History of Ankara Phrygia, after an earthquake which severely damaged that city in antiquity. In Phrygian tradition, King Midas was venerated as the founder of Ancyra, but Pausanias mentions that the city was actually far older, in line with the present-day knowledge that we have on its history. There is the possibility that at the time Midas came the city was essentially unpopulated. In the same way by modern standards it could be argued that Ankara did not exist before Atatürk moved the capital of Turkey to the city, since its population before the capital came was almost non-existent in comparison to what
History of Ankara form of "Ankara". In 278 BC, the city, along with the rest of central Anatolia, was occupied by the Celtic speaking Galatians, who were the first to make Ankara one of their main tribal centres, the headquarters of the Tectosage tribe. Other centres were Pessinos, modern Balhisar, for the Trocmi tribe; and "Tavium", to the east of Ankara, for the Tolstibogii tribe. The city was then known as Ancyra. The Celtic element was probably relatively small in numbers; a warrior aristocracy which ruled over Phrygian-speaking peasants. However, the Celtic language continued to spoken in Galatia for many centuries. At the