Latin
88-401: Byzantium ( / b ɪ ˈ z æ n t i ə m , - ʃ ə m / ) or Byzantion ( Ancient Greek : Βυζάντιον ) was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name Byzantion and its Latinization Byzantium continued to be used as a name of Constantinople sporadically and to varying degrees during
176-537: A pitch accent . In Modern Greek, all vowels and consonants are short. Many vowels and diphthongs once pronounced distinctly are pronounced as /i/ ( iotacism ). Some of the stops and glides in diphthongs have become fricatives , and the pitch accent has changed to a stress accent . Many of the changes took place in the Koine Greek period. The writing system of Modern Greek, however, does not reflect all pronunciation changes. The examples below represent Attic Greek in
264-553: A campaign against Egypt. Alexander forded the Halys River in the summer of 333 BC, ending up on the border of southeastern Phrygia and Cilicia. He knew well the writings of Xenophon , and how the Cilician Gates had been "impassable if obstructed by the enemy". Alexander reasoned that by force alone he could frighten the defenders and break through, and he gathered his men to do so. In the cover of night, they attacked, startling
352-532: A consequence of which Cilicia became a vassal of the Achaemenid empire as from c. 542 BC , and the Cilician rulers became part of the Achaemenid administration. Under early Achaemenid rule, Cilicia maintained a significant degree of autonomy and the native rulers acted as satraps (governors) for the Achaemenid administration, with their authority extending until as far west as Aspendus . Cilicia during
440-472: A lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period. They have the same general outline but differ in some of the detail. The only attested dialect from this period is Mycenaean Greek , but its relationship to the historical dialects and
528-419: A lesser degree. Pamphylian Greek , spoken in a small area on the southwestern coast of Anatolia and little preserved in inscriptions, may be either a fifth major dialect group, or it is Mycenaean Greek overlaid by Doric, with a non-Greek native influence. Regarding the speech of the ancient Macedonians diverse theories have been put forward, but the epigraphic activity and the archaeological discoveries in
616-526: A metropolitan diocese at Anazarbus and suffragan dioceses for Mopsuestia, Aegae , Epiphania , Irenopolis , Flavias , Castabala , Alexandria , Citidiopolis and Rhosus . Bishops from the various dioceses of Cilicia were well represented at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 and at the later ecumenical councils. After the division of the Roman Empire, Cilicia became part of the eastern Roman Empire,
704-543: A prefix /e-/, called the augment . This was probably originally a separate word, meaning something like "then", added because tenses in PIE had primarily aspectual meaning. The augment is added to the indicative of the aorist, imperfect, and pluperfect, but not to any of the other forms of the aorist (no other forms of the imperfect and pluperfect exist). The two kinds of augment in Greek are syllabic and quantitative. The syllabic augment
792-608: A separate historical stage, though its earliest form closely resembles Attic Greek , and its latest form approaches Medieval Greek . There were several regional dialects of Ancient Greek; Attic Greek developed into Koine. Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language , divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic , Aeolic , Arcadocypriot , and Doric , many of them with several subdivisions. Some dialects are found in standardized literary forms in literature , while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms. Homeric Greek
880-609: A standard subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance . This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical periods of the language, which are the best-attested periods and considered most typical of Ancient Greek. From the Hellenistic period ( c. 300 BC ), Ancient Greek was followed by Koine Greek , which is regarded as
968-510: A vowel or /n s r/ ; final stops were lost, as in γάλα "milk", compared with γάλακτος "of milk" (genitive). Ancient Greek of the classical period also differed in both the inventory and distribution of original PIE phonemes due to numerous sound changes, notably the following: The pronunciation of Ancient Greek was very different from that of Modern Greek . Ancient Greek had long and short vowels ; many diphthongs ; double and single consonants; voiced, voiceless, and aspirated stops ; and
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#17328373764101056-556: Is a literary form of Archaic Greek (derived primarily from Ionic and Aeolic) used in the epic poems , the Iliad and the Odyssey , and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic and other Classical-era dialects. The origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of
