Pisidian Antioch. If you check your map of western Turkey you will find today the town is called Yalvac. And in order to get there from Perga near the south coast, one has to climb huge mountains, risk groups of bandits and various other dangers. So the question is why in the world, having started in Perga didn’t Paul and Barnabas continue along the coast towards Tarsus and then through the Cilician gates back to Antioch? Why Pisidian Antioch. And as I have explained in a post last summer, it’s likely because of Sergius Paulus, the governor of Cyprus whom Paul impressed and apparently befriended. Sergius Paulus had some connection with Pisidian Antioch, as an honorific stone found there mentioning him and perhaps members of his family. Whether it was a family connection or Sergius Paulus or his father had played a role in the turning of that city into a Roman colony city, it is hard to say. But a connection there was, and I have suggested that the reason Paul and Barnabas made the arduous journey over the mountains to that town is because the governor of Cyprus had pointed them in that direction and perhaps given them a letter of introduction. And then too, Paul, as a Roman citizen would have had a further in, in any town that was a Roman colony city like Pisidian Antioch and Iconium. So what is there to see there today?
Well there is the Roman aqueduct coming down from the western hills to bring water to the city….
Yes indeed, Pisidian Antioch was on the very border of the region known as Galatia (with Luke following the old Greek designations in Acts of the geographical regions, but Paul using Roman provincial names). So Paul in due course was to write perhaps his earliest letter to this and several other locales in Galatia.
The city has a monumental gate and a grid plan of major streets….sadly only a little is left of the gate, as over the centuries much of the stone was repurposed and used in houses and shops locally.
There is evidence of a few shops….
The main road was the east west road stretching towards Iconium in the east and the western part of the province of Asia in the opposite direction.
There is also a small theater, which helps us understand that this was not a major city like Laodicea..
If you had not noticed, there is no acropolis, though the plain on the top of the hill housed the agora, the propylon and the Temple of August erected by Tiberius in his honor. This is all that’s left of the agora proper
Other than a nice view in all directions…
And the sign about the propylon..
But there are still some remains of the Temple of Augustus..
This temple was not only carved out of the extant stone there, it was built into it with holes dug out of the dliffs to stabilize the structure with poles or beams…
But I’ve saved the best for last. There was indeed a synagogue below on this site, on top of which the church of St. Paul was built. We can see still the foundations of the synagogue in the third picture below and then the church structure built on top of it…
In our next post we will deal with the things in the little museum for the site in Yalvac.
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