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 Angora); 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.
Galatia took its name from a body of Gauls who invaded Asia Minor about the year 277 b.c. They had formed part of the army which invaded Greece under Brennus, but having quarrelled with that commander, had left his standard, and marching into Thrace under generals of their own choice, advanced to Byzantium, whence they were invited by Z'ieomcdcs, king of Bithynia, to cross into Asia, and help him in his struggle against his brother Zipzetes. After performing the required services, they turned their arms against their employer, and ravaged the western half of Asia Minor. Their success allured other hordes of their countrymen, who readily took service with the Asiatic kings in their wars against each other. No Oriental prince was found able to check them, until Attalus, king of Pcrgamus, defeated them in a great battle, 239 b.c., and compelled them to settle in that part of the country which after them was called Galatia. They still remained independent, l1ow- evcr, and proved a formidable foe to the Romans in their wars with Antioehus. It was found necessary to direct a special army against them, under Cn. Manlius, and the result of the campaign (189 b.c.) was their complete subjugation to the power of Rome. Galatia was not at this time reduced to a Roman province, but the Gauls were still allowed to retain their own government under their tetrarchs. This system, however, gradually gave way, and the whole country passed under the authority of one ruler. The first of these sole tctrarchs was Deiotarus, a contemporary of Cicero and Caesar, who, in return for the assistance which he gave the Romans in their wars against lIithridatcs, was rewarded with a part of Pontus and Armenia Minor, and was styled king by the senate. It was afterwards united with Lycaonia, Isauria, and several adjoining districts, under a king named Amyntas, at whose death, in 25 b.c., Galatia became a Roman province. Theodosius the Great subdivided it for purposes of government into Galatia Prima, of which Aneyia was the capital, and Galatia Secuuda, with Pessinus for its chief town.
The antiquities of Galatia have in recent times been made the subject of special investigation by a Freneh commission composed of MM. Pcrrot, Guillaume, and Delbet, and the result of their labours published in 2 vols. fel._. Paris, 1872; but with the exception of '£110-“0 of .-’mgo1'n, they are not of much general interest.
“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 the preceding article.[1] 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 year 52 a.d.[2] 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.[3] 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,[4] proselytes, and as many of the native
See Lachmann,
- ↑ 1 See Strabo, xii. p. 566 (where the words are 'r-lyv viiv I‘aAa.-2-{av xal l‘aMo-ypamlav M-yop.e'u1)v); and compare Pliny (II. N., v. 25), who continues to distinguish Lycaonia from Galatia. The later historian Memnon also incidentally mentions that the Galatae had taken possession of -r-by vfiv I‘a}a'rfav naAoup.e’u1;v. Renan (Saint Paul, p. '18) and, latterly, Hausrath (NTl1'chc Zcz't_(/cschz'chtc, ii. 258), however, uphold the theory that Paul when he uses the word Galatia intends the Roman province, and that by the Galatians we are to understand chiefly the Christians of Antioch, Iconimn, Derbe, and Lystra. Their arguments are drawn from the ordinal y usus loquendi of Paul (by Asia, Macedonia, Achaia he invariably means the provinces bearing these names); from the analogy of 1 Pet. i. 1, where all the districts mentioned happen to be “ provinces” ; from such con- siderations as the inaccessibility of Galatia proper; from inferences based on Acts xviii. 23, Gal. ii. 5, and other texts; and from the admittedly perplexing fact that unless the churches of Derbe, Lystra, &c., be regarded as Galatian, we are left i11 ignorance of the names, localities, and histories of the churches addressed. But, as has been seen, the ancient usus loquendi appears on the whole to have dis- regarded the Roman division of provinces i11 this case at least; merc- over, Iconium was never a part of the Roman Galatia; and in any case there would have been an inappropriateness in addressing Lycaonians and Pisidians by a title so rich in ethnological and historical suggestion as that "of “ Galatians ” is.
- ↑ The full consideration of the chronology of this period of sacred history must be postponed to the article Paul.
- ↑ So Acts xvi. 6, 7, according to the oldest texts. Tischendorf, Tregelles.
- ↑ For the fact of the prevalence of Jews in Galatia reference may be made to the Monumentum Ancyranum (Joseph.. A72t., xvi. 6. 2; cf. xii. 3, 4); compare 1 Pet. i. 1.
