According toHomer'sIliad, the Phrygians participated in theTrojan War as close allies of theTrojans, fighting against theAchaeans. Phrygian power reached its peak in the late 8th century BC under another historical king, Midas, who dominated most of western and central Anatolia and rivaledAssyria andUrartu for power in eastern Anatolia. This later Midas was, however, also the last independent king of Phrygia beforeCimmerianssacked the Phrygian capital,Gordium, around 695 BC. Phrygia then became subject toLydia, and then successively toPersia,Alexander and hisHellenistic successors,Pergamon, theRoman Empire and theByzantine Empire. Over this time Phrygians became Christian and Greek-speaking, assimilating into the Byzantine state; after theTurkish conquest of Byzantine Anatolia in the late Middle Ages, the name "Phrygia" passed out of usage as a territorial designation.
Phrygia describes an area on the western end of the high Anatolian plateau, an arid region quite unlike the forested lands to the north and west of it. Phrygia begins in the northwest where an area of dry steppe is diluted by the Sakarya andPorsuk river system and is home to the settlements ofDorylaeum near modernEskişehir, and the Phrygian capitalGordion. The climate is harsh with hot summers and cold winters. Therefore, olives will not easily grow here so the land is mostly used for livestock grazing and barley production.
South of Dorylaeum an important Phrygian settlement, Midas City (Yazılıkaya, Eskişehir), is situated in an area of hills and columns of volcanictuff. To the south again, central Phrygia includes the cities ofAfyonkarahisar (ancient Akroinon) with its marble quarries at nearbyDocimium (İscehisar), and the town ofSynnada. At the western end of Phrygia stood the towns ofAizanoi (modernÇavdarhisar) andAcmonia. From here to the southwest lies the hilly area of Phrygia that contrasts to the bare plains of the region's heartland.
The region of southwestern Phrygia is irrigated by the Maeander, also known as theBüyük Menderes River, along with its tributary, the Lycus. Within its boundaries lie the towns of Laodicea on the Lycus andHierapolis.[6]
According to ancient tradition among Greek historians, the Phrygians migrated toAnatolia from theBalkans.Herodotus says that the Phrygians were calledBryges when they lived in Europe.[7] He and other Greek writers also recorded legends about KingMidas that associated him with or put his origin inMacedonia; Herodotus, for example, says a wild rose garden in Macedonia was named after Midas.[8]
Some classical writers[which?] also connected the Phrygians with theMygdones, the name of two groups of people, one of which lived in northern Macedonia and another inMysia. Likewise, thePhrygians have been identified[by whom?] with theBebryces, a people said to have warred withMysia before theTrojan War and who had a king namedMygdon at roughly the same time as the Phrygians were said to have had a king named Mygdon.
The classical historianStrabo groups Phrygians,Mygdones,Mysians,Bebryces andBithynians together as peoples that migrated to Anatolia from the Balkans.[9] This image of Phrygians as part of a related group of northwest Anatolian cultures seems the most likely explanation for the confusion over whetherPhrygians,Bebryces and Anatolian Mygdones were or were not the same people.
