William Mitchell Ramsay

“ Copper and quicksilver were mined in the Zizima district, north of Iconium. The scene is generally monotonous; even the mountainous districts rarely glow striking features or boldness of character; where the landscape has beauty it is of a subdued melancholy character. The water-supply is rarely abundant, and agriculture is more or less dependent on an uncertain rainfall. The circumstances of the country are well calculated to impress the inhabitants with a sense of the overwhelming power of nature and of their complete dependence on it. ”

“ In these and other cases the Phrygian character was more or less Hellenized; but wave after wave of religious influence from Asia Minor introduced into Greece the unmodified “barbarian” ritual of Phrygia. The rites spread first among the common people and those engaged in foreign trade. The comic poets satirized them, and Plato and Demostienes inveighed against them; but they continued to spread, with all their fervid enthusiasm, their superstition and their obscene practices, wide among the people, whose religious cravings were not satisfied with the purely external religions of Hellenism. ”

“ Alexander the Great placed Phrygia under the command of Antigonus, who retained it when the empire was broken up. When Antigonus was defeated and slain, at the decisive battle of Ipsus, Phrygia came under the sway of Seleucus. As the Pergamenian kings grew powerful, and at last confined the Gauls in eastern Phrygia, the western half of the country was incorporated in the kingdom of Pergamum. Under the Roman empire Phrygia had no political existence under a separate government, but formed part of the vast province of Asia. ”

“ The Lycaonians appear to have been in early times to a great extent independent of the Persian empire, and were like their neighbours the Isaurians a wild and lawless race of freebooters; but their country was traversed by one of the great natural lines of high road through Asia Minor, from Sardis and Ephesus to the Cilician gates, and a few considerable towns grew up along or near this line. The most important was Iconium, in the most fertile spot in the country, of which it was always regarded by the Romans as the capital, although ethnologically it was Phrygian. ”

“ It is impossible to fix a date for the beginning of the Phrygian kingdom. It appears to have arisen on the ruins of an older civilization, whose existence is revealed to us only by the few monuments which it has left. These monuments, which are found in Lydia, Phrygia, Cappadocia and Lycaonia, as well as in north and central Syria, point to the existence of a homogeneous civilization over those countries; they show a singularly marked style of art, and are frequently inscribed with a peculiar kind of hieroglyphics, engraved boustrophedon ”

“ The ancient road from Pteria to Sardis crossed the upper Sangarius valley, and its course may be traced by the monuments of this early period. Close to its track, on a lofty plateau which overhangs the Phrygian monument inscribed with the name of “Midas the King,” is a great city, inferior indeed to Pteria in extent, but surrounded by rock-sculptures quite as remarkable as those of the Cappadocian city. ”

“ Under the Persian rule perhaps it was more difficult for Greek manners to spread far east; but we need not think that European influence was absolutely unfelt even in Phrygia. The probability is that Alexander found in all the large cities a party favourable to Greek manners and trade. Very little is to be learned from the ancient writers with regard to the state of Phrygia from 585 to 300. The slave-trade flourished: Phrygian slaves were common in the Greek market, and the Phrygian names Midas and Manes were stock-names for slaves. ”

“ Figs cannot be grown in the country, and the ancient references to Phrygian figs are either erroneous or due to a loose use of the term Phrygia. [17] Trees are exceedingly scarce in the country; and the pine-woods on the western tributaries of the Sangarius and the valonia oaks in parts of the Banaz Ova and a few other districts form exceptions. The underground wealth is not known to be great. Iron was worked in the district of Cibyra, and the marble of Synnada, or more correctly of Docimium, was largely used by the Romans. ”

“ According to unvarying Greek tradition the Phrygians were most closely akin to certain tribes of Macedonia and Thrace, and their near relationship to the Hellenic stock is proved by all that is known of their language and art, and is accepted by almost every modern authority. The country named Phrygia in the better known period of history lies inland, separated from the sea by Paphlagonia, Bithynia, Mysia and Lydia. ”

