Lystra

Abstract

Few visitors seek out the ancient site of Lystra. Neither its unexciting location in the Anatolian plain nor its unexcavated mound offer much enticement except to the hard-core adventurer seeking to trace the route of the Apostle Paul. The ancient city of Lystra was located near the modern village of Hatunsaray, approximately 24 miles southwest of Konya in south-central Turkey. In 1885, about a mile north of Hatunsaray, on a mound called Zoldera (or, variously, Zordula), J. R. Sitlington Sterrett discovered a stone block approximately 3.5 feet tall and 1 foot thick. On the stone was the Latin inscription “DIVVM AVG COL IVL FELIX GEMINA LVSTRA CONSECRAVIT D D,” which uses the Latinized version “Lustra” for the name of the city. The discovery of this monument, erected to honor Caesar Augustus, who founded the Roman colony of Lystra, made identification of the site of ancient Lystra possible. Lystra was a part of the Lycaonian region of Asia Minor, an area bordering Phrygia on the west, Cappadocia on the east, and the ethnic Galatian region on the north. To the south were the Taurus Mountains. Earlier made a part of the province of Cilicia, Lycaonia was put under the control of Amyntas, an ally and client king of the Romans, in 36 B.C.E. When Amyntas died in 25 B.C.E., Lycaonia became a part of the Roman province of Galatia. Because the site of Lystra has yet to be excavated, little can be said with certainty about the earliest settlements on the site. The evidence of Hellenistic-style pottery and Greek inscriptions from the Roman period would suggest that at least a small village existed here during the Hellenistic period. Of the coins that have been found that originated from Lystra, none predates the time of the Roman colony, perhaps indicating that any pre-Roman settlement was not significant enough to issue coins. Emperor Augustus established Lystra as a Roman colony, likely in 25 B.C.E. at the same time that several other Roman colonies, including Pisidian Antioch, were founded. While all the colonies were established to help secure Roman control over Asia Minor, Lystra was likely founded specifically to suppress the Homanadenses and other mountain tribes in south-central Asia Minor who were hindering Roman control of the area.