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
Ankara Roman world near Trier. The city was subsequently passed under the control of the Roman Empire. In 25 BC, Emperor Augustus raised it to the status of a "polis" and made it the capital city of the Roman province of Galatia. Ankara is famous for the "Monumentum Ancyranum" ("Temple of Augustus and Rome") which contains the official record of the "Acts of Augustus", known as the "Res Gestae Divi Augusti", an inscription cut in marble on the walls of this temple. The ruins of Ancyra still furnish today valuable bas-reliefs, inscriptions and other architectural fragments. Two other Galatian tribal centers,