1144-894: Is a rugged mountain district formed by the spurs of Taurus, which often terminate in rocky headlands with small sheltered harbours, features which, in classical times, made the coast a string of havens for pirates and, in the Middle Ages, outposts for Genoese and Venetian traders. The district is watered by the Calycadnus and was covered in ancient times by forests that supplied timber to Phoenicia and Egypt . Cilicia lacked large cities. Plain Cilicia ( Ancient Greek : Κιλικια Πεδιας , romanized : Kilikia Pedias ; Latin : Cilicia Campestris ; Neo-Assyrian Akkadian : 𒆳𒋡𒀀𒌑𒂊 , romanized: Que ; Neo-Babylonian Akkadian : 𒆳𒄷𒈨𒂊 , romanized: Ḫuwê ), to
1232-418: Is added to stems beginning with consonants, and simply prefixes e (stems beginning with r , however, add er ). The quantitative augment is added to stems beginning with vowels, and involves lengthening the vowel: Some verbs augment irregularly; the most common variation is e → ei . The irregularity can be explained diachronically by the loss of s between vowels, or that of the letter w , which affected
1320-644: Is called 'East Greek'. Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian Greek had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, as exemplified in the poems of the Boeotian poet Pindar who wrote in Doric with a small Aeolic admixture. Thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to
1408-448: Is considered by some linguists to have been closely related to Greek . Among Indo-European branches with living descendants, Greek is often argued to have the closest genetic ties with Armenian (see also Graeco-Armenian ) and Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ). Ancient Greek differs from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and other Indo-European languages in certain ways. In phonotactics , ancient Greek words could end only in
1496-666: Is the same as the Latin, as it was transliterated directly from the Greek form Κιλικία. The palatalization of c occurring in Western Europe in later Vulgar Latin ( c. 500–700 ) accounts for its modern pronunciation in English. Cilicia extends along the Mediterranean coast east from Pamphylia to the Nur Mountains , which separate it from Syria . North and east of Cilicia stand
1584-605: Is unknown. The earliest known ruler, and possibly the founder, of the kingdom of Cilicia was Syennesis I, who, according to the Ancient Greek historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus, mediated in 585 BC the peace treaty which followed the end of the conflict which had opposed the Lydian and Median empires. Herodotus of Halicarnassus also claimed that the Cilicians and the Lycians were
1672-579: Is watered by the three great rivers, the Cydnus (Tarsus Çay Berdan River ), the Sarus ( Seyhan ), and the Pyramus ( Ceyhan River ), each of which brings down much silt from the deforested interior and which fed extensive wetlands. The Sarus now enters the sea almost due south of Tarsus, but there are clear indications that at one period it joined the Pyramus, and that the united rivers ran to the sea west of Kara-tash. Through
1760-582: The Byzantine Empire . In the 7th century Cilicia was invaded by the Muslim Arabs. The area was for some time an embattled no-man's land. The Arabs succeeded in conquering the area in the early 8th century. Under the Abbasid Caliphate , Cilicia was resettled and transformed into a fortified frontier zone ( thughur ). Tarsus, re-built in 787/788, quickly became the largest settlement in the region and
1848-745: The Greek region of Macedonia during the last decades has brought to light documents, among which the first texts written in Macedonian , such as the Pella curse tablet , as Hatzopoulos and other scholars note. Based on the conclusions drawn by several studies and findings such as Pella curse tablet , Emilio Crespo and other scholars suggest that ancient Macedonian was a Northwest Doric dialect , which shares isoglosses with its neighboring Thessalian dialects spoken in northeastern Thessaly . Some have also suggested an Aeolic Greek classification. The Lesbian dialect
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#17328373764101936-633: The Hellenistic era, numerous cities were established in Cilicia, which minted coins showing the badges (gods, animals, and objects) associated with each polis. Cilicia Trachea became the haunt of pirates , who were subdued by Pompey in 67 BC following a Battle of Korakesion (modern Alanya ), and Tarsus was made the capital of the Roman province of Cilicia. Cilicia Pedias became Roman territory in 103 BC first conquered by Marcus Antonius Orator in his campaign against pirates, with Sulla acting as its first governor, foiling an invasion of Mithridates , and
