The residence of Tryphtena near Iconium tmder Claudius can only have been temporary, as she appears with the title of queen on Pontic coins in the year A.D. 54-55, when Nero was emperor. According to the story (which is probably founded on fact) in the Acta above mentioned, she protected Thecla, St. Paul's Iconian convert, and was con- verted to Christianitj' by her protegee. The name Trypha?na evidently lasted in Chrislian tradition ; and we tind a martyr Tryph.vna at Cyzicus, which was at one time veiy closely associated with the ijueen {Acta Sand. 31 Jan. p. 696).
The dynasty of Polemon is also connected with the legends about the Apostle B.irtholomew. According to one lef^end he preached in Bosporus, the kingdom of Poleraon I., and from A.D. 38 to 41 of Polemon ii.; and afterwards in Armenia Magna, where he suffered martyrdom in the city Uurbanopolis. Now Polemon u. received a Cilician kingdom in exchange for Bos- porus in A.D. 41 ; and the capit.al of that kingdom was Olba, a Hellenized form of a native name Ourwa or Oura, called also Ourbanopolis.t His brother Zenon was made king of Annenia Magna in a.d. IS under the name of Arta.vias.
Another legend makes Bartholomew preach in Lycaonia, or in Upper Phrygia and Pisidia. Part of Lycaonia with Iconium waa ruled by Polemon i., and the inhabitants of Iconium con- sidered it a Phrygian city. The most probable foundation for this legend is that Dartholomew preached to the Phrygian tribe called the Inner Lycaones ; see Ramsay, Cities and liiAhopricsqf Phrygia. pt. ii. p. TOO. A third legend transports the scene of Bartholomew's preaching to India, but still assigns tlie name Polemics or PoljTuios to the king of the country, and Astreges or Astyages to his brother ; and these are evidently mere ais- tortions of the names Polemon and Artaxias.
It seems impossible that so many links should have been forged by tradition connecting the dynasty of Polemon with the early history of Christianity, unless there had been some historical reality out of which legend could draw its material. It would be out of place to investigate the subject further here. The discovery of the first traces of connexion was made by von Gutschmid in the Rhein. Musmnn. 1S04, p. 170 (where he wrongly made Tryphana the wife of Polemon). See also Lipsius, Apficryphen Apostet^eschichten. ii. 2, p. 5^)S.; Ramsay, Church in th^ Jiornan Empire be/ore 170, cli. xvi.; and on the Polemon dynasty, Mommsen, Ephem. Epigrnph. ii. p. 259 ff.; Hill in Xujnijtyn, Chron. 1800, p. 181 ff.; fclso many other recent papers quoted in these works.
In A.D. 63 the government of Nero came to the conclusion that the kingdom of Pontus had been raised to such a level of peace and order that it might safely be taken into the empire. The western part was incorjjorated as a region of (iaiatia, and the eastern part was incorporated in Cappadocia (see below). Polemon II. still retained the title of king, with a kingdom in Cilicia Tracheia, where he presumably went to reside after A.D. 64.
Polemon II. became connected with NT history in another way. In 41 the kingdom of Olba (including a large part of Cilicia Tracheia) was given him by Claudius in exchange for Bosporus j J: and he retained this Cilician kingdom at least as late as 68, for a coin of Olba bearing his name was struck under Galba (though he had lost the king- dom of Pontus in 63). Berenice, daughter of Herod Agrippa I. (Ac 12), sister of Uerod Agrippa II.
* See Oalatia, vol. ii. p. 86.
t On these names for Olba see Ramsay, Bittorical i 'eographi/ cj Asia Minor, p. 364. t Dion Caw. 60. 8. See Galatia, vol. ii. p. 86 L
(Ac 20), and widow of her uncle Herod of Chalcia, married Polemon, king of Cilicia, after inducing him through desire of her wealth to submit to circumcision ; but she soon tired of him and abandoned him. whereupon he ceased to conform to the Jewish law.* This is evidently the same Polemon II. Avho was king of Pontus. Josephua does not mention the date ; and above, in vol. ii. p. 36iJf., the view is stated (following Smith's DB li. x.v. ' Pontus,' and other authorities), that the marriage with Polemon was earlier than the inter- view ot St. Paul with Berenice and her brother Agrijjpa. But that early date for the marriage is not certain, for Joseplius speaks of Polemon as being king of Cilicia, and presumably living there, when the marriage occurred ; and this implies a date after A.D. 63, for up till that year Polemon dotibtless lived in Pontus, and would have been called king of Pontus rather than king of Cilicia. Berenice had been long a widow, as Joseplius saj-s.t when she married Polemon : now her husband, Herod of Chalcis, died in A.D. 4S-49.
Thus in the 1st cent. A.D. the name Pontus had two distinct meanings: it might denote either the kingdom of Polemon, or the Roman province united with Bithj'nia. Further, there were other two u.ses of the name in the 1st cent, after Chri.st which are revealed to us by inscriptions. The kingdom of Polemon, though called Pontu.s, did not embrace nearly all the old Mithridatic king- dom of Pontus. Apart from the Roman province Pontus, a great part of western Pontus had been attached to the province Galatia, one part in B.C. 2 (with the cities Amasia and Sebastopolis), another in A.D. 35 (with the city Comana Pontica).t This district, then, had to be distinguished from Pontus the province and Polemon's Pontus, and the method of distinction is clearly shown in many authorities : the province was called Pontus simply, Polemon's Pontus was called Pontus Polemoniacus (a name which remained in use for centuries after the death of the last king Polemon), and the part included in the province Galatia was called Pontus Galati- cus. Those names are used in Ptolemy's geography and in many inscriptions of the 1st and 2nd cents.: thej- may be compared with the division of Lycaonia during the same period into two parts, one ruled by king Antiochus and called Lycaonia Antiochiana or simplj' Antiochiana (a name that continued in use late in the 2nd cent, and occurs in Ptolemy), and one attached to the province Galatia and called Lycaonia Galatica or simply raXariKij x'<'po (see Lycaonia, and on another similar pair of parts see Phrygia).