A Geographical and Historical Disquisition Touching Asia, Chapter 3
CHAP, III. Of the Proconsular Asia, and the severall alterations of the limits thereof.
I Come now from the Lydian Asia, and the seven Metropoliticall cities thereof, unto the Proconsular: which, according to the condition of aforeign. Strabo, lib. 17· pag. 840.other Provinces, had in severall times it's severall alterations. For in the distribution of the Empire made by Augustus Caesar, it appeareth to have been the same with that former Asia of the Romans, which we described in the beginning out of Cicero; but in that which was afterwards brought in by Constantine, to have been confined within the bounds of the Lydian Asia. the greatnesse of the one above the other being sufficiently intimated in those verses of Statius, touching the yeare of the Proconsulship of Vectius Bolanus; who, before that, had been Proconsul here in Brittaine:
bStat. lib. 5. Sylvar. in Pro…reptico ad Crispin.—quantusque potentes
Mille urbes Asia sortito rexerit anno;
Imperium mulcente Togâ.
That same yeare, cDio, lib. 53.wherein Caesar obtained first the surname of Augustus, himselfe being then the seventh, and Marcus Agrippa (who married his sisters daughter) the third time Consul; was this politicall division of the Provinces ordered by him: farr diffe…ing from that Geographicall partition of countries delivered by his nephew Agrippa. whom dSolin. Polyhist. cap. …3.Solinus following in his Geography, beginneth Asia from Telmessus of Lycia and the Carpathian bay: and boundeth it on the East with Lycia (or Lycaonia, as ePlin. lib. 5. cap. 27.Pliny hath it) and Phrygia; on the West with the Aegean, on the South with the Aegyptian sea, and on the North with Paphlagonia. which being made the limit of Agrippa's Asia on that side (and not Pontus or Propontis) doth necessarily shew that Pontus and Bit…ynia we…e included therein. whereas it plainly appeareth by Strabo and Dio, that in Augustus his platforme these were a province by themselves. fStrabo, lib. 17. pag. 8…0.they being made by him a Praetorian province, and Asia a Consular; containing in it (as Strabo witnesseth) all that Asia which was on this side the river Halys and the mountaine Taurus, excepting Galatia, the countryes that had been lately under the government of King Amyntas, together with the province of Bithynia and that of Pontus and Propontis adjoyned thereunto. All which being deducted; those countries will remaine, which by gOnuphr. Panum. Commentar. Reipubl. Roman. lib. 3. pag. 378. (edit. Francof…rt. an. 1597.)Onuphrius are assigned unto Augustus his Proconsular Asia: to wit, Lydia, Ionia, Caria, Mysia, Phrygia, and the Proconsular Hellespont. hIn provincià Asià duae sunt juris I…alic…, Tria… & Parium. l. In L…si …an. D. de Censib.the two Roman colonyes whereof, Troas and Parium, are by Paulus the Lawyer particularly noted to have beene seated in the province Asia.
And this is it indeed, which Ptolemy proposeth unto us, as that which was accounted iforeign. Ptolem. lib. 5. cap. 2.the Asia properly so called in the dayes of Antoninus Pius; who himselfe, as kJul. Capitolin. in Antonino Pio.Proconsul, had sometime lProvinciae Asia praerat. Marcianus … C. in L, D… vus Hadrian. D. de custod. & exhibit, reor.governed this province. Where, in the Breviat of the first Table of Asia, it is not to be passed by, that mention is made of mforeign. ad sin. libri 8. Geograph Ptolem.Asia properly so called, wherein was Phrygia. For howsoever that were no part, either of Agrippa's Asia (from whence by nAsiam excipit Ph…ygia. Solin▪ Polyhist. cap. 43.Solinus it is excluded) or yet of the Lydian Asia (from which in oAct. 2.9, 10. & 16.6.the Acts of the Apostles, as also in pforeign. E…seb. lib. 5. hist. foreign.the Letters of the Church of Vienna and Lions, and qPacem Ecclesi… Asiae & Phrygiae inferentem. Tertullian.Tertullians booke against Praxeas, it is clearly distinguished:) yet Hierapolis, the chiefe city thereof, by rPolycrat. in epistolià Synodicâ, apud Euseb: l…b. 5. hist. foreign.Polycrates, and sUlpian. in D. de Aquâ quotidian. & aest…v. l. 1. §. 13.Vlpian, and Iulius Africanus (as farre as we have him in tforeign. Euseb. Chron ad an. 10. Neronis.Eusebius his Chronicle) is placed in Asia; as being contained within the limits assigned by Strabo to the Proconsular Asia, as it stood in the time of Augustus and the heathen Emperours after him.
