the Third Week of Advent
Click here to join the effort!
Bible Encyclopedias
Galatia
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
or Gala´tia, a province of Asia Minor, bounded on the north by Bithynia and Paphlagonia, on the south by Lycaonia, on the east by Pontus and Cappidocia, and on the west by Phrygia and Bithynia. It derived its name from the Gallic or Keltic tribes who, about 280 years B.C., made an eruption into Macedonia and Thrace. At the invitation of Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, they passed over the Hellespont to assist that prince against his brother Ziboeta. Having accomplished this object, they were unwilling to retrace their steps; and, strengthened by the accession of fresh hordes from Europe, they overran Bithynia and the neighboring countries, and supported themselves by predatory excursions, or by imposts exacted from the native chiefs. After the lapse of forty years, Attalus I, king of Pergamus, succeeded in checking their nomadic habits, and confined them to a fixed territory, Of the three principal tribes, the Trocmi settled in the eastern part of Galatia, near the banks of the Halys; the Tectosages in the country round Ancyra; and the Tolistobogii in the south-western parts, near Pessinus. They retained their independence till the year B.C. 189, when they were brought under the power of Rome by the consul Cn. Manlius, though still governed by their own princes. In the year B.C. 25Galatia became a Roman province. Under the successors of Augustus the boundaries of Galatia were so much enlarged, that it reached from the shores of the Euxine to the Pisidian Taurus. In the time of Constantine a new division was made, which reduced it to its ancient limits; and by Theodosius I or Valens it was separated into Galatia Prima, the northern part, occupied by the Trocmi and Tectosages, and Galatia Secunda or Salutaris: Ancyra was the capital of the former, and Pessinus of the latter.
From the intermixture of Gauls and Greeks, Galatia was also called Gallo-Græcia, and its inhabitants Gallo-Græci. But even in Jerome's time they had not lost their native language.
The Gospel was introduced into this province by the Apostle Paul. His first visit is recorded in , and his second in .
Public Domain.
Kitto, John, ed. Entry for 'Galatia'. "Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature". https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/kbe/g/galatia.html.
