Lycaonia

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Asia Minor in Antiquity

Lycaonia (Greek Λυκαονία Lykaonía ) was a landscape in central Asia Minor in ancient times . Together with the north-west bordering Galatia , it occupied most of the Central Anatolian highlands. The border was formed by the Tuz Gölü in the north, the Taurus Mountains in the south, the Beyşehir Gölü in the west and the Karacadağ in the east . The most important city was Iconium , today's Konya ; the partly steppe-like plateaus around Iconium formed a large part of Lycaonia.

The landscape name Lykaonia is first documented by Xenophon . The inhabitants are mentioned in Xenophon and Ephoros by Kyme Lykáones . This is the Graecization of the name of this population group, which has existed since the 2nd millennium BC. Lived there. Their language, which is one of the Luwian languages , is partly still comprehensible in the stock of place names and personal names. In the early Roman Empire , the population was probably already completely Hellenized . The economy on the dry plateaus was characterized by sheep breeding, while in the more rainy mountain areas varied agriculture and forestry was possible.

Lycaonia belonged to the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. To the Hittite Empire . Later it came under Persian rule , in the late 4th century it became a part of the Alexander Empire , when it was divided into the Seleucid Empire after the death of Alexander the Great . The Peace of Apamea brought Lycaonia in 188 BC. Under the rule of King Eumenes II of Pergamon . The legacy of the empire of Pergamon came to the Romans.

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