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1200 BC - 560 BC - Phrygian Empire

Next to nothing is known of the history of the Phrygians. Almost all the kings were named Midas and Gordius; their succession cannot be accurately determined. After the death of the last, called Midas V, Phrygia became a province of the Lydian empire, about 560.

A tradition as to its riches has reached us in the story of Midas, who turned everything he touched into gold. According the legend, nothing gave King Midas more pleasure than to add to the collection in his treasury. He was continually devising ways of exchanging or selling various things, or contriving some new tax for the people to pay, and turning all into gold or silver. In fact, he had gathered treasure together so industriously, and for so many years, that he had begun to think that the bright yellow gold in his chests was the most beautiful and the most precious thing in the world. So when Bacchus offered him anything that he might ask for, King Midas's first thought was of his treasury, and he asked that whatever he touched might be turned into gold. His wish was granted. King Midas was hardly able to believe in his good fortune. He thought himself the luckiest of men.

King Midas really had the Golden Touch. But he began to fear that his queen, his little children, and all his kind friends, might be changed to hard, golden statues. Poor Midas saw now that riches were not the most desirable of all things. He rushed to Bacchus, and implored the god to take back his fatal gift. "Ah," said Bacchus, smiling, " so you have gold enough, at last. Very well. If you are sure that you do not wish to change anything more into that metal, go and bathe in the spring where the river Pactolus rises. The pure water of that spring will wash away the Golden Touch." King Midas gladly obeyed, and became as free from the Golden Touch. But the strange magic was imparted to the waters of the spring, and to this day the river Pactolus has golden sands.

Phrygians are supposed to have migrated from the Balkans (Macedonia and Thrace) somewhere between 12th and the 8th centuries BC. This point is not clea. The beginning of the Phrygian state is unknown. It appears for the first time as a well-organized kingdom, under Midas' authority, in the end of the 8th BC. Nothing is known for sure before him, but there was probably a king Gordias. There is very little information about the rise of Phrygia.

Phrygia was a large country in Asia Minor, inhabited by a people the Greeks called "free men." Roughly speaking, Phrygia comprised the western part of the greal central plateau of Anatolia, extending as far east as the river Halys; but its boundaries were vague, and varied so much at different periods that a sketch of its history must precede any account of the geography. According to unvarying Greek tradition the Phrygians were most closely akin lo certain tribes of Macedonia and Thrace; and their near relationship to the Hellenic stock is proved by all that is known of their language and is accepted by almost every modern authority.

The country named Phrygia in the better known period of history lies inland, separated from the sea by Paphlagonia, Bithynia, Mysia and Lydia. Yet there was a Phrygian "thalassocracy" at the beginning of the 9th century BC. The Troad and Ihe district round Mt. Sipylus arc frequently called Phrygian, as also is the seaport Sinope; and a district on the coast between Sestus and Ihc river Cius was regularly named Little Phrygia; names like Mygdones, Doliones and Phryges or Briges. &c., were widely current both in Asia Minor and in Europe. The inference has been generally drawn that the Phrygians belonged lo a stock widespread in the countries which lie round the Aegean Sea. There is, however, no conclusive evidence whether this stock came from the cast over Armenia, or was European in origin and crossed the Hellespont into Asia Minor; but modern opinion inclines decidedly to Ihc latter view.

It is certain that they were a great nation, highly civilised and rich, who played a considerable part and exercised great influence, not only on the countries immediately adjoining, but even on Greece itself, and on the commencement of the civilisation in the time of the dynasty of the sons of Pelops, who was said by tradition to have come from Lydia, or Phrygia, to Argos. In some respects the civilisation of Phrygia was highly refined, for one of the Greek musical scales, which was intermediate between the Lydian, the more highly pitched, and the Dorian, or lower tone, was termed the Phrygian. The musicians Marsyas, Olympus, and Hyagnis, mentioned in Greek legends, were Phrygians.

The national religion of Phrygia, celebrated throughout the whole of the ancient world, and at one time spread to a great distance, was a grossly naturalistic pantheism, presenting great analogies in its fundamental ideas to the Chaldaeo-Assyrian religion, but with a special character of its own, arising partly from the development of some most monstrous conceptions, and partly from the barbaric worship and rites of the priests (galli), devoted to celibacy, who gained great influence over the people by their frenzied dances and voluntary mutilations. Phrygia was renowned for its wool, woven at Miletus into beautiful fabrics; for its excellent agriculture, its cheeses, and salt provisions.

