CILICIA_lenski - assimilation and revolt in isauria c1 bc - 6th ad 1999.pdf

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Assimilation and Revolt in the Territory of Isauria, from the 1st Century BC to the 6th
Century AD
Author(s): Noel Lenski
Source:
Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient,
Vol. 42, No. 4 (1999), pp.
413-465
Published by:
BRILL
Stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3632602
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ASSIMILATIONAND REVOLT IN THE TERRITORYOF ISAURIA,
FROM THE 1ST CENTURY BC TO THE 6TH CENTURY AD
BY
NOEL LENSKI
(University of Colorado, Boulder)
Abstract
This article investigates shifts in the scale and organization of violence in the region of
Isauria during the period of Roman rule. In contrast with the fundamentalpaper of B. Shaw
in JESHO, volume 33 (1990), which argues that Isaurianviolence was a constant in all peri-
ods of history, this study attempts to show that major Isaurian uprisings were brought under
control from the mid-first century to the mid-third century AD. In these centuries the
Isauriansbecame increasingly sedentarized,adopted Hellenistic social and political structures,
and cooperated with the Roman state actively, particularlyas soldiers. Only after the mid-
third century did Isauria again turn against Rome, this time with increased strength built on
the economic and social development it had experienced under Roman rule.
I. Isauria and the Isaurians')
Between the fertile plains of Adanaand Pamphylia,the Taurus
juts southinto
the Mediterranean form the rugged territory Isauria.This region was first
of
to
penetrated the Romansin the first centuryBC but only graduallysubsumed
by
undertheir control.When the RomansorganizedIsauriaunderdirectrule in the
first century AD, they joined it with the Adana plain as part of the single
1) I should like to thank Hugh Elton, ChristopherJones and Nick Rauh for reading and
commenting on an earlier draft of this paper. Classical authors and epigraphic corpora are
abbreviatedaccording to the guidelines set out in Liddell, Scott, Jones and McKenzie Greek-
English Lexicon92(Oxford: Oxford Univer-sity Press, 1996) xvi-xlv, Lewis and Short A Latin
Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984) vii-xiv and Hornblower and Spawforth
The Oxford Classical Dictionary3(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996) xxix-liv. In addi-
tion, the following abbreviationsare used:
BCC = Buckler, Calder and Cox 1924;
BM = Bean and Mitford 1970;
Bull. Ep. = Bulletin Epigraphique;
HH = Hild and Hellenkemper 1990;
MAMAIII = Keil and Wilhelm 1931;
MAMAVIII = Calder and Cormack 1962;
SKK = Swoboda, Keil and Knoll 1953;
VM Thecla = Dagron 1978;
WE = Sterrett 1888.
Brill NV, Leiden, 1999
? Koninklijke
JESHO42,4
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IN
AND REVOLT THETERRITORY ISAURIA
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ASSIMILATION
415
provinceof Cilicia. Despite their proximity,though, the two regions were quite
distinct. The plain, distinguished as Cilicia Campestris, is formed from the
alluvial deposits of the Cydnus (Tarsus Cayi), Sarus (Seyhan) and Pyramus
fertile and easy to cultivate.
(Ceyhan)rivers which have renderedit remarkably
The mountainsto its west, by contrast,rise to almost 3000 metersin places and
create deep rifts in the landscapewhich renderthe hinterlandpoorerin topsoil
and difficultof access. Given these topographical
differences,it was naturalthat
the two halves of Cilicia would develop along differentcourses and equally nat-
ural that, finally in the late thirdcentury,Diocletian would break the lopsided
provincein two.2)The plain kept the name Cilicia while its mountainous
neigh-
bor was constituted,for the first time, as the separateprovince of Isauria.At
its western extreme, the new province followed Cilicia's old boundarywith
Pamphyliawhich touched the coast just east of Coracesium(Alanya); in the
east, it was split from Cilicia in a line along the River Lamus (Lamas)running
north north-west into the Taurus. On the north the province marched with
Lycaonia where the Taurusdescendedinto the plain.3)Naturalaccess into the
center was providedonly by the River Calycadnus(G6ksu) which runs in two
branchesfrom aroundlake Trogitis(Sugla G61ii)in the north-westdown to the
the
capital of Seleucia (Silifke) on the Mediterranean.
