Religion in Hellenistic and Roman
Asia Minor
5774IARC
Research Seminar 2012-2013
1st semester, blocks 1-2
Instructor: dr F.G. Naerebout
f.g.naerebout@hum.leidenuniv.nl
www.ancient-history-online.info
Schedule
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13/9 Introduction I
20/9 Introduction II Assignment: General orientation: library, internet
27/9 Inventory Assignment: Draw up a list of possible subjects
4/10 NO CLASS
11/10 short presentations Assignment: Choose a subject & formulate a research question
18/10 short presentations Assignment: Choose a subject & formulate a research question
25/10 NO CLASS
1/11 Exemplary study
8/11 NO CLASS
15/11 short presentations Assignment: Select and discuss source
22/11 short presentations Assignment: Select and discuss source
29/11short presentations Assignment: Formulate your preliminary conclusions
6/12 short presentations Assignment: Formulate your preliminary conclusions
13/12 general discussion; conclusion
Topography
• L. Naim, Archaeological map of Western Anatolia, s.l.
s.a.
• W.M. Calder & G.E. Bean, A classical map of Asia
Minor, London 1958
• W.M. Ramsay, The historical geography of Asia
Minor, London 1890
• Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World
• NP Suppl 3: Historischer Atlas der antiken Welt
• http://pleiades.stoa.org/
• Downloadable maps from Ramsay, op.cit.:
http://www.elibron.com/maps
Indicated in green: growing power of Rome in Asia Minor in 2nd/1st c BC
Chronology
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386 Anatolia under Persian rule again by King's Peace
363 The Satraps' Revolt
337 Kingdom of Pontus founded
334 Alexander crosses Dardanelles into Asia Minor. Persians defeated at the Granikos. Ionian cities liberated
334 Alexander conquers Lycia, Pamphylia and Pisidia
333 Alexander's conquests in Cilicia, decisive defeat of Persians at the battle of Issos
323 Alexander the Great dies at Babylon
323 The Temple of Artemis in Efesos completed after 125 years of construction
318 Antigonos takes over Asia Minor
308 Seleukos proclaimed king, the other diadochoi follow suit
301 Antigonos defeated and killed at the battle of Ipsos. Lusimachos rules Anatolia
300 Seleucid dynasty gains control in Syria. Antioch on the Orontes founded
295 Seleucids occupy Cilicia. Lusimachos conquers Ionia
281 Seleukos I defeats Lusimachos at the battle of Koroupedion. Lusimachos dies on the battlefield
280 Seleukos I murdered by Ptolemaios Keraunos at Lusimacheia. Bithynian, Cappadocian and Armenian kingdoms declare
independence from Seleucid kingdom
278 Gauls invade Anatolia and settle in Central Anatolia
277 Antigonos Gonatas defeats the Celts at Lusimacheia
275 Gauls defeated by Seleucid king Antiochos I
263 – 241 Rise of Pergamon under the Attalid dynasty
230 Rome and Pergamon become allies. Gauls crushed by Pergamon
189 Antiochos III defeated by Romans at Magnesia
188 Treaty of Apameia puts an end to Seleucid rule in Anatolia
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133 Attalus III, the last king of Pergamon, dies and leaves his kingdom to Rome
130 Roman province of Asia established. Aristonikos defeated
120-63 Reign of Mithridates VI of Pontos
101 Cilicia becomes a Roman province
88 Mithridates has Roman citizens and Italians massacred
84 Lycia incorporated into the province of Asia
83 End of the Seleucid kingdom. The Mediterranean coast becomes a centre of piracy
81 Pontos annexed by Rome
80 The Commagene kingdom founded
78 Pompeius campaigns against pirates in Pamphylia, Cilicia and Isauria
74 Nicomedes IV, the king of Bithynia, dies and leaves his kingdom to Rome
67 Cilicia becomes a Roman province
66 Mithridates defeated by the Romans. He kills himself. Rome controls much of Anatolia
53 Crassus defeated by the Parthians at Harran
41 Anthony and Cleopatra meet at Tarsos
31 Cleopatra and Antony defeated by Octavian at the battle of Actium
29 Efesos replaces Pergamon as capital of the Roman Province of Asia
40 – 56 St. Paul's missionary journeys
72 The Roman empire annexes the Commagene kingdom
117 Trajan dies at Selinos, Cilicia
124 Hadrian visits Asia Minor
129 Galen, the famous physician, born at Pergamon
165 Plague in Asia Minor
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229 – 260 Romans and Sassanids fight a series of wars over eastern Anatolia
260 Emperor Valerian is defeated and captured by the Sassanids at Edessa. The Persians take control of
territories as far west as Kaisarea in Cappadocia
301 Armenia converts to Christianity
303 Christians are severely persecuted at Nikomedia
312 Constantine
