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ASIA
and to the Cilician Plain. Their strange sculptures and inscriptions have been found at Boghaz Keui, Euyuk, Fraktin, Ivriz, and other places between Smyrna and the Euphrates (see Hittites, in the ninth edition of this work). When the great Aryan immigration from Europe commenced is unknown, but it was dying out in the 11th and 10th centuries B.c. In Phrygia the Aryans founded a kingdom, of which traces remain in various rock tombs, forts, and towns, and in legends preserved by the Greeks. The Phrygian power was broken in the 9th or 8th century b.c. by the Cimmerians, who entered Asia Minor through Armenia; and on its decline rose the kingdom of Lydia, with its centre at Sardis. A second Cimmerian invasion almost destroyed the rising kingdom, but the invaders were expelled at last by Alyattes, 617 B.c. The last king, Croesus, 560-546 b.c., carried the boundaries of Lydia to the Halys, and subdued the Greek colonies on the coast. The date of the foundation of these colonies cannot be fixed; but at an early period they formed a chain of settlements from Trebizond to Rhodes, and by the 8th century B.c. some of them rivalled the splendour of Tyre and Sidon. Too jealous of each other to combine, and too demoralized by luxury to resist, they fell an easy prey to Lydia; and when the Lydian kingdom ended with the capture of Sardis by Cyrus, 546 B.c., they passed, almost without resistance, to Persia. Under Persian rule Asia Minor was divided into four satrapies, but the Greek cities were governed by Greeks, and several of the tribes in the interior retained their native princes and priest-dynasts. An attempt of the Greeks to regain their freedom was crushed 500 B.c., but later the tide turned and the cities were combined into a league for defence against the Persians. The weakness of Persian rule was disclosed by the expedition of Cyrus and the Ten Thousand Greeks, 402 b.c. ; and in the following century Asia Minor was subdued by Alexander, 334 b.c. The wars which followed the death of Alexander gave Asia Minor to Seleucus, but none of the Seleucid kings were able to establish their rule over the whole peninsula. Rhodes became a great maritime republic. An independent kingdom was founded at Pergamos, 283 b.c., which gave its name to a school of sculpture, and lasted until Attalus III., 133 b.c., made the Romans his heirs. Bithynia became an independent monarchy, and Cappadocia and Paphlagonia tributary provinces under native princes. In Southern Asia Minor the Seleucids founded Antioch, Apamea, Attaleia, Laodicea, Seleuceia, and other cities as centres of commerce, and some of them afterwards played an important part in the Hellenization of the country and in the spread of Christianity. During the 3rd century, 278-277 b.c., certain Gallic tribes crossed the Bosporus and Hellespont, and established a Celtic power in Central Asia Minor. They were confined by the victories of Attalus I. of Pergamos, circ. 232 B.c., to a district on the Sangarius and Halys to which the name Galatia was applied; and after their defeat by Manlius, 189 B.c., they were subjected to the suzerainty of Pergamos (see Galatia). The defeat of Antiochus the Great at Magnesia, 190 b.c., placed Asia Minor at the mercy of Rome; but it was not until 133 that the first Roman province, Asia, was formed. Errors in policy and in government facilitated the rise of Pontus into a formidable power under Mithradates, who was finally driven out of the country by Pompey, and died 63 b.c. Under the settlement of Asia Minor by Pompey, Bithynia-Pontus and Cilicia became provinces, whilst Galatia and Cappadocia were allowed to retain nominal independence under native kings. A long period of tranquillity followed, during which the Roman dominion grew, and all Asia Minor was divided into provinces. The
MINOR boundaries were often changed; and about a.d. 297, in Diocletian’s reorganization of the empire, the power of the great military commands was broken, and the provinces were made smaller and united in groups called dioceses. A great change followed the introduction of Christianity, which spread first along the main roads that ran north and west from the Cilician Gates, and especially along the great trade route to Ephesus. In some districts it spread rapidly, in others slowly. With its advance the native languages and old religions gradually disappeared, and at last the whole country was thoroughly Hellenized, and the people united by identity of language and religion. At the close of the 6th century Asia Minor had become wealthy and prosperous; but centuries of peace and overcentralization had affected the morale of the people and weakened the central Government. During the 7 th century the provincial system broke down, and the country was divided into themes or military districts. From 616 to 626 Persian armies swept unimpeded over the land, and Chosroes II. pitched his camp on the shore of the Bosporus. The victories of Heraclius forced Chosroes to retire; but the Persians were followed by the Arabs, who, advancing with equal ease, laid siege to Constantinople, a.d. 668. It almost appeared as if Asia Minor would be annexed to the dominion of the Caliph. But the tide of conquest was stemmed by the iconoclast emperors, and the Arab expeditions, excepting those of Hariin er-Rashfd, 781 and 806, and of el-Motasem, 838, became simply predatory raids. In the 10th century the Arabs were expelled. They never held more than the districts along the main roads, and in the intervals of peace the country rapidly recovered itself. But a more dangerous enemy was soon to appear on the eastern border. In 1067 the Seljuk Turks ravaged Cappadocia and Cilicia; in 1071 they defeated and captured the Emperor Romanus, Diogenes; and in 1080 they took Nicsea. One branch of the Seljuks founded the empire of Rum, with its capital first at Nicsea and then at Iconium. The empire, which at one time included nearly the whole of Asia Minor, with portions of Armenia and Syria, passed to the Mongols when they defeated the sultan of Rum in 1243, and the sultans became vassals of the Great Khdn. The Seljuk sultans were liberal patrons of art, literature, and science, and the remains of their public buildings and tombs are amongst the most beautiful and most interesting in the country. The march of the Crusaders across Asia Minor left no permanent impression. But the support given by the Latin princes to the Armenians in Cilicia facilitated the growth of the small warlike state of Lesser Armenia, which fell in 1375 with the defeat and capture of Leo VI. by the Memliik sultan of Egypt. The Mongols were too weak to govern the country they had conquered, and the vassalage of the last sultan of Rum, who died in 1307, was only nominal. On his death the governors of his western provinces drove out the Mongols and asserted their independence. A contest for supremacy followed, which eventually ended in favour of the Osmanli Turks. In 1400 Sultan Bayezid I. held all Asia Minor west of the Euphrates; but in 1402 he was defeated and made prisoner by Timur, who swept through the country to the shores of the Aegean. On the death of Timur Osmanli supremacy was re-established after a prolonged struggle, which ended with the annexation by Muhammad II. (1451-81) of Karamania and Trebizond, and the abandonment of the last of thje Italian trading settlements which had studded the coast during the 13th and 14th centuries. The later history of Asia Minor is that of the Turkish empire. The most important event was the advance (1832-33) of an Egyptian army, under Ibrahim Pasha, through the Cilician Gates to Konia and Kutaya.
