Phrygia

Could Hellenism have been successfully resisted in Phrygia? Could the Phrygians have rebelled and even prevented the Roman occupation?
 
If the stronger, more populated, and more militarily and culturally advanded states/empires couldn't do both of the things that have been mentioned above, then why Phrygia could?
 
Isn't this an anachronism? The Phrygian kingdom was destroyed by the Cimmerians centuries before the Romans came. The territory was occupied by Hellenistic successor kingdoms (Pergamon and Bithynia) when the Roman Republic began to interfere in the area.
 
How far back do you want to go?

A different pre-Cimmerian period so their migration could be replused? Or a different Persian Empire so no Alexander the Great?
 
Phyrgia

Isn't this an anachronism? The Phrygian kingdom was destroyed by the Cimmerians centuries before the Romans came. The territory was occupied by Hellenistic successor kingdoms (Pergamon and Bithynia) when the Roman Republic began to interfere in the area.
Did'nt the Phrygian language survive well into Roman times?
 
Did'nt the Phrygian language survive well into Roman times?

The language died out between the 5th to 7th Century AD. That doesn't mean there were significant numbers of them left by that time. There are still small villages which speak Aramaean today, but that doesn't mean there is a viable Aramaean population out there which has any chance of successfully rebelling and restoring their independence.

The Phrygians as a political entity died out following the Cimmerian invasions. Even at that earlier period, while they were independent, Greek influence in Phrygia was quite strong. There's no real evidence they WANTED to resist Hellenization.

If you can do something about the Cimmerians...have them go east into Iran rather than west into Anatolia, for example...you might get a longer-lasting Phrygian polity that might be locally powerful in Anatolia for another hundred years, until the rise of Persia in the mid 6th century BC. The Kingdom of Lydia won't arise in that scenario, but other than that, actually very little changes. Instead of Croesus of Lydia facing Cyrus of Persia in 547 BC, you have King Midas VI or Gordias V of Phrygia instead. The result is almost certainly the same.

Once the Persians came in, the last spark of independence among the Phrygians died. They were viewed by the Greeks and Romans, from that period onward, as passive and dull, and pretty much accepting of whatever ruler took control of the area. Not prime material for a rebellion.
 
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On the other hand, you could have an Albanian or Romanian scenario. The language survives in the hill country and reemerges after the collapse of the Roman Empire (with a lot of Greek loanwords). For that, however, you needs a early collapse of the Eastern Empire in Anatolia. Not likely
 
On the other hand, you could have an Albanian or Romanian scenario. The language survives in the hill country and reemerges after the collapse of the Roman Empire (with a lot of Greek loanwords). For that, however, you needs a early collapse of the Eastern Empire in Anatolia. Not likely

No Greek Fire. The Arabs take Constantinople. Phrygian-speaking groups convert to Islam before Greek-speaking ones and their language becomes the local vehicular of Islamicization as it happened with Turk centuries later, but in a more limited area (Arabic willl probably be dominant in Southern Anatolia, and Kurdish to the East, while Greek may have a stronger position in the Westernmost areas). This causes a VERY different world at all, of course. Except for some tiny coastal areas which will likely come under Arab overlordship, Balkan Peninsula ends as almost entirely Slavicized; whether Islam spreads there has to be seen though.
Totally different pattern of diffusion of Greek heritage into the Arab high culture, Orthodoxy reduced to a minority Christianity just like Monophysism and Nestorianism within a Muslim-ruled context, Khazars are defeated without Roman support and convert to Islam. Well, yeah, it's like using a cannon to break an egg. :)
 
Probably to late. By then the language was probably reduced to rural enclaves, if it was spoken at all. Now you could have a successful heptalite conquest of Persia in the Vth century (they came close at one point). The heptalites would the penetrate Anatolia (not necessarily take Constantinople, however), and spread their religion (Buddhism it would seem).

We would then have the same scenario as above, but with a still more unrecognizable Europe
 
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