Roman Phrygia
Culture and Society

The first synthesis of the remarkable cultural history of the highlands of inner Anatolia under Roman rule.

Peter Thonemann (Edited by)

9781107031289, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 August 2013

326 pages, 76 b/w illus. 3 maps 1 table
24.9 x 18.3 x 1.8 cm, 0.72 kg

The bleak steppe and rolling highlands of inner Anatolia were one of the most remote and underdeveloped parts of the Roman empire. Still today, for most historians of the Roman world, ancient Phrygia largely remains terra incognita. Yet thanks to a startling abundance of Greek and Latin inscriptions on stone, the cultural history of the villages and small towns of Roman Phrygia is known to us in vivid and unexpected detail. Few parts of the Mediterranean world offer so rich a body of evidence for rural society in the Roman Imperial and late antique periods, and for the flourishing of ancient Christianity within this landscape. The eleven essays in this book offer new perspectives on the remarkable culture, lifestyles, art and institutions of the Anatolian uplands in antiquity.

1. Phrygia: an anarchist history, 950 BC–AD 100 Peter Thonemann
2. In the Phrygian mode: a region seen from without Barbara Levick
3. The personal onomastics of Roman Phrygia Claude Brixhe
4. Grave monuments and local identities in Roman Phrygia Ute Kelp
5. Phrygians in relief: trends in self-representation Jane Masséglia
6. Households and families in Roman Phrygia Peter Thonemann
7. Law in Roman Phrygia: rules and jurisdictions Georgy Kantor
8. An epigraphic probe into the origins of Montanism Stephen Mitchell
9. The 'Crypto-Christian' inscriptions of Phrygia Edouard Chiricat
10. Phrygian marble and stonemasonry as markers of regional distinctiveness in late antiquity Philipp Niewöhner
11. The history of an idea: tracing the origins of the MAMA project Charlotte Roueché.

Subject Areas: Biblical studies & exegesis [HRCG], Biblical archaeology [HDDH], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], Palaeography [history of writing CFL]