2024-634: The Mediterranean Sea . Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Cilician plain ( Turkish : Çukurova ). The region includes the provinces of Mersin , Adana , Osmaniye , Kilis and Hatay . The name of Cilicia ( Κιλικία ) was derived from Ḫilakku ( 𒆳𒄭𒋃𒆪 ), which was the name used by the Neo-Assyrian Empire to designate the western part of what would become Cilicia. The English spelling Cilicia
2112-600: The ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek ( c. 1400–1200 BC ), Dark Ages ( c. 1200–800 BC ), the Archaic or Epic period ( c. 800–500 BC ), and the Classical period ( c. 500–300 BC ). Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers . It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been
2200-501: The present , future , and imperfect are imperfective in aspect; the aorist , present perfect , pluperfect and future perfect are perfective in aspect. Most tenses display all four moods and three voices, although there is no future subjunctive or imperative. Also, there is no imperfect subjunctive, optative or imperative. The infinitives and participles correspond to the finite combinations of tense, aspect, and voice. The indicative of past tenses adds (conceptually, at least)
2288-567: The pretorian prefecture also called Oriens ('the East', also including the dioceses of Asiana and Pontica , both in Anatolia, and Thraciae in the Balkans), the rich bulk of the eastern Roman Empire . After the division of the Roman Empire, Cilicia became part of the eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire . Cilicia was one of the most important regions of the classical world and can be considered as
2376-510: The 1st century BC and later show the head of Artemis with bow and quiver, and feature a crescent with what appears to be an eight-rayed star on the reverse. According to accounts which vary in some of the details, in 340 BC the Byzantines and their allies the Athenians were under siege by the troops of Philip of Macedon . On a particularly dark and wet night Philip attempted a surprise attack but
2464-1031: The 5th century BC. Ancient pronunciation cannot be reconstructed with certainty, but Greek from the period is well documented, and there is little disagreement among linguists as to the general nature of the sounds that the letters represent. /oː/ raised to [uː] , probably by the 4th century BC. Greek, like all of the older Indo-European languages , is highly inflected. It is highly archaic in its preservation of Proto-Indo-European forms. In ancient Greek, nouns (including proper nouns) have five cases ( nominative , genitive , dative , accusative , and vocative ), three genders ( masculine , feminine , and neuter ), and three numbers (singular, dual , and plural ). Verbs have four moods ( indicative , imperative , subjunctive , and optative ) and three voices (active, middle, and passive ), as well as three persons (first, second, and third) and various other forms. Verbs are conjugated through seven combinations of tenses and aspect (generally simply called "tenses"):
2552-528: The Achaemenid Empire. The Greek designation of Kilikia extended the use of the name of the state of Ḫilakku to the territory of both Ḫilakku and its neighbour Ḫiyawa. It is however uncertain how this naming convention arose, and whether it was the result of political expansion by Ḫilakku or of Greeks first coming into contact with Ḫilakku and using its name for all the Luwian populations of eastern Anatolia
2640-417: The Achaemenid period was inhabited by tribal populations who were led by native chieftains, and it contained fortified strongholds protecting its agricultural land and its inhabitants, as well as various native and Persian cities and towns. Nevertheless, the western pert of Cilicia, corresponding to the later Graeco-Roman Rough Cilicia, probably remained independent of Persian rule and of the administration of
2728-489: The Aegean Sea during 396 to 395 BC, and against Cyprus in the 380s BC. During the 390s BC, Camisares was appointed as satrap of Cilicia. Camisares was himself succeeded by his son, Datames , who eventually became the satrap of both Cilicia and Cappadocia until his assassination in c. 362 BC . In the 340s BC, the satrap of Cilicia was Mazaeus , who was also given authority over Syria as reward for his service in
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2816-490: The Archaic period of ancient Greek (see Homeric Greek for more details): Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε' ἔθηκε, πολλὰς δ' ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προΐαψεν ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι· Διὸς δ' ἐτελείετο βουλή· ἐξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ἐρίσαντε Ἀτρεΐδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς. The beginning of Apology by Plato exemplifies Attic Greek from
