Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/29

Rh also all capital cases were tried. Minor offences came under the cognizance of the tetrarchs and special judges appointed by them. The three tribes all spoke the same tongue ; and though in course of time they became Hellenized, their original language was still in use among them as late as the time of Jerome. The physical characters of Galatia are in great measure similar to those of the adjoining provinces of Phrygia and Lycaonia, the whole region being an elevated plateau or table-land, no part of which is less than 2000 feet above the sea, while the greater part exceeds 3000 feet in elevation. The southern portion, towards Lyclonia, is the most level, and is an almost perfect plain, passing gradually into the expanse of salt desert which occupies the frontier la11ds of the two provinces. The rest of the country consists for the most part of vast undulating downs, affording excellent pasture for sheep and goats, and capable of producing good crops of corn, though at present in great part uncultivated, and Ia-hnost wholly devoid of wood. Towards the frontiers of Bithynia it becomes more broken, and is intersected by numerous valleys, as well as by several detached ranges of hills, none of them, however, attaining to any considerable height or importance. The lofty range of the Ala—dagh (6000-7000 feet), though frequently termed the Galatian Olympus, is not properly included within the limits of the province, but forms in part the natural boundary which separates it from Bithynia. From its elevated position, the climate of Galatia is naturally one of considerable extremes of heat and cold ; and while the summers are burning hot, the winters at Angora are more severe than at Paris, and the snow often lies on the ground for a month together. The only towns of importance in Galatia were Tavium, the capital of the Trocmi, a small town which speedily fell into decay; Ancyra, the capital of the Tectosages, which under the Romans became the capital of the country, and has ever since retained its importance as one of the principal cities of Asia Minor (see ); and l‘essinus, the chief town of the Tolistobogii, where a splendid temple was conse- crated to Agdistis, the mother of the gods, the divinity who was worshipped at Rome under the title of Rhea or Cybele.

1em 1em  GALATIANS,. Origin.—Although “Galatia,” as a united kingdom under Amyntas, included Pisidia, as well as portions of Lycaonia and Pamphylia, and when constituted a Roman province was further enlarged so that it extended from Taurus to the Euxine (Ptol., V. 1), it may with safety be taken for granted that the name is never used in the New Testament except in its older colloquial sense as equivalent to “ Gallograecia” or “ Eastern Gaul” (I‘a}ut’u 1'] éqla, Appian, De Bell. C'z'v., ii. 49), the country of those Galli (I‘)w“;-res, I‘a)d-rat, Kéltq-cu) whose migrations and ﬁnal terri- torial limits have already been indicated in. On this assumption, the history of the formation of the Christian “churches of Galatia” is very obscure. It is obvious enough, from the epistle itself, that they had been planted by Paul ; but when, or under what circumstances, we are nowhere explicitly informed. In the Acts of the Apostles we read that, accompanied by Silas, he set out on what is generally known as his second missionary journey soon after the council of Jerusalem, which may be dated approximately as having occurred about the  After having traversed “ Syria” and “ Cilicia,” strengthen- ing the churches, they “passed through Phrygia and the region of Galatia (~n‘;v I‘a)ta-ru<1‘;v xulpav), being forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia; and after they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus suffered them not. The language here employed, even if, as Wieseler argues, it implies that preaching was engaged in, can hardly be said to sug rest of itself that churches had been formed on the route, but rather appears to hint at a forced and rapid march. Acts xviii. 23, however, indicates that “disciples” at least had been made, and it is well known that in the narrative of the Acts 'many important passages in the eventful public life of the apostle have been passed with even less explicit allusion. Combining then the meagre facts which that narrative in this instance affords with inferences derived from incidental expressions made use of in the epistle itself, we conjecture the apostle to have been detained by ill-health (see Gal. iv. 13, “because of bodily weakness”), probably in the western district of Galatia (that of the Tolistobogii), though not at the capital Pessinus itself, but nearer the borders of Asia and Mysia; and there, in the vrpoocvxat’ or synagogues, to have addressed his message to Jews, proselytes, and as many of the native See Lachmann,