Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/640

 624 PHRYGIA. bi-anch of it turning to the north-west, and by the mountains containing the sources of the Maeander, bore the surname Parorios; it was a table-land, but, to judge from the many towns it contained, it cannot have been as barren as the northern plateau. In the west Phrygia comprised the upper valley of the Maeander, and it is there that we find the most beautiful and most populous parts of Phrygia; but that district was much exposed to earthquakes in consequence of the volcanic nature of the district, ■which is attested by the hot-springs of Hierapolis, and the Plutonium, from which suiibcating exha- lations were sent forth. (Claudian, in Eutrop. ii. 270, &c.; Strab. xii. pp. 578, &c., 629, &c.; Herod, vii. 30; Vitruv. viii. 3.) Phrygia was a country rich in every kind of pro- duce. Its mountains seem to have furnished gold; for that metal plays an important part in the legends of Midas, and several of the Phrygian rivers are called " auriferi." (Claudian, I. c. 258.) Phrygian mar- ble, especially the species found near Synnada, was very celebrated. (Strab. xii. p. 579 ; Pans. i. 18. § 8, &c. ; Ov. Fast. v. 529 ; Stat. Silu. i. 5. 36.) The extensive cultivation of tl;e vine is clear from the worship of Dionysus (Sabazius), and Homer (//. iii. 184) also gives to the country the attribute afxTTei(Taa. The parts most distinguished for their excellent wine, however, were subsequently separated from Phrygia and added to neighbouring provinces. But Phrygia was most distinguished for its sheep and the fineness of their wool (Strab. xii. p. 578). King Amyntas is said to have kept no less than 300 flocks of sheep on the barren table-land, whence we must infer that sheep-breeding was car- ried on there on a very large scale. (Comp. Suid, s. V. ^pvyicDV ipiaiv- Aristoph. Av. 493; Strab. I. c. p. 568.) When Alexander had overthrown the Persian power in Asia Minor, he assigned Great Phrygia to Antigonus, b. c. 333 (Arrian, Anab. i. 29) ; and during the first division of Alexander's empire tiiat general retained Phrygia, to which were added Lycia and Pamphylia, while Leonnatus obtained Lesser Phrygia. (Dexipp. ap. Phot. p. 64 ; Curt. x. 10 ; Diod. xviii. 3 ; Justin, xiii. 4.) In the beginning of B.C. 321, Perdiccas assigned Greater Phrygia, and probablyalso the Lesser, to Eumenes (Justin, xiii. 6; Com. Nep. Eum. 3); but in the new division of Triparadisus Antigonus recovered his former pro- vinces, and Arrhidaeus obtained Lesser Phrygia, which, however, was taken from him by Antigonus as early as B.C. 319. (Diod. xviii. 39, xix. 51, 52, 75; Arrian, ap. Phot. p. 72.) After the death of Antigonus, in a. c. 301, Lesser Phrygia fell into the hands of Lysimachus, and Great Phrygia into those of Seleucus (Appian, Syr. 55), who, after con- quering Lysimachus, in b. c. 282, united the two Phrygias with the Syrian empire. (Appian, Si/r. 62 ; Justin, xvii. 2 ; Memnon, /7w<. Ileracl. 9.) Soon two other kingdoms, Bithynia and Pergamum, were formed in the vicinity of Phrygia, and the Gauls or Galatae, the most dangerous enemy of the Asiatics, took permanent possession of the north- eastern part of Phrygia, the valley of the Sangarius. Thus was formed Galatia, which in our maps sepa- rates Greater Phrygia from Paphlagouia and Bithy- nia; and the ancient towns of Gordium, Ancyra, and Pessinus now became the seats of the Gauls. To the east also Phrygia lost a portion of its territory, for Lycaonia was extended so far westward as to embrace the whole of the above mentioned barren PHRYGIA. plateau. (Strab. xiv. p. 663.) It is not impossible that Attains I. of Pergamum may have taken pos- session of Lesser Phrygia as early as b. c. 240, when he had gained a decisive victory over the Gauls, seeing that the Trocmi, one of their tribes, had dwelt on the Hellespont (Liv. xxxviii. 16); but his dominion was soon after reduced by the Syrian kings to its original dimensions, that is, the country be- tween the Sinus Elaeus and the bay of Adramyt- tium. However, after the defeat of Antiochus in the battle of Magnesia, in b. c. 191, Eumenes II. of Pergamum obtained from the Romans the greater part of Asia Minor and with it both the Phrygias. (Strab. xiii. p. 624 ; Liv. xxxvii. 54, &c.) Eu- menes on that occasion also acquired another dis- trict, which had been in the possession of Prusias, king of Bithynia. Livy (xxxviii. 39) calls that district Mysia, but it must have been the same country as the Phrygia Epictetus of Strabo (xii. pp. 563, 564, 571, 575, 576). But Strabo i.s certainly mistaken in regarding Phrygia Epictetus as identical with Lesser Phrygia on the Hellespont, — the former, according to his own showing, nowhere touching the sea (p. 564), but being situated south of Blount Olympus (p. 575), and being bounded in the north and partly in the west also by Bithynia (p. 563). The same conclusion must be drawn from the situations of the towns of Azani, jIidaeum, and Dorylaeum, which he himself assigns to Phrygia Epictetus (p. 576), and which Ptolemy also men- tions as Phrygian towns. These facts clearly show how confused Strabo's ideas about those countries were. The fact of Livy calling the district Mysia is easily accounted for, since the names Phrygia and Mysia are often confounded, and the town of Cadi is some- times called Mysian, though, according to Strabo, it belonged to Pln-ygia Epictetus. It was therefore unquestionably this part of Phrygia about which Eumenes of Pergamum was at war with Prusias, and which by the decision of the Romans was handed over to the Pergamenian king, and hence obtained the name of Phrygia Epictetus, that is, " the acquired in addition to." (Polyb. Excerpt, de Lerjat. 128, 129, 135, 136; Liv. xxxix. 51 ; Strab. p. 563.) After the death of Attalus IH., b. c. 133, all Phrygia with the rest of the kingdom of Pergamum fell into the hands of the Romans. A few years later, when the kingdom of Pergamum became a Roman province, Phrygia was given to Mithridates V. of Pontus (Just. xxxviii. 1; Appian, Bell. Mithr. 57), but after his death in b. c. 120 it was taken from his son and successor, Mithridates VI., and declared free. (Ap- pian, I. c.) This freedom, however, was not calcu- lated to promote the interests of the Phrygians, who gradually lost their importance. The Romans after- wards divided the country into jurisdictiones, but without any regard to tribes or natural boundaries. (Strab. xiii. p. 629; Plin. v. 29.) In B. c. 88 the districts of Laodiceia, Aparaeia, and Synnada seem to have been added to the province of Cilicia. (Cic. in Verr. i. 17, 37.) But this arrangement was not lasting, for afterwards we find those three districts as a part of the province of Asia, and then again as a part of Cilicia, until in B. c. 49 they appear to have become permanently united with Asia. The east and south of Phrygia, however, especially the towns of Apollonia, Antiocheia, and Philomelium, did' not belong to the province of Asia. In the new division of the empire made in the 4th century A. D., Phrygia Parorios was added to the province of Pisidia, and a district on the Maeander to Caria.