1.
Anatolia
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Anatolia, in geography known as Asia Minor, Asian Turkey, Anatolian peninsula, or Anatolian plateau, is the westernmost protrusion of Asia, which makes up the majority of modern-day Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Sea of Marmara forms a connection between the Black and Aegean Seas through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits and separates Anatolia from Thrace on the European mainland. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line between the Gulf of Alexandretta and the Black Sea to the Armenian Highlands, thus, traditionally Anatolia is the territory that comprises approximately the western two-thirds of the Asian part of Turkey. The Turkification of Anatolia began under the Seljuk Empire in the late 11th century, however, various non-Turkic languages continue to be spoken by minorities in Anatolia today, including Kurdish, Assyrian, Armenian, Arabic, Laz, Georgian, and Greek. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line running from the Gulf of Alexandretta to the Black Sea. This traditional geographical definition is used, for example, in the latest edition of Merriam-Websters Geographical Dictionary, under this definition, Anatolia is bounded to the east by the Armenian Highlands, and the Euphrates before that river bends to the southeast to enter Mesopotamia. To the southeast, it is bounded by the ranges that separate it from the Orontes valley in Syria, the first name the Greeks used for the Anatolian peninsula was Ἀσία, presumably after the name of the Assuwa league in western Anatolia. As the name of Asia came to be extended to areas east of the Mediterranean. The name Anatolia derives from the Greek ἀνατολή meaning “the East” or more literally “sunrise”, the precise reference of this term has varied over time, perhaps originally referring to the Aeolian, Ionian and Dorian colonies on the west coast of Asia Minor. In the Byzantine Empire, the Anatolic Theme was a theme covering the western, the modern Turkish form of Anatolia is Anadolu, which again derives from the Greek name Aνατολή. The Russian male name Anatoly and the French Anatole share the same linguistic origin, in English the name of Turkey for ancient Anatolia first appeared c. It is derived from the Medieval Latin Turchia, which was used by the Europeans to define the Seljuk controlled parts of Anatolia after the Battle of Manzikert. Human habitation in Anatolia dates back to the Paleolithic, neolithic Anatolia has been proposed as the homeland of the Indo-European language family, although linguists tend to favour a later origin in the steppes north of the Black Sea. However, it is clear that the Anatolian languages, the oldest branch of Indo-European, have spoken in Anatolia since at least the 19th century BC. The earliest historical records of Anatolia stem from the southeast of the region and are from the Mesopotamian-based Akkadian Empire during the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 24th century BC, scholars generally believe the earliest indigenous populations of Anatolia were the Hattians and Hurrians. The region was famous for exporting raw materials, and areas of Hattian-, one of the numerous cuneiform records dated circa 20th century BC, found in Anatolia at the Assyrian colony of Kanesh, uses an advanced system of trading computations and credit lines. They were speakers of an Indo-European language, the Hittite language, originating from Nesa, they conquered Hattusa in the 18th century BC, imposing themselves over Hattian- and Hurrian-speaking populations. According to the most widely accepted Kurgan theory on the Proto-Indo-European homeland, however, the Hittites adopted the cuneiform script, invented in Mesopotamia
2.