324 Constantinople becomes the capital of the Roman empire
325 First of Ecumenical council meets at Nikaia (Nicaea)
329 – 379 St. Basil of Cappadocia founds monasteries in Anatolia
381 Second council meeting at Constantinople
392 Christianity made state religion by Theodosius
395 Roman Empire divided in Eastern and Western sections
a case study:
Sagalassos
Sagalassos: chronology
• 9th – early 7th century BC: part of the Phrygian kingdom
• Early 7th – 546 BC: part of the Lydian kingdom
• 546 BC – 334 BC: under Persian rule; Greek influences spread from the Pamphylian
coastal cities inland, and Sagalassos becomes an urban site of the polis type
• 334 BC: Alexander beleagers Sagalassos
• Hellenistic period: rapid Hellenisation
• 321-301 BC: part of the kingdom of Antigonos Monopthalmos
• 301-281 BC: perhaps part of the kingdom of Lusimachos of Thrace
• 281-189 BC: part of the kingdom of the Seleucids of Syria
• 189-133 BC: part of the kingdom of the Attalids of Pergamon
• 129 BC: after the Attalids bequeath their kingdom to Rome, most of Pisidia, including
Sagalassos, becomes part of the Roman province of Asia
• Late 2nd century BC: period of prosperity: building of the bouleuterion
• 89-63 BC: Mithridatic wars; roughly at the same period: interruption of sea trade by
piracy, publicani who bled the province dry
• 39- 25 BC: stability under the client king Amuntas of Galatia; urban expansion
beyond the Hellenistic city walls. Construction of the late Hellenistic Doric fountain
house, new residential quarters, and possibly of the Doric temple to the north-west of
the upper agora
• 25 BC: again incorporated into the Roman Empire (into the provinces of Asia, Galatia,
Lycia and Pamphylia, and under Diocletian into Pisidia). Construction of the via
Sebaste across Sagalassian territory
• Imperial period: Sagalassos flourishes as an agricultural and pottery centre; it
becomes the metropolis of Pisidia and in the course of the first three centuries AD
the urban area expands, the city centre is refurbished with public monuments.
Introduction of the Imperial cult and the connected Klareian games
• AD 117-138: the reign of Hadrian: unprecedented building activity and prosperity,
which continues into the early 3rd century. Before the end of the 2nd century,
completion of the largest monuments: the baths, the theatre, a shrine for the divine
Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, serving the imperial cult of the koinon of Pisidia
• 4th century AD: after a period of standstill, resumption of building activities, mainly
repairs and embellishments, as of the Neon Library and the baths
• Late 4th – early 5th century AD: signs of internal and external stress. Internal stress
may have been provoked by the Christianisation of large parts of the population and
the emergence of a restricted, powerful elite, while external stress was caused by
the growing instability in the region
• 4th century AD: Sagalassos becomes a bishopric (it was represented at the first
council of Constantinople in AD 381)
• Ca 400 AD: destruction of the Neon Library and dismantling of the gymnasium;
revolts of Ostrogothic mercenaries and raids of the Isaurians: building of a new
city wall
• Early 5th century AD: construction of a basilical church in the courtyard of the
former bouleuterion
• Middle of the 5th century AD: the number of smaller settlements in the
countryside decreases in favour of larger and better protected villages at higher
altitudes
• Ca 500 AD: a heavy earthquake. After a phase of restoration the urban fabric
starts to change: encroachment upon former public space
• 6th century AD: an oligarchic group of clerics and aristocrats (the proteuontes)
replace elected municipal magistrates and council
• 541/542 AD: plague wipes out nearly half of the population of Asia Minor
• Middle of the 6th century AD: disintegration of the economic system because of
plague, warfare and bad harvests; a ruralisation of the town; in the territory the
larger well defended villages were replaced by small hamlets and nomadic camps
• Ca 590 AD: an earthquake almost completely levels the town (which by then was
already largely abandoned)
Religious life at Sagalassos
• Marc Waelkens, ‘Sagalassos. Religious life in a
Pisidian town during the Hellenistic and Early
Imperial period’, in: C. Bonnet & A. Motte (edd), Les
syncrétismes religieux dans le monde méditerranéen
antique (Brussels/Rome 1999) 191-226
 Mainly an evolutionary quest, in order to find the
indigenous, Anatolian roots of Pisidian religion of the
Hellenistic and Roman periods.
