Roman Empire
The Romans took Anatolia almost by default. The various Anatolian kings couldn’t refrain from picking away at Roman holdings and causing other sorts of irritation, so finally the legions marched in and took over. Defeating Antiochus III, King of Seleucia, at Magnesia (Manisa, near Izmir) in 190 BC, the Romans were content for the time being to leave ‘Asia’ (Anatolia) in the hands of the kings of Pergamum. But the last king, dying without an heir, bequeathed his kingdom to Rome (133 BC). In 129 BC, the Romans established the Province of Asia, with its capital at Ephesus.
An interesting postscript to this period is the story of Commagene. This small and rather unimportant little kingdom in central Anatolia, near Adiyaman, left few marks on history. But the one notable reminder of Commagene is very notable indeed: atop Mt. Nemrut, Mithridates I and his son Antiochus I (62-32 BC) built an astounding memorial. Their mammoth cone-shaped funerary mound is framed by twin temples filled with huge stone statues portraying themselves and the gods and goddesses who were their ‘peers’. A visit to Nemrut Dag from the nearby town of Kahta, is one of the highpoints of a visit to Turkey.
Roman rule brought relative peace and prosperity to Anatolia for almost three centuries, and provided the perfect con- ditions for the spread of a brand-new, world-class religion.