Asia Minor is a part of the corner of Asia commonly known as Anatolia. This is where the inhabitants who built Troy had their headquarters. The half-legendary King Croesus also reigned in this corner of the peninsula. Later, the lands came under Persian rule. In the 4th century BCE after the fall of the state of Alexander the great, they fell into the hands of the Seleucid dynasty.
In the west, there was the Pergamon kingdom, which was given to Rome during the reign of Attalus in 133 BCE in 88 BCE however, further struggles in this corner related to the uprising of Mithridates began. The struggle did not end until 74 BCE, but the final surrender of this land to Roman power was associated with the conquests of Pompey in the east in the 60s BCE Asia Minor became another province permanently connected with Rome, not just a dependent state.
The splendour of this corner, however, fell only in the 4th century CE. when in 326 CE Constantine the Great elevated the hitherto small Byzantine Empire to the role of the second Rome. Later Constantinople was to become the largest city in Europe.
