According to current knowledge, the (Roman) Perge Theatre was built between 70 AD and the middle of the 2nd century AD, presumably on top of a Hellenistic predecessor building. Under the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus (193-211 AD) the orchestra was converted into an arena. The stage house as it is visible today was probably begun under Mark Aurel (Roman Emperor 161-180 AD) and completed in a second construction phase around 220 AD. Under Emperor Tacitus (275-276 A.D.), further alterations were made to the theatre, which last had a capacity of 11,000 spectators. The stage house was decorated with marble reliefs. They show scenes from the mythology of the wine god Bacchus, the river god Kestros and the goddess of fate Fortuna. Parts of this frieze can be found in the archaeological museum of Antalya.

Traces of settlement of the early Chalcolithic (4th millennium BC) on Table Mountain form the oldest evidence. The place named in a Hittite state treaty of about 1235 BC Parḫa can be equated with Perge. This suggests a Late Bronze Age settlement, the remains of which have since been discovered and published in 2010.
For the Hittite period there are so far only few archaeological evidence, as well as for the Greek immigration which allegedly took place after the Trojan War according to the local tradition. For example, two participants in the Trojan War are named as founding heroes - the seers Kalchas and Mopsos.
In the 7th century B.C. the development to a Greek-influenced settlement began under Rhodian influence, after Perge obviously cultivated close contact with Cyprus in the 10th-8th century B.C.. As a leading city, Perge belonged to the Attic-Dellic Sea Alliance. The city surrendered to Alexander the Great, then under Seleucid and Ptolemaic rule,
after the Peace of Apameia from 188 to 133 B.C. under Pergamenian rule; then Roman. Perge became capital of the province Lycia et Pamphylia in 73/74 AD.