Phrygian continued to be spoken until the 6th century AD, though its distinctive alphabet was lost earlier than those of most Anatolian cultures.[6] One of theHomeric Hymns describes thePhrygian language as not mutually intelligible with that ofTroy,[10] and inscriptions found atGordium make clear that Phrygians spoke anIndo-European language with at least some vocabulary similar toGreek. Phrygian clearly did not belong to the family ofAnatolian languages spoken in most of the adjacent countries, such asHittite.[11][12] The apparent similarity of thePhrygian language to Greek and its dissimilarity with theAnatolian languages spoken by most of their neighbors is also taken as support for a European origin of the Phrygians.[6]
From what is available, it is evident that Phrygian shares important features withGreek andArmenian. Phrygian is part of thecentum group of Indo-European languages. However, between the 19th and the first half of the 20th century Phrygian was mostly considered asatəm language, and thus closer to Armenian andThracian, while today it is commonly considered to be a centum language and thus closer to Greek.[13] The reason that in the past Phrygian had the guise of a satəm language was due to two secondary processes that affected it. Namely, Phrygian merged the old labiovelar with the plain velar, and secondly, when in contact with palatal vowels /e/ and /i/, especially in initial position, some consonants became palatalized. Furthermore,Kortlandt (1988) presented common sound changes of Thracian and Armenian and their separation from Phrygian and the rest of thepalaeo-Balkan languages from an early stage.[14][15]
Modern consensus regards Greek as the closest relative of Phrygian, a position that is supported byBrixhe, Neumann, Matzinger, Woodhouse, Ligorio, Lubotsky, and Obrador-Cursach. Furthermore, 34 out of the 36 Phrygian isoglosses that are recorded are shared with Greek, with 22 being exclusive between them. The last 50 years of Phrygian scholarship developed a hypothesis that proposes aproto-Graeco-Phrygian stage out of which Greek and Phrygian originated, and if Phrygian was more sufficiently attested, that stage could perhaps be reconstructed.[14][16][17][18][19]
Phrygian soldiers. Detail from a reconstruction of a Phrygian building at Pazarlı, Çorum, Turkey, 7th–6th centuries BC.
Some scholars dismiss the claim of a Phrygian migration as a mere legend, likely arising from the coincidental similarity of their name to theBryges, and have theorized that migration into Phrygia could have occurred more recently than classical sources suggest. They have sought to fit the Phrygian arrival into a narrative explaining the downfall of theHittite Empire and the end of the high Bronze Age in Anatolia.[20]
According to the "recent migration" theory, the Phrygians invaded just before or after the collapse of the Hittite Empire at the beginning of the 12th century BC, filling the political vacuum in central-western Anatolia, and may have been counted among the "Sea Peoples" that Egyptian records credit with bringing about the Hittite collapse. The so-called Handmade Knobbed Ware found in Western Anatolia during this period has been tentatively identified as an import connected to this invasion.
Some scholars believe that the Phrygians were already established on theSakarya River during theLate Bronze Age. These scholars seek instead to trace the Phrygians' origins among the many nations of western Anatolia who were subject to theHittites.[21] This interpretation finds some motivation in Greek legends about Phrygians participation in the Trojan War, as well as the founding myth of theGordium.[citation needed]
Ruins of the Lycus
No one has conclusively identified which of the many subjects of theHittites might have represented early Phrygians. According to a classical tradition, popularized byJosephus, Phrygia can be equated with the country calledTogarmah by the ancient Hebrews, which has in turn been identified as theTegarama of Hittite texts and Til-Garimmu ofAssyrian records.Josephus called Togarmah "the Thrugrammeans, who, as the Greeks resolved, were named Phrygians". However, the Greek source cited byJosephus is unknown, and it is unclear if there was any basis for the identification other than name similarity.[citation needed]
Scholars of the Hittites believe Tegarama was in eastern Anatolia – some locate it atGurun – far to the east of Phrygia. Some scholars have identified Phrygia with theAssuwa league, and noted that theIliad mentions a Phrygian (QueenHecuba's brother) namedAsios.[22] Another possible early name of Phrygia could beHapalla, the name of the easternmost province that emerged from the splintering of the Bronze Age western Anatolian empireArzawa. However, scholars are unsure if Hapalla corresponds to Phrygia or toPisidia, further south.[citation needed]
Ancient Greek historianHerodotus (writing circa 440 BC), suggested that Armenians migrated from Phrygia, which at the time encompassed much of western and centralAnatolia: "the Armenians were equipped like Phrygians, being Phrygian colonists" (7.73) (Ἀρμένιοι δὲ κατά περ Φρύγες ἐσεσάχατο, ἐόντες Φρυγῶν ἄποικοι.) According to Herotodus, the Phrygians had originated in theBalkans, in an area adjoining Macedonia, from where they had emigrated to Anatolia during theBronze Age collapse. This led later scholars, such asIgor Diakonoff, to theorize that Armenians also originated in the Balkans and moved east with the Phrygians.[23] However, an Armenian origin in the Balkans, although once widely accepted, has been facing increased scrutiny in recent years due to discrepancies in the timeline and lack of genetic and archeological evidence.[24][25][26] In fact, some scholars have suggested that the Phrygians and/or the apparently relatedMushki people were originally from Armenia and moved westward.[27]
A number of linguists have rejected a close relationship between Armenian and Phrygian, despite saying that the two languages do share some features.[28][29][30][31][32] Phrygian is now classified as acentum language more closely related to Greek than Armenian, whereas Armenian is mostlysatem.[33]
Detail from a reconstruction of a Phrygian building at Pararli, Turkey, 7th–6th centuries BC: Museum of Anatolian Civilisations,Ankara. A griffin, sphinx and two centaurs are shown.
