Editing Anatolia (section)

===Classical Anatolia===
{{main|Classical Anatolia}}

In [[Classical antiquity]], Anatolia was described by the Ancient Greek historian [[Herodotus]] and later historians as divided into regions that were diverse in culture, language, and religious practices.<ref name=yavuz>{{Cite book| publisher = Oxford University Press| isbn = 978-0195170726| last = Yavuz| first = Mehmet Fatih| title = The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome| chapter = Anatolia| access-date = 5 December 2018| date = 2010| chapter-url = http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195170726.001.0001/acref-9780195170726-e-61| doi = 10.1093/acref/9780195170726.001.0001| archive-date = 6 December 2018| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181206102239/http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195170726.001.0001/acref-9780195170726-e-61| url-status = live}}</ref> The northern regions included [[Bithynia]], [[Paphlagonia]], and [[Pontus (region)|Pontus]]; to the west were [[Mysia]], [[Lydia]], and Caria; and [[Lycia]], [[Pamphylia]], and [[Cilicia]] belonged to the southern shore. There were also several inland regions: [[Phrygia]], [[Cappadocia]], [[Pisidia]], and [[Galatia]].<ref name=yavuz /> Languages spoken included the late surviving [[Anatolic languages]], [[Isaurian language|Isaurian]],<ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5geoDQAAQBAJ&q=isaurian%20personal%20names&pg=PT64|title=Violence in Late Antiquity: Perceptions and Practices|last=Honey|first=Linda|isbn=978-1351875745|page=50|chapter=Justifiably Outraged or Simply Outrageous? The Isaurian Incident of Ammianus Marcellinus|date=5 December 2016|publisher=Routledge |access-date=8 November 2020|archive-date=19 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519052917/https://books.google.com/books?id=5geoDQAAQBAJ&q=isaurian%20personal%20names&pg=PT64|url-status=live}}</ref> and [[Pisidian language|Pisidian]], Greek in western and coastal regions, [[Phrygian language|Phrygian]] spoken until the 7th century CE,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Swain|first1=Simon|last2=Adams|first2=J. Maxwell|last3=Janse|first3=Mark|title=Bilingualism in Ancient Society: Language Contact and the Written Word|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford [Oxfordshire]|year=2002 |pages=246–66|isbn=0199245061}}</ref> local variants of [[Thracian]] in the northwest, the [[Galatian language|Galatian variant of Gaulish]] in [[Galatia]] until the 6th century CE,<ref>Freeman, Philip, ''The Galatian Language'', Edwin Mellen, 2001, pp. 11–12.</ref><ref>Clackson, James. "Language maintenance and language shift in the Mediterranean world during the Roman Empire." Multilingualism in the Graeco-Roman Worlds (2012): 36–57. p. 46: The second testimonium for the late survival of Galatian appears in the Life of Saint Euthymius, who died in ad 487.</ref><ref>Norton, Tom. [https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/402/1/TOM%20NORTON.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181102201528/http://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/402/1/TOM%20NORTON.pdf|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/402/1/TOM%20NORTON.pdf|archive-date=9 October 2022|url-status=live|date=2 November 2018}} | A question of identity: who were the Galatians?. University of Wales. p. 62: The final reference to Galatian comes two hundred years later in the sixth century CE when Cyril of Scythopolis attests that Galatian was still being spoken eight hundred years after the Galatians arrived in Asia Minor. Cyril tells of the temporary possession of a monk from Galatia by Satan and rendered speechless, but when he recovered he spoke only in his native Galatian when questioned: 'If he were pressed, he spoke only in Galatian'.180 After this, the rest is silence, and further archaeological or literary discoveries are awaited to see if Galatian survived any later. In this regard, the example of Crimean Gothic is instructive. It was presumed to have died out in the fifth century CE, but the discovery of a small corpus of the language dating from the sixteenth century altered this perception.</ref> [[Ancient Cappadocian language|Cappadocian]] in the homonymous region,<ref>J. Eric Cooper, Michael J. Decker, ''Life and Society in Byzantine Cappadocia'' {{ISBN|0230361064}}, p. 14</ref> [[Armenian language|Armenian]] in the east, and [[Kartvelian languages]] in the northeast.

