The number of Roman foundations made in G. Provincia between B.C. 20 and A.D. 50 is an index of the vigour with which the imperial policy was urged on in that region. Augustus founded seven colonies — Germa in North Galatia, and Antioch, Lystra, Parlais, Cremna, Coniama, Olb.asa in South Galatia, besides a system of roads and milestones measured from Antioch. Nothing com- parable in scale to this was done by him in any other part of the East. Under the succeeding emperors, we find several cities remodelled and Romanized in character and name : Pappa- Tiberiopolis, Claudio-Seleuceia, Claiidio - Derbe, Claudio-Ieonium, all in South Galatia.
Owing to the enormous extent of the Province G., the greatest variety of soil and scenery and products are found in it, from the dead - level plains on the Lj'caonian and Cappadocian frontier, with their vast henls of sheep (alike now and in ancient times, Strab. p. 570), to the picturesque mountains and deep glens of Pisidia. On the northern half, see I. ; the southern half was a highly cultivated and rich country in the 1st century, containing many great cities, traversed by the two important roads from east to west — one from Cilicia through Iconium and Antioch to Apameia and the yEgean coast, one from Com- magene through Caesareia Capp. and Laodiceia Katakekaumene to Apameia.* All intercourse by land between inner Asia and the west passed through the great Roman cities of South Galatia. Hence the great stream of intercourse backwards and forwards between Rome and the East, which played such an important part in moulding Chris- tian history, att'ected these cities very strongly and developed them rapidly. Questions of doc- trine and ritual were debated there at an early time, and called for decision. Jewish emissaries from Jerusalem (Gal 1' 4" etc.) would natu- rally pass through them and afl'ect them first. On the other hand, as Rome was the magnet that attracted all intercourse, it is not so easy to see how Jewish emissaries should att'ect Ancyra very early ; and utterly improbable that they should affect the towns in the western parts of Galatia Proper.
That Jews in large numbers dwelt in the cities of Phrygia Galatica is well knoAvn. They were greatly favoured as colonists by the Seleucid kings ; and their presence may be confidently looked for in all Seleucid foundations. Seleucas I. and his successors found them loyal and trusty settlers in their garrison cities, such as Antioch, Apameia, etc , cities which served to maintain the Seleucid power in a foreign land. The Jewish colonists had the right of citizenship, along with various special privileges of a kind which their religious ideas required, as regjirds burial, money grants in place of oil-distribution, etc. ; and their privileges and rights seemed to have been summed np in .a body of city law, called in an Apamean inscription yd^os tu>v 'louSaiwi/ (Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, pp. 538f., 668 f.). Seleucus I. • Oa the roads, we Bistor. Qeogr. pp. 43 f., 49 f. etc
granted them citizenship in all his colonies, im plying that there were .Jews in all, and his suc- cessors carried out the same policy (.Jos. Ant. Jiid. XII. iii. 1, § 119, 125); and Antiochus the Great about 200 B.C. brought 2000 Jewish families from Babylonia to the cities of Phrj'gia and Lydia (id. ib. § 148 fl'.). These Seleucid colonies were almost all planted on the southern side of the plateau, and chiefly on the great lines of com- munication leading ea.st and west ; and the mass of Jewish colonists are to be expected in the cities along these routes. They penetrated farther north in the course of trade ; but their settlement in North Galatia belongs tr a period later tlian their est.ablisliment in the south.
The Jewish colonists undoubtedly exercised great influence on the development of Asia Minor in the Roman period ; but they have left few conspicuous traces of their presence. They adopted Greek and Roman names (at least in public life), and it is doubtful how far tl-.ey retained any knowledge of Hebrew ; hence they are hardly to be distinguished from the ordinary citizens, and the attempt to do so in ch. xv. (also xiv.) of Cities find Bishoprics of Phrygia is very speculative. But they seem to have taken part in public life, and to have exercised great influence through their wealth and ability, as well as through the power of their peculiar and impressively pure religion. Even the marked analogy which existed in point of ceremonial between the Asianic and the Judaic religion increased the influence of the latter (see Galatians II.).
Few Jewish or Jewish-Christian inscriptions can be detected in South-Galatian cities, because the names are usually unrecognizable and few emblems or Jewish formul.Te are employed : in Antioch, Sterrett, Epigr. Journ. No. 138 (cf. Cities and Bish. of Phnjgia, p. 525 n. 1); and at Apol- Ionia, Bull. Corr. Hell. 1893; in Iconium, CIG 40014, 3998, 3995J, 9270; and in Laodiceia Combusta, CIG 3989rf, and Athen. Milth. xiii. pp. 241, 254, 2.55, 258, 260. Among the few known inscrijitions of Lystra and Dei be none have any Jewish appearance, except one with the name Mouisas at a village a little west of Derbe (Ster- rett, Wolfe Expcd. No. 46).
Christian inscriptions are comparatively numer- ous in Galatic Phiygia and Lycaonia, especially in the country that lies north and north-west of Iconium j and, though none are dated, yet style indicates that some must be as early as the 3rd century. Besides the Jewish-Christian ones just mentioned, others certainly or probably Christian (some perhaps Jewish-Christian) and early (omit- ting aJl that are later), are A. E. Mitth. Ocsterr. 1896, p. 36 f., Nos. 20, perhaps 19, 24; Sterrett, Epigr. Journ. 142, Wolfe Exped. 555 (see Expositor, Oct. 1888, p. 263), Journ. of Hell. Stud. 1890, p. 165, No. 23 (cross above omitted by editor), Athen. Mitth. xiii. p. 249 fl'. Nos. 44,49, 53, 54, etc., with others unpublished. As ia pointed out in Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, i. pp. 511, 715f., epigraphic evidence would suggest that this district is one of those where Christianity took the earliest and strongest hold. Little is known about the later history of the Churches of Galatic Phrygia and Lycaonia. It issuggested that St. Mark carried on evangelization in the eastern districts after about 60 A.D. ;* and his name is commoner than any other except Paul and John in the Christian inscriptions of the district (Athen. Mitth. xiii. p. 252 ff^. Nos. 55, .56, 61, 92, 99; St. Paul the Trav. p. 351). Round Iconium, Antioch, and to a less degree Lystra, clings a great body of