Question: What Were the Regions of Ancient Asia Minor?
Answer: Greece and Asia Minor were joined by ties of blood and culture; the influence went both ways. In Greek legends, it was a very wealthy Phrygian, Pelops son of Tantalus, who went west from Asia Minor to Mycenae, and gave his name to the area of Greece known as the Peloponnese. Dorian Greeks from the Peloponnese, as well as Aeolians, (considered descendants of the mythical Aeolus) and Ionians from elsewhere in Greece, went East to the western coast of Asia Minor to set up colonies. The Trojan War was fought in Asia Minor. When Rome became the dominant Mediterranean power, it, too, fought battles in Asia Minor. [See, especially, Mithridates and the Mithridatic Wars.] These ties between Greece or Rome and Asia Minor, make familiarity with the regions of Asia Minor important for understanding Classical history.
The regions of ancient Asia Minor were:
- Paphlagonia
- Troad
- Bithynia
- Phrygia
- Galatia
- Mysia
- Cappadocia
- Ionia
- Lydia
- Aeolia
- Lycanoia
- Caria
- Pisidia
- Lycia
- Pamphylia
- Cilicia
- Pontus
- Armenia
- Uratu
- Assyria
Information on select individual regions of Asia Minor.