Roman Republic
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It was during this period that Romes control expanded from the citys immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world. During the first two centuries of its existence, the Roman Republic expanded through a combination of conquest and alliance, by the following century, it included North Africa, most of the Iberian Peninsula, and what is now southern France. Two centuries after that, towards the end of the 1st century BC, it included the rest of modern France, Greece, and much of the eastern Mediterranean. By this time, internal tensions led to a series of wars, culminating with the assassination of Julius Caesar. The exact date of transition can be a matter of interpretation, Roman government was headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and advised by a senate composed of appointed magistrates. Over time, the laws that gave exclusive rights to Romes highest offices were repealed or weakened. The leaders of the Republic developed a tradition and morality requiring public service and patronage in peace and war, making military. Many of Romes legal and legislative structures can still be observed throughout Europe and much of the world in modern nation states, the exact causes and motivations for Romes military conflicts and expansions during the republic are subject to wide debate. While they can be seen as motivated by outright aggression and imperialism and they argue that Romes expansion was driven by short-term defensive and inter-state factors, and the new contingencies that these decisions created. In its early history, as Rome successfully defended itself against foreign threats in central and then northern Italy, with some important exceptions, successful wars in early republican Rome generally led not to annexation or military occupation, but to the restoration of the way things were. But the defeated city would be weakened and thus able to resist Romanizing influences. It was also able to defend itself against its non-Roman enemies. It was, therefore, more likely to seek an alliance of protection with Rome and this growing coalition expanded the potential enemies that Rome might face, and moved Rome closer to confrontation with major powers. The result was more alliance-seeking, on the part of both the Roman confederacy and city-states seeking membership within that confederacy. While there were exceptions to this, it was not until after the Second Punic War that these alliances started to harden into something more like an empire and this shift mainly took place in parts of the west, such as the southern Italian towns that sided with Hannibal. In contrast, Roman expansion into Spain and Gaul occurred as a mix of alliance-seeking, in the 2nd century BC, Roman involvement in the Greek east remained a matter of alliance-seeking, but this time in the face of major powers that could rival Rome. This had some important similarities to the events in Italy centuries earlier, with some major exceptions of outright military rule, the Roman Republic remained an alliance of independent city-states and kingdoms until it transitioned into the Roman Empire. It was not until the time of the Roman Empire that the entire Roman world was organized into provinces under explicit Roman control
3.
Kingdom of Pontus
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The Kingdom of Pontus or Pontic Empire was a state founded by the Persian Mithridatic dynasty, which may have been directly related to Darius the Great and the Achaemenid dynasty. The kingdom was proclaimed by Mithridates I in 281 BCE and lasted until its conquest by the Roman Republic in 63 BCE, culturally, the kingdom was Hellenized, with Greek the official language. The Kingdom of Pontus was divided into two areas, the coastal region and the Pontic interior. The coastal region bordering the Black Sea was separated from the inland area by the Pontic Alps. The river valleys of Pontus also ran parallel to the coast and were quite fertile, supporting cattle herds, millet, the coastal region was dominated by Greek cities such as Amastris and Sinope, which became the Pontic capital after its capture. The coast was rich in timber, fishing, and olives, Pontus was also rich in iron and silver, which were mined near the coast south of Pharnacia, steel from the Chalybian mountains became quite famous in Greece. There were also copper, lead, zinc and arsenic, the Pontic interior also had fertile river valleys such as the river Lycus and Iris. The major city of the interior was Amasia, the early Pontic capital, besides Amasia and a few other cities, the interior was dominated mainly by small villages. The kingdom of Pontus was divided into districts named Eparchies, the division between coast and interior was also cultural. The coast was mainly Greek and focused on sea trade, the interior was occupied by the Anatolian Cappadocians and Paphlagonians ruled by an Iranian aristocracy that went back to the Persian empire. The interior also had powerful temples with large estates, the gods of the Kingdom were mostly syncretic, with features of local gods along with Persian and Greek deities. Major gods included the Persian Ahuramazda, who was termed Zeus Stratios, sun gods were particularly popular, with the royal house being identified with the Persian god Ahuramazda of the Achaemenid dynasty, both Apollo and Mithras were worshipped by the Kings. Indeed, the used by the majority of the Pontic kings was Mithridates. Pontic culture represented a synthesis between Iranian, Anatolian and Greek elements, with the two mostly associated with the interior parts, and the latter moreso with the coastal region. By the time of Mithridates VI Eupator, Greek was the language of the Kingdom though Anatolian languages continued to be spoken in the interior. Although the Pontic kings claimed descent from the Persian royal house, they acted as Hellenistic kings and portrayed themselves as such in their coins. The region of Pontus was originally part of the Persian satrapy of Cappadocia, the Persian dynasty which was to found this kingdom had, during the 4th century BCE, ruled the Greek city of Cius in Mysia, with its first known member being Mithridates of Cius. His son Ariobarzanes II became satrap of Phrygia and he became a strong ally of Athens and revolted against Artaxerxes, but was betrayed by his son Mithridates II of Cius
4.
