Pamphylia


Pamphylia was a region in the south of Asia Minor in Western Asia, between Lycia and Cilicia, extending from the Mediterranean to Mount Taurus. It was bounded on the north by Pisidia and was therefore a country of small extent, having a coast-line of only about 120 km with a breadth of about 50 km. Under the Roman administration the term Pamphylia was extended so as to include Pisidia and the whole tract up to the frontiers of Phrygia and Lycaonia, and in this wider sense it is employed by Ptolemy.

Name

The name Pamphylia comes from the Greek Παμφυλία, itself from , literally "of mingled tribes or races", a compound of πᾶν, neuter of πᾶς "all" + φυλή, "race, tribe". Herodotus derived its etymology from a Dorian tribe, the Pamphyloi, who were said to have colonized the region. The tribe, in turn, was said to be named after Pamphylos, son of Aigimios.

Origins of the Pamphylians

According to Encyclopædia Britannica, the Pamphylians were “a mixture of aboriginal inhabitants, immigrant Cilicians and Greeks”. However, Herodotus and Strabo record that the Pamphylians were descended from Greeks who came with Calchas and Amphilochos after the Trojan War. Additionally, Pausanias states that they were a Greek race. Theopompus, as well, informs us that Pamphylia was inhabited by Greeks. Some modern scholars suggest that they migrated to Pamphylia from Arcadia and generally the Peloponnese in the 12th century BC. The significance of the Greek contribution to the origin of the Pamphylians can be attested alike by tradition and archaeology, and Pamphylia can be considered a Greek country from the early Iron Age until the early Middle Ages.
There can be little doubt that the Pamphylians and Pisidians were the same people, though the former had received colonies from Greece and other lands, and from this cause, combined with the greater fertility of their territory, had become more civilized than their neighbours in the interior. But the distinction between the two seems to have been established at an early period. Herodotus, who does not mention the Pisidians, enumerates the Pamphylians among the nations of Asia Minor, while Ephorus mentions them both, correctly including the one among the nations on the coast, the other among those of the interior.
File:Stater slinger Aspendos MBA Lyon.jpg|thumb|Slinger standing left, triskelion to right; reverse of a silver stater from Aspendos, Pamphylia
A number of scholars have distinguished in the Pamphylian dialect important isoglosses with both Arcadian and Cypriot which allow them to be studied together with the group of dialects sometimes referred to as Achaean since it was settled not only by Achaean tribes but also colonists from other Greek-speaking regions, Dorians and Aeolians. The legend related by Herodotus and Strabo, which ascribed the origin of the Pamphylians to a colony led into their country by Amphilochus and Calchas after the Trojan War, is merely a characteristic myth.

History

Late Bronze Age

During the Late Bronze Age, the region was on the western edge of the Hittite sphere of influence. A treaty between the Hittite king Tudḫaliya IV and his vassal, the king of Tarḫuntašša, defined the latter's western border at the city Parha in later Pamphylia and the Kastaraya River. West of Parha were the Lukka lands.

Iron Age

In the historical era, the region's population spoke Pamphylian, an idiosyncratic dialect of Greek seemingly influenced by Anatolian languages spoken nearby. On Cyrus's defeat of Croesus, Pamphylia passed to the Persian Empire. Darius included it in his first tax-district alongside Lycia, Magnesia, Ionia, Aeolia, Mysia, and Caria. At some point between 468 and 465 BC, the Athenians under Cimon fought the Persians at the Eurymedon, and won; thus adding Pamphylia to their "Delian League" empire. Toward the end of the Peloponnesian War, the Athenians were weakened enough that the Persians were able to retake it.
Upon Alexander the Great's defeat of Darius III, Pamphylia passed back to Greek rule. After the defeat of Antiochus III in 190 BC they were included among the provinces annexed by the Romans to the dominions of Eumenes of Pergamum; but somewhat later they joined with the Pisidians and Cilicians in piratical ravages, and Side became the chief centre and slave mart of these freebooters. Pamphylia was for a short time included in the dominions of Amyntas, king of Galatia, but after his death lapsed into a district of a Roman province.
As of 1911, the district was largely peopled with recently settled Ottoman Muslims from Greece, Crete, and the Balkans, as a result of the long-term consequences of the Congress of Berlin and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Notable people from Pamphylia

  • Diodorus of Aspendos, Pythagorean philosopher
  • Apollonius of Perga, astronomer, mathematician
  • Artemidorus of Perga, proxenos in Oropos
  • Aetos from Aspendos, Ptolemaic commander, founder of Arsinoe
  • Mnaseas from Side, sculptor
  • Orestas from Aspendos, proxenos in Dreros,
  • Thymilus of Aspendos, stadion running race victor in Olympics 176 BC
  • Apollonios from Aspendos, Ptolemaic commander, proxenos in Lappa and Aptera
  • Asclepiades from Perga, physician honoured by the people of Seleucia
  • Plancia Magna from Perga, influential citizen, benefactress, high-priestess of Artemis
  • Menodora from Sillyon, magistrate and benefactor
  • Zenon from Aspendos, architect of the Aspendos theatre
  • Apollonius of Aspendos, poet
  • Aurelia Paulina from Perga, prominent noblewoman of Syrian origin, donator, high-priestess of Artemis
  • Probus from Side, martyr
  • Philip of Side, historian
  • Matrona of Perge, saint, abbess of Constantinople,
  • Antony I Kassymatas from Sillyon, patriarch of Constantinople

    Archaeological sites

  • Antalya
  • Aspendos
  • Etenna
  • Eurymedon Bridge at Aspendos, a Roman bridge which was reconstructed by the Seljuks and follows a zigzag course over the river
  • Eurymedon Bridge at Selge, a Roman bridge
  • Perga
  • Side
  • Sillyon