2904-544: The Asian and European Greeks. Under Darius I's successor, Xerxes I , Cilicia contributed both troops and ships for the Achaemenid conquest of the Aegean Sea: the Cilician ruler Syennesis II led these ships, but was killed in battle. At this time, the ruling dynasty of Cilicia had been linked by marriage bonds with Carian notables. Syennesis II was succeeded by one Xeinagoras of Halicarnassus, who had no previous ties to Cilicia and
2992-517: The Classical period of ancient Greek. (The second line is the IPA , the third is transliterated into the Latin alphabet using a modern version of the Erasmian scheme .) Ὅτι [hóti Hóti μὲν men mèn ὑμεῖς, hyːmêːs hūmeîs, Cilicia Cilicia ( / s ɪ ˈ l ɪ ʃ ə / ) is a geographical region in southern Anatolia , extending inland from the northeastern coasts of
3080-544: The Galatians (1:21). After Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century, Cilicia was included in the territories of the patriarchate of Antioch. The region was divided into two civil and ecclesiastical provinces: Cilicia Prima , with a metropolitan diocese at Tarsus and suffragan dioceses for Pompeiopolis , Sebaste , Augusta [ cs ; de ; it ; pl ] , Corycus , Adana , Mallus and Zephyrium ; and Cilicia Secunda , with
3168-467: The Iron Age, Cilicia was dominated by two main polities: In the 6th century BC, an independent state, called Cilicia ( Ancient Greek : Κιλικια , romanized : Kilikia ) by the ancient Greeks, was established in southeastern Anatolia under the rule of a native dynasty, with its capital of Cilicia at the city of Tarsus . Cilicia and Cilicians do not appear in any extant list of people ruled by
3256-559: The Neolithic period onwards. Dating of the ancient settlements of the region from Neolithic to Bronze Age is as follows: Aceramic/Neolithic: 8th and 7th millennia BC; Early Chalcolithic : 5800 BC; Middle Chalcolithic (correlated with Halaf and Ubaid developments in the east): c. 5400–4500 BC; Late Chalcolithic: 4500 – c. 3400 BC; and Early Bronze Age IA: 3400–3000 BC; EBA IB: 3000–2700 BC; EBA II: 2700–2400 BC; EBA III A-B: 2400–2000 BC. The area had been known as Kizzuwatna in
3344-786: The Romans';), had ceased to exist. Other places were historically known as Byzántion (Βυζάντιον) – a city in Libya mentioned by Stephanus of Byzantium and another on the western coast of India referred to by the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea ; in both cases the names were probably adaptations of names in local languages. Faustus of Byzantium was from a city of that name in Cilicia . The origins of Byzantium are shrouded in legend. Tradition says that Byzas of Megara (a city-state near Athens ) founded
3432-683: The Sasanian forces burnt and sacked several cities in Syria, Cilicia ( Middle Persian : 𐭪𐭫𐭪𐭩𐭠𐭩 ) and Cappadocia. Under Emperor Diocletian's Tetrarchy (c. 297), Cilicia was governed by a consularis ; with Isauria and the Syrian, Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Libyan provinces, formed the Diocesis Orientis (in the late 4th century the African component was split off as Diocese of Egypt ), part of
3520-589: The Thracian personal name Byzas which means "he-goat". Ancient Greek legend refers to the Greek king Byzas , the leader of the Megarian colonists and founder of the city. The name Lygos for the city, which likely corresponds to an earlier Thracian settlement, is mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History . Byzántios, plural Byzántioi ( Ancient Greek : Βυζάντιος, Βυζάντιοι , Latin : Byzantius ; adjective
3608-474: The Younger , resulting in the kingdom of Cilicia being abolished and fully integrated into the Achaemenid empire as a province ruled by and appointed by the Achaemenid king of kings, which it would remain until the end of the Achaemenid Empire in 333 BC. Once the revolt of Cyrus the Younger had been suppressed, Cilicia was again used as an assembly point for Achaemenid forces in preparation for military action in
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3696-550: The aorist. Following Homer 's practice, the augment is sometimes not made in poetry , especially epic poetry. The augment sometimes substitutes for reduplication; see below. Almost all forms of the perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect reduplicate the initial syllable of the verb stem. (A few irregular forms of perfect do not reduplicate, whereas a handful of irregular aorists reduplicate.) The three types of reduplication are: Irregular duplication can be understood diachronically. For example, lambanō (root lab ) has
3784-419: The augment when it was word-initial. In verbs with a preposition as a prefix, the augment is placed not at the start of the word, but between the preposition and the original verb. For example, προσ(-)βάλλω (I attack) goes to προσ έ βαλoν in the aorist. However compound verbs consisting of a prefix that is not a preposition retain the augment at the start of the word: αὐτο(-)μολῶ goes to ηὐ τομόλησα in