During the 8th century BC, the Phrygian kingdom with its capital atGordium in the upperSakarya River valley expanded into an empire dominating most of central and western Anatolia and encroaching upon the largerAssyrian Empire to its southeast and the kingdom ofUrartu to the northeast.[34]
According to the classical historiansStrabo,[35]Eusebius andJulius Africanus, the king of Phrygia during this time was another Midas. This historical Midas is believed to be the same person named as Mita in Assyrian texts from the period and identified as king of theMushki. Scholars figure that Assyrians called Phrygians "Mushki" because the Phrygians andMushki, an eastern Anatolian people, were at that time campaigning in a joint army.[36] This Midas is thought to have reigned over Phrygia at the peak of its power from about 720 BC to about 695 BC (according to Eusebius) or 676 BC (according to Julius Africanus). An Assyrian inscription mentioning "Mita", dated to 709 BC, during the reign ofSargon of Assyria, suggests Phrygia andAssyria had struck a truce by that time. This Midas appears to have had good relations and close trade ties with the Greeks, and reputedly married an Aeolian Greek princess.
A system of writing in thePhrygian language developed and flourished in Gordium during this period, using a Phoenician-derived alphabet similar to the Greek one. A distinctive Phrygian pottery called Polished Ware appears during this period.
However, the Phrygian Kingdom was thenoverwhelmed by Cimmerian invaders, andGordium was sacked and destroyed. According to Strabo and others, Midas committed suicide by drinking bulls' blood.
A series of digs have openedGordium as one of Turkey's most revealing archeological sites. Excavations confirm a violent destruction of Gordium around 675 BC. A tomb from the period, popularly identified as the "Tomb of Midas", revealed a wooden structure deeply buried under a vasttumulus, containing grave goods, a coffin, furniture, and food offerings (Archaeological Museum, Ankara).
After their destruction ofGordium, the Cimmerians remained in western Anatolia and warred withLydia, which eventually expelled them by around 620 BC, and then expanded to incorporate Phrygia, which became the Lydian empire's eastern frontier. The Gordium site reveals a considerable building program during the 6th century BC, under the domination of Lydian kings including the proverbially rich KingCroesus. Meanwhile, Phrygia's former eastern subjects fell toAssyria and later to theMedes.
There may be an echo of strife with Lydia and perhaps a veiled reference to royal hostages, in the legend of the twice-unlucky Phrygian princeAdrastus, who accidentally killed his brother and exiled himself toLydia, where KingCroesus welcomed him. Once again, Adrastus accidentally killed Croesus' son and then committed suicide.
AfterDarius the Great became Persian Emperor in 521 BC, he remade the ancient trade route into the Persian "Royal Road" and instituted administrative reforms that included setting upsatrapies. The Phrygiansatrapy (province) lay west of theHalys River (nowKızıl River) and east ofMysia and Lydia. Its capital was established atDascylium, modernErgili.
