DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4679#0157
8. PHO-BA. 131
determine better than in most eases what was the previous condition
of the territory. We cannot doubt that the extraordinarily fertile
little plain which stretches between, and to the west of, the city and
the temple, was originally the property of the hieron and its god.
The Greek kings seem to have in some cases, and probably in general,
taken possession of the splendid estates attached to the great religious
centres of Asia Minor1. In some, probably in many, cases they
used the estates to plant colonies which should be personally attached
to themselves, garrisons to hold the country, and centres of Greek
civilization; and this was the case at Dionysopolis. But the hieron,
though deprived of much of its territory and its influence as a tem-
poral power, continued to be the sacred place of the district, and
exercised great authority over the native population and no small
weight even in Dionysopolis 2. The city was too remote from the
great lines of communication to be a great centre of civilization
and politics; and it has left us hardly a monument of its muni-
cipal life3. Hence it did not greatly affect the natives around; and
the many monuments which they placed in the sacred precinct round
the old native hieron reveal to us a more primitive state of society
than we can trace anywhere else in Asia Minor. The great difficulty
in studying the primitive populations of Anatolia lies in their illiter-
ateness. Education was entirely Greek : all who learned to write
learned Greek, and those who got any education were ashamed of
their barbarian customs and language, and made themselves as Greek
as they could. As a rule, no one cared to perpetuate the memory of
his barbarian beliefs and waj^s, even where they had too strong a hold
on his mind for him to shake them off. But at this hieron we find
a number of memorials, written indeed in Greek, but by persons-who
knew very little Greek, who often could hardly write and were quite
unable to spell, and who had learned their Greek by ear alone. Even
these preferred to use the Greek language rather than to write their
native language in Greek characters'4 ; but they were not brought
1 See Ch. I § 6. nits, JHS 1887 p. 392, has published an
2 The Greek party and the hieroti- interesting fragment, apparently of a
party, no doubt contended for the direc- law for the regulation of vineyards and
tion of affairs in the city, just as they protection of the owners (SeoTrorai to>v
did in Ephesos on an immensely larger dpneKav) against injury. The only
scale, and in every other Greek city other inscriptions of the district not
similarly situated : see E. Curtius's ad- religious or sepulchral are nos. 29 (Hyr-
mirable sketch of Ephesian history in galeis), 56 (Motella), and those of the
Beitrage zur Gesch. u. Topogr. Eleina- city Lounda.
siens p. 1 ff. 4 The latter custom is found only in
3 Hogarth in his paper Apollo-Lerme- the more easterly parts of the country.
K 1
determine better than in most eases what was the previous condition
of the territory. We cannot doubt that the extraordinarily fertile
little plain which stretches between, and to the west of, the city and
the temple, was originally the property of the hieron and its god.
The Greek kings seem to have in some cases, and probably in general,
taken possession of the splendid estates attached to the great religious
centres of Asia Minor1. In some, probably in many, cases they
used the estates to plant colonies which should be personally attached
to themselves, garrisons to hold the country, and centres of Greek
civilization; and this was the case at Dionysopolis. But the hieron,
though deprived of much of its territory and its influence as a tem-
poral power, continued to be the sacred place of the district, and
exercised great authority over the native population and no small
weight even in Dionysopolis 2. The city was too remote from the
great lines of communication to be a great centre of civilization
and politics; and it has left us hardly a monument of its muni-
cipal life3. Hence it did not greatly affect the natives around; and
the many monuments which they placed in the sacred precinct round
the old native hieron reveal to us a more primitive state of society
than we can trace anywhere else in Asia Minor. The great difficulty
in studying the primitive populations of Anatolia lies in their illiter-
ateness. Education was entirely Greek : all who learned to write
learned Greek, and those who got any education were ashamed of
their barbarian customs and language, and made themselves as Greek
as they could. As a rule, no one cared to perpetuate the memory of
his barbarian beliefs and waj^s, even where they had too strong a hold
on his mind for him to shake them off. But at this hieron we find
a number of memorials, written indeed in Greek, but by persons-who
knew very little Greek, who often could hardly write and were quite
unable to spell, and who had learned their Greek by ear alone. Even
these preferred to use the Greek language rather than to write their
native language in Greek characters'4 ; but they were not brought
1 See Ch. I § 6. nits, JHS 1887 p. 392, has published an
2 The Greek party and the hieroti- interesting fragment, apparently of a
party, no doubt contended for the direc- law for the regulation of vineyards and
tion of affairs in the city, just as they protection of the owners (SeoTrorai to>v
did in Ephesos on an immensely larger dpneKav) against injury. The only
scale, and in every other Greek city other inscriptions of the district not
similarly situated : see E. Curtius's ad- religious or sepulchral are nos. 29 (Hyr-
mirable sketch of Ephesian history in galeis), 56 (Motella), and those of the
Beitrage zur Gesch. u. Topogr. Eleina- city Lounda.
siens p. 1 ff. 4 The latter custom is found only in
3 Hogarth in his paper Apollo-Lerme- the more easterly parts of the country.
K 1