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Isauria in Pliny

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Ronald Syme
Ronald Syme
Affiliation:
Wolfson College, Oxford
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Extract

I. The Isaurians escaped notice for long centuries. They first come to mention in an episode of the year 322 B.C. when Perdiccas after subduing Cappadocia captured their city, described as strong and populous, of ancient opulence. Isaurians next emerge in the campaign that earned a triumphal cognomen for P. Servilius Vatia (cos. 79), the proconsul of Cilicia.

As the name of a region, Isauria was destined to acquire a wide extension. Early in the reign of Antoninus Pius it was applied to Cilicia Tracheia, as one of the three portions (with Pedias and Lycaonia) in the enlarged Cilician province. Before that, sundry problems infest the definition of Isauria. One of them that continues to perplex is conveyed by a passage in Pliny. After Cilicia and before proceeding to deal in summary fashion with Pisidae and Lycaonia, he inserts remarks about the “gens Isaurica” and the adjacent people called Homanades.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 36 , December 1986 , pp. 159 - 164
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1986

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References

1 Diodorus XVIII.22. A full and vivid narration.

2 The tripartite province is specified on the inscriptions of two governors, viz. Charax, Claudius (Ann. Ép. 1961Google Scholar, no. 320: Pergamum); Regillus, Etrilius (ILS 8827Google Scholar: Zengibar Kalesi).

3 The article “Isauria” in RE IX, 2056Google Scholar is very brief, while “Isauri” is absent.

4 Strabo XII p. 569. For the date, see below.

5 Dio LV.28.3: long ignored by those who wrote about the Homonadensian War. The general was M. Plautius Silvanus (cos. 2 B.C.), as may be deduced from Velleius II. 112.4; SEG VI.646Google Scholar (Attaleia).

6 For their country, Ramsay, W. M., JRS VII (1917), 247 ff.Google Scholar Further, Levick, B., Roman Colonies in Southern Asia Minor (1967), 203 ff.Google Scholar; Hall, A. S., AS XXI (1971), 156 ff.Google Scholar (not wholly concordant).

7 Pliny, , NH V.35 ff.Google Scholar

8 Swoboda, H. et al. , Denkmäler aus Lykaonien, Pamphylien und Isaurien (Brünn, 1935)Google Scholar.

9 For a full and convenient discussion of the two places (concerning also Frontinus, Strat. III.7.1,), see Magie, D., Roman Rule in Asia Minor (1950), 1170 fGoogle Scholar.

10 Ann. Ep. 1977, no. 816, cf. Hall, A. S. (the discoverer), Akten des VI. Int. Kongresses für Gr. u. Lat. Epigraphik München 1972 (1973), 568 ff.Google Scholar

11 Briefly approved by Robert, L., Bull. ép. 1974Google Scholar, no. 603. Identity was denied by the editors of AE 1977, 816Google Scholar. By the way, the new discovery redeems Meineke's text in Strabo XII p. 568.

12 “Presumably Amyntas”. Thus Jones, A. H. M., The Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces (1937, ed. 2 1971), 391Google Scholar.

13 Jones, o.c. 439 (from the present writer).

14 Head, , Hist. Num.2 374Google Scholar, cf. Ruge, W., RE VIA, 1553 f.Google Scholar (noting late ecclesiastical sources). Titiopolis is put north of Anemurium in the region Cetis (or Cietis) by Calder, and Bean, on their Classical Map of Asia Minor (1957)Google Scholar. Cf. Jones, o.c. 195; 204.

15 For the location of Germanicopolis, Jones, o.c. 440; Magie, o.c. 1409.

16 PIR2 J 472Google Scholar.

17 Dio LX.8.4; Josephus, , AJ XX. 145 f.Google Scholar

18 Thus Jones, o.c. 208; with a query, PIR2 J 472Google Scholar. But Olba was clearly held by Polemon, M. Antonius, whom coins attest (PIR2 A 864)Google Scholar. One of them bears the name and head of Galba, cf. Magie, o.c. 1407. This man was married to Julia Mamaea (of Emesa), cf. Sullivan, R. D., ANRW. II.7 (1980), 930Google Scholar.

19 Bean, and Mitford, , Journeys in Rough Cilicia 1964–1968, Wiener Ak., Denkschr. CII (1970), 95Google Scholar, no. 71. On which see the valuable remarks of Gray, E. W. in his review, CR XXII (1972), 400Google Scholar.

20 Cicero, , Ad fam. XIII.73Google Scholar (to the proconsul Q. Marcius Philippus).

21 Hunter, L. W., JRS III (1913), 89Google Scholar.

22 Not by the direct route south-eastwards from Iconium. In fact Cicero, decided to go southwards “per Lycaoniam et per Isauros” (Ad fam. XV.2.1)Google Scholar.

For roads in the region see the essential paper of French, D., “The Site of Dalisandus,” Epigr. Anatol. 4 (1984), 85 ff.Google Scholar (with map, ib. 96). He puts Dalisandus at Belören, about halfway between Isaura Nova and Ilistra, on the road leading from Isaura to Laranda.

23 Strabo XII p. 569. For Antipater, sometimes neglected, see Anatolian Studies … Buckler (1938), 309 ff.Google Scholar = Roman Papers (1979), 128 ff.Google Scholar An important document (IGR III 1694Google Scholar: ?Temenothyrae) is there adduced and interpreted.

24 PIR2 A 24Google Scholar.

25 For the full detail, Magie, o.c. 1354 f.

26 Jones, o.c. 440.

27 Thus Ruge, W., RE XVII, 630Google Scholar. Regarded with favour by Mitford, T. B., ANRW II.7 (1980), 1246Google Scholar.

28 Jones, o.c. 440: “clearly”. Likewise on the Classical Map of Calder and Bean (1957).

29 Bowie, E. L., JRS LX (1970), 205Google Scholar, reviewing Levick, B., Roman Colonies in Southern Asia Minor (1967)Google Scholar; Mitchell, S., Historia XXVIII (1979), 426 ff.Google Scholar (a full statement). The identity was declared long ago by Kubitschek.

30 Ptolemy V.8.6.

31 Yet absent from RE and from the book of Jones, A. H. M.. Discussing NH V.94Google Scholar, Ramsay, W. M. produced an implausible conjecture (JRS VII (1917), 278Google Scholar).

32 Jones, o.c. 413. Also “Comamenses” for “Comenses”. That is, the colony Comama in Pisidia.

33 Jones, o.c. 134.

34 Ramsay, W. M., JRS VII (1917), 229 ff.Google Scholar

35 Namely the large gap in Cassius Dio between the years 6 and 2. Dio elsewhere preserves sundry unrecorded wars (like that against the Isauri in A.D. 6). Further, only three legions in Syria in the spring of 4 (Josephus, , BJ II. 67Google Scholar; AJ XVII.286Google Scholar). The case was argued in Klio XXVII (1934), 137 f.Google Scholar And see now B. Levick, o.c. 203 ff. (a clear and complete survey of all problems).

36 Bowie, E. L., JRS LX (1970), 204 ff.Google Scholar