Phrygia
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In antiquity, Phrygia was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now Turkey, centered on the Sakarya River. This later Midas was, however, also the last independent king of Phrygia before Cimmerians sacked the Phrygian capital, Gordium, Phrygia then became subject to Lydia, and then successively to Persia, Alexander and his Hellenistic successors, Pergamon, Rome and Byzantium. Phrygians gradually became assimilated into other cultures by the medieval era, after the Turkish conquest of Anatolia. Phrygia describes an area on the end of the high Anatolian plateau. The climate is harsh with hot summers and cold winters, olives will not easily grow here and the land is used for livestock grazing. South of Dorylaeum, there is another important Phrygian settlement, Midas City, situated in an area of hills, to the south again, central Phrygia includes the cities of Afyonkarahisar with its marble quarries at nearby Docimium, and the town of Synnada. At the western end of Phrygia stood the towns of Aizanoi, from here to the southwest lies the hilly area of Phrygia that contrasts to the bare plains of the regions heartland. Southwestern Phrygia is watered by the Maeander and its tributary the Lycus, one of the so-called Homeric Hymns describes the Phrygian language as not mutually intelligible with that of Troy. According to ancient tradition among Greek historians, the Phrygians anciently migrated to Anatolia from the Balkans, Herodotus says that the Phrygians were called Bryges when they lived in Europe. Some classical writers also connected the Phrygians with the Mygdones, the name of two groups of people, one of which lived in northern Macedonia and another in Mysia. The classical historian Strabo groups Phrygians, Mygdones, Mysians, Bebryces, Phrygian continued to be spoken until the 6th century AD, though its distinctive alphabet was lost earlier than those of most Anatolian cultures. The so-called Handmade Knobbed Ware found in Western Anatolia during this period has been identified as an import connected to this invasion. These scholars seek instead to trace the Phrygians origins among the nations of western Anatolia who were subject to the Hittites. Some scholars dismiss the claim of a Phrygian migration as a mere legend, no one has conclusively identified which of the many subjects of the Hittites might have represented early Phrygians. Josephus called Togarmah the Thrugrammeans, who, as the Greeks resolved, were named Phrygians, however, the Greek source cited by Josephus is unknown, and it is unclear if there was any basis for the identification other than name similarity. Scholars of the Hittites believe Tegarama was in eastern Anatolia - some locate it at Gurun - far to the east of Phrygia, some scholars have identified Phrygia with the Assuwa league, and noted that the Iliad mentions a Phrygian named Asios. Another possible early name of Phrygia could be Hapalla, the name of the easternmost province that emerged from the splintering of the Bronze Age western Anatolian empire Arzawa, however, scholars are unsure if Hapalla corresponds to Phrygia or to Pisidia, further south. Herodotus also claims that Phrygian colonists founded the Armenian nation, however, little is known about these eastern Mygdones, and no evidence of Phrygian language in that region has been found
5.
Attalid dynasty
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The Attalid dynasty was a Hellenistic dynasty that ruled the city of Pergamon after the death of Lysimachus, a general of Alexander the Great. The Attalid kingdom was the state left after the collapse of the Lysimachian Empire. One of Lysimachus officers, Philetaerus, took control of the city in 282 BC, the later Attalids were descended from his father and they expanded the city into a kingdom. Attalus I proclaimed himself King in the 230s BC, following his victories over the Galatians, the Attalids ruled Pergamon until Attalus III bequeathed the kingdom to the Roman Republic in 133 BC to avoid a likely succession crisis. A war with Eumenes III resulted in the creation of Roman province of Asia over much of the territory, the Greek World After Alexander, 323-30 B. C. Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press, London, Cornell University Press Ltd, kosmetatou, Elizabeth The Attalids of Pergamon, in Andrew Erskine, ed. A Companion to the Hellenistic World, text Media related to Attalid dynasty at Wikimedia Commons
6.
