Cappadocia (Roman province)

The Anatolian provinces enjoy prosperity and security after the accession of the Roman emperor Augustus (r. 27 BCE -CE 14), and for generations thereafter.

All of Anatolia except Armenia, which is a Roman client-state, is integrated into the imperial system by CE 43.

The cities are administered by local councils and send delegates to provincial assemblies that advise the Roman governors.

Their inhabitants are citizens of a cosmopolitan world state, subject to a common legal system and sharing a common Roman identity.

Roman in allegiance and Greek in culture, the region nonetheless retains its ethnic complexity.

Vespasian joins Cappadocia with the provinces of Galatia and Lesser Armenia in 72 to form a large new Roman administrative unit.

Aretaeus of Cappadocia writes in Ionic Greek a general treatise on diseases, which is still extant, and is certainly one of the most valuable relics of antiquity.

The book displays great accuracy in the detail of symptoms, and in seizing the diagnostic character of diseases.

In his practice he follows for the most part the method of Hippocrates, but he pays less attention to what have been styled "the natural actions" of the system; and, contrary to the practice of the Father of Medicine, he does not hesitate to attempt to counteract them, when they appear to him to be injurious.

One disease he describes is later known as Celiac Disease and is common in the world today.

The account which he gives of his treatment of various diseases indicates a simple and sagacious system, and one of more energy than that of the professed Methodici.

Thus he freely administers active purgatives; he does not object to narcotics; he is much less averse to bleeding; and upon the whole his Materia Medica is both ample and efficient.

It may be asserted generally that there are few of the ancient physicians, since the time of Hippocrates, who appear to have been less biased by attachment to any peculiar set of opinions, and whose account of the phenomena and treatment of disease has better stood the test of subsequent experience.

Aretaeus is placed by some writers among the Pneumatici because he maintained the doctrines which are peculiar to this sect; other systematic writers, however, think that he is better entitled to be placed with the Eclectics.

Aretaeus' work consists of eight books, two De causis et signis acutorum morborum, two De causis et signis diuturnorum morborum, two De curatione acutorum morborum, and two De curatione diuturnorum morborum.

They are in a tolerably complete state of preservation, though a few chapters are lost. (See Aretaeus' complete works in Greek and English (edition of Francis Adams, 1856) at the Digital Hippocrates project.)

Cappadocia had been established in CE 17 as an imperial province, meaning that its governor (legatus Augusti) is directly appointed by the emperor.

As the Empire's northeasternmost province, it retains a permanent military garrison of two legions and several Auxiliary troops.

At the end of the first century under Emperor Trajan, the province also incorporates the regions of Pontus and Armenia Minor.

Arrian, born of Greek ethnicity in the coastal town of Nicomedia (present-day Izmit), the capital of the Roman province of Bithynia, in what is now northwestern Turkey, about seventy kilometers from Byzantium (later Constantinople, now Istanbul), had studied philosophy in Nicopolis in Epirus, under the Stoic philosopher Epictetus, and had written two books about the philosopher's teachings.

At the same time he had entered the Imperial service, and served as a junior adviser on the consilium of Gaius Avidius Nigrinus, governor of Achaea and a close friend of the future Emperor Hadrian, around 111-114.

Very little is known about his subsequent career—though it is probable that he served in Gaul and on the Danube frontier, and possible that he was in Baetica and Parthia—until he held the office of Consul in 129 or 130.

In 131, he had been appointed governor of the Black Sea province of Cappadocia and commander of the Roman legions on the frontier with Armenia.

It is unusual at this time for a Greek to hold such high military command.

As the Empire's north-easternmost province, Cappadocia, which also incorporates the regions of Pontus and Armenia Minor, hosts a permanent military garrison of two legions and several Auxiliary troops.

In 135, Cappadocia is threatened by an Alan invasion.

Arrian will later write a military treatise called Ektaxis kata Alanōn, which details the battle against the Alans, and the Technē Taktikē, in which he describes how he would organize the legions and auxiliary troops at his disposal, among which are legions XII Fulminata and XV Apollinaris.

