| Asia Minor was divided into four satrapies. Lydia and Mysia, plus all of the cities along the western coast, were ruled from Sardis. A second province, Phrygia, with its capital at Daskylion, extended to the Halys River. The satrapy of Cilicia was ruled from Adana, and that of Cappadocia from Mazaca. The Royal Road connected Sardis to Susa, 1677 miles away. By this time the population of Asia Minor was probably around 4 million, including some 250,000 Greeks. The Greek cities revolted against the Persians from 499–494, and in 498, Sardis was burnt by the Ionians and Athenians. The army that Xerxes sent to Greece gathered somewhere in Cappadocia and wintered in Sardis from 481–480. In 407, Cyrus, the brother of Artaxerxes III, was appointed satrap of all Asia Minor. From there he planned and organized the revolt which culminated in his death at the Battle of Cunaxa (401). Asia Minor was the first part of the Persian Empire invaded by Alexander the Great (See 336). He defeated the Persians in decisive battles in the region, first at Granicus (334), near the Sea of Marmara, then at Issus in Cilicia. From here he went on to conquer all the Persian Empire. | 1 |
