Studies in the Roman Province Galatia: I
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Studies in the Roman Province Galatia: I. The Homanadeis and the Homanadensian War Author(s): W. M. Ramsay Source: The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 7 (1917), pp. 229-283 Published by: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/295590 . Accessed: 08/05/2014 23:23 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Roman Studies. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Thu, 8 May 2014 23:23:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions STUDIES IN THE ROMAN PROVINCE GALATIA. By W. M. RAMSAY. I. THE HOMANADEIS AND THE HOMANADENSIAN WAR. In this 7ournal, i9I6, p. 96, where, in the orderlv execution of a systematic study of Colonia Caesarea(Pisidian Antioch), an account of the Homanadensianl war would have been in place, this was omitted on the ground that ' the account whicb Cheesman2 has given in the 7ournal, I913, P. 253 ff. of the leader of the colony in war and peace may be regarded as the execution of my plan at this point.' In re-readinghis article, however, I observethat it is devoted mainly to Caristanius himself and his family rather than to the Homanadensianwar, for his subject is 'The family of the Caris- tanii.' With practically all that he says in his brief references to the war I agree ; they show his opinion of that date and the general situation ; but they do not constitute an account of the war (so far as this can be recovered),for that did not lie within his plan. It is therefore not without value to give here a consecutive account of the war, the circumstanceswhich led to its outbreak, and the issue, together with a brief descriptionof the land and the people (supple- mentary to what is said in H.C.A.M. p. 335, etc.). There is probably no war which in itself is of quite secondary importance that is connected with so many and so vital questions of historical interest as this Homanadensianwar. This will appear in the sequel of the present article. The very name of the general in command, viz. Quirinius, brings up all the tangled and difficult questionsthat ariseout of the historicalallusion to him in the Gospel of Luke ii. 2. The literature bearing on that allusion is enormous in extent and extraordinaryin respect of the difference of opinion among scholarsof high standing. Whether Quiriniusever governed Syria before the death of Herod the king in 4 B.C. is in itself a vital question to the accuracy of the third Gospel. It has been main- tained by some that Quiriniusgoverned Syria only once, viz. 6-8 A.D. It has been maintained by others that he governed Syria twice, but that even his first governorshipwas after the death of Herod. We set aside other questions entirely) and study the war for its own sake, from the evidence bearing on it directly and alone. This I On thc spelling sec p. z64. The commoln 2 The premature death of Lieut. G. L. Cheesman spelling Homon- is taken from Strabo and Tacitus at the Dardanelles was a grave loss to Roman Asin. iii, 48 and the older published texts of Pliny historical, study and to the investigation of v.. 94 (based on conjectural cmen-dations). Anatolian antiquities. This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Thu, 8 May 2014 23:23:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 230 STUDIES IN THE ROMAN PROVINCE GALATIA. evidence points to a definite conclusion, and I think xvill establish beyond reach of question that Quirinius was governing Syria for some years between 12-6 B.C. This conclusion cannot be evaded nor disputed. It forms a definite Ilistorical basis on which the Lukan quLestionsmust be treated in future. I shall have occasion in the following article to refer most frequently to Cheesman in 7.R.S. I913, P. 250 ff: also to an article by myself on ' Pisidia and the Lvcaonian frontier' in Annual o/ the British School at Athens, I902-I903, Pp. 243-273, whicih is quoted briefly as ' Pisidia-Lycaonia '; and to another article by myself on 'Lycaonia' in the Jahrcshette des Oesterreichischen Instituts, 1904, PP. 57-I32: also to various essays in Studies in the Jrt and History o/ the Eastern RomzanProvinces (especially Miss Rarnsayon Isaurian and Phrygian Art, pp. I-97). Moreover, religion underlies all action in Anatolia, often taking strange outward forms (e.g. the divinity of the sovereign), as described in the geneial articles 'Religion of Asia Minor' in hastings' Dict. Bib. v, pp. I09-56; 'Phrygians' in Hastings' Dict. o/ Religion and k thics, vol. ix, pp. 900-I I; also 'Religious Antiquities in Asia Minor,' Annual I91--2, p. 37 ff, and J.H.S. I9I6, P. I30-68. These articles and others are constantly in my mind (especially Anderson in 7.R.S. I9I3, P. 270). ?i. The Causes and Method o/ the War.-The war has been treated always as an episode in the history of the province Syria, so far as any one has treated it at all. 1 It is true that the war was fought under the command of the governor of Syria, because there alone in the East cxisted an army available for this purpose ; but the opera- tions had to be conducted mainly from the Galatic province2 because the Homanadeis were situated on the northern ridge of Taurus and constituted a danger to the southern part of the latter province; and they were practically inaccessible to an army operating from the sea and from Cilicia or Syria direct. Therein lay part of the gravity of the problem. The combination of effort on the part of two different provinces was necessary, and it was naturally very difficult to secure the hearty co-operation of two governors entirely independent of each other, and both looking to Rome as the seat from which orders should emanate. The success with which evidently this combination was achieved is one of the remarkable feats of imperial administration. Some credit for it must be given to the management of Augustus Caesar himself; and the general in supreme command of the military operations, P. Sulpicius I Chiefly Mommsen, Res Gestae D. ASlg. pp. i6i ff, 2 I call the province sometimes by the Roman Cheesman, J.R.S. I 913, p. 252 f; also the numerous name Galatia, sometimes according to the oldest disputants about Quirinius, governor of Syria, Greek usage Galatic (C.i.G. iii, 400I, A.D. 54, and Luke ii, incidentally mention the war. Acts of Apostles, xvi, 6, xviii, 23, about A.D. 5 I-55). This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Thu, 8 May 2014 23:23:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions STUDIES IN THE ROMAN PROVINCE GALATIA. 23I Quirinius, legate of the province Syria, must have shown also great skill in securing cordial union with the troops and governor of the province Galatia. In the latter province (which was praetorian) there were no legions, but only auxiliaries: the peculiar circum- stances, however, o Galatia, and the danger both on its southern frontier and also on the east and north-east, where it adjoined client kingdoms that were far from being absolutely trustworthy and peaceful, must have required at that period the maintenance of more numerous auxiliary troops than was later the case (see below ? 5). It is therefore necessary to seek for further evidence as to the operations of the war, not from the side of Cilicia and Syria, where nothing has been found and little can be hoped for, but from the side of Galatia. The geographical and general conditions which must have governed the operations are to be studied from the north. Epigraphic monuments bearing more or less directly on the war have been gradually accumulating in research along the Taurus frontier of South Galatia from the year i886 onwards. The conduct of this war therefore rightly forms a part of these ' Galatic Studies.' The war centres in the personality of P. Sulpicius Quirinius, and the chronology turns on the date of his first governorship of Syria.1 That important office was as a rule not the first provincial command held by a consul on vacating office: it was, however, entrusted to Quirinius immediately after his consulship, 2 and the reasons are stated in the following pages. Briefly stated, our view is that the consul- ship was conferred on this novus homo Quirinius for the purpose of qualifying him to govern Syria and its legions, being really the first step in the complicated problem of arranging the many factors of co-operation required in the successful conduct of the war. Chees- man perceived the right date, and all his brief references to the operations were deduced in orderly sequence therefrom. In general, with rcgard to the date of the war, Cheesman expresses exactly the origin of some difficulties that have been found. On p.