Galatia and Pamphylia under Augustus: the Governorships of Piso, Quirinius and Silvanus

I . The S t a t u s of Pamphyl ia The same regions of Asia Minor often recur under a variety of appellations, and the same name can bear a variety of meanings, ethnical, geographical or political. This confusion had been intensified rather than diminished by the Roman administration, as Strabo complains4); and it was nowhere more apparent than in the lands to the south and south-west of Galatia where Phrygia, Pamphylia and Cilicia met and merged. If the status and the extent of Pamphylia in the time of Augustus are both uncertain, the only sound method of finding out what they were is to consult the clear, copious and detailed information supplied by a contemporary, Strabo, and use that evidence to interpret the brief and vague statements of later writers. From Strabo we can learn with approximate accuracy the extent of territory that had been embraced by the Galatian kingdom of Amyntas; and this must be the starting point of any enquiry. Two parts of the kingdom may be distinguished: (1) Galatia Proper, the territory of the three tribes of the Galatae; (2) various regions to the south and