 My question: Is this the most fruitful (and interesting) way
to study the rich religious phenomena of Asia Minor?
Some basic bibliography
• Journals:
– Anatolian Studies, 1950– Epigraphica Anatolica, 1978– Istanbuler Mittelungen/Forschungen, 1933-
• Epigraphic collections
– Inschriften griechischer Städte aus Kleinasien
– Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua
– Tituli Asiae Minoris
– [Collected works of Louis Robert]
• General histories
– Marek, Christian & Peter Frei, Geschichte
Kleinasiens in der Antike, München 2010
– Magie, D., Roman rule in Asia Minor to the end of
the third century after Christ, Princeton 1950
– Mitchell, Stephen, Anatolia. Land, men, and gods
in Asia Minor. Vol 1: the Celts and the impact of
Roman rule. Vol 2: the rise of the Church, Oxford
1993
– Sartre, Maurice, L’Asie Mineure et l’Anatolie
d’Alexandre à Dioclétien, Paris 1995
– Schuler, Chr., Ländliche Siedlungen und
Gemeinden im hellenistischen und römischen
Kleinasien, München 1998 Beck (Vestigia 50)
• Religion
– De Hoz, Maria Paz, Die lydischen Kulte im Lichte
der griechischen Inschriften, Bonn 1999 Habelt
(Asia Minor Studien 36)
– Laumonier, Alfred, Les cultes indigènes en Carie,
Paris 1958
– Naerebout, F.G., Griekse religie in Griekse
inscripties? De vraag naar de eigenheid van goden
en culten in Klein-Azië, Hermeneus 84 (2012) 98104
– Nollé, Johannes, Kleinaziatische Losorakel,
München 2007
– Parke, H.W., The oracles of Apollo in Asia Minor,
Beckenham 1985
– Price, S.R.F., Rituals and power. The Roman
imperial cult in Asia Minor (1984), Cambridge
1987
– Petzl, Georg, Die Beichtinschriften
Westkleinasiens, 1994 (Epigraphica Anatolica 22)
– Schwertheim, Elmar & Engelbert Winter (edd),
Religion und Region. Götter und Kulte aus dem
östlichen Mittelmeerraum, Bonn 2003 Habelt
(Asia Minor Studien 45)
– Sokolowski, F., Lois sacrées de l'Asie Mineure,
Paris 1955
– Strubbe, Johan H.M., Arai epitumbioi.
Imprecations against desecrators of the grave in
the Greek epitaphs of Asia Minor. A catalogue,
1997 (IGSK 52)
– Witulski, Thomas, Kaiserkult in Kleinasien,
Göttingen 2007
– Wörrle, Manfred, Stadt und Fest in kaiserzeitlichen
Kleinasien. Studien zu einer agonistischen Stiftung
aus Oinoanda, München 1988
– ANRW II 18.3 (1990)
– [Publications on individual cities: Pergamon,
Ephesos, Priene, Didyma, Aphrodisias, etc]