Isaurians

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The Isaurians (also written Isaurer ) were an ancient tribe in the south of Asia Minor . Your home Isauria is on the northern slopes of the Taurus Mountains on the edge of Lycaonia . This region between ancient Cilicia and Pisidia belonged to the Roman province of Isauria , partly also to Cilicia .

An ethnic identity of the Isaurians is often doubted; other historians have tended to accept or associate an ethnic identity with no solid core with the Luwian- speaking Anatolian peoples. Previous authors they (possibly regarded as Semitic ?) Solymer derived from the Greek Bellerophon - myth were known. In some ancient sources all inhabitants of the Taurus Mountains are referred to as Isaurians, while in other sources the Isaurians are called Cilikians.

history

The Isaurians were feared as robbers, pirates, slave traders and warriors in antiquity (see e.g. Lydius ). Its capital was Isaura (near Bozkır ), another important place was Lystra . The Isaurians were born in 78/77 BC. Subdued by Publius Servilius Vatia BC , their capital was destroyed. King Amyntas of Galatia built the ruins around 40 BC. A new city of the same name. In the 3rd century, the new city of Isaura Nea was founded, possibly at the same place, or, according to another opinion, near Aydoğmuş, about 30 kilometers east of it. Isaura Nea became the seat of the anti-emperor Trebellianus in the 3rd century . After its defeat in 268 it was destroyed again. The Isaurians were considered the “inner barbarians” of the empire. Isauria was only permanently integrated into the empire in 279 by Emperor Probus ; the Isaurians received citizenship.

From the late 5th century onwards, the Isaurians made a career as soldiers in the Eastern Roman army and were used by Emperor Leo I as a counterweight to the Gothic troops. The high status of the Isaurian troops was shown by the fact that one of the tribal chiefs was patronized by Leo and made emperor in 474 under the name of Zenon . Under Emperor Anastasios I , they were finally eliminated as a power factor.

The tribe should not be confused with that of Emperor Leo III. founded Syrian dynasty , which is often (incorrectly) referred to as the Isaurian dynasty and ruled the Byzantine Empire from 717 to 802.

literature

  • Hugh Elton: The Nature of the Sixth-Century Isaurians . In: Geoffrey Greatrex , Stephen Mitchell (Eds.): Ethnicity and culture in Late Antiquity . Duckworth et al., London 2000, ISBN 0-7156-3043-1 , pp. 293-307.
  • Karl field: barbarian citizens. The Isaurians and the Roman Empire. de Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 2006, ISBN 3-11-018899-6 ( Millennium Studies . Vol. 8), (also Berlin, Freie Univ., Diss., 2004). New edition 2012.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Felix John: The Letter to the Galatians in the context of historical life worlds in ancient Asia Minor. Göttingen 2016, p. 50 f.
  2. ↑ Feld 2012, p. 41 ff.
  3. ↑ Feld 2012, p. 39.
  4. ↑ Philipp Pilhofer: Early Christianity in the Kilikisch-Isaurischen Bergland = texts and studies on the history of early Christian literature (TU) Volume 184. De Gruyter 1918 ISBN 978-3-11-057381-7 pp. 262-264.
  5. ^ Klaus Belke : Galatia and Lykaonia . (Tabula Imperii Byzantini 4). Vienna 1984. pp. 198-200
  6. ^ Isaurien , in: Pierer's Universal-Lexikon , Volume 9. Altenburg 1860, p. 77. Online