But in the dayes of Constantine, and the Christian Emperours that succeeded him, the circuit thereof was much abbridged, and a distinction brought in betwixt the Proconsular Asia and the Asian Diocese; the one being put under the command of the Proconsul of Asia, the other under the government of the Vicarius of Asia or the Asian Diocese: for so in the Imperiall Constitutions is he indifferently nominated. Thus in the CCCLXV. yeare of our Lord, two Rescripts were given out by the Emperour Valens: the one uCod. Theodos. lib. 5 tit. 11. Ne c…lon. insciodom.dated the 27th. of January (in the latter end of the first yeare of his raigne) to Clearchus the Vicarius Asiae; the other, xIbid. lib. 12. tit. 1. de Decu…ionib. leg. 69.the 6th of October following, unto his successor Auxonius, under the style of Vicarius dioeceseos Asianae. This Auxonius yG…id. Pancirol. Commentar. in Notit. Orient. I… per. cap. 122. Vid. & Jo…. Scaliger. Ausonian. lection. lib. 2, cap. 17.some doe imagine to be the same with Ausonius the Poët: without all ground of authority or reason, removing him out of the Western into the Eastern empire. But of his predecessor we are sure, that he is the same Clearchus, whom Eunapius mentioneth to have been in his time preferred unto this government; before he was by Valens promoted afterwards unto the Proconsulship of the other Asia.
Concerning this first preferment of his he declareth, that he was made zforeign. Eunap. in vitâ Maxim….governour of all that Asia, the jurisdiction whereof did extend from Hellespont, through Lydia and Pisidia, unto Pamphylia. which is as much to say (if my second thoughts doe not here deceive me) as that it contained in it the Consular Hellespont and Phrygia Salutaris adjoyning thereunto; together with Phrygia Pacatiana, descending from thence downeward, by Lydia on the west-side and Pisidia on the east, unto Pamphylia. For howsoever in the alterations that followed this (as we shall heare anone) the greater part of the in-land Lydia was brought under this Vicarian regiment (as, not Pisidia and Pamphylia only, but Lycaonia, Lycia and Caria also were:) yet that in Clearchus his time this part of Lydia was parcell of the Proconsular Asia, is sufficiently intimated by Eunapius, extending it unto Tmolus aforeign. Strabo. lib. 13 pag. 629a mountaine placed in the Eastern border of Lydia.
For touching the advancement of Clearchus unto the Proconsular government he writeth thus. bforeign. Eunap. in vitá Maxim.Things prosperously succeeding, Valens was wonderfully well pleased with Clearchus, and was so farre from depriving him of his former charge, that he advanced him unto a greater government; appointing him to be Proconsul of Asia now properly so called. This from Pergamus downewards taking the sea-coast into it, toward the adjacent continent reacheth unto Caria; the mountaine Tmolus circumscribing that of it which belongeth unto Lydia. Of the governments it is the most honourable; and is not subject to the Praefectus Praetorio. saving that now, by reason of these late commotions, cforeign. foreign. Euripid. in Bacchis.all things are againe confounded and disturbed.
Where touching the limits of this Asia NOW properly so called, it may be noted; that as Galen (in the place before alledged) maketh the Hellespontian Mysia (which in the old dist…ibution of the Empire was within the precinct of the jurisdiction of the then Proconsular Asia) to be conterminous unto Pergamus, where he himselfe was borne: so Eunapius from the same Pergamus beginneth the bounds of the now Proconsular Asia; extending the length thereof from thence downeward unto Caria, and the breadth from the Sea unto the mountaine Tmolus, which is by Euripides, in his Bacchae, called foreign the fortresse of Lydia; and on the side whereof Sardis (a chiefe city of that province, and Eunapius his owne countrey) is not only by him, but also by dHerodot. lib. 1. §. 84. & lib. 5. §. 101.Herodotus, eforeign. Strabo. l. 13. pag. 625.Strabo, and fLydia celebratur maximè Sardibus, in latere Tmol… montis, qui antè Timolus appellabatur. Plin, lib. 5. c. 29.Pliny (how soever Ptolemyes Tables doe misplace it) sufficiently proved to have beene situated. that ridge of the mountaine, on which Sardis was seated, bounding that part of Lydia toward the East (as we have said) and the other tract thereof reaching from thence unto Hypaepa, a city of lesse name within the same country: as Ovid declareth in those verses;
gOvid. Metamorph lib 9….Nam freta prospiciens latè riget arduus alto
Tmolus in ascensu, clivoque extensus utroque,
Sardibus hinc, illinc parvis finitur Hypaepis.
By which description it appeareth, that this Proconsular Asia was little or nothing different from the Lydian Asia; called Lydia, not only by Herodotus and Scylax, but also (if I mistake not) by hL. Cùm appellatio. C. de appellatio nib.Constantius the Emperour himselfe.
To Valens, the elder Theodosius succeeded in the Eastern Empire: who took away iL. Offic. Hellesponts. C. de offic. comi…. sacr… p…trimon. vel potius, proconsulis et legati.the Consular Hellespont from the jurisdiction of the Vicarius of the Asian Diocese, and put it under the command of the Proconsul of Asia. Which state of the then Proconsular or proper Asia that Greek Geographer might seeme to have respected; who beginneth his enumeration of the XLVIII. Provinces of the continent of Asia, with
Pontus and Bithynia.
