The oldest settlements in and around the city center of Ankara belong to the Hatti civilization which thrived during the Bronze Age. The city significantly grew in size and importance under the See more

Phrygian rule was succeeded first by Lydian and later by Persian rule, though the strongly Phrygian character of the peasantry remained, as evidenced by the gravestones of the much later Roman period. … See more

Ankara was conquered by Alexander the Great in 333 BC, who came from Gordion to Ankara and stayed in the city for a short period. After his death at Babylon in 323 BC and the subsequent … See more

In 278 BC, the city, along with the rest of central Anatolia, was occupied by the Celtic speaking Galatians, who were the first to make … See more

The city was subsequently conquered by Augustus in 25 BC and passed under the control of the Roman Empire. Now the capital city of the Roman province of Galatia, Ancyra … See more

Ancyra's importance rested on the fact was that it was the junction point where the roads in northern Anatolia running north–south and east–west intersected. The great imperial road running east passed through Ankara and a succession of emperors and … See more

The town was reincorporated into the Roman Empire under the Emperor Aurelian in 272. The tetrarchy, a system of multiple (up to four) emperors introduced by Diocletian (284-305), seems to have engaged in a substantial programme of rebuilding and of … See more