In the course of the 5th century, the region was divided in two administrative satrapies:Hellespontine Phrygia and Greater Phrygia.[37]
The Macedonian Greek conquerorAlexander the Great passed throughGordium in 333 BC and severed theGordian Knot in the temple ofSabazios ("Zeus"). According to a legend, possibly promulgated by Alexander's publicists, whoever untied the knot would be master ofAsia. With Gordium sited on thePersian Royal Road that led through the heart ofAnatolia, the prophecy had some geographical plausibility. With Alexander, Phrygia became part of the widerHellenistic world. Upon Alexander's death in 323 BC, theBattle of Ipsus took place in 301 BC.[38]
In the chaotic period after Alexander's death, northern Phrygia was overrun byCelts, eventually to become the province ofGalatia. The former capital ofGordium was captured and destroyed by the Gauls soon afterwards and disappeared from history.
The two Phrygian provinces within the Diocese of Asia, c. 400 AD.
In 133 BC, the remnants of Phrygia passed toRome. For purposes of provincial administration, the Romans maintained a divided Phrygia, attaching the northeastern part to the province ofGalatia and the western portion to the province ofAsia. There is some evidence that western Phrygia andCaria were separated from Asia in 254–259 to become the new province of Phrygia and Caria.[39] During the reforms ofDiocletian, Phrygia was divided anew into two provinces: "Phrygia I", or Phrygia Salutaris (meaning "healthy" in Latin), and Phrygia II, or Pacatiana (Greek Πακατιανή, Pakatiane, unknown etymology, but translated as "peaceful"), both under theDiocese of Asia. Salutaris with Synnada as its capital comprised the eastern portion of the region and Pacatiana withLaodicea on the Lycus as capital of the western portion. The provinces survived up to the end of the 7th century, when they were replaced by theTheme system. In the Late Roman, early "Byzantine" period, most of Phrygia belonged to theAnatolic theme. It was overrun by the Turks in the aftermath of theBattle of Manzikert (1071).[40] The Turks had taken complete control in the 13th century, but the ancient name ofPhrygia remained in use until the last remnant of the Byzantine Empire was conquered by theOttoman Empire in 1453.
The Phrygian religion in antiquity waspolytheistic and was distinct from the earlier religions of theAnatolian peoples and whose pantheon was composed of deities who werereflexes of earlier Aegean-Balkan ones.[41]
Unlike the Hittite and Luwian religions, the Phrygian pantheon was headed by a feminine deity,[42] a goddessMatar who was associated with mountains and wild animals and was given the epithet ofKubeleya orKubileya[43] with the full nameMatar Kubeleya thus meaninglit.'Mother of the Mountain Peaks'.[44] As the "Mountain Mother" (Ancient Greek:Μητηρ ορεια,romanized: Mētēr oreia),Matar was the mistress of wild mountainous landscapes and the protectress and nurturer of the wild animals living there.[42]
Matar Kubeleya was the Phrygian reflex of an earlier Aegean-Balkan goddess whoseLydian variant was the goddess Kufaws.[45]
The cult ofMatar Kubeleya was performed by priests namedCorybantes (meaninglit.'head-shakers'), likely in mountainous locations,[46] and through orgiastic rites featuring pipe and cymbal music and ecstatic dancing,[47] with her name also characterising her as the goddess of head-shaking and the ecstatic state caused by it.[48] Therefore, the goddess was also given a Phrygian epithet meaning "frantic" in reference to the divine frenzy she inspired in her worshipers and recorded in Greek askubēbos (κυβηβος).[49]
Due to the prominence of the cult ofMatar Kubeleya in Central Anatolia during the Iron Age, her cult spread to Pisidia and later to the Greco-Roman world under the name of Kybele (Ancient Greek:Κυβέλη;Latin:Cybele).[43]
The storm godTiws held an important place in the Phrygian pantheon and his cult was widespread in Phrygia.[43]Tiws was not connected to the earlier Anatolian storm godTarḫuntas and was instead the Phrygian variant of an earlier Aegean-Balkan god whose Lydian and Greek reflexes wereLefs andZeus,[50] also cognate with theItalicJovis.[42]
The Phrygian moon god wasMas who was known in Greek asMen.Mas was the Phrygian reflex of an earlier Aegean-Balkan god whose Lydian variant wasQaλiyañs.[47]
The identity and gender of the Phrygian deityBas are still unclear.[42]
Artimis was aPotnia Theron-type Phrygian goddess who was the reflex of an older Aegean-Balkan goddess whose Lydian and Greek variants were respectively the goddessesArtimus andArtemis.[42][50]
The earliest traditions ofGreek music derived from Phrygia, transmitted through the Greek colonies in Anatolia and included thePhrygian mode, which was considered to be the warlike mode in ancient Greek music. Phrygian Midas, the king of the "golden touch", was tutored in music byOrpheus himself according to the myth. Another musical invention that came from Phrygia was theaulos, a reed instrument with two pipes.
