THE PHRYGIANS AND KING MIDAS
The Phrygians (750-300 BC) settled in Central and Western Anatolia, in the Afyon-Ankara-Eskisehir triangle, declaring Gordion on the Sakarya river to be their capital.

Their civilisation met its apogee in the second half of the 8^th century BC, under the famous King Midas whom, according to Greek mythology, Apollo ridiculed by having him grow ears of a donkey, and whom Dionysus invested with the power to turn everything he touched in to gold. Gordion fell to Persian domination around 550 BC and was liberated in 333 BC by Alexander the Great.

THE LYDIANS INVENT MONEY
In the east of Izmir, lived another people, the Lydians, thought to have invented money between 800 and 650 BC. In the 6^th century BC, Croesus, to King of Lydia, agreed with the advancing Persians to divide Anatolia along the river Kizilirmak. The Persians, however, did not keep this commitment and continued to encroach on Lydian territory. They remained the sovereign power in Anatolia until the arrival of Alexander the Great in 333 BC.

ANATOLIA CHANGES HANDS AGAIN
After the death of Alexander the Great, Anatolia became the hub of the Seleucid Empire. Bergama grew at the expense of its neighbours, and snatched part of Phrygia in 241 BC. The Kingdom became prodigiously rich, the emporium of Anatolia and a brilliant intellectual centre.

Archeological museums in Turkey are rich in Roman antiquities.

THE ROMAN PERIOD BEGINS
The Roman period of Anatolia began with the death of King Attalus III of Bergama who willed his country to the Romans because he had no direct heir. Anatolia then lived through a period of peace and prosperity, particularly in the 1^st and 2^nd centuries AD.

The pax Romana proved to be an extraordinary period of urban development. Ephesus served as the seat of the Roman governor of Asia and as a great commercial and cultural centre.