Phrygia

*Includes pictures
*Includes ancient accounts of the Phrygian kingdom
*Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading

Among all the early Iron Age people from the Near East, the Phrygians are perhaps one of the most misunderstood. They built a powerful and wealthy kingdom, but were overshadowed by their more powerful and wealthier neighbors, the Lydians. Although the Phrygians were literate, most of their surviving texts have been little use to modern historians who desire to reconstruct their chronology, so they are left to use often biased Classical and Assyrian sources. Problems concerning nomenclature have also clouded the modern understanding of Phrygia and the Phrygians; the Greeks would often refer to numerous non-Phrygian peoples as Phrygians, and while the Persians acknowledged the Phrygians as a distinct people, they only considered them so as part of a satrapy or province in the vast Achaemenid Persian Empire.
Although there are numerous inherent problems concerning any modern study of ancient Phrygia and the Phrygians, there are still a number of sources that can help illuminate the many aspects of Phrygian culture. The majority of the sources utilized in this study come from the ancient Greek historians, but the Assyrians also wrote about the Phrygians in their annals. The classical and Assyrians sources are augmented with archaeological and numismatic evidence from Phrygia, and finally some of the Phrygian language inscriptions are also considered. The following study reveals that the Phrygians were much more than just their most famous king, Midas; they played an important role in the redevelopment of ancient Anatolia after the Bronze Age collapse and were at times a focal point in the battles between the Greeks and Persians. After the Sea Peoples raids of the late thirteenth and early twelfth centuries BCE ravaged the eastern Mediterranean region and brought down the Hittite Empire, the Phrygians were one of the peoples who picked up the pieces and helped bring civilization back to the region. In the course of the centuries during the early Iron Age, the Phrygians developed an important, wealthy, and vibrant culture that rivaled the Kingdom of Lydia, but eventually fell victim to larger empires to their east and west.
Phrygia: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Phrygian Kingdom in Anatolia examines the amazing history and legacy of Phrygia. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Phrygians like never before.