Known to the Greeks as Anatolia, Greek Asia Minor was a definite crossroads to ancient civilizations as it is the broad peninsula between the Mediterranean and Black Seas. The peninsula juts westward from Asia to be separated from Europe by only ½ mile by the strait of Bosporus. In its prehistory, Asia Minor was home to some of the earliest Neolithic settlements in the Middle East between 8500 – 5000 BCE. It also was home to the first people to coin money, the Lydian's in the 7th century BCE, who formed their kingdom on the Aegean coast.
From 1900 – 1200 BCE, the mainly Hittite civilization rivaled that of their neighbors; Babylon & Egypt. The Hittites were overtaken by the invaders known as the Sea People at the end of the 12th century BCE, and the destruction of Troy probably happened at this time. One group of Sea People, the Phygians, established one of Anatolia's dominant kingdoms in the 900s and 800s BCE. King Midas of Greek mythology was one of their kings.
From the 9th to the 6th centuries BCE, a long procession of Greeks, including Ionians, Æolians & Dorians, migrated to the shores of Greek Asia Minor. These Ionian people soon integrated themselves with the native people, they married the locals, worshiped their gods & brought Greek culture overseas.
Crœsus, King of Lydia, established his reign over pretty much all of the region in the middle of the 6th century BCE, but his reign was overthrown by the Persians around 548 BCE. The Greeks were under the Persian’s thumb until Alexander the Great liberated them around 333 BCE. Greek civilization flourished in Anatolia until wars with Rome began in 190 BCE. Greek Asia Minor was a part of the Roman Empire all the way into the Byzantine Era.