DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4679#0058
1. FOUNDATION, PEOPLE, RELIGION. 33
contained a considerable proportion of Greek or Macedonian colonists,
took some title showing their pride in. their origin. None such is
found at Laodiceia; and evidence deduced from the religion of the
city suggests that a certain proportion of the population must have
been Syrian. The chief deity was called by the Greek name Zeus ;
for Greek certainly was the state-language of all Seleucid colonies
in Asia Minor. This deity was the old local god, for the god who
had power in the country must as a matter of course be worshipped
by the new settlers (II Kings XVII 26); and the city was assumed
to have been founded by his orders : the native Phrygian formula
expressing this would be ' at the direction of the god,' but in the
hellenized version of the foundation-legend the phrase is ' by reve-
lation from Zeus given through Hermes V But this hellenized form
of a native Phiygian deity, the Zeus of Laodiceia (Zez>? AaoSiK-qvos),
appears also on coins of the city with the title Aseis. LongpeYier has
explained Aseis as a Semitic term, meaning poiverful2; and M. Wad-
dington regards it as corresponding to the dedicatory formula 0e<3
v^riaTCd, which occurs at Laodiceia (inscr. 14)3. The Greek epithet
came into use in many parts of Asia Minor under the Diadochi, when
an old Greek adjective, which had been used (perhaps in a simpler,
naturalistic sense) at least as early as Pindar and Aeschylus, was utilized
to express an Oriental idea. The Syrian Aseis marks the Syrian
element in the colonization of Laodiceia 4. It remained in use as late
as the middle of the second century after Christ5.
1 See Stephanus, quoted in first note, p. 159; Stratonikaia BCH 1881 p. 1S2;
and § 7 a. The common native formula Oinoanda CIG 4380 n2, add.; Cyzicos
is Kara fWny>> roi 8eov. 3669; Thrace (Bizya) Eph. Ep. II256. In
2 Arabic aziz, Aramaic Aziza : the Pisidia the term is Zeus Mfyioror Ch. IX.
Ares of Edessa had the title a(iCos, as " We must note that Friedlander, in
Lightfoot (Colossians p. 9) says quoting Zft. f. Num. II p. 108 f, prefers to
Julian orut. IV, Cureton Spic. Syr. understand Zeus AC€IC as equivalent
p. So; Lagarde Gesamm. Abhandl. p. to Zeus AY A IOC at Sardis (and also
16; CIGr 9893. See M. Waddington at the neighbouring city of Kidramos
Voyage Numism. p. 26. With the use Ch. V, App. I), comparing the Phyle
of the Syrian title, compare the name \\<nas at Sardis Herod. IV 45 and the
Anaitis in the Katakekaumene : it was "Acrior \eiixav near Nysa in M. Messogis
introduced by the oriental settlers Strab. p. 650. This is quite possible;
planted there by Cyrus ; they identified but the peculiar form of the word Aseis
t hegoddess Artemis-Leto of the district seems not analogous to Phrygian names,
with their own Anaitis. Addenda. but like a foreign (Semitic) epithet
3 Zeus Hypsistos or fta v^/la-roi at assimilated to these names from the
Miletos Ath. Mitth. 1893 p. 267; Aizanoi common tendency to give to foreign
CIG- 3842 d, add.; Palmyra 4500, 4502, names a form that had some meanino-
4503; Mylasa 2693 c, LW416; Iasos or familiarity.
BCH 18S4 p. 456; Lagina BCH 1887 6 It is known that natives of Syria
VOL. 1. p
contained a considerable proportion of Greek or Macedonian colonists,
took some title showing their pride in. their origin. None such is
found at Laodiceia; and evidence deduced from the religion of the
city suggests that a certain proportion of the population must have
been Syrian. The chief deity was called by the Greek name Zeus ;
for Greek certainly was the state-language of all Seleucid colonies
in Asia Minor. This deity was the old local god, for the god who
had power in the country must as a matter of course be worshipped
by the new settlers (II Kings XVII 26); and the city was assumed
to have been founded by his orders : the native Phrygian formula
expressing this would be ' at the direction of the god,' but in the
hellenized version of the foundation-legend the phrase is ' by reve-
lation from Zeus given through Hermes V But this hellenized form
of a native Phiygian deity, the Zeus of Laodiceia (Zez>? AaoSiK-qvos),
appears also on coins of the city with the title Aseis. LongpeYier has
explained Aseis as a Semitic term, meaning poiverful2; and M. Wad-
dington regards it as corresponding to the dedicatory formula 0e<3
v^riaTCd, which occurs at Laodiceia (inscr. 14)3. The Greek epithet
came into use in many parts of Asia Minor under the Diadochi, when
an old Greek adjective, which had been used (perhaps in a simpler,
naturalistic sense) at least as early as Pindar and Aeschylus, was utilized
to express an Oriental idea. The Syrian Aseis marks the Syrian
element in the colonization of Laodiceia 4. It remained in use as late
as the middle of the second century after Christ5.
1 See Stephanus, quoted in first note, p. 159; Stratonikaia BCH 1881 p. 1S2;
and § 7 a. The common native formula Oinoanda CIG 4380 n2, add.; Cyzicos
is Kara fWny>> roi 8eov. 3669; Thrace (Bizya) Eph. Ep. II256. In
2 Arabic aziz, Aramaic Aziza : the Pisidia the term is Zeus Mfyioror Ch. IX.
Ares of Edessa had the title a(iCos, as " We must note that Friedlander, in
Lightfoot (Colossians p. 9) says quoting Zft. f. Num. II p. 108 f, prefers to
Julian orut. IV, Cureton Spic. Syr. understand Zeus AC€IC as equivalent
p. So; Lagarde Gesamm. Abhandl. p. to Zeus AY A IOC at Sardis (and also
16; CIGr 9893. See M. Waddington at the neighbouring city of Kidramos
Voyage Numism. p. 26. With the use Ch. V, App. I), comparing the Phyle
of the Syrian title, compare the name \\<nas at Sardis Herod. IV 45 and the
Anaitis in the Katakekaumene : it was "Acrior \eiixav near Nysa in M. Messogis
introduced by the oriental settlers Strab. p. 650. This is quite possible;
planted there by Cyrus ; they identified but the peculiar form of the word Aseis
t hegoddess Artemis-Leto of the district seems not analogous to Phrygian names,
with their own Anaitis. Addenda. but like a foreign (Semitic) epithet
3 Zeus Hypsistos or fta v^/la-roi at assimilated to these names from the
Miletos Ath. Mitth. 1893 p. 267; Aizanoi common tendency to give to foreign
CIG- 3842 d, add.; Palmyra 4500, 4502, names a form that had some meanino-
4503; Mylasa 2693 c, LW416; Iasos or familiarity.
BCH 18S4 p. 456; Lagina BCH 1887 6 It is known that natives of Syria
VOL. 1. p