Galatia

Ancient Galatia (/ɡəˈleɪʃə/; Greek: Γαλατία) was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia (Ankara, Çorum, Yozgat Province) in modern Turkey. Galatia was named for the immigrant Gauls from Thrace (cf. Tylis), who settled here and became its ruling caste in the 3rd century BC, following the Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC. It has been called the "Gallia" of the East, Roman writers calling its inhabitants Galli (Gauls or Celts).

Geography

Galatia was bounded on the north by Bithynia and Paphlagonia, on the east by Pontus and Cappadocia, on the south by Cilicia and Lycaonia, and on the west by Phrygia. Its capital was Ancyra (i.e. Ankara, today the capital of modern Turkey).

Celtic Galatia

Seeing something of a Hellenized savage in the Galatians, Francis Bacon and other Renaissance writers called them "Gallo-Graeci" or "Gauls settled among the Greeks", and the country "Gallo-Graecia", as had the 3rd-century AD Latin historian Justin. The more usual term in Antiquity is Ἑλληνογαλάται (Hellēnogalátai) of Diodorus Siculus' Bibliotheca historica v.32.5, in a passage that is translated "...and were called Gallo-Graeci because of their connection with the Greeks", identifying Galatia in the Greek East as opposed to Gallia in the West.

Galatia (Roman province)

Galatia was the name of a province of the Roman Empire in Anatolia (modern central Turkey). It was established by the first emperor, Augustus (sole rule 30 BC - 14 AD), in 25 BC, covering most of formerly independent Celtic Galatia, with its capital at Ancyra.

Under the reforms of Diocletian, its northern and southern parts were split off to form the southern part of the province of Paphlagonia and the province of Lycaonia, respectively. In ca. 398, during the reign of Arcadius, it was divided in two provinces, Galatia Prima and Galatia Secunda or Salutaris. Galatia Prima covered the northeastern part of the old province, retaining Ancyra as its capital, and was headed by a consularis, while Salutaris comprised the southwestern half of the old province, and was headed by a praeses with seat at Pessinus. Both provinces were part of the Diocese of Pontus. The two provinces were briefly reunited in 536-548 under Justinian I. Although the area was eventually incorporated in the new thema of Anatolikon in the latter half of the 7th century, traces of the old provincial administration survived until the early 8th century.

Galatia (disambiguation)

Galatia may refer to:

See also