When did the ancient Roman province Asia become a province?

I've done some research online, but I'm finding lots of conflicting answers...I need the initial date that it was created and not necessarily when power was transferred to another ruler. Any other information you have on Asia in that time period is much appreciated....thanks so much!

Hello!

I've never been interested so much in history, but I know how annoying it can be to receive no answers to your question, so I will try my best to assist you! According to the very helpful answers.com, Asia was first controlled by Antiochus III The Great who had to give it up after his army was demolished at the battle of Magnesia in 190 BC.

However, Asia became a Roman controlled territory under a client merchant in Pergamum after the Treaty of Apamea was signed in 188 BC.

Attlus III of Pergamum, a close ally of Rome, passed away in 133 BC, and "Manius Aquillius formally established the region as Asia province." So the answer is 133 BC.

More can be read about the province of Asia using the link I posted below!

What might be confusing you is the type of control the Romans had. The Romans had defeated Antiochus III, ruler of the Seleucid Empire, and pushed out of him out of the area to the Taurus mountain range. The area, Anoatolia/Asia Minor, was given to a client king, Eumenes II of Pergamon, to rule in 188 BC. 55 years later, King Attalus III had no hier and left the kingdom to the Roman Republic in his will in 133 BC, which is when it was organized as a province by Manius Aquillius, who became Consul in 129 BC.

Anatolia at the time of Rome's ascension onto the larger Mediterranean scene was roughly divided between three hegemonies: Pergamon, The Kingdom of Armenia, and the Kingdom of Pontus. Intermixed between the three kingdoms were minor tribal areas such as the Cappadocians and the Galatians.

During the Second Punic War, Hannibal's successes led the Macedonian king Phillip V, to ally with the Carthaginians against the Romans. However, a brilliant Roman upset cast the Carthaginians down, and the Romans did not forget the sneaky, backhanded tactics of Phillip V. Rome smashed the Macedonian kindgom in a series of wars and secured for itself Greece. Rome's entry into Anatolia occurred like it did throughout most of the world: through political mingling which eventually turned into protectorates and then assimilation. However, what was unique about Rome's entry into Asia Minor was that the last king of Pergamon, Attalus III, a thinking man with little interest in politics and no male children, did not wish to have his country ravaged by war, thus bequeathed his kingdom to the Roman Republic in 133 BCE. It was also in 133 BCE When the Romans named this new province "Asia".

In the 90 BCE, Rome was struggling under the grip of the Social War, which was a revolt by Italian city states which were ostensibly only linked to Rome through alliance. The Pontic King, Mithridates VI, gambled that the infighting among the Italians was an opportune moment to arrest Roman expansion eastward, and invaded the Roman Province. However, he vastly underestimated Roman resourcefulness, and the Romans smashed the Pontic kingdom in the Mithridatic War, and in 85 BCE forced Pontus to come to terms where it surrendered all of it's conquered territory to the Romans, including the Greek Islands that were under his rule, as well as the minor Asiatic kingdoms of Bithynia, Phrygia, Paphlagonia, and parts of Cappadocia. However, most Romans were unhappy with the terms which granted the Pontics a significant amount of leeway, and in response to Cilician piracy and Pontic raiding, Pompey Magnus in 63 BCE drove deep into Anatolia, subjugating the Pontic kingdom (which forced Mithridates VI, who was on the run and in hiding, to commit suicide) and making Armenia a client state.

In 25 BCE, the last of of Anatolia that wasn't a province or Client State was the kingdom of Amyntas, a king who ruled parts of Cappadocia, Galatia, and Pisidia. However, this kingdom was thrown into turmoil when Amyntas died while pursuing his enemies in the Taurus mountains, and the Romans claimed his kingdom as their own following his death. The unification of Asia Minor by the Romans was now complete.

Dear Soulfire23,

I think that Dev, MJR, hamster_99, and Jormungandr17 have very good answers. Especially jormungandr17.

I would like to add that Asia at the time was not our Asia. It was what dev, and the others said: just what mostly is Turkey nowadays.

And I would like to add just this little detail:

when the Romans did conquer a territory completely, they called it their "provincia" which means that they had vanquished it (vincia is linked to English "vanquish"). Once this is a province, then it definitely is Roman possession.

One more thing: the dates provided are necessary, but the transfer from one ruler to another ruler is never done overnight, especially at this time when transportation was so slow. So do not get frustrated with historians' articles because historians have to go to all the details.

hello

Antiochus III the Great had to give up Asia when the Romans crushed his army at the historic battle of Magnesia, in 190 BC.

After the Treaty of Apamea (188 BC), the entire territory was surrendered to Rome and placed under the control of a client king at Pergamum.

With no apparent heir, Attalus III of Pergamum having been a close ally of Rome, chose to bequeath his kingdom to Rome.

Upon Attalus’s passing in 133 BC, Manius Aquillius formally established the region as Asia province.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Anatolia#Roman_period

133 BC.