“ Mycenae was the city of the Pelopidae, whom Greek tradition unhesitatingly declares to be Phrygian immigrants. A study of the topography of the Argive plain suggests the conclusion that Mycenae, Midea and Tiryns form a group of cities founded by an immigrant people in opposition to Argos, the natural capital of the plain and the stronghold of the native race. Midea appears to be the city of Midas, and the name is one more link in the chain that binds Mycenae to Phrygia. ”

“ The kingdom of Lydia appears to have become important about the end of the 8th century, and to have completely barred the path between Phrygia and Cyme or Smyrna. Ionian maritime enterprise opened a new way over Sinope. [11]
The downfall of the Phrygian monarchy can be dated with comparative accuracy. Between 680 and 670 the Cimmerians in their destructive progress over Asia Minor overran Phrygia; the king Midas in despair put an end to his own life; and from henceforth the history of Phrygia is a story of slavery, degradation and decay, which contrasts strangely with the earlier legends. ”

“ There are also many rock monuments of the Roman time.
Early Phrygian art stands in close relationship with the art of Cappadocia. The monuments of the type of the Midas tomb are obviously imitated from patterns which were employed in cloth and carpets and probably also in the tilework on the inside of chambers varying slightly according to the material. Such patterns were used in Cappadocia, and the priest in the rock sculpture at Ibriz wears an embroidered robe strikingly similar in style to the pattern on the Midas tomb ”

“ It can be understood only by reference to an imperial centre far in the north. The old trade-route from Cappadocia to Sinope, which had passed out of use centuries before the time of Strabo (pp. 540, 546) , fixes this centre with precision. It must be far enough west to explain why trade tended to the distant Sinope, [4] hardly accessible behind lofty and rugged mountains, and not to Amisus by the short and easy route which was used in the Graeco-Roman period. This road-system, then, points distinctly to a centre in northern Cappadocia near the Halys. ”

“ It forms part of the interior tableland of Asia Minor, and has an elevation of more than 3000 ft. It suffers from want of water, aggravated in some parts by abundance of salt in the soil, so that the northern portion, extending from near Iconium to the salt lake of Tatta and the frontiers of Galatia, is almost wholly barren, only small patches being cultivated near Iconium and the large villages. The soil, where water is supplied, is productive. ”

“ Their mythology so far as we know it, has a melancholy and mystic tone, and their religion partakes of the same character. The two chief deities were Cybele, the Mother, the reproductive and nourishing power of Earth, and Sabazius, the Son, the life of nature, dying and reviving every year (see Great Mother of the Gods) . ”

“ In the readjustment of the Provinciae, 64 B.C., by Pompey after the Mithradatic wars, he gave the northern part of the tetrarchy to Galatia and the eastern part of the eleventh strategia to Cappadocia. The remainder was attached to Cilicia. Its administration and grouping changed often under the Romans. In A.D. 371 Lycaonia was first formed into a separate province. ”

“ Xenophon (Anab. i. 2, 19) includes Iconium on the south-east within the province, whereas Strabo makes Tyriaeum the boundary in this direction. The southern frontier is unknown: the language of Livy (xxxviii. 15) implies that the southern Metropolis (in the Tchul Ova) belonged to Pisidia; but Strabo (p. 629) includes it in Phrygia. Celaenae, beside the later city of Apamea (Dineir) , and the entire valley of the Lycus, were Phrygian. The Maeander above its junction with the Lycus formed for a little way the boundary between Phrygia and Lydia. ”

“ The heraldic type is used on the monuments which appear to be the older, and the geometrical pattern is often employed on the inscribed monuments, which are obviously later than the earliest uninscribed. ”

“ Sometimes a grave has been found hidden behind the carved front; in other cases no grave can be detected, but it is probable that they are all sepulchral. [8] The imitation of woodwork is obvious on several monuments of this kind. The second class is marked by the heraldic type of two animals, usually lions rampant, facing one another, but divided by a pillar or some other device. ”