DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4679#0037
12 I. THE LYCOS VALLEY.
between its separate parts. The Lycos valley was a centre of com-
munication and a knot where many roads met and parted '; and both
Laodiceia and at a later date also Hierapolis ranked as metropolitan
sees, partly on account of their apostolic origin, partly from their social
and religious importance.
The interest of history in this period centres in the transforming
and unifying process which the imperial policy carried out in the east.
The Greek civilization had hitherto failed to touch the Phrygian
people; it was almost confined to its own special settlements, the
garrison-cities of the kings. The Koman system was not opposed to
the Greek ; it took into itself the language and the manners of Greece,
and impressed these far more thoroughly on the native Anatolian
population than the Greek governments had been able to do. Little
or no attempt was made to naturalize the Latin language ; but Greek
was encouraged. Latin was used for a time in Augustus's Pisidian
colonies : but it soon died out in most of them. A feeble attempt was
made to keep it up in official documents of the colonies, but the
errors in the Latin legends even on coins show that it was only
a curiosity, not a spoken tongue, in most of them.
There is no evidence to prove wThen Greek became the sole language
of the Lycos valley ; but the probability is that the native languages2
died out completely in the reign of Augustus, if not earlier. Strabo's
statement, p. 631, that Lydian was completely forgotten in Lydia, but
still spoken at Cibyra, forms an approximate standard for the Lycos
valley.
The main aim of Roman policy was to foster the feeling of unity
and the sense of patriotism. It discouraged the old tribal and national
divisions; but it made the serious error of arranging its political
divisions, both provinces and subdivisions of provinces:l, in defiance
of the lines of national demarcation. For a time it partially succeeded
in imposing these new divisions ; the people of all the parts of the
province Asia sometimes accepted the name Asians, those of the
1 At Laodiceia the Eastern Highway out as an administrative centre ; and it
meets four other roads: (1) N.W., the was the meeting-place of the Cibyratic
important road from Pergamos, Thya- conventua from an early time,
tira, Sardis, Philadelpheia, &c.; (2) S.E., 2 Probably Phrygian, Lydian, and
continuous with the last is an equally Carianwere all once spoken indifferent
important road from Pamphylia, Pisidia, parts of the valley, as we have seen.
Cibyra, &c.; (3) N.E., the road from 3 Strabo remarks on the arbitrary
Dorylaion, the Pentapolis, Eumeneia, character of the conventua p. 629. The
and Lounda; (4) N., the road from boundaries of both provinces Asia
Dionysopolis, Mossyna. and Motella and Galatia were purely accidental in
(Ch. IV). Laodiceia was thus marked origin.
between its separate parts. The Lycos valley was a centre of com-
munication and a knot where many roads met and parted '; and both
Laodiceia and at a later date also Hierapolis ranked as metropolitan
sees, partly on account of their apostolic origin, partly from their social
and religious importance.
The interest of history in this period centres in the transforming
and unifying process which the imperial policy carried out in the east.
The Greek civilization had hitherto failed to touch the Phrygian
people; it was almost confined to its own special settlements, the
garrison-cities of the kings. The Koman system was not opposed to
the Greek ; it took into itself the language and the manners of Greece,
and impressed these far more thoroughly on the native Anatolian
population than the Greek governments had been able to do. Little
or no attempt was made to naturalize the Latin language ; but Greek
was encouraged. Latin was used for a time in Augustus's Pisidian
colonies : but it soon died out in most of them. A feeble attempt was
made to keep it up in official documents of the colonies, but the
errors in the Latin legends even on coins show that it was only
a curiosity, not a spoken tongue, in most of them.
There is no evidence to prove wThen Greek became the sole language
of the Lycos valley ; but the probability is that the native languages2
died out completely in the reign of Augustus, if not earlier. Strabo's
statement, p. 631, that Lydian was completely forgotten in Lydia, but
still spoken at Cibyra, forms an approximate standard for the Lycos
valley.
The main aim of Roman policy was to foster the feeling of unity
and the sense of patriotism. It discouraged the old tribal and national
divisions; but it made the serious error of arranging its political
divisions, both provinces and subdivisions of provinces:l, in defiance
of the lines of national demarcation. For a time it partially succeeded
in imposing these new divisions ; the people of all the parts of the
province Asia sometimes accepted the name Asians, those of the
1 At Laodiceia the Eastern Highway out as an administrative centre ; and it
meets four other roads: (1) N.W., the was the meeting-place of the Cibyratic
important road from Pergamos, Thya- conventua from an early time,
tira, Sardis, Philadelpheia, &c.; (2) S.E., 2 Probably Phrygian, Lydian, and
continuous with the last is an equally Carianwere all once spoken indifferent
important road from Pamphylia, Pisidia, parts of the valley, as we have seen.
Cibyra, &c.; (3) N.E., the road from 3 Strabo remarks on the arbitrary
Dorylaion, the Pentapolis, Eumeneia, character of the conventua p. 629. The
and Lounda; (4) N., the road from boundaries of both provinces Asia
Dionysopolis, Mossyna. and Motella and Galatia were purely accidental in
(Ch. IV). Laodiceia was thus marked origin.