Colchis
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Colchis was an ancient kingdom and region on the coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia. Internationally, Colchis is perhaps best known for its role in Greek mythology, most notably as the destination of the Argonauts, as well as the home to Medea and the Golden fleece. Colchis was populated by Colchians, an early Kartvelian-speaking tribe, ancestral to the contemporary Western Georgians, namely Svans and Mingrelians, the kingdom of Colchis, Kolkhis or Qulha which existed from the c. According to the scholar of Caucasian studies Cyril Toumanoff, Colchis appears as the first Caucasian State to have achieved the coalescence of the newcomer. Colchis can be regarded as not a proto-Georgian, but a Georgian kingdom. It would seem natural to seek the beginnings of Georgian social history in Colchis. A second South Caucasian tribal union emerged in the 13th century BC on the Black Sea coast. There is some difference in authors as to the extent of the country westward, thus Strabo makes Colchis begin at Trabzon, while Ptolemy, on the other hand. The name of Colchis first appears in Aeschylus and Pindar, the earlier writers only speak about it under the name of Aea, the residence of the mythical king Aeëtes, Kolchian Aia lies at the furthest limits of sea and earth, wrote Apollonius of Rhodes. Scylax mentions also Mala or Male, which he, in contradiction to other writers, the central part of the region is Colchis Plain, stretching between Sokhumi and Kobuleti, most of that lies on the elevation below 20 m above sea level. Marginal parts of the region are mountains of the Great and the Lesser Caucasus, the climate is mild humid, near Batumi, annual rainfall level reaches 4,000 mm, which is the absolute maximum for the continental western Eurasia. The dominating natural landscapes of Colchis are temperate rainforests, yet degraded in the part of the region, wetlands. In at least some parts of Colchis, the process of urbanization seems to have been advanced by the end of the 2nd millennium BC. The Colchian Late Bronze Age saw the development of significant skill in the smelting and casting of metals, sophisticated farming implements were made, and fertile, well-watered lowlands and a mild climate promoted the growth of progressive agricultural techniques. Colchis was inhabited by a number of related but distinct tribes whose settlements lay along the shore of the Black Sea and these Colchian tribes differed so completely in language and appearance from the surrounding Indo-European nations that the ancients provided various wild theories to account for the phenomenon. Herodotus regarded the Colchians as Ancient Egyptian race, Apollonius of Rhodes states that the Egyptians of Colchis preserved as heirlooms a number of wooden tablets, which show, with considerable accuracy, seas and highways. Detlev Fehling regards the link between Colchis and Egypt as a clear example of the way Herodotus used spurious sources to back up stories he had made up himself. In the 13th century BC, the Kingdom of Colchis was formed as a result of the consolidation of the tribes inhabiting the region. This power, celebrated in Greek mythology as the destination of the Argonauts, the home of Medea, the kingdom of Tabal was conquered by the Assyrian emperor Shalmaneser III in the 830s BC
7.
Sinop, Turkey
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The city serves as the capital of Sinop Province. Long used as a Hittite port, which appears in Hittite sources as Sinuwa, Sinope flourished as the Black Sea port of a caravan route that led from the upper Euphrates valley. It issued its own coinage, founded colonies, and gave its name to a red pigment called sinopia. Sinope escaped Persian domination until the early 4th century BC and it was ruled by Scydrothemis from 301 to 280 BC. In 183 BC it was captured by Pharnaces I and became capital of the Kingdom of Pontus, the Roman general Lucullus conquered Sinope in 70 BC, and Julius Caesar established a Roman colony there, Colonia Julia Felix, in 47 BC. After the division of the Roman Empire in 395, Sinope remained with the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire. After the sacking of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, it was captured for the Empire of Trebizond by David Komnenos, the city returned briefly to Trapezuntine rule in 1254, but returned to Turkish control in 1265, where it has remained since. After 1265, Sinop became home to two successive independent emirates following the fall of the Seljuks, the Pervâne and the Jandarids. The Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II overawed Ismail, the emir of Sinope on his march on Trebizond, the emir was exiled to Philippopolis in northern Thrace. In 1614 Sinop was targeted by Cossack raiders and extensively looted and burned in an event which shocked Ottoman contemporaries, in the late 19th and early 20th century, Sinop was part of the Kastamonu Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. As of 1920, Sinop was described as populated mainly by Greeks with a population of 8,000. It was also considered the safest port between Bosphorus and Batum, at the time, during this period, the port was exporting wheat, tobacco, seeds, timber and hides. They imported produce, coal and hardware, Sinop hosted a US military base and radar that was important for intelligence during the cold war era. The US base was closed in 1992, explorer Bob Ballard discovered an ancient ship wreck north west of Sinop in the Black Sea and was shown on National Geographic. Sinop has warm and humid summers with a daytime high of 26 °C however temperatures rarely exceed 30 °C. The highest recorded temperature for Sinop was 34.4 °C on 6 July 2000, the winters are cool and wet. The average for winter ranging around 5 °C, the lowest recorded temperature for Sinop was -7.5 °C on 21 February 1985. Snowfall is quite common between the months of December and March, snowing for a week or two, as of 1920, Sinop was producing embroidered cotton cloth
8.