Classical Greek iconography identifies theTrojanParis as non-Greek by hisPhrygian cap, which was worn byMithras and survived into modern imagery as the "liberty cap" of the American andFrench revolutionaries.
The name of the earliest known mythical king wasNannacus (aka Annacus).[51] This king resided at Iconium, the most eastern city of the kingdom of Phrygia at that time; and after his death, at the age of 300 years, a great flood overwhelmed the country, as had been foretold by an ancient oracle. The next king mentioned in extant classical sources was called Manis or Masdes. According to Plutarch, because of his splendid exploits, great things were called "manic" in Phrygia.[52] Thereafter, the kingdom of Phrygia seems to have become fragmented among various kings. One of the kings wasTantalus, who ruled over the north western region of Phrygia aroundMount Sipylus. Tantalus was endlessly punished inTartarus, because he allegedly killed his sonPelops and sacrificially offered him to the Olympians, a reference to the suppression ofhuman sacrifice. Tantalus was also falsely accused of stealing from the lotteries he had invented. In the mythic age before theTrojan War, during a time of aninterregnum,Gordius (or Gordias), a Phrygian farmer, became king, fulfilling an oracularprophecy. The kingless Phrygians had turned for guidance to the oracle of Sabazios ("Zeus" to the Greeks) atTelmissus, in the part of Phrygia that later became part ofGalatia. They had been instructed by the oracle to acclaim as their king the first man who rode up to the god's temple in a cart. That man was Gordias (Gordios, Gordius), a farmer, who dedicated the ox-cart in question, tied to its shaft with the "Gordian Knot". Gordias refounded a capital at Gordium in west central Anatolia, situated on the old trackway through the heart of Anatolia that becameDarius's Persian "Royal Road" fromPessinus toAncyra, and not far from theRiver Sangarius.
Man in Phrygian costume,Hellenistic period (3rd–1st century BC),Cyprus
The Phrygians are associated in Greek mythology with theDactyls, minor gods credited with the invention of iron smelting, who in most versions of the legend lived atMount Ida in Phrygia.
Gordias's son (adopted in some versions) was Midas. A large body of myths and legends surround this first king Midas.[53] connecting him with a mythological tale concerningAttis.[54] This shadowy figure resided at Pessinus and attempted to marry his daughter to the young Attis in spite of the opposition of his lover Agdestis and his mother, the goddessCybele. When Agdestis and/or Cybele appear and cast madness upon the members of the wedding feast. Midas is said to have died in the ensuing chaos.
King Midas is said to have associated himself withSilenus and other satyrs and withDionysus, who granted him a "golden touch".
In one version of his story, Midas travels fromThrace accompanied by a band of his people to Asia Minor to wash away the taint of his unwelcome "golden touch" in the riverPactolus. Leaving the gold in the river's sands, Midas found himself in Phrygia, where he was adopted by the childless king Gordias and taken under the protection of Cybele. Acting as the visible representative of Cybele, and under her authority, it would seem, a Phrygian king could designate his successor.