Anatolia is known as the birthplace of minted [[coin]]age (as opposed to unminted coinage, which first appears in [[Mesopotamia]] at a much earlier date) as a medium of exchange, some time in the 7th century BCE in Lydia. The use of minted coins continued to flourish during the [[Hellenistic period|Greek]] and [[Roman Empire|Roman]] eras.<ref>{{Cite book|isbn=978-0415089920|last=Howgego|first=C. J.|title=Ancient History from Coins|author-link=Christopher Howgego| year=1995|publisher=Routledge }}</ref><ref>[http://www.asiaminorcoins.com/ Asia Minor Coins] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200317151148/https://www.asiaminorcoins.com/ |date=17 March 2020 }} – an index of Greek and Roman coins from Asia Minor (ancient Anatolia)</ref>

During the 6th century BCE, all of Anatolia was conquered by the [[Persia]]n [[Achaemenid Empire]], the Persians having usurped the [[Medes]] as the [[List of monarchs of Persia|dominant dynasty of Persia]]. In 499 BCE, the [[Ionia]]n city-states on the west coast of Anatolia rebelled against Persian rule. The [[Ionian Revolt]], as it became known, though quelled, initiated the [[Greco-Persian Wars]], which ended in a Greek victory in 449 BCE, and the Ionian cities regained their independence. By the [[Peace of Antalcidas]] (387 BCE), which ended the [[Corinthian War]], Persia regained control over Ionia.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dandamaev |first1=M. A. |author-link1=Muhammad Dandamayev |title=A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire |date=1989 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9004091726 |page=294}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia | title = ARTAXERXES II | last = Schmitt | first = R. | author-link = Rüdiger Schmitt | url = http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artaxerxes-ii-achaemenid-king | encyclopedia = Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. II, Fasc. 6 | pages = 656–58 | year = 1986 | access-date = 21 April 2019 | archive-date = 9 April 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190409011010/http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artaxerxes-ii-achaemenid-king | url-status = live }}</ref>

In 334 BCE, the [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedonian]] Greek king [[Alexander the Great]] conquered the Anatolian peninsula from the Achaemenid Persian Empire.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Roisman|first1=Joseph|last2=Worthington|first2=Ian|title=A Companion to Ancient Macedonia|publisher=John Wiley and Sons|year=2010|isbn=978-1405179362|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lkYFVJ3U-BIC|access-date=20 June 2015|archive-date=16 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200416185650/https://books.google.com/books?id=lkYFVJ3U-BIC|url-status=live}}</ref> Alexander's conquest opened up the interior of Asia Minor to Greek settlement and influence.
[[File:Nemrut Dağı 12.jpg|thumb|250px|left|Sanctuary of the Kings of [[Commagene]] on [[Mount Nemrut]] (1st century BCE)]] Following the death of Alexander the Great and the subsequent breakup of the [[Macedonian Empire]], Anatolia was ruled by a series of Hellenistic kingdoms, such as the [[Attalid dynasty|Attalids of Pergamum]] and the [[Seleucids]], the latter controlling most of Anatolia. A period of peaceful [[Hellenization]] followed, such that the local Anatolian languages had been supplanted by Greek by the 1st century BCE. In 133 BCE the last Attalid king bequeathed his kingdom to the [[Roman Republic]]; western and central Anatolia came under [[Romanization of Anatolia|Roman control]], but [[Hellenistic culture]] remained predominant.

[[Mithridates VI Eupator]], ruler of the [[Kingdom of Pontus]] in northern Anatolia, waged war against the [[Roman Republic]] in the year 88 BCE in order to halt the advance of Roman [[hegemony]] in the [[Aegean Sea]] region. Mithridates VI sought to dominate Asia Minor and the [[Black Sea]] region, waging several hard-fought but ultimately unsuccessful wars (the [[Mithridatic Wars]]) to break Roman dominion over Asia and the [[Hellenic world]].<ref>"[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mithradates-VI-Eupator Mithradates VI Eupator]", ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''</ref> He has been called the greatest ruler of the Kingdom of Pontus.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hewsen|first=Robert H.|title=Armenian Pontus: The Trebizond-Black Sea Communities|year=2009|publisher=Mazda Publishers, Inc.|location=Costa Mesa, CA|isbn=978-1-56859-155-1|pages=41, 37–66|editor=Richard G. Hovannisian|chapter=Armenians on the Black Sea: The Province of Trebizond}}</ref> Further annexations by Rome, in particular of the Kingdom of Pontus by [[Pompey]], brought all of Anatolia under [[Romanization of Anatolia|Roman control]], except for the southeastern frontier with the [[Parthian Empire]], which remained unstable for centuries, causing a series of military conflicts that culminated in the [[Roman–Parthian Wars]] (54 BCE – 217 CE).