Tavium, or
Tavia, was the chief city of the
Galatian tribe of
Trocmi, one of the three
Celtic tribes which migrated from the
Danube Valley to Galatia in present-day central
Turkey in the 3rd century BCE. Owing to its position on the high roads of commerce was an important trading post. The site was successively occupied by
Hittites,
Cimmerians,
Persians, Celts,
Greeks, Romans,
Seljuk Turks and
Ottoman Turks. At the time of the
Roman Empire, Tavium was an important crossroads and a stopping place on the caravan routes.