From the most ancient times this country formed a flourishing kingdom, which rose into great importance on the fall of the Dardanians [that is, Troy, around 1200 BC], who appear to have exercised suzerainty, while still powerful, over Phrygia. This state preceded the Lydians as the dominant power in Asia Minor, and before becoming aggressive, possessed a civilisation intermediate between that of the Tigro-Euphrates basin and those of Lydia, the Troad, and Greece. Unfortunately, nothing remains of this prosperity but a few legends, overlaid by mythological stories, and some funereal monuments.

The Mithraic or Phrygian Cap is the origin of the priestly mitre in all faiths. It was worn by the priest in sacrifice. When worn by a male, it had its crest, comb, or point, set jutting forward ; when worn by a female, it bore the same prominent part of the cap in reverse, or on the nape of the neck, as in the instance of the Amazon's helmet, displayed in all old scupltures, or that of Pallas-Athene, as exhibited in the figures of Minerva. The Phrygian Cap is a most recondite antiquarian form ; the symbol comes from the highest antiquity. It is displayed on the head of the figure sacrificing in the celebrated sculpture, called the " Mithraic Sacrifice " (or the Mythical Sacrifice) in the British Museum. This loose cap, with the point protruding, gives the original form from which all helmets or defensive headpieces, whether Greek or Barbarian, deduce.

Sanguine in its color, it stands as the "Cap of Liberty" (Bonnet Rouge) a revolutionary form ; also, in another way, it is even a civic or incorporated badge. It is always masculine in its meaning. The heroic figures in most Gnostic Gems, have caps of this kind. The Cap Of Liberty is usually identified with the Phrygian cap of the French Revolution, but English instances of its use, earlier than the fall of the Bastille, are of interest. In 'H.E.D.' is given one from Addison in The Toiler of 1709 (No. 161, p. 4): " The Genius of a Commonwealth, with the Cap of Liberty on her Head." This indicates a decidedly earlier usage, presumably derived from the idea, also quoted in H.E.D.' from Middleton's edition (1742) of Cicero (III. ix. 6, note), "A Cap was always given to Slaves, when they were made free, whence it became the emblem of liberty."

The downfall of the Phrygian monarchy can be dated with comparative accuracy. Between 680 and 670 the Cimmerians in their destructive progress over Asia Minor overran Phrygia; the king Midas in despair put an end to his own life; and from henceforth the history of Phrygia is a story of slavery, degradation and decay, which contrasts strangely with the earlier legends. The catastrophe seems to have deeply impressed the Greek mind, and the memory of it was preserved. The datr of the Cimmerian invasion is fixed by the concurrent testimony of the contemporary poets Archilochus and CalUnus, of the late chronologists Euscbius, &c., and of the inscriptions of the Assyrian king Esar-haddon. The Cimmerians were finally expelled from Asia Minor by Alyattcs before his war with thr Mcdra under Cyaxares (500-585 BC). The Cimmerians, therefore, were ravaging Asia Minor, and presumably held possession of Phrygia.

The period from 675 to 585 must be considered as one of great disturbance and probably of complete paralysis in Phrygia. After 585 the country was ruled again by its own princes under subjection to Lydian supremacy. To judge from the monuments, it appears to have recovered some of its old prosperity; but the art of this later period has to a great extent lost the strongly marked individuality of its earlier bloom. The later sepulchral monuments belong to a class which is widely spread over Asia Minor from Lycia to Pontus. The graves are made inside a chamber excavated in the rock, and the front of the chamber imitates a house or temple. No attempt is made to conceal the entrance or to render it inaccessible. The architectural details are in some cases unmistakably copied, without intentional modification, from the architecture of Greek temples; others point perhaps to Persian influence, while several-which arc perhaps among the early works of this period-show the old freedom and power of employing in new and original ways details partly learned from abroad. This style continued in use under the Persians, under whose rule the Phrygians passed when Cyrus defeated Croesus in 546.