According toHerodotus,[55] the Egyptian pharaohPsammetichus II had two children raised in isolation in order to find the original language. The children were reported to have utteredbekos, which is Phrygian for "bread", so Psammetichus admitted that the Phrygians were a nation older than the Egyptians.
In theIliad, the homeland of the Phrygians was on theSangarius River, which would remain the centre of Phrygia throughout its history. Phrygia was famous for its wine and had "brave and expert" horsemen.
According to theIliad, before theTrojan War, a young kingPriam ofTroy had taken an army to Phrygia to support it in a war against theAmazons. Homer calls the Phrygians "the people ofOtreus and godlikeMygdon".[56] According toEuripides,Quintus Smyrnaeus and others, this Mygdon's son,Coroebus, fought and died in theTrojan War; he had sued for the hand of the Trojan princessCassandra in marriage. The nameOtreus could be an eponym forOtroea, a place onLake Ascania in the vicinity of the laterNicaea, and the nameMygdon is clearly an eponym for theMygdones, a people said byStrabo to live in northwest Asia Minor, and who appear to have sometimes been considered distinct from thePhrygians.[57] However,Pausanias believed that Mygdon's tomb was located atStectorium in the southern Phrygian highlands, near modernSandikli.[58]
Horseman and griffin, Phrygia, 600–550 BC.
According to theBibliotheca, the Greek heroHeracles slew a king Mygdon of theBebryces in a battle in northwest Anatolia that if historical would have taken place about a generation before theTrojan War. According to the story, while traveling fromMinoa to theAmazons, Heracles stopped inMysia and supported theMysians in a battle with the Bebryces.[59] According to some interpretations, Bebryces is an alternate name for Phrygians and this Mygdon is the same person mentioned in theIliad.
KingPriam married the Phrygian princess Hecabe (orHecuba[60]) and maintained a close alliance with the Phrygians, who repaid him by fighting "ardently" in theTrojan War against the Greeks. Hecabe was a daughter of the Phrygian kingDymas, son ofEioneus, son of Proteus. According to theIliad, Hecabe's younger brotherAsius also fought at Troy (see above); andQuintus Smyrnaeus mentions two grandsons of Dymas that fell at the hands ofNeoptolemus at the end of the Trojan War: "Two sons he slew of Meges rich in gold, Scion of Dymas – sons of high renown, cunning to hurl the dart, to drive the steed in war, and deftly cast the lance afar, born at one birth beside Sangarius' banks of Periboea to him, Celtus one, and Eubius the other."Teleutas, father of the maidenTecmessa, is mentioned as another mythical Phrygian king.
There are indications in the Iliad that the heart of the Phrygian country was further north and downriver than it would be in later history. The Phrygian contingent arrives to aidTroy coming from Lake Ascania in northwest Anatolia, and is led byPhorcys andAscanius, both sons of Aretaon.