Campaign history of the Roman military
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These accounts were written by various authors throughout and after the history of the Empire. The Roman army battled first against its neighbours and Etruscan towns within Italy. From the outset, Romes military typified this pattern, and the majority of Romes campaigns were characterised by one of two types, the second is the civil war, which plagued Rome from its foundation to its eventual demise. Roman armies were not invincible, despite their reputation and host of victories. Nevertheless, it was generally the fate of even the greatest of Romes enemies, such as Pyrrhus and Hannibal, to win the battle, the history of Romes campaigning is, if nothing else, a history of obstinate persistence overcoming appalling losses. Knowledge of Roman history stands apart from other civilizations in the ancient world and its chronicles, military and otherwise, document the citys very foundation to its eventual demise. Romes earliest history, from the time of its founding as a tribal village. Although the early Romans were literate to some degree, this void may be due to the lack of will to record their history at that time, or such histories as they did record were lost. Although the Roman historian Livy lists a series of seven kings of early Rome in his work Ab urbe condita, from its establishment through its earliest years, a number of points of view have been proposed. Very little is known of Romes military history from this era, traditionally, Romulus, after founding the city, fortified the Palatine Hill, and shortly thereafter, Rome was equal to any of the surrounding cities in her prowess in war. The first of the campaigns fought by the Romans in this account are the wars with various Latin cities. According to Livy, the Latin village of Caenina responded to the event of the abduction of the Sabine women by invading Roman territory, the Latins of Antemnae and those of Crustumerium were defeated next in a similar fashion. The remaining main body of the Sabines attacked Rome and briefly captured the citadel, there was a further war in the 8th century BC against Fidenae and Veii. In the 7th century BC there was a war with Alba Longa, a war with Fidenae and Veii. Ancus Marcius led Rome to victory against the Latins and, according to the Fasti Triumphales, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus first war was waged against the Latins. Tarquinius took the Latin town of Apiolae by storm and took great booty from there back to Rome, according to the Fasti Triumphales, the war occurred prior to 588 BC. His military ability was tested by an attack from the Sabines, Tarquinius doubled the numbers of equites to help the war effort, and defeat the Sabines. Tarquinius returned to Rome and celebrated a triumph for his victories that, according to the Fasti Triumphales, subsequently, the Latin cities of Corniculum, old Ficulea, Cameria, Crustumerium, Ameriola, Medullia and Nomentum were subdued and became Roman
9.
Punic Wars
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The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 BC to 146 BC. At the time, they were probably the largest wars that had taken place. The term Punic comes from the Latin word Punicus, meaning Carthaginian, the main cause of the Punic Wars was the conflicts of interest between the existing Carthaginian Empire and the expanding Roman Republic. The Romans were initially interested in expansion via Sicily, part of which lay under Carthaginian control, at the start of the first Punic War, Carthage was the dominant power of the Western Mediterranean, with an extensive maritime empire. Rome was a rapidly ascending power in Italy, but it lacked the power of Carthage. The Roman victories over Carthage in these wars gave Rome a preeminent status it would retain until the 5th century AD, during the mid-3rd century BC, Carthage was a large city located on the coast of modern Tunisia. Founded by the Phoenicians in the mid-9th century BC, it was a powerful thalassocratic city-state with a vast commercial network, of the great city-states in the western Mediterranean, only Rome rivaled it in power, wealth, and population. While Carthages navy was the largest in the ancient world at the time, it did not maintain a large, permanent, instead, Carthage relied mostly on mercenaries, especially the indigenous Numidians, to fight its wars. However, most of the officers who commanded the armies were Carthaginian citizens, in 200 BC, the Roman Republic had gained control of the Italian peninsula south of the Po river. Unlike Carthage, Rome had large disciplined armed forces, on the other hand, at the start of the First Punic War, the Romans had no navy, and were thus at a disadvantage until they began to construct their own large fleets during the war. The First Punic War was fought partly on land in Sicily and Africa and it began as a local conflict in Sicily between Hiero II of Syracuse and the Mamertines of Messina. The Mamertines enlisted the aid of the Carthaginian navy, and then subsequently betrayed them by entreating the Roman Senate for aid against Carthage, the Romans sent a garrison to secure Messina, so the outraged Carthaginians then lent aid to Syracuse. With the two powers now embroiled in the conflict, tensions escalated into a full-scale war between Carthage and Rome for the control of Sicily. In 260 BC, they defeated the fledgling Roman navy at the Battle of the Lipari Islands, Rome responded by drastically expanding its navy in a very short time. Within two months, the Romans had a fleet of one hundred warships. Because they knew that they could not defeat the Carthaginians in the tactics of ramming and sinking enemy ships, the Romans added the corvus. The hinged bridge would swing onto enemy vessels with a sharp spike, Roman legionaries could then board and capture Carthaginian ships. This innovative Roman tactic reduced the Carthaginian navys advantage in ship-to-ship engagements, however, the corvus was also cumbersome and dangerous, and was eventually phased out as the Roman navy became more experienced and tactically proficient
10.
