In ancient
geography, Pamphylia was the region in the south
of Asia Minor
, between
Lycia and Cilicia,
extending from the Mediterranean
to Mount Taurus
(modern day
Antalya province
, Turkey
). It
was bounded on the north by
Pisidia and was
therefore a country of small extent, having a coast-line of only
about 75 miles with a breadth of about 30 miles. Under the Roman
administration the term Pamphylia was extended so as to include
Pisidia and the whole tract up to the frontiers of
Phrygia and
Lycaonia, and in
this wider sense it is employed by
Ptolemy.
Name
The name /Pamphylia/ means literally 'all tribes' (/pan/ 'all' +
/phylē/ 'tribe'), scil. 'of Dorians', who colonized it. There is a
legendary character (Pamphylos, son of Aigimios) who personified
this.
Origins of the Pamphylians
There can
be little doubt that the Pamphylians and Pisidians were the same
people, though the former had received colonies from Greece
and other
lands, and from this cause, combined with the greater fertility of
their territory, had become more civilized than their neighbours in
the interior. But the distinction between the two seems to
have been established at an early period.
Herodotus, who does not mention the Pisidians,
enumerates the Pamphylians among the nations of Asia Minor, while
Ephorus mentions them both, correctly
including the one among the nations on the coast, the other among
those of the interior. The early Pamphylians, like the Lycians, had
an alphabet of their own, partly Greek, partly "Asianic," which a
few inscriptions on marble and coins preserve. The legend related
by Herodotus and Strabo, which ascribed the origin of the
Pamphylians to a colony led into their country by
Amphilochus and
Calchas after the
Trojan
War, is merely a characteristic myth. Probably the Pamphylians
were of Asiatic origin and mixed ethnicity.
History
A map showing Pamphylia's location
within the Roman Empire
Photo of a 15th Century map showing
Pamphylia.
The region of Pamphylia first enters history in
Hittite documents.
In a treaty between the Hittite Great King
Tudhaliya IV and his vassal, the king
of Tarhuntassa, we read of the city
"Parha" (Perge
), and the
"Kastaraya River" (Classical Kestros River, Turkish Aksu
Çayı).
The first historical mention of "Pamphylians" is among the group of
nations subdued by the
Mermnad kings
of
Lydia; they afterwards passed in succession
under the dominion of the
Persian
and
Hellenistic monarchs. After the
defeat of
Antiochus III in
190 BC they were included among the provinces
annexed by the Romans to the dominions of
Eumenes of Pergamum; but somewhat later
they joined with the Pisidians and Cilicians in piratical ravages,
and Side became the chief centre and slave mart of these
freebooters. Pamphylia was for a short time included in the
dominions of
Amyntas, king of
Galatia, but after his death lapsed into a district
of a Roman province. The Pamphilians became largely hellenized in
Roman times, and have left magnificent
memorials of their civilization at Perga, Aspendos and Side.
As of 1911
the district was largely peopled with recent settlers from Greece,
Crete and the Balkans, a situation which changed considerably as a
result of the disruptions attendant on the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the war between Greece and
Turkey in the
1920s.
List of Pamphylians
- Diodorus of Aspendos
Pythagorean philosopher (4th c.BC)
- Apollonius of Perga
astronomer, mathematician (ca. 262 BC–ca. 190 BC)
- Artemidorus of Perga proxenos in Oropos
(ca. 240-180
BC)
- Aetos (son of Apollonius) from Aspendos ,Ptolemaic
commander,founder of Arsinoe (~238
BC)
- Mnaseas (son of Artemon) from Side
(sculptor)
end 3rd BC
- Orestas (son of Erymneus) from Aspendos proxenos in Dreros (Crete)
(end 3rd-beg. 2nd BC)
- Thymilus of Aspendos
, stadion race Olympics 176
BC
- Apollonios (son of Koiranos) proxenos in Lappa
(Crete)(1st half 2nd BC)
- Asclepiades (son of Myron) from Perga
physician honoured by the demos of Seleucia
- Menodora (daughter of Megacles) from Sillyon magistrate and benefactor (ca.2nd c.
AD)
- Apollonius of Aspendos poet (2nd/early 3rd c. AD)
- Saint Matrona of Perge
(late 5th, early 6th c.AD)
Archaeological sites
See also
Notes
- George Grote : A History of Greece. p. 286; Irad
Malkin : Myth and Territory in the Spartan Mediterranean.
Cambridge U Pr, 2003. p. 41.
- [1][2]
- Epigr. tou Oropou 148
- SEG 39:1426 - The Hellenistic Monarchies: Selected Papers
Page 264 By Christian Habicht ISBN
0472111094
- IK Side I 1
- BCH 1936:280,1
- SEG 23:573
- Epigr.Anat. 11:104,5
- Images of Women in Antiquity Page 223 By Averil Cameron, Amélie Kuhrt ISBN
0415090954
- IG VII 1773 - The Context of Ancient Drama Page 192 By Eric Csapo, William J. Slater ISBN
0472082752
External links
, a
Roman bridge which was reconstructed by
the Seljuks and follows a zigzag course over the river
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