* Good ΡΝ are found jn inscriptions of Pessinus (Korte in Athen, Mittheil. 1897, pp. 16, 89) and of the Milyadic Zeus-
a (Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, pt. i. p.
ful influence in the Seleucid and Pergamenian cities of Asia Minor. A town doubtless existed there before the Roman colony was founded ; but it was only through that event that Lystra became important. The pone ton of the colony would consist of (1) the Latin-speaking colonists, a local aristocracy of soldiers; (2) the native population (incole), some of whom were doubtless educated in Greek, and strong supporters of the Roman imperial policy ; while the majority were evidently uneducated, not well acquainted with Greek, but more naturally expressing themselves in the Lyssonian tongue, and much under the influence of the native superstition, Ac 14",
While the presence of Jewish residents in Lystra is clear, Ac 161, no synagogue is mentioned there ; and the general tone of Ac 14%!" suggests sur- roundings more thoroughly pagan and less per- meated by Jewish influence than in Iconium and Pisidian Antioch. That is natural, for the Jews would be found most in cities which lay on the main trade road, and which had been important in Seleucid times (when the large settlements of Jews were formed).
When Paul at Lystra healed the lame man, in whom he discerned the signs of a capacity for faith, the multitude concluded that the two apostles were the gods Hermes and Zeus, who had visited the abodes of men according to a wide- spread ancient belief. The same two gods are mentioned in a legend, localized * in these regions, as visiting the old couple, Philemon and Baucis, who lived on the Phrygian hills. But afterwards, when hostile Jews trom Iconium and Pisidian Antioch came to Lystra (probably in pursuance of the trade which must have existed between those cities and Lystra), they exerted such influence on the weak and changeable superstition of the people that a riot was aroused, mal Paul was stoned and thrown out of the city for dead. From 2 Ti 3%" it is clear that Timothy, son of a Jewess Eunice, wife of a Greek, and Pecucht up in the Jewish faith by his mother and his grandmother Lois, saw this occurrence. Certainly he was converted at this time, and doubtless helped to consolidate the newly founded Church in Lystra, which Paul revisited three times, Ac 14 16! 18%.
In Ac 145 Lystra is named before Derbe, in 10) after it, corresponding to the geographical order necessitated by the direction of the journey in each case.
The connexion between Colonia Lustra and its Roman metropolis Antioch, the military centre of Southern Galatia (which is well illustrated by the dedication of a statue of Concord at Antioch by Lystra, Sterrett, Wolfe Expedition in Asia Minor, γ. 219), was maintained by an imperial road, which 1s called in the Acta Pauli et Thecla@ βασιλικὴ ὁδός, ‘the road made by the βασιλεύς, i.e. the Roman emperor. According to that document (which goes back to a very early original, though much cor- rupted by interpolation), Paul, when expelled from Antioch, Ac 13", went along the ‘royal road’ that leads south to Lystra until he came to a place where a cross-road diverged eastwards to Iconium : here Onesiphorus of [conium was waiting for him, being warned in a vision, and induced him to go to Iconium with him.t
Little is known about the post-biblical history
* The name is corrupted in Ovid, Metam. vill. 719, our only authority. MSS. have trineius, fineius, thineyus, Ocinelus,
chineius, tirinthius, tyreneus, thyrneius, etc. These point to Tyrieius or Tyriaius, belonging to Tyriaion, though the editors almost all give the impossible Tyaneius. Tyana was not in Phrygia, and could not give an adj. of this form
+ The term royal road, denoting imperial I tin- guished from common country road ocun Ρ
tion of Termessos, Lanckoronski, St amphyliens, ii. p 5 and regalis via is mentioned at Colonia Comstna, Corp. /necr.
Latin, iii. Suppl. No. 0074.
180 MAACAH
of Christianity in Lystra. Artemas, one of the
Seventy disciples, is said to have been bishop there amrding to a late and untrustworthy tradition. Eustochius of Vasada settled at Lystra and was arrested there and carried to Ancyra, where he was executed. The tradition may
good, for it 1 ONIA, ANTIOCH, ICONIUM,
MAAREH-GEBA
preserves the memory that Lystra was under Ancyra, the metropolis of the province Galatia. until about A.D. 295. Tiberius was bishop of Lystra in A.D. 325 (for a list of later bishops see Gams, Series episcoporum, p. 45). See also Lyca- W. M. Ramsay.
M
MAACAH (zy: Achish, king of Gath in the beginning of Solomon’s reign, 1 K 28°. It is just possible that he is identi- cal with Maoch τὴν of 1S 272; but as there is an interval of about fifty years between the events recorded in these two references, we may suppose that Maacah was grandson of Maoch. Jerome (Qu. Heb. on 2S 107) maintains the identity, but says that M. was mother of Achish. 2. One of David’s wives, daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur, and mother of Absalom (2 § 3%, 1 Ch 3%). Jerome (Qu. Heb. on 28 1357 quotes a Jewish tradition that she had been captured in war by David, who used to raid the Geshurites while he was at Ziklag (1S 278). Possibly David’s marriage with M. was the ratification of a treaty with her father. 3. Favourite wife of Rehoboam and mother of Abijam or Abijah (2 Ch 11”). Probably she was named after Net 2. In 1K 15% she is called the daughter of Abishalom (Absalom, 2 Ch 11% #1), But Absalom’s only daughter was Tamar ; accord- ingly the LXX of 28 14* adds of Tamar that ‘she became wife of Rehoboam’ (yiverac γυνὴ τῷ Ῥοβοάμ). This is followed by Josephus twice (Ant. VI. vii. 5, vil. x. 3). However, in 2 Ch 13? she appears as ‘Micaiah, the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah’ (LXX and Syriac, Maacah). It is commonly supposed that Uriel married Tamar, and so Ν Alpe was really Absalom’s granddaughter (so Josephus once, Ant. ΝΠ]. χ. 1). ‘Daughter’ is sometimes used in this way, 6.0. 2 Καὶ 838, Jerome, however (Qu. Hed.), distinguishes her father from David’s son. : retained the position οἵ queen-mother (gébirah, ἡγουμένη) until the reign of her grandson Asa. He in his reforming zeal deposed her ‘ because she had made an abominable image (simulacrum Priapi) for an Asherah’ (1 K 1513, 2 Ch 15'8). She was apparently shielded from the extreme penalties resolved on by the people according to 2 Ch 15%. 4. Son of Nahor by his concubine Reumah (Gn 224). 5, One of the concubines of Caleb, son of Hezron (1 Ch 9:8). 6. Wife of Machir, daughter of Benjamin, and whole sister of Huppim and Shuppim (1 Ch 7-38), RVm supposes another Maacah, sister of Machir. The text is corrupt according to @PB. 1. Wife of Jeiel the father of Gibeon (1 Ch 839 9%) 8, Father of Hanan, who was one of David’s heroes (1 Ch 11%). 9, Father of Shephatiah, who was captain of the tribe of Simeon in David’s reign (1 Ch 27**).