Roman Empire
Hello,
I am reading Acts 13 and 14 and I am trying to understand the geography. Is there a resource in Logos that tells more about the Roman empire in the first century and the differences between provinces and regions?
Are Lycaonia (Acts 14:6), Pamphylia and Pisidia (14:24) provinces or regions? And how do they relate to the province of Galatia?
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Patrick - I don't have one off the top of my head now, but a couple of questions might help: Are you looking to see if there is something in your library, or to purchase something? What base package do you have?
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I have Original Languages (including Perseus), several commentaries (WBC) and some lexicons (EDNT, BDAG).I don't have a Biblical encyclopedia (yet).
It would be nice if I can find it in my library. I did some searches, but found it rather overwhelming. But if it is not in my library I am interested to know in which resource I can find definitions and a list of provinces, districts and regions in the Roman Empire.
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The Logos Deluxe Map Set has some very good maps of all the 1st century missionary journeys and the like. Around Acts 14:20 is about Paul's first missionary trip. Here is one map, there are others for example that just focus on each of the 3 Pauline trips:
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Patrick Rietveld said:
I have Original Languages (including Perseus), several commentaries (WBC) and some lexicons (EDNT, BDAG).I don't have a Biblical encyclopedia (yet).
It would be nice if I can find it in my library. I did some searches, but found it rather overwhelming. But if it is not in my library I am interested to know in which resource I can find definitions and a list of provinces, districts and regions in the Roman Empire.
It is a hard resource to use & requires lots of reading text (didn't use tables/figures/etc), but take a look at Strabo's Geography (English), a Perseus resource. I believe it to be roughly contemporary with the events of Acts.
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I have that map as well, but it doesn't show Lycaonia.
It looks like Galatia, Pamphylia, Asia are provinces on that map. Pisidia and Lycaonia are just regions then? But on the Roman Empire map Pamphylia is not mentioned.
The Biblical Places tool doesn't tell me the difference between Lycaonia, Pamphylia, Pisidia, Galatia, Asia. They are all called regions.
Lycaonia = a region in central Asia Minor
Pamphylia = a region on the S coast of Asia Minor
Pisidia = a region N of Pampylia in SW Asia Minor.
Galatia = a Region of central Asia Minor
Asia = a region E of the Aegean Sea
The Greek word χώρα refers to everything (land, country, region, district), except to province (?).
This doesn't help me.
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Patrick, I looked at your library and is similar to mine (the structure starting with OL and then expanding selectively). But you REALLY should consider Anchor Bible Dictionary. It's a major go-to and combines both the historical articles with also theological articles. As an example, I've copied the article on Lycaonia to show you the depth.
But I too would like something along the lines of a mapping encyclopaedia. The problem with maps is they change quickly (history) and the reason for the change is the most important, especially tracking events in the Bible. I would similarly like a more modern Archaeology Dictionary but Anchor does a good job.
Below the Anchor example, I included a map from the Nelson's Complete Book of Bible maps showing Lycaonia. But you'll notice it kind of bounces around.
http://www.logos.com/product/1206/nelsons-complete-book-of-bible-maps-and-charts-revised--------------------------
LYCAONIA (PLACE) [Gk Lykaonia (Λυκαονια)]. The territory of the Lycaones was a region of Central Asia Minor N of the Taurus range, bordered on the W by Phrygia, on the E by Cappadocia, and on the N (after 232 B.C.) by ethnic Galatia.
A. General History
The name Lycaones is probably related to Lukka, an Anatolian people and territory mentioned in Hittite texts (Houwink ten Cate 1961: 195–56). One detached group of Lycaones, distinguished by W. M. Ramsay (1897: 664, 694; 1906: 366) as the “inner Lycaones,” formed a western enclave in the heart of Phrygia; it is mentioned in inscriptions of the 3d century A.D.
In 401 B.C. Cyrus the Younger led his army through Lycaonia (a five days’ march of ninety miles) on his way east to contest the succession to the Persian throne with his brother Artaxerxes II. Lycaonia evidently remained loyal to Artaxerxes, for Cyrus treated it as hostile territory and allowed his Greek followers to plunder it (Xen. An. 1.2.19).
In 333 B.C. Lycaonia became part of the empire of Alexander the Great and, after his death, of his Seleucid successors. In 188 B.C. the Romans transferred Lycaonia from the Seleucids to the kingdom of Pergamum. When the Romans accepted the bequest of the kingdom of Pergamum in 129 B.C., they bestowed its easternmost regions on neighboring rulers, Lycaonia going to the king of Cappadocia. Mark Antony gave western Lycaonia to Polemon of Laodicea in 39 B.C.; three years later he transferred the whole of Lycaonia to Rome’s ally Amyntas, king of Galatia. Soon afterward Amyntas seized the eastern cities of Derbe and Laranda and added them to his realm. When Amyntas fell in battle against unruly tribesmen of the Taurus region in 25 B.C., his augmented kingdom was reconstituted by Augustus as the Roman province of Galatia. In 20 B.C. Augustus gave eastern Lycaonia to Archelaus, king of Cappadocia (Strab. 12.1.4; 12.2.7; 14.5.6; Dio Cass. 54.9.2). In western Lycaonia he planted two colonies of veteran soldiers—at Parlais and Lystra—and these were linked by a road system with Pisidian Antioch in Phrygia, another colony.
Eastern Lycaonia was bestowed by Emperor Gaius on Antiochus IV, king of Commagene, in A.D. 37. It was taken from him almost immediately afterward, but was restored to him by Claudius in 41 (Dio Cass. 59.8.2; 60.8.1). About that time Derbe, on the frontier between the province of Galatia and the kingdom of Commagene, received the honorific title Claudioderbe. Eastern Lycaonia now became known as Lycaonia Antiochiana (Ptol. Geog. 5.6.17; CIL 10.8660); Pliny the Elder calls it Lycaonia ipsa “Lycaonia itself” (HN 5.95). Western Lycaonia, which remained part of the province of Galatia, may have been distinguished as Lycaonia Galatica.
