Iconium, like most of Asia Minor, was several times overrun by the Saracens, but its fate is hardly alluded to by historians. It shared in the recovered prosperity of the reviving Byzantine empire, till it was overrun by the Seljuk Turks in 1070, and passed by treaty into their hands, prob- ably in 1072. Though John and Manuel Comnenus approached Iconium more than once (Nicet. Chon.
Ep. 42, 72 ; Cinnam. p. 42), and Frederick Bar- arossa occupied it in 1190, it remained a Turkish city permanently (the Christian population being permitted to reside in the large village Tsille, 6 mUes N.). Konia was the capital of the Seljuk enipire, and is still capital of a vUayet.
Being an important commercial city situated on one of the great routes between Cilicia and the
* Van Oeldcr, de GallU in Gt. p. 277.
_t Appian, B.C. v. 76 ; Strab. p. 688. Being thus summed up with Cilicia, it is occasionally mentioned as a Cilician city, Pliny, jVH22(93), Jerome, Lib. Nom. Loc. ex Actis, vol. iii. p. 1302 ; there is no 'reason to infer that a distinct Cilician Iconium ever existed.
J Some writers erroneously regard the bestowal of the title Olaudiconium as implying that it was made a colony by Claudius.
§ Ptolemy does not here mention Iconium (which, m v. vi. Id, he puts in Cappadocia hi,- a pure blunder); but he gives Lvstra, Antioch, and Apollonia in Galatia, and d fortiori Iconium must have been in that pro\nnce. Firmilian, i.e., mentions Galatia and (the triple Province) Cilicia as most closely connected with Iconium.
west, Iconium was naturally a centre for Jewish settlers, Ac 14' ; but the only memorials of the coU>ny are CIG 9270, and perliaps 3995i, 3998, 4001A ( Je^\-ish-Christian ?). Lystra is only 18 miles S.S.W. from Iconium, and hence the character of an inhabitant of Lystra was naturally well known among the Iconians (Ac 16'-), for Lystra, though in the .same district as Derbe (Ac 14° 10'), was actually much closer to Iconium.
Christianity was introduced into Iconium by St. Paul and St. Barnabas on their first missionary journey (Ac 14'"), and the city was visited on the .second journey (16"'-). St. Paul's suH'crings and dilhculties tliere are mentioned 1 Ti 3". The interesting leLrend of St. Tliekia is connected with these visits : the le"end as we have it was composed by a presbyter of Asia about the middle of the 2nd cent., but contains some details that go back to the 1st cent. ; and it probably rests on a historical basis. It rightly traces St. Paul's iourney from Pisidian Antioch along the ' lioyal Koad' {i.e. Imperial Ilighwaj-) that connected Antioch the military centre with the garrison city Lystra, relating how on the way (probably not far from Selki-Serai) he was induced by Unesiphorus to diverge from that road and go ac^o^s the hill- country to Iconium. It tells that queen Try- pliaina (of Pontus) had estates somewhere in this neighbourhood ; and this ni.iy well lie tnie, as she was granddaughter of Polemon, who formerly posses.sed Iconium : it riglitly makes her a relative of the Roman emperor (Claudius). On this legend see Lipsius, Apohr. Apostelijcsch. ii. p. 424 H'. ; Zahn, GGA, 1877, p. 1307 11'.; Ramsay, Vhtirch in Jium. Emp. pp. 31 f. 38011'. (with many other authorities there quoted)
According to the North-Galatian theory, nothing else is recorded in NT about Iconium. On the South-Galatian %'iew, soon after St. Paul's second journe3', it was visited by Jewish emissaries (coming doubtless from Jerusalem), who persuaded the Iconians that St. Paul was not a real apostle of God, but the mere messenger of the superior apostles, and that the keeping of the whole Jewish law was incumbent on all zealous Christians (urging that St. Paul by circumcisinn; Timothy had prac- tically become a preacher of circumcision, Gal 5"). St. Paul, learning this defection, wrote the Epi-stle to tlie Galatians, probably from Syrian Antioch (Ac 18*-; or, according to Zahn and Rendall, from Corinth), and soon afterwards visited Iconium again on his way to Ephesus. The Iconian church was evidently thorouglily reconciled to the Pauline teachinjj;, remained in communication with St. Paul during his stay at Ephesus (1 Co 16'), and joined in the contribution which he organized among all his churches for the benefit of the poor Christians in Jerusalem. St. Peter's first Epistle was addressed to it among others.
According to legend, Sosipater (Ro 16" ; Sopater of Beroea, Ac 20*) was first bishop of Iconium ; Terentius or Tertius (Ro 16") succeeded him. Cornutus or Coronatus, a martyr bishop (12 Sept. sub Perennio prrBside), is perhaps historical. Celsus, bishop earlier than c. 260, is mentioned by Eusebius {HE vi. 19) as permitting a qualified layman Paulinus to do chirrch work. Nikomas, bishop about A.D. 264 and 269, is also mentioned bv Euseb. (vii. 28). A council was held in Iconium about 232 (Cyprian, Episi. 75, 7). Numerous Cliri.stian inscriptions are found in the country round Iconium, some of which are probably of the 3rd cent., showing that Christianity spread com- paratively early round the city as centre (see Galatia, p. 88). A monastery riic raXarwi' in the neighbourhood of Iconium is mentioned by Gregorius Magn. {Dial. iv. 38, p. 441). St. Chariton, a native of Iconium, is said to have been
IDALAH
IDOLATKY
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arrested under Aurelian and released, and afterwards to have founded several monasteries in Palestine.