In antiquity the people of Balıkesir and its surroundings were the Mysians. They never formed an independent state of their own, and lived instead under Troy, the Hittites, the Phrygians, the Persians, Alexander and the kingdom of Pergamon in turn. On the death of the last Pergamene king the region passed to Rome.
When the empire split in AD 395 the region fell inside the eastern half, ruled from Constantinople, and a new and long period began. Byzantium grew strong both militarily and economically and held this territory for centuries.
The first Muslim armies reached the region in the reign of Mu'awiya, on campaign towards the Byzantine capital, and it was under Arab administration between 670 and 678. The siege of the capital ran five years without a break and failed, and the army withdrew. Byzantium, worn down by civil war and attack from outside, eventually fell into the hands of local lords.
