Key Events

• late 2nd–early 1st millennium B.C.

  The cultures of the Northern and Southern Caucasus create enormous quantities of bronze weapons and ornaments. Settlers come to Anatolia from mainland and island Greece and establish colonies first on the western and southern coasts, and later on the coast of the Black Sea. Initially, these settlements are impelled by political forces outside of Greece and the growing density of Greek populations. By the eighth to seventh centuries B.C., colonies provide fish, grain, and other goods to the city-states of Greece, and Greek culture, art, and architecture spread to the coastal regions of Anatolia, influencing nearby cultures.

• ca. 730–?696 B.C.

  King Midas rules the kingdom of Phrygia, which comprises the whole of Central and West Anatolia, from the Urartian frontier in the east to Lydia, with the capital at Gordion. The wealth of this kingdom, due to its position at the crossroads of many first-millennium trade routes, is reflected both in the myth of Midas, whose touch turns all to gold, and the richly appointed burials of the kings, located in wooden chambers under large earthen mounds.

• 7th–early 6th century B.C.

  The earliest coinage is invented by a Lydian ruler, possibly Croesus (r. ca. 560–546 B.C.).

• 7th–4th century B.C.

  The successive Median and Achaemenid empires conquer Anatolia and the Southern Caucasus from their capitals in Iran.

• 333 B.C.

  Alexander the Great (356–323 B.C.) defeats the Achaemenid Persian king Darius III (r. 336–330 B.C.) in a battle at Issus near modern Iskenderun, Turkey. The Alexandrian conquest brings Hellenistic Greek art and culture to Anatolia and the Southern Caucasus, through the rule of Alexander and his Seleucid successors. Greek traditions continue until the Roman conquest of much of the same area, beginning in 133 B.C, when western Asia Minor becomes a Roman province.

• 133 B.C.

  Attalus III, king of Pergamon, bequeathes his realm to the Roman people, providing Rome with its first foothold in Asia.