Kastamonu's known history begins with the Hittite empire. The Phrygian and Lydian kingdoms ruled this ground afterwards, and it passed to the Persians in the 4th century BC. Alexander annexed the territory of Kastamonu to Macedonia along with the rest of Anatolia in the same century; the kingdom of Pontos took the district after him, and Rome destroyed Pontos in the 1st century BC. Kastamonu stayed Roman for many years, and when the empire divided in AD 395 it went with the rest of Anatolia to Byzantium.
Before all that, on the provincial directorate's account, the region — Paphlagonia — was held by the Kaška, described here as the oldest branch of the Sumerians. They ruled between 2000 and 1300 BC, kept political, commercial and cultural relations with the Egyptians, the Syrians and the Chaldeans, and were sometimes at war with the Hittites and sometimes at peace with them. They are known as a hard-charactered, warlike people.
