Overview
Ancyra — modern Ankara, capital of the Turkish Republic — has been a significant settlement since at least the Bronze Age, though its greatest ancient fame rests on its role as capital of the Galatian kingdom and the remarkable survival of the Monumentum Ancyranum, the most important single inscription from the Roman world.
The city's origins reach deep into the prehistoric past. Phrygians established a major fortress here in the early first millennium BCE, exploiting the citadel hill's naturally defensible position at the intersection of major east-west and north-south routes across the Anatolian plateau. According to ancient tradition, King Midas himself was associated with the city, and the name Ancyra (meaning "anchor" in Greek) was said to derive from an anchor that Midas found on the hilltop.
"Ancyra, a city of Galatia, is a strong fortress."
— Strabo, c. 20 CE
In the 3rd century BCE, Celtic-speaking Galatians migrated into central Anatolia and made Ancyra the capital of the Tectosages, one of three Galatian tribes. The city became the principal center of Celtic culture in Asia Minor, a remarkable eastward extension of the La Tene cultural world. Under Roman rule from the 1st century BCE onward, Ancyra became the capital of the province of Galatia and was embellished with monumental public buildings.
The Temple of Augustus and Rome, built in the late 1st century BCE, carries inscribed on its walls the Res Gestae Divi Augusti — Augustus's own account of his achievements, the text he had originally inscribed on bronze tablets at his mausoleum in Rome. The Ancyra copy, known as the Monumentum Ancyranum, is the only version to survive virtually complete, with the Latin text on the interior walls and a Greek translation on the exterior. This inscription, discovered by European travelers in the 16th century, remains one of the most studied documents of Roman history.
Mezquita de Melike Hatun, Ankara, Turquía, 2024-10-03, DD 87-89 HDR | Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The Roman baths of Ancyra, among the largest in Anatolia, date to the 3rd century CE under Emperor Caracalla. Their impressive ruins stand in the heart of modern Ankara, with walls surviving to considerable heights. The Column of Julian, a 4th-century monument commemorating Emperor Julian's visit, rises near the ancient citadel. The citadel itself preserves layers of fortification from the Galatian through Ottoman periods, with Roman and Byzantine spolia prominently incorporated into the medieval walls.
