Very little evidence exists as to the exact route beyond Neapolis. The way to Syria under the later Empire was by Byzantium, Nicomedia, and Ancyra ; but it is certain that that route was not in use so early as New Testament times, for the roads of the provinces Galatia and Cappa- docia seem not to have been constructed until the end of Vespasian’s reign ; and Cappadocia was not even properly organized as a province until about A.D. 74. Previously, viz. from A.D. 17 to 74, it had been a procuratorial province, which implied that it was governed not after the fully developed Roman system (which permitted a considerable degree of autonomy or home rule in internal matters), but after the native fashion and on monarchical lines by a procurator who represented the Emperor. The procurator represented the native king, whose rule had been deliberately chosen by the people, when the Romans had offered them their liberty and autonomy in B.C. 95 (Strab. p. 540): when the last king proved incapable, and the province was still unfit for real Roman pro- vincial organization, a procurator was sent in place of the king, who gradually raised the country to the Roman level. After A.D. 74 Roman roads began to spread over the combined provinces of
* Mommsen, Staatsrecht, ii.} p. 1030 (approved by O. Hirsch- feid), denies this, and understands that the procurator’s duty was to register the ships as they singly entered the harbour, Accepting this, however, we must observe that such registra-
tion was necessary for the postal service, and might naturally be combined with it.
Galatia—Cappadocia (united under one governor, but as a double, not a single uniform homogeneous province). Thus there gradually grew up a great through route from the Bosporus opposite Byzan- tium by Juliopolis to Ancyra, Archelais-Colonia and Tyana, and the Cilician Gates, joining the older line of the Overland Route and also that of the Central Route * to the Gates at Colonia Faus- tiniana or Faustinopolis, which was founded by Marcus Aurelius beside the old native village of Halala (the Byzantine Loulon), 23 miles S.S.W. from Tyana, and named after his wife, who died there. That new through route, the ‘Pilgrims’ Route,’ is described by the present writer in Hist.
| Geogr. of Asia Minor, p. 240 ft., and more fully in
sections in the Geograph. Journal, 1903, and by Anderson in Journ. of Hell. Stud. 1899, p. 53 ff.
It is therefore highly probable that messengers for Syria and Egypt during the first and early second centuries went by the same route as mes-
sengers to Asia.| They sailed from Neapolis, the
port of Philippi, to Alexandria Troas (Ac 16” 208). Galen, it is true, sailed (from Troas) to Thessalonica; but he implies that this was an unusual course, taken for the special purpose of visiting Lemnos (Op. ed. Kiihn, xii. 171). Those who preferred to avoid even this short voyage seein to have crossed the Hellespont at Lampsacus and thence followed the route given in the Antonine Itinerary, p. 334, by [lium to Troas.
In general, travellers from the East would prefer the less fatiguing route by Corinth (§ x.); but there would always be many travellers from the northern provinces on the overland road, and in winter it was the only route that was always open. Hence Aristides, when he travelled to Rome in the winter (probably of A.D. 143-144), went by that road. He describes the hardships of the journey —the rain, the frozen Hebrus, the snow, the wretched inns, the sullenness and ill- will of the barbarous natives ; he lay long sick in Edessa ; and thus, although for a time he went as fast as the Imperial post, he finally reached Rome on the hundredth day from his own home (which probably is to be understood as Hadrianoutherz in Mysia, though Pergamus or Smyrna are also pos- sible).§
From Lampsacus or Troas the way for Syrian couriers doubtless went by Pergamus (still the capital of Asia in the 1st cent.), Philadelphia, and on through the Cilician Gates to Tarsus, Antioch, Palestine, and Egypt. The way from Philadelphia to the Gates is described more fully below, § x1.
An important and typical route deserves fuller discussion. In the reign of Trajan, Ignatius was conducted to Rome from Syrian Antioch by land through many cities (the only one mentioned by name being Philadelphia) to Smyrna,|| thence he went (probably on shipboard) to Troas and Neapolis for Philippi, and then went along the Egnatian Way, and so on to Rome. There is one unusual feature in this journey, viz. the detour to Smyrna. Presumably, some special duty required the escort to go to Smyrna; possibly prisoners under sentence were to be taken from thence ; but the exact reason must remain uncertain. The ordinary course for such a party would have been
* See below, § x.
+ A new route came into use before A.D. 193: see § xii.
{ Returning from Rome to Asia, he again wished to visit Lemnos; but this time he took ship from N eapolis for Thasos, and thence to Lemnos.
§ Or. 24, p. 305 (i, 481 f., ed. Dindorf).
|| Priedlinder, Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms, p. 30, mentions only the absurd account of the Acta (Antiochian), that Ignatius went by sea from Seleucia to Smyrna, and says that this ignorant statement, whether true or invented, is at least the work of one thoroughly acquainted with the way. On the contrary, it proceeds from one who mixes up and con-