arab attacks throughout the empire reduced significantly the territory once held under

Justinian
.

The Seljuks and Anatolian beyliks

Divriği Great Mosque and Hospital in Turkey built between 1228–1229 by the local dynasty of the Mengujekids
Divriği Great Mosque and Hospital is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

The population of Anatolia and

better source needed] The migration of Turks to the country of modern Turkey occurred during the main Turkic migration across most of Central Asia and into Europe and the Middle East which was between the 6th and 11th centuries. Mainly Turkic people living in the Seljuk Empire arrived in Turkey during the eleventh century. The Seljuks proceeded to gradually conquer the Anatolian part of the Byzantine Empire
.

The House of Seljuk was a branch of the Kınık

Muslim world, north of the Caspian and Aral Seas in the Yabghu Khaganate of the Oğuz confederacy[37] in the 10th century. In the 11th century, the Turkic people living in the Seljuk Empire started migrating from their ancestral homelands towards east of Anatolia, which eventually became a new homeland of Oğuz Turkic tribes following the Battle of Manzikert
on August 26, 1071.

The victory of the Seljuks gave rise to the

Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, a separate branch of the larger Seljuk Empire[38]
and to some Turkish principalities (beyliks), mostly situated towards the east which were vassals of or at war with Seljuk Sultanate of Rum.

Map of Anatolia and the Levant in 1218

The Crusades and their effects

The four Crusades that involved the Byzantines severely weakened their power, and led to a disunity that would never be successfully restored.

Mongol invasion and aftermath

A Ilkanid horse archer in the 13th century

On June 26, 1243, the Seljuk armies were defeated by the

Isfendiyarids) controlled the Black Sea region round Kastamonu and Sinop.[42] The Beylik of the Ottoman Dynasty was situated in the northwest of Anatolia, around Söğüt, and it was a small and insignificant state at that time. The Ottoman beylik would, however, evolve into the Ottoman Empire over the next 200 years, expanding throughout the Balkans, Anatolia.[43]

Breakaway successor states and the fall

The newly forming states of the Turks gradually squeezed the empire so much that it was only a matter of time before Constantinople was taken in 1453.

See also

References

  1. ^ "1.2-Million-Year-Old Stone Tool Unearthed in Turkey – Archaeology – Sci-News.com". Archived from the original on 2020-11-11. Retrieved 2015-02-05.
  2. ^ Manisa Museum Archived 2012-01-13 at the Wayback Machine, Republic of Turkey Culture minister website
  3. ^ Bryce 2009, pp. 297–98.
  4. ^ .
  5. ^ Trevor Bryce, The Kingdom of the Hittites, rev. ed, 2005:9.
  6. .
  7. ^ C. Michael Hogan, Knossos fieldnotes, Modern Antiquarian (2007) Archived 2017-11-08 at the Wayback Machine
  8. .
  9. ^ Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times
  10. ^ Garance Fiedler. "Phrygia". Archived from the original on 2007-10-30. Retrieved 2007-10-19.
  11. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica Online. "The legends and the truth about King Midas". Archived from the original on 2011-07-27. Retrieved 2007-10-19.
  12. ^ Duncker, Max (1879). The History of Antiquity, Volume III. Richard Bentley & Son.
  13. ^ Botsford, George Willis (1922). Hellenic History. The Macmillan Company.
  14. ^ Botsford (1922).
  15. ^ "The Works of Herodotus". MIT. 2006-11-16. Archived from the original on 2009-12-13. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
  16. ^ Bury, John Bagnell (1913). A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great. Macmillan.
  17. ^ Bury, J.B. (1913).
  18. ^ a b Freeman (1999).
  19. ^ Rawlinson, George (1900). Ancient History: From the Earliest Times to the Fall of the Western Empire. The Colonial Press.
  20. ^ a b Rawlinson (1900).
  21. ^ Bevan, Edwyn Robert (1902). The House of Seleucus. E. Arnold.
  22. ^ Jona Lendering. "Appian's History of Rome: The Syrian Wars". Archived from the original on 2007-10-24. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
  23. ^ Jona Lendering. "Parthia". Archived from the original on 2015-02-15. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
  24. ^ Rawlinson, George (1887). Ancient History. C.W. Deacon & Co.
  25. .
  26. ^ a b Hornblower(1996).
  27. ^ H H Scullard, From Grachi to Nero p. 76
  28. ^ Mitchell, Stephen (1995). Anatolia: Land, Men, and Gods in Asia Minor. Oxford University Press. p. 41.
  29. ^ Ramsay, W. M. (1904). The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia. Hodder & Stoughton.
  30. ^ Ramsay (1904).
  31. ^ Herbermann, Charles George (1913). The Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Co. pp. 788–89.
  32. ^ Mommsen, Theodor (1906). The History of Rome: The Provinces, from Caesar to Diocletian. Charles Scribner's Sons.
  33. ^ Gibbon, Edward (1952). The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. William Benton. pp. 105–08.
  34. ^ Norwich, John Julius (1997). A Short History of Byzantium. Vintage Books.
  35. ^ Gibbon (1952).
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  37. .
  38. .
  39. ^ Lord Kinross, The Ottoman Centuries, p. 19.
  40. ^ Halil Inalcık. "Halil Inalcik. "The Question of the Emergence of the Ottoman State"". h-net.org. Archived from the original on 24 May 2011. Retrieved 21 August 2010.
  41. .
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Sources