When the Romans conquered the lands of Anatolia-(including the Greco-Aegean region), they renamed Anatolia, to "Little Asia" or "Asia Minor". The Ancient Greeks probably specified and identified each of the above mentioned individualized lands/countries-(it certainly was true regarding Persia proper) though more often, they simply identified this neighboring region as."The East" or "Anatolia". From the Greco-Aegean coast, to the borders with Armenia, Assyria, Kurdistan, Georgia and even Persia, the Ancient Greeks-(durnig pre-Roman times), referred to the starting point of Asia-(or West Asia), as "The East" or "Anatolia". The word, "Anatolia", was (and is still), a Greek word which referred (and still refers) to."The East", that is to say, directly to the East of Greece proper, more specifically, what is today, the country of Turkey-(in its entirety and not simply based on a region or various regions). Probably it's a political decision, in order to avoid using geographic terms like Western Armenia, Northern/Upper Mesopotamia, Assyria, Kurdistan, inhabited in the past by Armenians, Assyrians/Syriacs and Kurds today. Modern state of Turkey seems to extend the term to its whole Asian territory, not only the penisula. Later it was used for the whole penisula. The greek term Anatolikon was also adopted by the invading turkic tribes as Anadolu, since they first invaded the Thema Anatolikon (Eastern Province/Division) of Roman Empire. From this term, Anatolikon, which appeared in medieval times, came the Latin deritive Anatolia. Thema Anatolikon covered the eastern part of Asia Minor, hence the name. One of the administrative-military provinces/divisions of the Eastern Roman empire (neologism, Byzantine Empire) was Eastern Division - Thema Anatolikon in Greek language. Byzantines is a neologism coined centuries after). The same name, Asia Minor, was used by medieval Greeks/Romans (medieval Greeks called themselves Romaioi, Romans in Greek. As mentioned correctly, the whole penisula was later called Asia Minor (Mikra Asia in Greek - Mikrasia is the term colloquially used in modern Greek, Mikrasiates the term for the Anatolian Greeks), in contrast to the rest of the continent which was named Asia. The term Asia is of unidentified etymology. The name Asia was initially given by ancient Greeks to modern western Anatolia - later was used on about the same boundaries by the Romans for the roman province of Asia, which the Greeks called Asia or Asiane. The article goes on to explain that indicating the precise boundary of Anatolia is politically fraught in modern times due to tensions between Turkey and Armenia.Īlthough the answer is ticked as correct and helpful, it's completely wrong regarding naming origins. 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 (Armenia Major). Wikipedia also treats the two terms as synonymous, but gives a slightly different definition: Of approximately 755,000 square kilometers (291,500 square miles) thatĮxtends from the Caucasus and Zagros mountains in the east and isīordered by the Black Sea on the north, the Aegean Sea on the west,Īnd the Mediterranean Sea on the south. Included sites known from Paul’s Epistles in the Bible such as EphesusĪs for a precise definition, here's one from :Īnatolia, also known as Asia Minor, is a large, mountainous peninsula That region which had been evangelized by the Apostle Paul (which 375-418 CE) in his work Seven Books of HistoryĪgainst the Pagans in 400 CE to differentiate the main of Asia from `Mikra Asia' - Little Asia) was first coined by the Christian Greeks, “ Anatolia” (literally, 'place of the rising sun’, for those In theory this could be seen as implying a different definition for Asia Minor, but in practice the terms are synonymous.Īsia Minor is a geographic region in the south-western part of AsiaĬomprising most of what is present-day Turkey. However, here is some helpful background on the different origins of the two terms. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, Anatolia is simply "the ancient name of Asia Minor".
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