Kerch Strait
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The Kerch Strait connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, separating the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea in the west from the Taman Peninsula of Russias Krasnodar Krai in the east. The strait is 3.1 kilometres to 15 kilometres wide, the most important harbor, the Crimean city of Kerch, gives its name to the strait, formerly known as the Cimmerian Bosporus. The Krasnodar Krai side of the strait contains the Taman Bay encircled by Tuzla Island, Russia had started the construction of a major cargo port near Taman, the most important Russian settlement on the strait, but its building has been suspended. The straits are about 35 kilometers long and are 3.1 kilometers wide at the narrowest and separate an eastern extension of Crimea from Taman, the western extension of the Caucasus Mountains. In antiquity, there seem to have been a group of islands intersected by arms of the Kuban River, the Romans knew the strait as the Cimmerian Bosporus from its Greek name, the Cimmerian Strait, which honored the Cimmerians, nearby steppe nomads. During the Second World War, the Kerch Peninsula became the scene of much desperate combat between forces of the Soviet Red Army and Germany, fighting frequency intensified in the coldest months of year when the strait froze over, allowing the movement of troops over the ice. The cable railway, which went into operation on 14 June 1943 with a capacity of one thousand tons, was only adequate for the defensive needs of the Seventeenth Army in the Kuban bridgehead. The bridge was never completed, and the Wehrmacht finished evacuating the Kuban bridgehead in September 1943, in 1944 the Soviets built a provisional railway bridge across the strait. Construction made use of supplies captured from the Germans, the bridge went into operation in November 1944, but moving ice floes destroyed it in February 1945, reconstruction was not attempted. A territorial dispute between Russia and Ukraine in 2003 centred on Tuzla Island in the Strait of Kerch, on Sunday 11 November 2007 news agencies reported a very strong storm on the Black Sea. Four ships sank, six ran aground on a sandbank, the Russian-flagged oil tanker Volgoneft-139 encountered trouble in the Kerch Strait where it sought shelter from the above storm. During the storm the tanker split in half, releasing more than 2000 tonnes of fuel oil and it is thought that the effects of the spill are likely to be felt for many years to come. Four other boats sank in the storm, resulting in the release of sulphur cargo, the storm hampered efforts to rescue crew members. Another victim of the storm, the Russian cargo ship Volnogorsk, loaded with sulfur, after the war, ferry transportation across the strait was established in 1952, connecting Crimea and the Krasnodar Krai. Originally there were four train ferry ships, later three ships were added. Train transportation continued for almost 40 years, the aging train-ferries became obsolete in the late 1980s and were removed from service. In the autumn of 2004, new ships were delivered as replacements, moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov campaigned for a highway bridge to be constructed across the strait. Since 1944, various projects to span the strait have been proposed or attempted
11.