3872-556: The birthplace of Christianity . Roman Cilicia exported the goats-hair cloth, Cilicium , which was used to make tents. Tarsus was also the birthplace of the early Christian missionary and author St. Paul , likely writer of 13 of the 27 books included in the New Testament . Cilicia had numerous Christian communities and is mentioned six times in the Book of Acts and once in the Epistle to
3960-438: The center of Greek scholarship, this division of people and language is quite similar to the results of modern archaeological-linguistic investigation. One standard formulation for the dialects is: West vs. non-West Greek is the strongest-marked and earliest division, with non-West in subsets of Ionic-Attic (or Attic-Ionic) and Aeolic vs. Arcadocypriot, or Aeolic and Arcado-Cypriot vs. Ionic-Attic. Often non-West
4048-592: The city in 411 BC, to bring the Athenians into submission. The Athenian military later retook the city in 408 BC, when the Spartans had withdrawn following their settlement. After siding with Pescennius Niger against the victorious Septimius Severus , the city was besieged by Roman forces and suffered extensive damage in AD 196. Byzantium was rebuilt by Septimius Severus, now emperor, and quickly regained its previous prosperity. It
4136-636: The city itself, but it seems likely to have been an effect of being credited with the intervention against Philip and the subsequent honors. This was a common process in ancient Greece, as in Athens where the city was named after Athena in honor of such an intervention in time of war. Cities in the Roman Empire often continued to issue their own coinage. "Of the many themes that were used on local coinage, celestial and astral symbols often appeared, mostly stars or crescent moons." The wide variety of these issues, and
4224-494: The city was called Constantinople (Greek Κωνσταντινούπολις, Konstantinoupolis , "city of Constantine"). This combination of imperialism and location would affect Constantinople's role as the nexus between the continents of Europe and Asia. It was a commercial, cultural, and diplomatic centre and for centuries formed the capital of the Byzantine Empire , which decorated the city with numerous monuments, some still standing today. With its strategic position, Constantinople controlled
4312-453: The city when he sailed northeast across the Aegean Sea . The date is usually given as 667 BC on the authority of Herodotus , who states the city was founded 17 years after Chalcedon . Eusebius , who wrote almost 800 years later, dates the founding of Chalcedon to 685/4 BC, but he also dates the founding of Byzantium to 656 BC (or a few years earlier depending on the edition). Herodotus' dating
4400-491: The city". To this day it remains the largest and most populous city in Turkey , although Ankara is now the national capital. By the late Hellenistic or early Roman period (1st century BC), the star and crescent motif was associated to some degree with Byzantium; even though it became more widely used as the royal emblem of Mithradates VI Eupator (who for a time incorporated the city into his empire ). Some Byzantine coins of
4488-647: The coin, dates from the 12th century. Later, the name Byzantium became common in the West to refer to the Eastern Roman Empire , whose capital was Constantinople. As a term for the east Roman state as a whole, Byzantium was introduced by the historian Hieronymus Wolf only in 1555, a century after the last remnants of the empire, whose inhabitants continued to refer to their polity as the Roman Empire ( Medieval Greek : Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων , romanized : Basileía tōn Rhōmaíōn , lit. 'empire of
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#17328373764104576-480: The crescent and star, and the walls of her city were her provenance. This contradicts claims that only the symbol of the crescent was meant to symbolize Hecate, whereas the star was only added later in order to symbolize the Virgin Mary, as Constantine I is said to have rededicated the city to her in the year 330. It is unclear precisely how the symbol Hecate/Artemis, one of many goddesses would have been transferred to
4664-518: The death of Murshili around 1595 BC, Hurrians wrested control from the Hitties, and Cilicia was free for two centuries. The first king of free Cilicia, Išputahšu , son of Pariyawatri , was recorded as a "great king" in both cuneiform and Hittite hieroglyphs . Another record of Hittite origins, a treaty between Išputahšu and Telipinu , king of the Hittites, is recorded in both Hittite and Akkadian . In
4752-611: The dialect of Sparta ), and Northern Peloponnesus Doric (including Corinthian ). All the groups were represented by colonies beyond Greece proper as well, and these colonies generally developed local characteristics, often under the influence of settlers or neighbors speaking different Greek dialects. After the conquests of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BC, a new international dialect known as Koine or Common Greek developed, largely based on Attic Greek , but with influence from other dialects. This dialect slowly replaced most of