In one of the so-calledHomeric Hymns, Phrygia is said to be "rich in fortresses" and ruled by "famousOtreus".[10]
During the Roman imperial period, Jews in Phrygia, like elsewhere in Asia Minor, formed a prosperous and established minority. Centuries earlier, Seleucid kingAntiochus III (r. 228–187 BC) resettled 2,000 Jewish families fromMesopotamia andBabylon in Lydia and Phrygia, aiming to strengthen Seleucid control in the region. This likely meant relocating more than 10,000 individuals to Antiochus' territories in western Asia Minor. The Jews received land, tax exemptions, and grain until they could sustain themselves from their own harvests. Antiochus specifically allocated land for vineyards, indicating a focus onviticulture, consistent with later references in theTalmud about Jewish Phrygia's wine production.[61]
Evidence suggests the existence ofsynagogues in various cities, includingIconium, which had an ethnically mixed population but was sometimes considered Phrygian. AtSynnada (Şuhut), a ruler of the synagogue is mentioned, indicating the presence of a synagogue. InHierapolis (Pamukkale), a third-century sarcophagus inscription highlights the importance of the holy synagogue in burial practices. The most well-documented Phrygian synagogue was inAcmonia (Ahat), where inNero's reign, Ioulia Severa, a descendant ofGalatian royalty, funded its construction. While her patronage may not indicate personal sympathy towards Judaism, it suggests support from influential circles. Though conditions for Jews in Acmonia seemed favorable in Severa's time, their continuity is unclear. By the third century, evidence of Jewish presence in Acmonia increased, including gravestones invoking biblical curses against grave violators, indicating the integration of Jewish practices and influential positions within the community.[61]
Visitors from Phrygia were reported to have been among the crowds present inJerusalem on the occasion ofPentecost as recorded inActs 2:10. InActs 16:6 theApostle Paul and his companionSilas travelled through Phrygia and the region ofGalatia proclaiming theChristian gospel. Their plans appear to have been to go toAsia but circumstances or guidance, "in ways which we are not told, by inner promptings, or by visions of the night, or by the inspired utterances of those among their converts who had received the gift of prophecy"[62] prevented them from doing so and instead they travelled westwards towards the coast.[63]
The Christian heresy known asMontanism, and still known inOrthodoxy as "the Phrygian heresy", arose in the unidentified village of Ardabau in the 2nd century AD, and was distinguished by ecstatic spirituality and women priests. Originally described as a rural movement, it is now thought to have been of urban origin like other Christian developments. The new Jerusalem its adherents founded in the village of Pepouza has now been identified in a remote valley that later held a monastery.[6]
^Rose, C. Brian; Darbyshire, Gareth, eds. (2011).The New Chronology of Iron Age Gordion. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum.
^Liebhart, Richard; Darbyshire, Gareth; Erder, Evin; Marsh, Ben (2016). "A Fresh Look at the Tumuli of Gordion". In Henry, Olivier; Kelp, Ute (eds.).Tumulus as Sema: Space, Politics, Culture and Religion in the First Millennium BC. De Gruyter. pp. 627–636.
^Obrador-Cursach, Bartomeu (2018).Lexicon of the Phrygian Inscriptions(PDF).University of Barcelona. p. 101.Scholars have long debated the exact position of Phrygian in the Indo-European language family. Although this position is not a closed question because of the fragmentary nature of our current knowledge, Phrygian has many important features which show that it is somehow related to Greek and Armenian.…Indeed, between the 19th and the first half of the 20th c. BC Phrygian was mostly considered a satəm language (a feature once considered important to establishing the position of a language) and, especially after Alf Torp's study, closer to Armenian (and Thracian), whereas it is now commonly considered to be closer to Greek.…Brixhe (1968), Neumann (1988) and, through an accurate analysis, Matzinger (2005) showed the inconsistency of the Phrygo-Armenian assumption and argued that Phrygian was a language closely related to Greek.
^abWoodhouse, Robert (2009)."An overview of research on Phrygian from the nineteenth century to the present day".Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis.126 (1): 171.doi:10.2478/v10148-010-0013-x.ISSN2083-4624.This question is of course only just separable from the question of which languages within Indo-European are most closely related to Phrygian, which has also been hotly debated. A turning point in this debate was Kortlandt's (1988) demonstration on the basis of shared sound changes that Thraco-Armenian had separated from Phrygian and other originally Balkan languages at an early stage. The consensus has now returned to regarding Greek as the closest relative.
