Cappadocian History
During the late Bronze Age, Cappadocia was called Hatti and revolved around the capital city Hattusa. In the 6th century the Lydian king Croesus invaded and defeated the powers of the Hittites. After the invasion, high powers reigned in Cappadocia. These powers were aristocrats who lived in beautiful castles and had their servants below them. When looking for servants, the aristocrats would often search out foreign slaves. During this time, it was officially ruled by the Persians under the leadership but still continued to have leaders of its own. However, even these independent rulers of Cappadocia were responsible to the Persian king.
Meanwhile, Alexander the Great was trying to bring the Persian Empire to an end. He found that when he invaded Cappadocia however, that the people of Cappadocia were not so willing to succumb to his rule. Alexander the Great had tried to have one of his commanders, Sabictus, to rule over Cappadocia however, the citizens of the province had named Ariarathes, a Persian, as their ruler. Alexander conceded that not all Persians would follow his rule and so Ariarathes continued on as a very powerful and good king. During his time in power, he expanded the boundaries of Cappadocia to include the land that bordered the Black Sea. Cappadocia lived in harmony until Alexander’s death after which, the province was divided by Eumenes. Perdiccas, who had killed Ariarathes, was reigning at that time and allowed for the division that Eumenes desired. However, after Eumenes died, Ariatathes’ son received his inheritance and left it to different successors.
After Cappadocia had become under the power of Ariarathes, the province began to interact with Rome. The relationship between the two began as opponents as Rome had issues with the way that Ariarathes was running his province. However, the two regions came together to meet as allies when they began fighting Perseus of Macedon. Ariarathes V fought alongside the Romans when fighting Aristonicus but unfortunately, their armies were completely destroyed.
After this, Cappadocia remained loyal to Rome and elected Ariobarzanes as ruler however Tigranes the Great of Armania soon invaded and made Gordios the new king of Cappadocia. This was to create a safe zone against the Romans, who were fast approaching. However, the Romans did overthrow him and Ariobarzanes was named as ruler once again. During the civil wars, Cappadocia was now fighting with Pompey, Caesar, and Antony. Due to the civil wars, Ariobarzanes soon left the throne and Archelaus took it in place of him. This leadership lasted until 17 AD. It was at this time that Archelaus died and Tiberius, the emperor, named Cappadocia as a Roman province. It remained this way for a lengthy period of time until it was named part of the Byzantine Empire.
Cappadocia was a region that saw many different rulers and followed many different leaders in its very complicated history. The leadership of Cappadocia was often changing hands and was a land that was filled with much political uproar in its earlier times. It eventually came under the power of Turkey and that is where it still stands today.