4840-587: The earlier Hittite era ( 2nd millennium BC ). The region was divided into two parts, "plain" Cilicia (Uru Adaniya), a well-watered plain, and "rough" Cilicia (Tarza), in the mountainous west. There exists evidence that circa 1650 BC both Hittite kings Hattusili I and Mursili I enjoyed the freedom of movement along the Pyramus River (now the Ceyhan River in southern Turkey ), proving they exerted strong control over Cilicia in their battles with Syria . After
4928-430: The east coast of Cyprus, was included in the Roman province of Cilicia from 58 BC until 27 BC. Cilicia consisted of two main contrasting regions: Rough Cilicia ( Ancient Greek : Κιλικια Τραχεια , romanized : Kilikia Trakheia ; Latin : Cilicia Aspera ; Neo-Assyrian Akkadian : 𒆳𒄭𒋃𒆪 , romanized: Ḫilakku ; Neo-Babylonian Akkadian : 𒆳𒉿𒊑𒅔𒁺 , romanized: Pirindu )
5016-465: The east, included the rugged spurs of Taurus and a large coastal plain , with rich loamy soil, known to Greeks such as Xenophon (who passed through with his mercenary group of the Ten Thousand , ) for its abundance ( euthemia ), filled with sesame and millet and olives and pasturage for the horses imported into ancient Israel by King Solomon . Many of its high places were fortified. The plain
5104-610: The empire. The Anglicization of Latin Byzantinus yielded "Byzantine", with 15th and 16th century forms including Byzantin , Bizantin(e) , Bezantin(e) , and Bysantin as well as Byzantian and Bizantian . The name Byzantius and Byzantinus were applied from the 9th century to gold Byzantine coinage , reflected in the French besant ( d'or ), Italian bisante , and English besant , byzant , or bezant . The English usage, derived from Old French besan (pl. besanz ), and relating to
5192-537: The guards and sending them and their satrap into full flight, setting their crops aflame as they made for Tarsus . This good fortune allowed Alexander and his army to pass unharmed through the Gates and into Cilicia. During Alexander III's invasion, a lesser officer named Arsames who had fled to Cilicia from the northwest to organise new resistance there defended it against the Macedonian forces. After Alexander's death it
5280-502: The highest average temperature in Cilicia. Mersin also has high annual precipitation (1096 mm) and 85 rainy days in a year. The mountains of Cilicia are formed from ancient limestones, conglomerate , marlstone, and similar materials. The Taurus Mountains are composed of karstic limestone, while its soil is also limestone-derived, with pockets of volcanic soil. The lower plain is the largest alluvial plain in Turkey. Expansion of limestone formations and fourth-era alluvials brought by
5368-506: The historical Dorians . The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, who regarded themselves as descendants of the population displaced by or contending with the Dorians. The Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people – Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians (including Athenians), each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Allowing for their oversight of Arcadian, an obscure mountain dialect, and Cypriot, far from
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#17328373764105456-424: The historical circumstances of the times imply that the overall groups already existed in some form. Scholars assume that major Ancient Greek period dialect groups developed not later than 1120 BC, at the time of the Dorian invasions —and that their first appearances as precise alphabetic writing began in the 8th century BC. The invasion would not be "Dorian" unless the invaders had some cultural relationship to
5544-417: The land, particularly, the eastern plains, fertile. In the coldest month (January), the average temperature is 9 °C, and in the warmest month (August), the average temperature is 28 °C. The mountains of Cilicia have an inland climate with snowy winters. The average annual precipitation in the region is 647 mm and the average number of rainy days in a year is 76. Mersin and surrounding areas have
5632-413: The major trade routes between Asia and Europe, as well as the passage from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea . On May 29, 1453, the city was conquered by the Ottoman Turks , and again became the capital of a powerful state, the Ottoman Empire . The Turks called the city "Istanbul" (although it was not officially renamed until 1930); the name derives from the Greek phrase "στην πόλη", which means "to
5720-405: The next century, the Cilician king Pilliya finalized treaties with both King Zidanta II of the Hittites and Idrimi of Alalakh , in which Idrimi mentions that he had assaulted several military targets throughout Eastern Cilicia. Niqmepa , who succeeded Idrimi as king of Alalakh, went so far as to ask for help from a Hurrian rival, Shaushtatar of Mitanni , to try and reduce Cilicia's power in
