Ἡϊόνα προχέων ἱερὴν εἰς Κύπρον ἵκεται.
It has been disputed whether Megarsus was really on the river, but the legend on its coins—ΜΕΓΑΡΣΕΩΝ ΠΡΟΣ ΤΩ ΠΥΡΑΜΩ—sets this question at rest. The Aleian plain, which lay between Tarsus and Mallus, was the traditional scene of Bellerophon’s disaster (Il. z. 200).
CHAPTER IV.
Isaura—Iconium—Lystra—Derbe—Apamea Cibotus—Aezani—Synnada—Philomelium—Laodicea Combusta—Hierapolis—Laodicea ad Lycum—Colossæ—Ancyra—Pessinus—Tavium—Nazianzus—Cæsarea ad Argæum—Tyana—Comana—Trapezus—Amastris—Sinope—Prusa ad Olympum—Nicæa—Nicomedia—Islands of Greece—Lesbos—Samos—Chios—Rhodus—Messrs. Biliotti and Saltzmann—Cyprus—Mr. Lang—General Palma di Cesnola.
Having now spoken of some of the principal places in the west and south of Asia Minor, it will, we think, be convenient to take next those towards its centre, in Cappadocia, Phrygia, and Galatia. We must, however, notice, first, the two small districts of Lycaonia and Isauria, which are really portions cut out of the larger adjoining provinces. Isauria will not detain us long, as there is little in it that can be called Greek. It was, as it has ever been, a wild mountain district, with a population unsubdued till about the time of Constantine; and, even after that, if the Byzantine writers are worthy of credit, whole armies of Constantinopolitan Greeks melted as snow in conflict with these robber tribes. Ancient authors knew little of Isauria except its northern part, all to the south, with its capital, Isaura, being to them, practically, a terra incognita. As marauders, however, the Isaurians were so troublesome to their neighbours, that the Roman Senate sent a considerable force against them, in B.C. 73, under P. Servilius, whose success won for him the title of “Isauricus.” This conquest, however, so to call it, was but temporary, and, not long after, Amyntas of Lycaonia lost his life in an attempt to crush one of their tribes. In later days, one of their chieftains, Trebellianus, claimed for himself the rank of Emperor, and struck coins; and the Isaurians boasted, also, of one genuine Emperor, Zeno Isauricus, A.D. 474-491.
Of its chief town, Isaura, we have coins of the time of Geta and Elagabalus bearing the title of ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΕΩΣ ΙΣΑΥΡΩΝ. Mr. Hamilton has satisfactorily identified its site on the line of road between Iconium and Anemurium—a determination in agreement with Pliny’s statement (v. 27), that the province of Isauria stretched to the sea in that direction: he adds that the tradition of their ancient robber propensities is still remembered by the existing peasantry of the district, though, considering what this country has undergone during the last fifteen hundred years, any such tradition is not worth much. Mr. Hamilton found the ruins of the capital on one of the loftiest ridges between the Taurus and the plains of Konieh (Iconium) at an elevation of quite 5,000 feet above the sea, the wild and inaccessible district around it offering, as he observes, “little or no temptation to the rapacity of its neighbours.” An inscription found on the spot fully confirmed his previous surmises: it was on a triumphal arch, in honour of the Emperor Hadrian, and, on the ground near it, was a marble globe, a common emblem of Imperial power “I afterwards,” says he, “found several other inscriptions in this part of the town; of these, No. 432, lying near the agora, is full of interest, as alluding to several buildings formerly erected in its neighbourhood.” Strabo had remarked (xii. p. 569) that Amyntas died before he had completed the town wall, and this Hamilton found to be literally true, everything around indicating a town entirely rebuilt, the wall itself, its octagonal towers, temples, and triumphal arches being constructed in the same peculiar style. “There is,” says he, “an air of newness in its very ruins, as if it had been destroyed before it was half built, although it must not be forgotten that it flourished for many centuries after the death of Augustus.”
In Lycaonia there were few towns of importance, except Iconium, Laodicea, Derbe, and Lystra, the geological features of the country being unfavourable to the existence of a large population. Travellers who have seen both compare Lycaonia with the interior of Australia. Both were, by nature, extensive sheep-walks (thus, Amyntas had as many as 300 flocks of sheep); while both, alike, had much of arid and salt desert, fitted only for camels. The central plain of Lycaonia, from Kiepert’s map, seems the largest in Asia Minor, and resembles the steppes of Central Asia and of southern Russia. Ainsworth tells how his camels browsed off the tops of the Mesembryanthemum and Salicornia, reminding them, as these, doubtless, did, of plains more familiar to them than those of Asia Minor. Strabo made Isauria part of Lycaonia.
The principal town of Lycaonia, Iconium, is mentioned first by Xenophon, who considered it the most eastern one of Phrygia, at one day’s journey, according to Cicero, from Philomelium (Ak-shehr). Its position, amid many small streams, which exhaust themselves in watering its gardens, and as the meeting-place of several of the most important of the Roman roads through Asia Minor, made it, from the first, an important entrepôt; and, though Strabo calls it πολίχνιον (a little town), the account of Pliny, and the narrative in the Acts of the Apostles, prove it was a large and populous place in the middle of the first century A.D. Indeed, in Pliny’s time, its territory embraced fourteen towns, stretched around the capital (v. 27). Cicero was there for several days previously to his Cilician campaign. Iconium will always be invested with much interest owing to St. Paul’s visits to it; the first of which was immediately after his expulsion from Antioch in Pisidia, when the Apostles “shook off the dust of their feet.” Messrs. Conybeare and Howson have well remarked, that the vast plain and the distant mountains are the most interesting features of modern Konieh; for these, probably, remain as they were in the first century of Christianity, while the town has been repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. Little, indeed, remains of Greek or Roman Iconium, except the inscriptions and fragments of sculptures built into the Turkish walls.
Iconium was famous in the early Middle Ages as the capital of the Seljuk Sultans,[[96]] but was taken by the Emperor Barbarossa, during the second Crusade, in his famous but futile attempt to force his way through Asia Minor. To quote the picturesque words of Gibbon, “Forty campaigns in Germany and Italy had taught Barbarossa to command; and his soldiers, even the princes of the empire, were accustomed under his reign to obey. As soon as he had lost sight of Philadelphia and Laodicea, the last cities of the Greek frontier, he plunged into the salt and barren desert, a land (says the historian) of horror and tribulation. During twenty days every step of his fainting and sickly march was besieged by innumerable hordes of Turkmans, whose numbers and fury seemed after each defeat to multiply and to inflame. The emperor continued to struggle and to suffer; and such was the measure of his calamities, that when he reached the gates of Iconium no more than 1,000 knights were able to serve on horseback. By a sudden and resolute assault he defeated the guards and stormed the capital of the sultan, who sued for pardon and peace. The road was now open, and Frederic advanced in a career of triumph, till he was unfortunately drowned in a petty torrent of Cilicia.”[[97]] Leake points out that its walls, still between two or three miles round, are full of inscriptions and of other ancient remains, which the Seljuks seem to have tried to preserve.