Pisidia

From the Catholic Encyclopedia

A country in the southwestern part of Asia Minor, between the high Phrygian tableland and the maritime plain of Pamphilia. This district, formed by the lofty ridges of the western Taurus range, was in pre-Christian times the abode of stalwart, half-civilized, and unruly tribes, never entirely subdued. Ancient writers describe them as a restless, plunder-loving population. St. Paul, no doubt, had in mind Pisidia, which he had traversed twice (Acts, xiii, 13-14: note here that, according to the more probable text, in the latter verse we should read "Pisidian Antioch"; xiv, 20-23), perhaps three times (Acts, xvi, 6), when in II Cor., xi, 26, he mentions the "perils of waters" and "perils of robbers" he had confronted. Independent until 36 B. C., the Pisidians were then conquered by the Galatian king, Amyntas, and soon after, together with their conquerors, forced to acknowledge Roman suzerainty. Joined first to one province, then to another, it received a governor of its own in 297 A. D. The principal cities were Cremna, Adada (the modern name of which, Kara Bavlo, preserves the memory of St. Paul), Serge, Termessos, Pednalissos, Sagalassos. Heaps of imposing ruins are all that is now left.

CONYBEARE AND HOWSON, The Life and Epistles of St. Paul (London, 1875); FOUARD, Saint Paul and His Missions, tr. GRIFFITH (New York, 1894); RAMSAY, Historical Geography of Asia Minor (London, 1890); IDEM, The Church in the Roman Empire (London, 1894); IDEM, Inscriptions en langue Pisidienne in Revue des Universités du Midi (1895), 353-60; KIEPERT, Manuel de géographic ancienne (French tr., Paris, 1887); LANCKORONSKI, Städte Pamphyliens und Pisidiens (Vienna, 1892).

CHARLES L. SOUVAY.