First Punic War
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The First Punic War was the first of three wars fought between Ancient Carthage and the Roman Republic. For more than 20 years, the two struggled for supremacy, primarily on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and its surrounding waters. The war signaled the beginning of a transformation in the western Mediterranean. Carthage began the war as the great sea-power of the western Mediterranean, while Rome had, the series of wars between Rome and Carthage took the name Punic from the Latin name for the Carthaginians, Punici. This is derived from Phoenicis, and it refers to the Carthaginian heritage as Phoenician colonists, a Carthaginian name for the conflicts does not survive in any records. Rome had recently emerged as the leading city-state in the Italian Peninsula, over the past one hundred years, Rome had come into conflict, and defeated rivals on the Italian peninsula, then incorporated them into the Roman political world. By the beginning of the First Punic War, the Romans had secured the whole of the Italian peninsula and it originated as a Phoenician colony in Africa, near modern Tunis. At the height of power, just before the First Punic War, North African peoples such as the Berbers in the area around Carthage were loosely associated with Carthage. In the midst of the First Punic War some tribes would rebel against Carthage, the rich, strategically influential, and well-fortified Greek colony of Syracuse was politically independent of Rome and Carthage. Hostilities of the First Punic War began with developments involving the Romans, Carthaginians, at the same time, a group of Roman troops made up of Campanian citizens without the vote also seized control of Rhegium, lying across the Straits of Messina on the mainland of Italy. In 270 BC, the Romans regained control of Rhegium and severely punished the survivors of the revolt, in Sicily, the Mamertines ravaged the countryside and collided with the expanding regional empire of the independent city of Syracuse. Hiero II, tyrant of Syracuse, defeated the Mamertines near Mylae on the Longanus River, following their defeat, the Mamertines appealed to both Rome and Carthage for assistance. The Carthaginians acted first, approached Hiero to take no further action, however, the rivalry between Rome and Carthage had grown since the war with Pyrrhus and that alliance was simply no longer feasible. According to the historian Polybius, considerable debate took place in Rome on the question as to whether to accept the Mamertines appeal for help, however, many were also unwilling to see Carthaginian power in Sicily expand even further. Leaving them at Messana would give the Carthaginians a free hand to deal with Syracuse, after the Syracusans had been defeated, the Carthaginian takeover of Sicily would essentially be complete. Sicily is a volcanic island, with geographical obstacles and rough terrain making lines of communication difficult to maintain. For this reason, land warfare played a role in the First Punic War. Land operations were confined to small raids and skirmishes, with few pitched battles
12.
Cappadocia
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Cappadocia is a historical region in Central Anatolia, largely in the Nevşehir, Kayseri, Kırşehir, Aksaray, and Niğde Provinces in Turkey. According to Herodotus, in the time of the Ionian Revolt, in these lists of countries, the Old Persian name is Haspaduya, which according to some researchers is derived from Iranian Huw-aspa-dahyu- the land/country of beautiful horses. Others proposed that Kat-patuka came from the Luwian language, meaning Low Country, subsequent research suggests that the adverb katta meaning down, below is exclusively Hittite, while its Luwian equivalent is zanta. Therefore the recent modification of this proposal operates with the Hittite katta peda-, Herodotus tells us that the name of the Cappadocians was applied to them by the Persians, while they were termed by the Greeks Syrians or White Syrians Leucosyri. Cappadocia appears in the account given in the book of Acts 2,9. The Cappadocians were named as one group hearing the Gospel account from Galileans in their own language on the day of Pentecost shortly after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Acts 2,5 seems to suggest that the Cappadocians in this account were God-fearing Jews. The region is mentioned in the Jewish Mishnah, in Ketubot 13,11. This division had come about before the time of Xenophon. The kingdom of Cappadocia still existed in the time of Strabo as a independent state. Cilicia was the given to the district in which Caesarea. The only two cities of Cappadocia considered by Strabo to deserve that appellation were Caesarea and Tyana, not far from the foot of the Taurus, Cappadocia lies in central Anatolia, in the heartland of what is now Turkey. The relief consists of a plateau over 1000 m in altitude that is pierced by volcanic peaks. The boundaries of historical Cappadocia are vague, particularly towards the west, to the south, the Taurus Mountains form the boundary with Cilicia and separate Cappadocia from the Mediterranean Sea. To the west, Cappadocia is bounded by the regions of Lycaonia to the southwest. This results in an area approximately 400 km east–west and 250 km north–south, due to its inland location and high altitude, Cappadocia has a markedly continental climate, with hot dry summers and cold snowy winters. Rainfall is sparse and the region is largely semi-arid, Cappadocia was known as Hatti in the late Bronze Age, and was the homeland of the Hittite power centred at Hattusa. After ending the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great tried to rule the area one of his military commanders. But Ariarathes, a Persian aristocrat, somehow became king of the Cappadocians, as Ariarathes I, he was a successful ruler, and he extended the borders of the Cappadocian Kingdom as far as to the Black Sea
