What Happened to the Greeks of Asia Minor? (VIDEO) | The ancient Greeks of Asia Minor were crucial to the development of Western poetry, prose, history, medicine, philosophy, and science.

What do Homer, Herodotus, Thales, Strabo, and Diogenes have in common? They all were born, not in what is now modern Greece, but rather in Asia Minor. The ancient Greeks of Asia Minor were crucial to the development of Western poetry, prose, history, medicine, philosophy, and science. Indeed, they were the first great thinkers of antiquity.
 
Later, Alexander the Great spread Hellenic civilization into Asia Minor. Afterwards, through the Byzantine Empire, Hellenism continued to influence much of the world. In addition, it was in the Hellenistic world, including Asia Minor, where early Christianity took root.
 
Yet, many teachers do not convey to their students the remarkable Hellenic presence in Asia Minor and the magnificent contributions these Greeks made to the world. Nor do they tell of the horrible ending to the Greek presence in Asia Minor, through a decade of genocide that may have claimed as many as one million Greek lives.

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