5808-400: The older dialects, although the Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language , which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek . By about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosed into Medieval Greek . Phrygian is an extinct Indo-European language of West and Central Anatolia , which
5896-435: The only peoples of Anatolia who had not been conquered by the Lydian king Croesus . However, it is unknown whether this means that the Cilicians and Lycians were able to resist the Lydian conquest, or whether Croesus did not find any interest in annexing them. In the mid-6th century BC, the kingdom of Cilicia supported the founding king of the Persian Achaemenid Empire , Cyrus II , in his wars against Croesus of Lydia, as
5984-487: The perfect stem eilēpha (not * lelēpha ) because it was originally slambanō , with perfect seslēpha , becoming eilēpha through compensatory lengthening. Reduplication is also visible in the present tense stems of certain verbs. These stems add a syllable consisting of the root's initial consonant followed by i . A nasal stop appears after the reduplication in some verbs. The earliest extant examples of ancient Greek writing ( c. 1450 BC ) are in
6072-423: The region. It was soon apparent, however, that increased Hittite power would soon prove Niqmepa's efforts to be futile, as the city of Kizzuwatna soon fell to the Hittites, threatening all of Cilicia. Soon after, King Sunassura II was forced to accept vassalization under the Hittites, becoming the last king of ancient Cilicia. After the death of Mursili I , which led to a power struggle among rival claimants to
6160-428: The rich plain of Issus ran the great highway that linked east and west, on which stood the cities of Tarsus (Tarsa) on the Cydnus, Adana (Adanija) on the Sarus, and Mopsuestia (Missis) on the Pyramus. The climate of Cilicia shows significant differences between the mountains and the lower plains. At the lower plains, the climate reflects a typical Mediterranean style; summers are hot while winters are mild, making
6248-414: The rivers Seyhan and Ceyhan formed the plains of the region over the course of time. Akyatan , Akyayan, Salt Lake, Seven lakes at Aladağ, and Karstik Dipsiz lake near Karaisalı are the lakes of the region. The reservoirs in the region are Seyhan, Çatalan, Yedigöze, Kozan and Mehmetli. The major rivers in Cilicia are Seyhan , Ceyhan , Berdan (Tarsus) , Asi and Göksu . Cilicia was settled from
6336-560: The rugged Taurus Mountains , which separate it from the high central plateau of Anatolia , and which are pierced by a narrow gorge called in antiquity the Cilician Gates . Ancient Cilicia was naturally divided into Cilicia Trachea ( Latin : Cilicia Aspera , west of the Limonlu River ) and Cilicia Pedias ( Latin : Cilicia Campestris , east of the Limonlu). Salamis , the city on
6424-463: The same) referred to Byzantion's inhabitants, also used as an ethnonym for the people of the city and as a family name. In the Middle Ages , Byzántion was also a synecdoche for the eastern Roman Empire . (An ellipsis of Medieval Greek : Βυζάντιον κράτος , romanized : Byzántion krátos ). Byzantinós ( Medieval Greek : Βυζαντινός , Latin : Byzantinus ) denoted an inhabitant of
6512-494: The satrap of Tarsus except for the narrow strip of flat land along its coast, due to which the imperial authorities often led repressive measures against these inhabitants of the hilly regions. During the reign of the Achaemenid king of kings Darius I , Cilicia was used as an assembly point for the military forces which Mardonius used to campaign in Europe as well as those which Datis and Artaphernes used to campaign against both
6600-517: The syllabic script Linear B . Beginning in the 8th century BC, however, the Greek alphabet became standard, albeit with some variation among dialects. Early texts are written in boustrophedon style, but left-to-right became standard during the classic period. Modern editions of ancient Greek texts are usually written with accents and breathing marks , interword spacing , modern punctuation , and sometimes mixed case , but these were all introduced later. The beginning of Homer 's Iliad exemplifies
6688-496: The thousand-year existence of the Eastern Roman Empire , which was commonly referred to by the former name of that city, the Byzantine Empire . Byzantium was colonized by Greeks from Megara in the 7th century BC and remained primarily Greek-speaking until its conquest by the Ottoman Empire in AD 1453. The etymology of Byzantium is unknown. It has been suggested that the name is of Thracian origin. It may be derived from
6776-514: The throne, eventually leading to the collapse of Hittite supremacy, Cilicia appeared to have regained its independence. In the 13th century BC a major population shift occurred as the Sea Peoples overran Cilicia. The Hurrians that resided there deserted the area and moved northeast towards the Taurus Mountains , where they settled in the area of Cappadocia . During the early and middle of
