• jutTi/b^i TrF KxOirT^ffxt weXjrt'BLv (Slrab. p. 074).
t See Kiilin, Stadteverwaliun^ im rOm. Eaiserreiche, pp. 25L 470.
t See Kithn, I.e.
§ The exact date of Athenodorus is uncertain. He Is (^ova. monly ccmjt-ctured by modern writers to have been a pupil of PosirioniuB (u.o. 140-(;o); but Kvisebius, C'Aron., gives the date when lie was flourishing as a. D. 7. Tliis tends to show that the common dating of his career is too early ; perhaps he may be placed B.C. 72 to A.I). 10 ; or, more probably, Kusebiua maxle a mistake, taking his death in the height of influence for the date whin he flourished : in that cose 76 B.o. to 7 A.D. wag hii period.
II Pseudo-Lucian, Macr. 21. T Kp. M&r. I. x. 6.
I •• Senecn, dc Tra nq.An.HinSt. Paul Uit Trav. p. 894, Cltm. I ii mentioned wrongly In place of Trariq.).
588
TARSUS
TARSUS
lack of work fall into mere misuse of the time which nature rec|uires us to spend. One must be able to give an account of one's time and prove one's old age by the amount of what one has done for the good oi the world, and not simply by the length of time one has lived.'
Such was tlie environment, on its best side, amidst which St. Paul spent his early years. To estimate its influence on him would be out of place here ; but we remember that, when he was rescued from imminent death, bruised doubtless and torn by the hands of the mob in Jerusalem, in answer to the question of the Roman officer, the words that rose to his lips as he recovered breath were : ' I am a Jew, a man of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city' (Ac 21^'). In such circumstances a man does not waste words, or speak what does not lie dee]) in his nature. St. Paul had to show the officer that he was not an Egyptian, but the tone in which he spoke of Tarsus shows a warm feeling about it as a city and for its own sake.*
The timocratic system introduced by Atheno- dorus into Tarsus has an important bearing on St. Pauls life. In a city where the mass of the in- habitants could be said to be ' outside of the citizenship,' i.e. not possessing the full rights of a citizen, t he claimed to be a citizen. Citizenship in Tarsus was the certificate of respectability and .standing which he mentioned to Claudius Lysias, when it was necessary at once to explain away appearances which were certainly much against him as he was pulled out of the murderous hands of the mob. One may ask why he did not mention his Roman citizenship at that time, for Roman citizenship was a liigher honour and a greater proof of respectability ; and it seems hardiy pos- sible to make any other ans^rsr except that, in the excitement of that terrible scene, the feeling that lay deepest in his heart alwut worldly position rose to his lips. When he was a child he felt himself a 'Jew, a citizen of Tarsus,' and almost uncon- sciously the words rose to his lips. But the Tarsian citizenship had this value in the eyes of those who possessed it, because it was confined to a select small body.
The history of Tarsus under the empire is a large subject. The following points may be noticed as characteristic of the Asiatic Roman cities gener- ally, and illustrative of their relation to the early Christians and to the Roman State : —
The loyalty of those great cities to the emperors was very strong, and is unusually well illustrated in the case of Tarsus, which a.ssunied titles from the name of ths emperors Hadrian, Commodus, Severus, Antoninus (Caraoalla), Maorinus, and Alexander Severus,J dropping some when the empemr died, and Iteeping others for long. It took the title of Temple- Warden {nMxifiot, iit »MBe«/Mf), indicating that one, or two, temples of the imperial worship were built in the city. It induced governors of the province and even the emperor him- self, Alexander Severus, to accept office (of course merely honorary) in the city, and boasted of this on coins and in in- scriptions.
Titles like these, however, sprang as much from vanity as from loyalty. The great cities vied with one another in invent- ing titles and appropriating the titles of rivals. Tarsus and Anazarlnis ronipeleti with one another in this way. Each claimed such titles aa .Metropolis, First and Greatest and Fairest, Tcinple-Warden ; but Anazarbus was never Twice Temple- Warden, nor Metropolis of the Three Eparchiai (Cilicia, Lyca- onia, Isauria), but only Metropolis of the Nation (iHtevt, i.e. Cilicia). On one occasion, about a. D. 213, Anazarbus induced the emperor Elagabalus to accept the otlicc of llemiourgos} in the city, and struck coins to commemorate this honour. Tarsus doubtless was downcast till it could strike similar coins boasting of Alexander Severus as Demiourgos. Both cities boasted that
* It must be remembered that such expressions as ovm o-rrfMu wc>-ui;, •v« oXjyt*. often imjilv a strong ajisortion of the opposite.
t (m TXrOat ev« iXiyov -urrtfi ij«(^i» T^t T«XjTi(flw (Dion, Chrys. ad Tan. p. ill ; see p. (3S7, col. 2, n. I). On the rights and meaning of tsX,ti.'« see Szanto, Da» griech. Burgerrecht.