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ASIARCH
xxiv, 18; xxvii, 2; but (2.), that only Asia Proper, the Unman or Proconsular Asia, is denoted in Acts ii, 9 ; vi. 9 ; xvi, 6 ; xix, 10, 22 ; xx, 4, 1G, 18 [Rom. xvi, 5] : 1 Cor. xvi, 19; 2 Cor. i, 8; 2 Tim. i, 15; 1 Pet. i, 1 ; Rev. i, 4, 11. Asia Minor comprehended Bithynia, Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Pamphylia, Pisid- i:i. Lycaonia, Phrygia, Mysia, Troas (all of which are mentioned in the New Testament), Lydia, Ionia, vEolis (which are sometimes included under Lydia), Caria, Doris, and Lvcia. Asia Proper, or Proconsular Asia, comprehended the provinces of Phrygia, Mysia, (aria, and Lydia (Cicero, Ep. Fain, ii, 15). But it is evident that Luke uses the term Asia in a sense still more restricted; for in one place he counts Phrygia (Acts ii, 9, 10), and in another Mysia (xvi, 6, 7), as provinces distinct from Asia. Hence it is probable that in many, if not all, of the second set of references above, the word Asia denotes only Ionia, or the entire western coast, of which Ephesus was the capital, and in which the seven churches were situated. See gen- erally, Usher, Be Asia procomulari (Lond. 1681) ; id. Be episcop. metropol. in Asia ]»vconsulari (Lond. 1G87) ; Carpzov, Be A sice ecclesiis (Lips. 1698); Cellarius, id. (Hal. 1701) ; Conybeare and Howson's St. Paul, i, 237 ; Penny Cyc. s. v. Anatolia; Smith's Did. of Class. Geogr. i. 232 sq., 238 sq. ; Texier, Asie Mineure (Paris, 1863); Le Bas and Cheron, Hist. Ancienne de VAs. Min. (Par. 1864); Perrot, Voyage en As. Min. (Paris, 1864).
3. Proconsular Asia, therefore, seems to te usu- ally that designated in the New Test., being a Roman province which embraced the western part of the pen- insula of Asia Minor, and of which Ephesus was the capital. This province originated in the bequest of Attains, king of Pergamus, or king of Asia, who left by will to the Roman Republic his hereditary domin- ions in the west of the peninsula (B.C. 133). Some rectifications of the frontier were made, and "Asia" was constituted a province. Under the early emper- ors it was rich an 1 flourishing, though it had been se- verely plundered under the republic. In the division made bj>- Augustus of senatorial and imperial prov- inces, it was placed in the former class, and was gov- erned by a proconsul. (Hence dvdvTraroi, Acts xix, 38, and on coins.) It contained many important cities, among which were the seven churches of the Apoca- lypse, and it was divided into assize districts for judi- cial business. (Hence ayopaioi, i. e. r)fikpai, Acts, ibid.) It is not possible absolutely to define the in- land boundary of this province during the life of the Apostle Paul ; indeed, the limits of the provinces were frequently undergoing change; but generally it may be said that it included the territory anciently subdi- vided into yEolis, Ionia, and Doris, and afterward into Mysia, Lydia, and Caria. See Mysia; Lycia; Bi- thynia; Phrygia; Galatia. These were orignal- I \ Gri iek colonies (see Smith's Smaller Hist, of Greece. p. 40 sq.). Meyer (in his Comment, on Acts xvi, 6) unnecessarily imagines that the divine intimation given to Paul had reference to the continent of Asia, as opposed to Europe, and that the apostle supposed it illicit have reference simply to "Asia cis Taurum," and therefore attempted to' penetrate into Bithynia. The sriew of Meyer and De Wette on Acts xxvii, 2 (and of the former on Acts xix, 10), viz. that the pen- insula of Asia Minor is intended, involves a bad geo- graphical mistake; for this term "Asia Minor" does not seem to have been so applied till some centuries after the Christian era. Neither is it strictly correct to speak of Asia in the N. T. as being at that time call- ed A. proconsulates; for this phrase also was of later date, and denoted one of < Sonstantine's subdivisions of the province of which we are speaking. (See Cony- beare and Bowson's Ufe and Epistles of St. Paul, eh. ariv; Marquardt's Rom. Alterthumor, iii, 130 146.) See AsiABi ii.
4. Seven Churches op Asia. —These, celebrated in the Apocalypse, in the apostolic times, and in ec-
clesiastical history, were, as they are classified by the writer of the book of Revelation (ch. i— iii), Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, which see under the respective names. See Asia Minor (No. 2, above) ; Revelation.