He would deploy the legionaries in depth supported by javelin throwers, archers, and horse archers in the rear ranks to defeat the assault of the Alan cavalry using these combined arms tactics.

However, Arrian's work may have been entirely hypothetical, because there is no historical record of a battle between Romans and Alans in 135.

He also writes a short account of a tour of inspection of the Black Sea coast in the traditional 'periplus' form (in Greek) addressed to the Emperor Hadrian, the Periplus Ponti Euxini or "Circumnavigation of the Black Sea".

Parthian king Vologases IV enters the Kingdom of Armenia (a Roman client state) in the late summer autumn of 161, expels its king and installs his own—Pacorus, an Arsacid like himself.

At the time of the invasion, the governor of Syria is L. Attidius Cornelianus, who had been retained as governor even though his term ended in 161, presumably to avoid giving the Parthians the chance to wrong-foot his replacement.

The governor of Cappadocia, the front-line in all Armenian conflicts, is Marcus Sedatius Severianus, a Gaul with much experience in military matters.

Persuaded by Alexander of Abonutichus, a prophet who carries a snake named Glycon around with him, that he can defeat the Parthians easily, and win glory for himself, Severianus leads a legion (perhaps the IX Hispana) into Armenia, but is trapped by the great Parthian general Chosrhoes at Elegia, a town just beyond the Cappadocian frontiers, high up past the headwaters of the Euphrates.

Severianus makes some attempt to fight Chosrhoes, but soon realizes the futility of his campaign, and commits suicide.

His legion is massacred.

The campaign had only lasted three days.

The Parthians, under Vologases IV, have invaded Armenia, deposed its Roman client king in favor of a son of Vologases, and destroyed the Roman legion sent to redress the situation.

There is threat of war on Rome’s other frontiers as well—in Britain, and in Raetia and Upper Germany, where the Chatti of the Taunus mountains have recently crossed over the limes.

Marcus Aurelius is unprepared.

Pius seems to have given him no military experience; the biographer writes that Marcus spent the whole of Pius' twenty-three-year reign at the emperor's side—and not in the provinces, where most previous emperors had spent their early careers.

Marcus makes the necessary appointments: Marcus Statius Priscus, the governor of Britain, is sent to replace the late Severianus as governor of Cappadocia, and is in turn replaced by Sextus Calpurnius Agricola.

More bad news arrives: Attidius Cornelianus' army had been defeated in battle against the Parthians, and retreated in disarray.

Reinforcements are dispatched for the Parthian frontier.

P. Julius Geminius Marcianus, an African senator commanding X Gemina at Vindobona (Vienna), leaves for Cappadocia with vexillations from the Danubian legions.

Three full legions are also sent east: I Minervia from Bonn in Upper Germany, II Adiutrix from Aquincum, and V Macedonica from Troesmis.

The northern frontiers are strategically weakened; frontier governors are told to avoid conflict wherever possible.

Attidius Cornelianus himself is replaced by M. Annius Libo, Marcus' first cousin.

He is young—his first consulship is in 161, so he is probably in his early thirties—and, as a mere patrician, lacks military experience.

Marcus has chosen a reliable man rather than a talented one.

Verus’ journey continues by ship through the Aegean and the southern coasts of Asia Minor, lingering in the famed pleasure resorts of Pamphylia and Cilicia, before arriving in Antioch.

It is not known how long Verus' journey east took; he might not have arrived in Antioch until after 162.

Statius Priscus, meanwhile, must have already arrived in Cappadocia; he will earn fame in 163 for successful generalship.

Lucius spends most of the campaign in Antioch, though he wintered at Laodicea and summers at Daphne, a resort just outside Antioch.

He takes up a mistress named Panthea, from Smyrna.

The biographer calls her a "lowborn girlfriend", but she is probably closer to Lucian's "woman of perfect beauty", more beautiful than any of Phidias and Praxiteles' statues.

