Ankara's name comes with a story, and the ancient writer Stephanos of Byzantium is the one who tells it. He says the city was founded by the Galatians and that its first name was Ankyra in Greek, Ancyra in Latin — the word for a ship's anchor. The Galatians had fought at sea alongside Mithridates of Pontos against the Ptolemies of Egypt; when the war was won, Mithridates rewarded them with good land and with an anchor taken as spoil. They settled on that land and gave the anchor to the temple of Men in the city they founded.
When the settlement actually began is not known. Prehistoric traces around the city show people were living here as soon as they were living anywhere settled, and the finds record Hittites, Phrygians, Lydians and Galatians in turn. The written history begins with the Hittites.
