Historical
Phrygia
is an ancient country of Asia Minor, the extent and boundaries
of which varied greatly at different periods. Early in the
1st millennium BC it is believed to have comprised the greater
part of the Anatolian Peninsula but at the time of the Persian
invasion in the 6th century BC it was limited to the districts
known as Lesser Phrygia and Greater Phrygia. Lesser Phrygia
stretched west along the shores of the Sea of Marmara and
the Hellespont to Troas, a region afterward part of Mysia.
Greater Phrygia lay farther east and inland where the Phrygian
capital, Gordion (near present day Ankara) was located.
Greater Phrygia
was in general a high and barren plateau; the most fertile
region was the valley of the Sangarius. Grapes were cultivated
extensively and Phrygian marble, celebrated in antiquity,
was quarried. The religion of the Phrygians was an ecstatic
nature worship in which the Great Mother of the Gods, Rhea
or Cybele, and a male deity, Sabazius, played a prominent
part. The orgiastic rites of this religion influenced both
the Greeks and the Romans.
The Phrygians
are believed to have been an Indo-European people who entered
Asia Minor from Thrace about 1200 BC and seized control of
the whole central tableland. Records exist of numerous kings
bearing alternately the names of Gordius and Midas but their
power was apparently broken by the invasions of the Cimmerians
in the 7th century BC. In the 6th century BC King Croesus
of Lydia conquered all that was left of Phrygia which passed
successively under the rule of Persia, Macedonia, Pergamum
and Rome. In the 3rd century BC, the Gauls occupied the northern
part of Greater Phrygia. For purposes of provincial administration,
the Romans divided Phrygia into two parts attaching the northeastern
part to Galatia Province and the western portion to Asia Province.
(For more historical information, check out - Phrygia.com)