Under Vespasian (ca. 72) Lycaonia was reunited as a region of the amalgamated province of Galatia-Cappadocia; under Trajan (106) the two provinces were divided again; under Hadrian (137) a new province, the Triple Eparchy, combined Lycaonia, Cilicia, and Isauria.
The koinon or league of cities of Lycaonia comprised Laranda (its principal city for long periods), Barata, Ilistra, Derbe, Hyde, Dalisandos, and Savatra, but not Lystra, Axylon, or Iconium (which was a Phrygian city but sometimes, because of its proximity to the regional frontier, reckoned to Lycaonia, as in Cic. Fam. 15.4.2; Strab. 12.6.1; Pliny HN 5.25).
B. Lycaonia in the NT
Lycaonia first appears in the NT when Paul and Barnabas, forced to depart from Iconium because of a riot stirred up against them, “fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country” (Acts 14:6). This form of words implies that Iconium, which they had left, was not in Lycaonia. When they heard the Lycaonian language spoken in Lystra (Acts 14:11), they may have recognized that it was sufficiently unlike Phrygian for the difference to be obvious even to people who understood neither language. Whereas Phrygian was related to Thracian, the Lycaonian language was probably descended from Luwian, a language represented in Hittite texts.
Paul and Barnabas had an early opportunity of hearing Lycaonian when the people of Lystra, excited by Paul’s healing a congenitally lame man, shouted that the gods had come down to them in human form. The two missionaries did not understand the words, but soon gathered their purport when preparations were set afoot to pay them divine honors. When Luke says that Barnabas and Paul were called Zeus and Hermes, respectively, we may infer that two corresponding Lycaonian gods were mentioned. On the other hand, there is evidence for the joint worship of Zeus and Hermes in that neighborhood: a 3d-century A.D. inscription from Sedasa (some 25 miles from Lystra) records the dedication to Zeus of a statue of Hermes by men with Lycaonian names (Calder 1910: 1–6), and an altar found near Lystra in 1926 is dedicated to the “hearer of prayer” (Gk epēkoos), i.e., Zeus, and Hermes (MAMA 8.1).
The Lystrans were naturally offended when their attempt to worship Paul and Barnabas as gods was repudiated, so they lent a willing ear to opponents of the missionaries who came from Iconium and fomented an attack on them. Paul in particular was fortunate to escape with his life after being stoned and left for dead at the roadside. On the next day the two set out for Derbe, some 60 miles distant. Here they reached the provincial frontier, if indeed they did not cross it: Derbe may have belonged to Lycaonia Antiochiana, as Ptolemy says (5.6.16; cf. Van Elderen 1970: 159–61). Derbe, in any case, was the farthest point they reached in their present journey; they retraced their steps. But they had made converts both in Lystra (notably Timothy, according to Acts 16:1–3) and in Derbe (among whom one Gaius is specially mentioned in Acts 20:4).
Paul passed through Lycaonia on at least one later occasion, and most probably two. On his way from Antioch to Troas with Silas, “he came also to Derbe and to Lystra” (Acts 16:1); at the latter place he persuaded Timothy to join him as his personal assistant. When, a few years later, on his way from Antioch to Ephesus “he went from place to place through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples” (Acts 18:23), Galatic Lycaonia was almost certainly one of the areas visited. On the “south Galatian” view, the Christian communities of Lycaonia were among “the churches of Galatia” to which Paul’s
Letter to the Galatians is addressed (Gal 1:2; cf. 1 Cor 16:1)-------------------------
Example map from Nelson's:
."If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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Patrick Rietveld said:
Hello,
I am reading Acts 13 and 14 and I am trying to understand the geography. Is there a resource in Logos that tells more about the Roman empire in the first century and the differences between provinces and regions?
Are Lycaonia (Acts 14:6), Pamphylia and Pisidia (14:24) provinces or regions? And how do they relate to the province of Galatia?
I believe that the distinction lies in Roman political boundaries and geographic regions or cities. Apart from Logos, it is instructive to have a look at sites like An Overview New Testament Geography and Wikipedia's article on Lycaonia. In the Roman economy there was a distinction between a "senatorial province" and an "imperial province" depending on who appointed their governors, but were (when they referred to a geographic location) outside of Italy and regarded as a territory of Rome.
Within Logos, the Holman Bible Atlas contains multiple articles on each of these provinces and geographic regions. Without attempting an exhaustive list of resources in my Platinum+ library, I also see related articles in: Holman Book of Charts, Maps, and Reconstructions, Logos Deluxe Map set, Nelson's 3D Bible Mapbook, Nelson's Bible Map Collections, Nelson's Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts Revised, etc...
A search for ["Roman provinc*" AND region] gives me 1912 results in 537 articles in 152 resources. This is easily narrowed to a more manageable number by adding the specific names of provinces or regions to the search. Hope that's helpful, and that I haven't misunderstood your question.
"I read dead people..."
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Patrick Rietveld said:
Is there a resource in Logos that tells more about the Roman empire in the first century and the differences between provinces and regions?
Ramsay has some worthwhile comments on these chapters, with useful analysis of the structure of the Roman provinces in St. Paul the Traveller and Roman Citizen
Many other valuable resources are contained in William Mitchell Ramsay Collection (16 vols.)
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Jack Caviness said:
Many other valuable resources are contained in William Mitchell Ramsay Collection (16 vols.)
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"I read dead people..."
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Thanks for all this help!
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