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Near East
The Near East is a modern-age term for the region formerly known as the Middle East comprising Armenia, Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and part of Turkey, corresponding to ancient Urartu, Mesopotamia...

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The Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, c. 1200
This map illustrates the rise and growth of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum (the name "Rûm" was a synonym for the medieval Eastern Roman Empire and its people, a usage that continues in modern Turkish. It originates from the Aramaic and Parthian...

Definition
Sardis
Sardis (near modern-day Sart, Turkey) was the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Lydia founded (according to Herodotus) by the Heracleidae, the Heraclid Dynasty descended from the hero Heracles (Hercules). The city was famous in antiquity...

Definition
Mithridates VI
Mithridates VI (120-63 BCE, also known as Mithradates, Mithradates Eupator Dionysius, Mithridates the Great) was the king of Pontus (modern-day northeastern Turkey) who was regarded by his people as their savior from the oppression of Rome...

Definition
Ashurbanipal
Ashurbanipal (r. 668-627 BCE, also known as Assurbanipal) was the last of the great kings of Assyria. His name means "the god Ashur is creator of an heir" and he was the son of King Esarhaddon of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. In the Hebrew Tanakh...

Definition
Lesbos
Lesbos, a Greek island located in the eastern Aegean, had several prosperous city-states which thrived from the Bronze Age to the Byzantine era. Switching many times between independence, Persian and Greek control, Lesbos was often a victim...

Definition
Pirates in the Ancient Mediterranean
Piracy, defined as the act of attacking and robbing a ship or port by sea, had a long history in the ancient Mediterranean stretching from the time of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten (r. 1353-1336 BCE) and throughout the Middle Ages (c. 476-1500...

Definition
Aytap
Aytap is the modern name for the ancient city of Iotapa (sometimes given as Iotape and Iotape Philadelphos) in Cilicia. The city's ruins are located in southern Turkey near modern day Alanya (ancient Coracesium). The city was founded in 52...

Definition
Silver in Antiquity
Silver had great value and aesthetic appeal in many ancient cultures where it was used to make jewellery, tableware, figurines, ritual objects and rough-cut pieces known as hacksilver which could be used in trade or to store wealth. The metal...

Definition
Menelaus
Menelaus (also Menelaos) is a figure from ancient Greek mythology and literature who was the king of Sparta and the husband of beautiful Helen, whose abduction by the Trojan prince Paris sparked off the legendary Trojan War. The story is...