The area known as Cappadocia today was known to the Ancient Persians as Katpatuka, a name which the Greeks altered into Kappadokia (Cappadocia).

Before Greeks and Greek culture arrived in Asia Minor, the area was controlled by another Indo-European people, the Hittites.
Mycenaean Greeks set up trading posts along the west coast around 1300 BC and soon started colonizing the coasts, spreading Hellenic culture and language.
In the Hellenistic era, following the conquest of Anatolia by Alexander the Great, Greek settlers began arriving in the mountainous regions of Cappadocia at this time.
This Greek population movement of the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC solidified a Greek presence in Cappadocia.
As a result, Greek became the lingua franca of the region's natives.
It would become the sole spoken language of the region's inhabitants within three centuries and would remain so for the next one thousand years.

After the death of Alexander the Great, Eumenes of Cardia, one of the Diadochi of Alexander the Great, was appointed satrap of Cappadocia, where he set up Greek settlements and distributed cities to his associates.
Eumenes left behind administrators, judges and selected garrison commanders in Cappadocia.
In the following centuries the Seleucid Greek Kings founded many Greek settlements in the interior of Asia Minor, and this region would become popular for the recruitment of soldiers.
Unlike other regions of Asia Minor where Greeks would settle in cities, most of the Greek settlements in Cappadocia and other interior Anatolian regions were villages.
The Hellenistic Kings would make new Greek settlements in Cappadocia and other surrounding regions in order to secure their hold on this volatile region, under their rule Greek settlements would increase in the Anatolian interior.

In the centuries following Alexander the Great's death, Ariarathes, the son of a Persian satrap who formerly controlled Cappadocia, gained control of Cappadocia and left it to a line of his successors, who mostly bore the name of the founder of the dynasty.
These kings began to intermarry with neighboring Greek Hellenistic kingdoms, such as the Seleucids.
During their reign Greek towns were beginning to appear in the southern regions of Cappadocia.
Ariarathes V of Cappadocia who reigned from 163 to 130 BC is considered to have been the greatest of the Kings of Cappadocia.
He was predominantly Greek by descent, his father Ariarathes IV of Cappadocia was half Greek Macedonian and Persian and his mother was Antiochis, was the daughter of the Seleucid Greek King Antiochus III of the Seleucid dynasty.
By the 1st century BC, regions of Cappadocia had been ravaged by Armenian King Tigranes the Great, who had relocated a great number of Cilician and Cappadocian Greeks to Mesopotamia (geographically in modern Iraq, eastern Syria and south-eastern Turkey.)
The area known as Cappadocia today was known to the Ancient Persians as Katpatuka, a name which the Greeks altered into Kappadokia (Cappadocia).
Before Greeks and Greek culture arrived in Asia Minor, the area was controlled by another Indo-European people, the Hittites. Mycenaean Greeks set up trading posts along the west coast around 1300 BC and soon started colonizing the coasts, spreading Hellenic culture and language. In the Hellenistic era, following the conquest of Anatolia by Alexander the Great, Greek settlers began arriving in the mountainous regions of Cappadocia at this time. This Greek population movement of the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC solidified a Greek presence in Cappadocia. As a result, Greek became the lingua franca of the region's natives. It would become the sole spoken language of the region's inhabitants within three centuries and would remain so for the next one thousand years.
After the death of Alexander the Great, Eumenes of Cardia, one of the Diadochi of Alexander the Great, was appointed satrap of Cappadocia, where he set up Greek settlements and distributed cities to his associates. Eumenes left behind administrators, judges and selected garrison commanders in Cappadocia. In the following centuries the Seleucid Greek Kings founded many Greek settlements in the interior of Asia Minor, and this region would become popular for the recruitment of soldiers. Unlike other regions of Asia Minor where Greeks would settle in cities, most of the Greek settlements in Cappadocia and other interior Anatolian regions were villages. The Hellenistic Kings would make new Greek settlements in Cappadocia and other surrounding regions in order to secure their hold on this volatile region, under their rule Greek settlements would increase in the Anatolian interior.
In the centuries following Alexander the Great's death, Ariarathes, the son of a Persian satrap who formerly controlled Cappadocia, gained control of Cappadocia and left it to a line of his successors, who mostly bore the name of the founder of the dynasty. These kings began to intermarry with neighboring Greek Hellenistic kingdoms, such as the Seleucids. During their reign Greek towns were beginning to appear in the southern regions of Cappadocia. Ariarathes V of Cappadocia who reigned from 163 to 130 BC is considered to have been the greatest of the Kings of Cappadocia. He was predominantly Greek by descent, his father Ariarathes IV of Cappadocia was half Greek Macedonian and Persian and his mother was Antiochis, was the daughter of the Seleucid Greek King Antiochus III of the Seleucid dynasty. By the 1st century BC, regions of Cappadocia had been ravaged by Armenian King Tigranes the Great, who had relocated a great number of Cilician and Cappadocian Greeks to Mesopotamia (geographically in modern Iraq, eastern Syria and south-eastern Turkey.)
Cappadocian Greeks