Besides these passages, testimony is borne to the importance of the Cibyratic ‘conventus’ by Strabo, xiii. 4 § 17 (p. 631), ἐν ταῖς μεγίσταις ἐξετάζεται διοικήσεσι τῆς Ἀσίας ἡ Κιβυρατική. It will be remembered also that Horace singles out the Cibyratica negotia (Epist. i. 6. 33) to represent Oriental trade generally. The importance of Laodicea may be inferred from the fact that, though the union was named after Cibyra, its head-quarters were from the first fixed at or soon afterwards transferred to Laodicea.
[29]. See ad Fam. ii. 17, iii. 5, 7, 8, ix. 25, xiii. 54, 67, xv. 4; ad Att. v. 16, 17, 20, 21, vi. 1, 2, 3, 7. He visited Laodicea on several occasions, sometimes making a long stay there, and not a few of his letters are written thence. See especially his account of his work there, ad Att. vi. 2, ‘Hoc foro quod egi ex Idibus Februariis Laodiceæ ad Kalendas Maias omnium dioecesium, præter Ciliciæ, mirabilia quædam efficimus; ita multæ civitates, etc.’ Altogether Laodicea seems to have been second in importance to none of the cities in his province, except perhaps Tarsus. See also the notice, in Verr. Act. ii. I. c. 30.
[30]. The description which Dion Chrysostom gives in his eulogy of Celænæ (Apamea Cibotus), the metropolis of a neighbouring ‘dioecesis,’ enables us to realise the concourse which gathered together on these occasions: Orat. XXXV (II. p. 69) ξυνάγεται πλῆθος ἀνθρώπων δικαζομένων, δικαζόντων, ἡγεμόνων, ὑπηρετῶν, οἰκετῶν, κ.τ.λ.
[31]. On this word see Becker and Marquardt l.c. p. 138 sq. It had lost its original sense, as the mother city of a colony. Laodicea is styled ‘metropolis’ on the coins, Mionnet IV. p. 321.
[32]. Col. iv. 16 with the notes. See also below p. [37], and the introduction to the Epistle to the Ephesians.
[33]. Rev. iii. 14.
[34]. See Eckhel III. p. 159 sq. (passim), Mionnet IV. p. 315 sq., ib. Suppl. VII. p. 578 sq. (passim). In the coins commemorating an alliance with some other city Laodicea is represented by Zeus; e.g. Mionnet IV. pp. 320, 324, 331 sq., Suppl. VII. pp. 586, 589.
[35]. αϲειϲ or αϲειϲ λαοδικεων. See Waddington Voyage en Asie Mineure au point de vue Numismatique (Paris 1853) pp. 25, 26 sq. Mr Waddington adopts a suggestion communicated to him by M. de Longpérier that this word represents the Aramaic עזיזא ‘the strong, mighty,’ which appears also in the Arabic ‘Aziz.’ This view gains some confirmation from the fact, not mentioned by Mr Waddington, that Ἄζιζος was an epithet of the Ares of Edessa: Julian Orat. iv; comp. Cureton Spic. Syr. p. 80, and see de Lagarde Gesamm. Abhandl. p. 16. On the other hand this Shemitic word elsewhere, when adopted into Greek or Latin, is written Ἄζιζος or Azizus: see Garrucci in the Archæologia XLIII. p. 45 ‘Tyrio Septimio Azizo,’ and Boeckh Corp. Inscr. 9893 Ἄζιζος Ἀγρίπα Σύρος. M. de Longpérier offers the alternative that ασειϲ, i.e. Ἀσίς, is equivalent to Ἀσιατικός. An objection to this view, stronger than those urged by Mr Waddington, is the fact that Ἀσίς seems only to be used as a feminine adjective. M. Renan points to the fact that this ζευς ασεις is represented with his hand on the horns of a goat, and on the strength of this coincidence would identify him with ‘the Azazel of the Semites’ (Saint Paul, p. 359), though tradition and orthography alike point to some other derivation of Azazel (עזאזל).
[36]. For descriptions of Hierapolis, see Smith p. 245 sq., Pococke p. 75 sq., Chandler 229 sq., Arundell Seven Churches p. 79 sq., Hamilton p. 517 sq., Fellows Asia Minor p. 283 sq. For the travertine deposits see especially the description and plates in Tchihatcheff P. I. p. 345, together with the views in Laborde (pl. xxxii-xxxviii), and Svoboda (photogr. 41–47). Tchihatcheff repeatedly calls the place Hieropolis; but this form, though commonly used of other towns (see Steph. Byz. s.v. Ἱεραπόλις, Leake Num. Hell. p. 67), appears not to occur as a designation of the Phrygian city, which seems always to be written Hierapolis. The citizens however are sometimes called Ἱεροπολῖται on the coins.
The modern name is given differently by travellers. It is generally called Pambouk-Kalessi, i.e. ‘cotton-castle,’ supposed to allude to the appearance of the petrifactions, though cotton is grown in the neighbourhood (Hamilton I. p. 517). So Smith, Pococke, Chandler, Arundell, Tchihatcheff, Waddington, and others. M. Renan says ‘Tambouk, et non Pambouk, Kalessi’ (S. Paul p. 357). Laborde gives the word Tambouk in some places and Pambouk in others; and Leake says ‘Hierapolis, now called Tabúk-Kale or Pambuk-Kale’ (p. 252).