6864-488: The varying explanations for the significance of the star and crescent on Roman coinage precludes their discussion here. It is, however, apparent that by the time of the Romans, coins featuring a star or crescent in some combination were not at all rare. Ancient Greek language Ancient Greek ( Ἑλληνῐκή , Hellēnikḗ ; [hellɛːnikɛ́ː] ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and
6952-610: The western district was left independent under native kings or priest-dynasts, and a small kingdom, under Tarcondimotus I , was left in the east; but these were finally united to the province by Vespasian , AD 72. Containing 47 known cities, it had been deemed important enough to be governed by a proconsul . In 259 or 250, the Persian Sasanian king of kings Shapur I defeated the Roman Emperor Valerian , whose army included Cilician soldiers. After Valerian's defeat,
7040-525: The whole was organized by Pompey , 64 BC, into a province which, for a short time, extended to and included part of Phrygia . In 51 BC, the Parthian Empire was able to take advantage of the weakness of the Roman Republic to invade Cilicia ( Parthian : 𐭊𐭉𐭋𐭊𐭉𐭀 ). It was reorganized by Julius Caesar , 47 BC, and about 27 BC became part of the province Syria-Cilicia Phoenice. At first,
7128-481: The works of Hesychius of Miletus , who in all probability lived in the time of Justinian I . His works survive only in fragments preserved in Photius and the tenth century lexicographer Suidas . The tale is also related by Stephanus of Byzantium , and Eustathius . Devotion to Hecate was especially favored by the Byzantines for her aid in having protected them from the incursions of Philip of Macedon. Her symbols were
7216-475: Was Aeolic. For example, fragments of the works of the poet Sappho from the island of Lesbos are in Aeolian. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, or to an island. Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric (including Cretan Doric ), Southern Peloponnesus Doric (including Laconian ,
7304-757: Was added to the administrative province of Skudra . Though Achaemenid control of the city was never as stable as compared to other cities in Thrace , it was considered, alongside Sestos , to be one of the foremost Achaemenid ports on the European coast of the Bosphorus and the Hellespont . Byzantium was besieged by Greek forces during the Peloponnesian War . As part of Sparta 's strategy for cutting off grain supplies to Athens during their siege of Athens, Sparta took control of
7392-405: Was appointed as satrap of Cilicia by Xerxes I as reward for his service. Cilicia remained under efficient administration, and it would continue to provide troops for the Achaemenid wars in Anatolia, Egypt and Cyprus. In 401 BC, the Achaemenid king of kings Artaxerxes II abolished the autonomy of Cilicia in reaction to the local Cilician ruler Syennesis III's support for the rebellion of Cyrus
7480-530: Was bound to Perinthus during the period of Septimius Severus. After the war, Byzantium lost its city status and free city privileges, but Caracalla persuaded Severus to restore these rights. In appreciation, the Byzantines named Caracalla an archon of their city. The strategic and highly defensible (due to being surrounded by water on almost all sides) location of Byzantium attracted Roman Emperor Constantine I who, in AD 330, refounded it as an imperial residence inspired by Rome itself, known as Nova Roma . Later
7568-639: Was later favored by Constantine the Great , who celebrated Byzantium's 1,000th anniversary between the years 333 and 334. Byzantium was mainly a trading city due to its location at the Black Sea 's only entrance. Byzantium later conquered Chalcedon, across the Bosphorus on the Asiatic side. The city was taken by the Persian Empire at the time of the Scythian campaign (513 BC) of Emperor Darius I (r. 522–486 BC), and
7656-488: Was long a battleground of the rival Hellenistic monarchs and kingdoms, and for a time fell under Ptolemaic dominion (i.e., Egypt), but finally came to the Seleucids , who, however, never held effectually more than the eastern half. Although no later Persian empire ever regained control of Cilicia, one Seleucid officer named Aribazus and attested as administrator of Cilicia in 246 BC was possibly of Persian descent. During
7744-449: Was thwarted by the appearance of a bright light in the sky. This light is occasionally described by subsequent interpreters as a meteor , sometimes as the moon, and some accounts also mention the barking of dogs. However, the original accounts mention only a bright light in the sky, without specifying the moon. To commemorate the event the Byzantines erected a statue of Hecate lampadephoros (light-bearer or bringer). This story survived in
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