Lycaonian Christianity Under Roman Rule and Their Jewish-Christian Tradition*

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Lycaonian Christianity under Roman Rule and their Jewish-Christian Tradition*

Cilliers Breytenbach

I Roman Rule in Lycaonia

With “Lycaonia” I focus on the traditional Lycaonian area, eastern Pisidia and parts of south-eastern Phrygia, which were all included in the province of Galatia founded by Augustus in 25 BCE.1 The area was dominated by Roman vet- eran colonies in Antioch on the Pisidian border, in Iconium, where it coexisted next to the ancient city Iconium dominating central Anatolia, and in Lystra southwest of Iconium. For more than one generation the Romans had one or perhaps even two legions here. After their departure in the first century CE auxiliary forces secured the colonies and routes between them and Laranda, the gateway to Isauria, and Philomelium on the route into Phrygia. At both locations the Romans had stationarii to secure the roads across Asia Minor. As long as the area was part of the province of Galatia or of Vespasian’s Galatia-Cappadocia, it was probably governed from Antioch. Trajan (98–117 CE) separated Galatia from Cappadocia, taking southern Lycaonia to Cappadocia; under Hadrian (117–138) western Lycaonia was still part of Galatia. From Antoninus Pius (138–161) on, Lycaonia (without Iconium) including the traditional Isaurian cities was detached from Cappadocia and became an ἐπαρχία, a separate administrative region of a province. It was part of the threefold government (τρεῖς ἐπαρχίαι) of Cilicia (Isauria, Lycaonia, Cilicia), each governed by a legatus Augusti pro praetore, Lycaonia from Laranda. The north- ern Lycaonian cities Lystra, Iconium, Perta, Kinna, Laodicea Combusta and Gdanmaa remained part of Galatia. Diocletian (284–305) divided Lycaonia. Iconium, Amblada, possibly Mistea and Vasada became part of Pisidia. The southern cities Uamanada (the traditional area of the mountain tribe of

* The research for this paper was done with the support of the Excellence Cluster 264 Topoi: The Formation and Transformation of Space and Knowledge in Ancient Civilizations (www .topoi.org). For additional abbreviations of epigraphic editions (including journals), cf. The Packard Humanities Institute, Searchable Greek Inscriptions: A Scholarly Tool in Progress (Cornell University/Ohio State University), http://epigraphy.packhum.org. 1 For more detail, cf. C. Breytenbach and C. Zimmermann, Early Christianity in Lycaonia and Adjacent Areas (AJEC/ECAM; Leiden: Brill, forthcoming), ch. 2.2.1.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��6 | doi ��.��63/9789004321694_010 186 Breytenbach the Homonadeis?), Ilistra, Laranda and Barata became part of the province Isauria, founded already by Gordian III (238–244). We thus concentrate on an area that was initially part of Galatia, became part of Lycaonia and was later divided between Pisidia and Isauria. It is not necessary to discuss the structure of Roman administration of the area in detail, since there is no evidence that it had specific implications for Jews or Christians in the area.

II Jews in Lycaonia

This section can be very brief. In contrast to Aphrodisias in Caria, Sardis in Lydia and particularly Acmonia and Hierapolis in Phrygia, there is almost no evidence for Jews in the area under discussion during the early or the later Roman Empire. Apart from the New Testament, there are no literary sources. Five inscriptions document the presence of Jews, but beyond names, only little information can be deducted from them. We could say that in the 3rd century or later, a Joseph lived in Gdanmaa, and a tombstone of another Joseph was found in Zazadin Han.2 From Gdanmaa we also know the “pure Levite” Sophronius, brother in law of a man called Aurelius John.3 In Laodicea Combusta Aurelius Philopapus warned those who would dare to desecrate his dear father’s grave against the wrath of the imperishable God.4 Walter Ameling registered one possible Jewish inscription in Iconium,5 and two in Gdanmaa.6 Due to the use of the family name Aurelius, three of these monuments could be dated shortly after Caracalla (211–217) and his constitutio Antoniniana,7 but it is also possible that these five monuments all belong in the 4th century or even later. This number of Jewish inscriptions from what we roughly call “Lycaonia” is very modest, if one compares it to the hundreds of Christian inscriptions from the same area. The question arises, if these Christian inscriptions shared in Jewish tradition.

2 Cf. W. Ameling, ed., Kleinasien, vol. 2 of Inscriptiones Judaicae Orientis (TSAJ 99; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004) [= IJO ii], nos. 225 and 228. 3 Cf. IJO ii no. 224: ἐνθάδ[ε] | κατάκῖτα[ι] | Σωφρόν[ι]|ος Λευίτ||ης ἁγνός· | Αὐρ. Ἰωάν[ης] | τῷ ἰδίῳ γυνε[καδ-]| [έλφῳ] μνή|[μης χάριν]. 4 Cf. IJO ii no. 277,13–16: . . . εἰ δέ τις αὐ|τὴν σείνετε ἀθανά||τοιο θεοῦ μήν<ι>μα | λάβοιτο. 5 IJO ii no. 226. 6 IJO ii nos. 224–225; cf. Ameling, IJO ii, pp. 484–491. 7 By this decree, Caracalla, who was adopted into the gens Aurelia in 195 ce (cf. Cassius Dio 78.9.4−5), extended citizenship to almost all free men of the Empire. For the name Aurelius, cf. IJO ii nos. 224, 225, 227 and 228.