Polite, caring, humble, she sings to the lyre perfectly and speaks clear Ionic Greek, spiced with Attic wit.

Panthea reads Lucian's first draft, and criticizes him for flattery.

He had compared her to a goddess, which frightens her—she does not want to become the next Cassiopeia.

She has power, too: she makes Lucius shave his beard for her.

Critics declaim Lucius' luxurious lifestyle.

He has taken to gambling and enjoys the company of actors.

He makes a special request for dispatches from Rome, to keep him updated on how his chariot teams are doing.

He brings a golden statue of the Greens' horse Volucer around with him, as a token of his team spirit.

Fronto defends his pupil against some of these claims: the Roman people need Lucius' bread and circuses to keep them in check.

This, at least, is how the biographer has it.

The whole section of the vita dealing with Lucius' debaucheries (HA Verus 4.4–6.6) is an insertion into a narrative otherwise entirely cribbed from an earlier source.

Some few passages seem genuine; others take and elaborate something from the original.

The rest is by the biographer himself, relying on nothing better than his own imagination.

Lucius faces a heavy task.

Fronto describes the scene in terms recalling Corbulo's arrival one hundred years before.

The Syrian soldiers, having turned soft during the east's long peace, spend more time at the city's open-air bars than in their quarters.

Under Lucius, training is stepped up.

Pontius Laelianus orders that their saddles be stripped of their padding.

Gambling and drinking are sternly policed.

Fronto writes that Lucius was on foot at the head of his army as often as on horseback.

He personally inspects soldiers in the field and at camp, including the sick bay.

Lucius sends Fronto few messages at the beginning of the war, but does send Fronto a letter apologizing for his silence.

He will not detail plans that could change within a day, he writes.

Moreover, there is little thus far to show for his work.

Lucius does not want Fronto to suffer the anxieties that have kept him up day and night.

One reason for Lucius' reticence may have been the collapse of Parthian negotiations after the Roman conquest of Armenia.

Lucius' presentation of terms is seen as cowardice.

The Parthians are not in the mood for peace.

Lucius needs to make extensive imports into Antioch, so he opens a sailing route up the Orontes.

Because the river breaks across a cliff before reaching the city, Lucius orders that a new canal be dug.

After the project is completed, the Orontes' old riverbed dries up, exposing massive bones—the bones of a giant.

Pausanias says they were from a beast "more than eleven cubits" tall; Philostratus says the it was "thirty cubits" tall.

The oracle at Claros declares that they are the bones of the river's spirit.

The Roman general Avidius Cassius, governor of Syria, who earlier had served under the late Emperor Lucius Verus, has by 175 virtually become a prefect of all of the eastern provinces, including control of the important province of Egypt.

In this year, Avidius Cassius takes the occasion of a rumor of Marcus Aurelius' death to proclaim himself emperor.

Marcus, very much alive, makes peace in the north with those tribes not already subjugated, and prepares to march against Avidius, who, having been accepted as Emperor by Syria, Palestine and Egypt, Cassius carries on his rebellion even after it has become obvious that Marcus is still alive.

Of the eastern provinces, only Cappadocia and Bithynia do not side with the rebels.

Cassius' fortunes decline quickly and the rebel general dies at the hands of one his own centurions after only one hundred days of power and before the campaign against him can begin.

The emperor, who apparently arrives in Antioch after the fact, uses the opportunity to make a tour of pacification and inspection in the East, first visiting Antioch, then crossing to Egypt.

Clement of Alexandria, living in exile in Cappadocia since 202, produces a number of influential works that marry Christian faith to Platonic philosophy.

One of the founders of the Alexandrine tradition in Christian theology, Clement is best known for three works.

His Protrepticus ("Exhortation to the Greeks"), is an attempt to convert followers of pagan gods; his Paedagogus ("Tutor"), is an explanation of the world in terms of the "logos," or mind of God; and in his Stromata ("Miscellanies"), he maintains that philosophy is God's gift to the Greeks.

He dies in 215 (later considered as one of the Fathers of the Church and, by some, a Christian gnostic).