Surrounding valleys fol-
towns in the hin-
lowing these two brancheswere located most of the important
terland,the "Isaurian
Decapolis."4)
In most ancient sources, the name Isaurian ('Iooaxpo;,
Isaurus) is applied
loosely to the peoples living in and aroundDiocletian's province.Originally,its
meaning was more restricted:the Isauri were the inhabitantsof the mountains
themselvesaroundthe settle-
just south-eastof Lake Trogitiswho concentrated
ment of Isaura, later Isaura Vetus (Siristat). By the time the Romans gained
hegemony over the region in the first centuryBC, outsidersalreadyreferredto
all peoples of the hinterlandwith this designation even if most had specific
tribal names for themselves. These included not just the Isauri, but the
Homonadesnorth-westof them in the region aroundTrogitis, the Lalasses, on
the south-eastern
slopes of the Taurusaroundthe city of Mut, and the Kennatae,
north-eastof the
Lalasses.5)
2) HH, pp. 34-5.
3) On borderssee Mitford1980, pp. 1232-4;Mitford1990, pp. 2132-5, the latterof which takes
into account revisions to the western limit proposed by Kellner 1977, pp. 320-2. On topog-
raphy see HH, pp. 22-29; Mutafian 1988, pp. 14-20; Magie 1950, pp. 266-70.
4) A term first used at Constantine PorphyrogenitusDe thematibus 13 to describe the
cities surroundingthe Calycadnus valley north-west from Olba (Ura); cf. HH, p. 235.
5) Syme 1986, pp. 159-64; Jones 1971, pp. 209-13.
416
NOEL
LENSKI
shareda com-
of
Despite these tribaldivisions, the inhabitants the hinterland
mon language and culture,a fact which probablyencouragedoutsidersto label
them generically. Beginning in the middle of the second millenniumBC the
region had fallen under the control of the Hittite empire and from that point
continuedto speak
until at least the end of the sixth centuryAD its inhabitants
The remainsof this languagetogether
a branchof Hittite now called Luwian.6)
of
with the extant art and architecture the region are well enough preservedto
indicate culturalcontinuitythroughoutthe period of Roman rule.7)Indeed, the
peoples of Isauriaeven used a common name for themselveswhich occurs on
from across the region and also appearsin the Greek and
coins and inscriptions
Roman literarysources,Cetae or Cietae. The fact that these people referredto
themselves collectively indicates that not just outsiders, but they themselves
sensed their own culturalunity.8)
to
Among the culturalcharacteristics survive in the region was a propensity
for banditry.SouthernAnatoliahad been a notorioushotbedof brigandagelong
before the Romans took control of it, nor were the Romans entirely successful
in bringing the problem under heel. Although they had pacified the Lycian,
Pamphylian and Cilician coastline by the mid-first century BC, troubles are
attestedin the hinterland at least anothercenturyand are documentedin the
for
once again beginningin the mid-third
same highlandterritory
century.In a fun-
damentalrecent study, B. Shaw has used a comprehensiveanalysis of literary
sources from the sixteenthcenturyBC until the sixth centuryAD to argue that
patternsof brigandageand resistancein Isauriacan be tracedthroughall peri-
ods of recordedhistory. In light of his findings, Shaw holds that the Isaurian
hinterland
was never trulycontrolledby any imperialstate in antiquity,whether
Hittites or Achaemenids,
Hellenisticmonarchsor Roman and Byzantineemper-
ors. It remained,in his words, a region characterized "a form of unending
by
'trench warfare."')
Ten
cf.
1980,p. 1255;HH,pp. 98-9.
6) Houwink Cate1965,passim,esp. 190-201; Mitford
Neumann 1980, pp. 173-4; 178-80 argues that koine displaced Luwian even in the hinterland
by the Roman period, but the Vita Symeon Stylites 189 confirms that natives spoke
i6ia
5taXhmp into the sixth century; cf. Holl 1908, pp. 242-3.
7) On continuity in Isaurian art see Er 1991; A. M. Ramsay 1904, pp. 289-92.
8) Jones 1971, pp. 195-6; Magie 1950, pp. 1364-5 n. 46; Shaw 1990, pp. 202-3.
9) Shaw 1990, passim, esp. 261-70; cf. Shaw 1984, pp. 42-3 "a region of permanentdis-
sidence";1993, pp. 301-2; 312-4; 1986, pp. 79-81. Nor is Shaw the firstto assertthis. Characteristic
here is Rostovtzeff 1957, p. 258 "Finally in the wild mountains of Cilicia and Isauria...
shepherdtribes lived their half-nomadic life, caring little to whom they had to pay their mea-
gre annual tribute and robbing any one when opportunityafforded."Cf. Magie 1950, p. 720
"never wholly broughtunder Roman rule";Jones 1971, p. 214; Roug6 1966, pp. 283-4; Stein
1959, vol. 1 p. 64; Brooks 1893, p. 201.
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