Asia properly so called.
Great Phrygia.
Lycia and Caria.
Galatia, &c.
as we have it presented unto us by that most curious searcher of all such kind of rarities, kSalmas. Plinian. exercitat. in Solin. pag. 803.Claudius Salmasius. Wherein it is observable, that Hellespont, Aeolis, Ionia and Lydia are included in, aswell as the greater Phrygia and Caria are excluded from the Asia then properly so called. Whence that new addition of Hellespont being put aside; the remaine will prove to be the same with that which a little before was styled by Eunapius, the Asia now properly so called.
In the dayes of Arcadius (the son and successor of the foresaid Theodosius) this addition of Hellespont to the jurisdiction, was much abated by the detraction of the maine inland part of Lydia from the body of the Proconsular Asia. Which is the cause why lPallad. in vitâ Chrysostomi: & ex eo Georgius Al…xandrinus, tomo 8. edít. Savilian oper. Ch…ysost. pag. 202. foreign.Palladius, speaking of the Asian Synod of seventy Bishops held by Chrysostom in the CCCCII. yeare of our Lord, doth separate the Bishops of Lydia from the Bishops of Asia. for as for the subscriptions of the first Councell of Nice, both those which are found in some Latin books, and those Greek ones that have beene lately published mIn Commentario Jo. Seldeni ad Eu…ychu Origin…s ubi rectissin è monuir, Subscriptiones has Graecas recentiores multò esse commatis quàm Co…stantini temporae admittunt. (pag. 128.)out of Sambucus his copy: they being quite dissonant the one from the other, and having in both of them diverse manifest tokens of forgery and corruption, doe deserve here no regard at all.
Yet in this distraction of Lydia from the Proconsular Asia, it appeareth aswell by nHie…oclis No…itia Oriental▪ Imperiis in Append. G…og…aph sacr. pag. 27.the Civill and oPhotius, de ordine Metropolita…. ibid. pag. 43. et in tomo. 1. juris Graeco Romani, pag. 90.Ecclesiasticall lists of the Provinces of the Easterne empire, recorded by the Grecians, as by the pSubscript. Concil. Chalced, Act. 6. Concil. Constantinop. VI. Act. 18. &c.subscriptions of the Councell of Chalcedon and other of the Eastern Synods; that the Southerne part of Lydia, lying betwixt the rivers of Maeander and Cayster, which we noted to have beene attributed by Ptolemy unto Caria (and wherein were the cities of Priene, Magnesia, Trallis and Nysa) was still reserved unto Asia: together with all that lay upon the sea-coast from Ephesus upward, not only unto Pitane and the mouth of Caicus (which we shewed to have beene a parcell of the Lydian Asia) but also unto Assos and the promontory of Lectum; which was possessed first by the Mysians, then by the Lydians, and lastly by the Aeolians. for that this also, at least wise from Antandrus downward, was sometimes accounted as an appendant unto Lydia, may be gathered, partly from the words of gforeign S…ylax in Per…plo.Scylax Caryandensis (though here corrupted) partly from the testimony of Xenophon; who telleth us that he and his company, rforeign. X…noph. de exped. Cyri, lib. 7.departing from Antandrus, passed by the sea side of Lydia, unto the playne of Thebe, and through it unto Adramyttium. compared with Strabo, relating to the same purpose, that the former sStrabo, lib. 13. pag. 586. foreign. Id. ibid. pag. 613.inhabitants of the playne of Thebe were the Lydians, then called Meones: and that t in his time the name of the Lydian gates was still preserved in Adramyttium, as a memoriall of the building of that city by the Lydians. Although yet, by the authority of Galen and Eunapius, we begin our Lydian Asia from the river Caïcus and Pergamus: those other places of Atarna, Thebe, Adramyttium and Antandrus, being by uHerodo…. lib. 7. de Xerxi… exercitu. foreign. Simplic. in Aristot. Phys…c. lib. 5.Herodotus also referred to Mysia, and not to Lydia.
To conclude therefore the various alterations of the limits of the Proconsular Asia: as we have referred Ptolemies Asia properly so called to the Proconsular Asia, as it was ordered by Augustus; and Eunapius his Asia now properly so called, to that which was by Constantine; and the namelesse Geographers proper Asia, to that which was by the elder Theodosius: by the like reason also, what Simplicius writeth in the dayes of Justinian touching x his Asia now so called, and Symeon Metaphrastes long after him (though concerning elder times, wherein these provinces stood in a far different posture from that which he presenteth unto us) yforeign. Metaphrast. in Actis Aberc…, Octob. 22.of the confluence of the inhabitants of Asia unto Abercius; we may well suppose to have relation unto this last settlement, which was made in the dayes of Arcadius and the younger Theodosius.