But there is a serious objection to the proposed identification. St. Luke describes the harbour of Phoenix as ^X^irovTa Kara \i(3a Kal Kara x^f^^ (-^^ 27"*). This is one of the most discussed phrases in Acts. If it is translated ' looking toward the south-west and north-west ' (AV), it is quite in- applicable to Loutr6, which opens eastward. It would verbally fit the Bay of Phenika, on tlie other side of the promontory, facing the west ; but navigators deny that this aliords any shelter worthy of the name of haven. The RV translates the phrase ' looking north-east and south-east,' i.e. in the direction to which the S.W. and N.W. winds blow — looking down these winds. No satis- factory parallel to such an idiom is found in any ancient writer, and it is difficult to imagine an educated Greek expressing his meaning in that manner; still it is possible that St. Luke is faitli- fully reproducing the peculiar language of men of the sea. Conybeare and Howson {The Life and Epistles of St. Paul, new ed., 1877, ii. 400) note that 'sailors speak of everything from their own point of view, and that such a harbour does " look " — from the water towards the land which encloses it — in the direction of "south-west and north-west."' It is surmised by W. M. Ramsay (St. Panl the Traveller, 1895, p. 326) that as St. Luke never saw the harbour in question, but merely described it from hearsay, he may have received the wrong impression that it looked N.W. and S.W.
Jamks Stkahan.
PHRYGIA (*piry(o).— Phrygia, the land of the Phryges, was the western part of the central plateau of Asia Minor. Its boundaries were vague and varying. At one time it extended from the yEgean to the Halys, and from the mountains of Bithynia to the Taurus, but it was gradually contracted on every side. To the early Greeks Phrygia was the home of a heroic and conquering race, who have left in the country drained by the
234
PHKYGIA
rilYSlClAN
upper Sangarius many astonisliing moimnicuts of tueir greatness.
* In Phrygia once were gallant armies known In ancient time, when Otreus lillt'<l the throne, When godlike Migdon led his troops of horse '
(Iloni. ;;. iii. 185 f.).
But to the later Greeks and the Romans I'hrygia was politically unimportant, and the once illustri- ous names of Midas and Manes were given to Phrygian slaves. The Kimmeiian inundation in the 7th cent, broke the spirit of the race, who sank into a state of peaceful indolence, disturhed only bj' fits of wild religious excitement. Their l.-md became an easy prey to every spoiler, and in 278 B.C. the Gauls took possession of IS.E. Phrygia, which was henceforth known as Galatia. Attains I. of Pergamos (241-197 B.C.) seized the territory in which lay the towns of Kotiaion and Dorylaion, and which was thereafter called 'Acquired Phrygia' (Phriigia Epictetus). In tlieS.E. was Iconium (q.v.), which the natives continued to regard as Phrygian, while Roman writers assigned it to Lycaonia. In the S. was Pisidi.an Phrygia (Ptol. V. v. 4) or Phrygia towards Pisidia (irpbi \li<nol(i. [Strabo, xii. pp. 557, 566]), the most important town of which was called Antioch towards Pisidia ; but as Pisidia gradually e.\ tended northwards this Antioch ceased to be Phrygian and was called Pisidian Antioch (q.v.). Only in the S.W. did the Phrygians show any sign of expansion. Hieriipolis was apparently once Lydian, and Laodicea Carian ; but in the Roman period all the cities of the Lycus Valley were regarded as Phrygian. ' The Gate of Phrygia ' was below the junction of the Lycus and Micander ; Polenion of Laodicea was known as ' the Phrygian ' ; and 'Phrygian powder' was a Laodicean prepara- tion.
In the Roman provincial system of government Asia Minor was cut and carved with but little regard for old national and historical distinctions. While the eastern part of Phrygia (with Iconium) and the southern (with Pisidia) were att.ached to the province of Galatia, the western part, which was much the larger, was included in the province of Asia. The former was called Phrygia Galatica and the latter Phrygia Asiana.
Phrygia was traversed by the great route of traffic and intercourse whicli joined the ^gean with Syria and the Euphrates. Along this line the early Seleucids planted a series of Greek cities for the defence of their Empire and the diffusion of Hellenic culture. Here the Greek language gradually displaced the Phrygian, which was ' perhaps similar in character to the Armenian ' Cr. Mommsen, The Provinces of the Eonicm Empire, Eng. tr., 1909, i. 328), but the latter continued to hold its ground in the rural districts down to the 3rd cent, of our era. A striking feature in the life of these cities was the presence of Jews in large numbers.
Their status is indicated by Josephus {Ant. xii. iii. 1). ' The Jews also obtained honours from the kings of Asia, when they became their auxiliaries ; for Seleucus Nicator made them citizens of those cities which he built in Asia . . . and gave them privileges equal to those of the Macedonians and Greeks, who were the Inhabitants, insomuch that these privileges continue to this very day.' Antiochus the Great (223-187 B.C.) ' thought proper to remove 2000 families of Jews, with their effects, out of Mesopotamia and Babylon * to Lydia and Phrygia (xil. iii. 4).