The Hellenes (Greeks) lived in Asia Minor, in their historical homeland, since antiquity, where the ancient hellenic cities flourished until the Hellenistic years. Much later, Asia Minor was conquered by Turkic tribes who moved there from Central Asia. The Greeks remained in these territories until the beginning of the 20th century, when the Kemalists seized power of the Ottoman state. From Aeolia to Lycia and Cilicia, from Bithynia to Paphlagonia and Cappadocia, and from Caria and Ionia to Lydia, Mysia, Pisidia and Pamphilia, the Hellenic element was culturally dominant, except for some periods until the Roman conquest, when the Hittites first and then the Persians subdued by force of arms and numerical superiority the flourishing Hellenic cities and towns of Asia Minor..
The advantageous position of Rhodes at the crossroads of the sea routes, the excellent five ports it had with their excellent facilities, its democratic regime and diplomatic foreign policy, led to the political and naval hegemony of Rhodes against the great Hellenistic Kingdoms..
Ionia was a fertile land. The Ionians attached great value and importance to social life. This is evident in the architectural creations of their cities. They developed philosophy, science, architectural style with subtlety, harmony and elegance, urbanism, poetic metre, rhetoric, geography, historiography, Ionic dialect, poetry and theatre. In total, the Ionians founded more than 75 colonies on the Black Sea coast alone..
Lycia, a country associated with legends and traditions already since Homeric times, extends along the south east coast of Asia Minor, east of Rhodes and very close to it. We first encounter the Lycians in the Ā«IliadĀ», on the side of the Trojans. Their leaders were Glaucus and Sarpedon. The Hellenic Mythology is a collection of stories and legents passed down through generations..
The Cimmerians invaded Asia Minor from lake Maeotis, an area along the coast of the Azov Sea, under pressure from the Scythians by whom, according to Herodotus, they were later forced out of the region. The Homeric evidence for the Cimmerians was apparently drawn from a more ancient Hellenic epic, Argonautica, which may have recorded the actual presence of Cimmerians in the general region immediately to the east of Colchis in the 8th century BC..
From the shores of misty Albion, Pytheas made perhaps the most mysterious voyage in the history of Ancient Navigation. Returning from these places, he visited the whole coast-line of Europe from Gadira to the river Tanais (Scythia)..
One of Constantinople most powerful trading partners was Ancient Russia. An important revival in relations between Russia and Constantinople happened in the 9th century when the waterway Ā«From the Varangians to the Greeks Ā» connected northern Europe with the South..
The Greeks, with the invitation to the area of Azov of Catherine II The Great, were the descendants of the Ionians, who lived in Asia Minor and after the persecution of the Turks on the coast of Asia Minor, in the Aegean and Crete fled to the lands of Novorussia..
Theophanes the Greek, with the vivid expressionistic and mystical style, drove the Palaiological tradition of the art of Constantinople to an extreme form..
The Venerable Father Paisius Velichkovski contributed decisively so that Ā«PhilokaliaĀ» could be rendered correctly in the Slavic language and it was one of his most important services to the Church..
The Monastery of Chora and its burial chapel, together constitute a masterpiece composition of architecture, mosaic decoration and hagiography, a brilliant example of our late Byzantine culture.The Apostles and the Saints. At the entrance of the esonarthex, towards the nave, there is the mosaic representation of Theodor Metochites, who offers on his knees to The Despot Christ the Ā«modelĀ» of the church..