THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
here to himself, his mother, and the senate. Politically Smyrna was not as important as Ephesus; but it had the reputation of being the most beautiful city of Asia. Jews in Smyrna are mentioned in Rev ii, 9 and in the Martyrium Polycarpi, xii, 2, and both times as enemies of the Christians. Paul does not seem to have done missionary work there; but that the congregation was founded by John is not a necessary inference. By the " angel of the church in Smyrna" (Rev. ii, 8) Polycarp might be meant, had not the epistles to the seven churches originated in a much earlier period than the final redaction of the Apocalypse. From Smyrna the road leads by way of Cyme, Myrina, and Elsea to Pergamos, where it meets the road to Thyatira. Pergamos, the ancient royal city of the Attalides, was still famous under the Roman empire. In the time of Augustus (29 B.C.) the first provincial temple was erected here, and by the side of Ephesus Pergamos seems to have been the most prominent city in Asia. It was famous for the cult of iEsculapius. Although the Jews had influence, they were not the cause of the animosities mentioned in Rev. ii, 12-17 Though they are called in the Apocalypse a " synagogue of Satan " (ii, 9), it is most unlikely that they are meant by the words: " I know where thou dwellest, where Satan's seat is" (ii, 13); the language points to a more concrete phenomenon, which might be thought of as an embodiment of Satan, and no doubt refers to the worship of iEsculapius. This " savior," whose symbol was the serpent, and who, according to Justin (Apologia, i, 21, 22), looked much like Christ, could easily appear as a devilish caricature of the Son of God. The words " hast not denied my faith" imply that in the days of Antipas the population made an effort to force the worship of zEsculapius upon others.
From the seaport Adramyttium, where there was a conventus juridicus, following the north coast of the Adramyttian bay the road leads to Assos, where Paul seems to have been active (Acts xx, 13-14). It was the birthplace of Cleanthes the Stoic. Troas, or rather Alexandria, became famous under Roman sway. Augustus made it a colony. It was the seaport from which Paul went to Macedonia (Acts xvi, 11). It is perhaps characteristic of the Roman citizen, that, besides Ephesus, Troas is the only city of the province of Asia where Paul labored in person (Acts xx, 5-7; II Cor. ii, 12; II Tim. iv, 13). The Church of Troas is not mentioned in the Apocalypse, but is referred to by Ignatius in bis epistles to the Philadelphians (xi, 2) and Smyrnaeans (xii, 2). Abydus, Lampsacus, and Cyzicus were not included in Paul's mission.
V. The Islands of the ^gean Sea belonged in great part to the province of Asia. Tenedos was opposite Alexandria Troas; Lesbos, with the capital Mytilene, or as the later form reads in Acts xx, 14, Mitylene, was the first station on the passage from Assos. Thence Paul sailed (Acts xx, 15) to Chios, opposite the Ionic peninsula. On the following day he reached Samos. According to the reading of Codex D, he seems not to have tarried on the island itself in the city of Samos, but in the town of Trogyllium on a little isle of like name before the
cape, mentioned by Strabo. South of Samos lay the small island of Patmos. Following the route of Paul (Acts xxi, 1) one comes to Coos and Rhodes. During the last decades before Christ, Rhodes was a center of culture; it was the native place of the Stoic Pansetius, whose work " On Duty " Cicero used in his De officiis ; in Rhodes, too, labored bis pupil Posidonius (about 90-50 B.C.); the rhetorician Apollonius Molon, the teacher of Cicero and Caesar; and Theodore of Gadara, the teacher of Tiberius.
VI. The Province Pontus-Bithynia : When King Nicomedes III, Philopator, of Bithynia bequeathed in 74 b.c. his country to the Romans, the governor of Asia made it a province, and it was extended toward the east in 64 b.c. by annexing north Paphlagonia and Pontus. After the separation of Pontus Galaticus, which was joined to Galatia, the new province with the double name Pontus (and) Bithynia comprised the entire coast region east of the Rhyndacus, north of Mt. Olympus, extending beyond the Halys to the city of Amisus. As a senatorial province it was ruled by proconsuls with a legate, a questor, and six lictors. Pliny the Younger was an extraordinary governor, who was sent to the province (111-112 a.d.) to regulate its finances. The domestic conditions in Bithynia are described not only in the correspondence of Pliny the Younger with Trajan, but also in the speeckes of the sophist Dio Chrysostomus of Prusa, which have much of interest to the investigator of early Christianity (ed. H. von Arnim, 2 vols., Berlin, 1893-96; cf. also idem, Dio von Prusa, ib. 1898). The most noteworthy of the cities of Pontus and Bithynia were Apamea, Chalcedon, Byzantium, and Prusa. A court of judgment was also at Kicaea (see Nicea, Councils of), where there was a temple of the dea Roma and of the divus Julius, whereas the provincial temple was at Nicomedia. In Pontus were Amastris, Sinope, Amisus, Abonuteichus, and Comana. Concerning the Jews in Pontus and Bithynia cf. Acts ii, 9, xviii, 2. The spread of Christianity in Pontus is attested by Pliny (Epist., xcvi, 9).
VII. The Province Galatia has a complicated history. Its boundaries were often changed. It derived its name from the Celtic tribes which migrated to Asia Minor in the third century B.C., and, according to Strabo, occupied the eastern part of Phrygia. Without going into details, it can be assumed that in the New Testament "Galatia" means not the seat of the three Celtic tribes, but the Roman province including Pisidia and Lycaonia, therefore the territory of the first Pauline missionary journey. The question is of interest whether by " the Churches of Galatia " (Gal. i, 2) Paul understood only those of the first missionary journey. He shows an inclination to address his Churches according to provinces, following the Roman provincial divisions. When he addresses a Church with reference to its special needs, he naturally speaks to Corinthians, Thessalonians, Philippians; but where he overlooks his missionary territory as a whole, he uses the provincial names. There is no reason to believe that "the Churches of Galatia" means anything else than the Churches