^Obrador-Cursach, Bartomeu (2019)."On the place of Phrygian among the Indo-European languages".Journal of Language Relationship.17 (3–4).Gorgias Press: 234.doi:10.31826/jlr-2019-173-407.ISSN2219-4029.2.1.4. Phrygian belongs to the centum group of IE languages (Ligorio and Lubotsky 2018: 1824). Together with Greek, Celtic, Italic, Germanic, Hittite and Tocharian, Phrygian merged the old palatovelars with plain velars in a first step: NPhr. (τιτ-)τετικμενος 'condemned' < PIE *deiḱ-; NPhr. γεγαριτμενος 'devoted, at the mercy of' < PIE *ǵhr̥Hit-; NPhr. γλουρεος 'golden' < PIE *ǵhl̥h3-ro-. However, two shifts affected this language. Phrygian merged the old labiovelar with the plain velar (the etymological and the resulting ones): OPhr. ke(y), NPhr. κε (passim) 'and' < PIE *ku̯e; OPhr. knais (B-07), NPhr. κ̣ναικαν 'wife' (16.1 = 116) < *gu̯neh2i-. Secondly, in contact with palatal vowels (/e/ and /i/, see de Lamberterie 2013: 25–26), and especially in initial position, some consonants became palatalised:PIE *ǵhes-r- 'hand' > OPhr. ↑iray (B-05),7NPhr. ζειρα (40.1 = 12) 'id.' (Hämmig 2013: 150–151). It also occurs in glosses: *ǵheu̯-mn̻ >ζευμαν 'fount, source' (Hesychius ζ 128). These two secondary processes, as happened in Tocharian and the Romance languages, lend Phrygian the guise of a satəm language.
^Obrador-Cursach, Bartomeu (2019)."On the place of Phrygian among the Indo-European languages".Journal of Language Relationship.17 (3–4).Gorgias Press: 243.doi:10.31826/jlr-2019-173-407.ISSN2219-4029.With the current state of our knowledge, we can affirm that Phrygian is closely related to Greek. This is not a surprising conclusion: ancient sources and modern scholars agree that Phrygians did not live far from Greece in pre-historic times. Moreover, the last half century of scientific study of Phrygian has approached both languages and developed the hypothesis of a Proto-Greco-Phrygian language, to the detriment to other theories like Phrygio-Armenian or Thraco-Phrygian.
^Obrador-Cursach, Bartomeu (2019)."On the place of Phrygian among the Indo-European languages".Journal of Language Relationship.17 (3–4).Gorgias Press:238–239.doi:10.31826/jlr-2019-173-407.ISSN2219-4029.To the best of our current knowledge, Phrygian was closely related to Greek. This affirmation is consistent with the vision offered by Neumann (1988: 23), Brixhe (2006) and Ligorio and Lubotsky (2018: 1816) and with many observations given by ancient authors. Both languages share 34 of the 36 features considered in this paper, some of them of great significance:…The available data suggest that Phrygian and Greek coexisted broadly from pre-historic to historic times, and both belong to a common linguistic area (Brixhe 2006: 39–44).
^I. M. Diakonoff,The Pre-History of the Armenian People (revised, trans. Lori Jennings), Caravan Books, New York (1984), ISBN 0-88206-039-2.
^Hamp, Eric P. (August 2013). "The Expansion of the Indo-European Languages: An Indo-Europeanist's Evolving View" (PDF).Sino-Platonic Papers. 239: 8, 10, 13. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 August 2019.
^Clackson, J. P. T., 2008, "Classical Armenian", in Woodard,R. D., The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 124–143
^Martirosyan, H., 2013, "The place of Armenian in the Indo-European language family: the relationship with Greek and Indo-Iranian", Journal of Language Relationship10, 85—13
^Hamp, Eric P. (August 2013). "The Expansion of the Indo-European Languages: An Indo-Europeanist's Evolving View" (PDF). Sino-Platonic Papers.
^Kim, Ronald (2018). "Greco-Armenian: The persistence of a myth". Indogermanische Forschungen. The University of British Columbia Library.
^Swain, Simon; Adams, J. Maxwell; Janse, Mark (2002).Bilingualism in ancient society: language contact and the written word. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press. pp. 246–266.ISBN0-19-924506-1.
^Suidas s. v. Νάννακος; Stephanus of Byzantium s.v. Ἰκόνιον; Both passages are translated in: A new system: or, An analysis of ancient mythology by Jacob Bryant (1807)pp. 12–14
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As found in theNotitia Dignitatum. Provincial administration reformed anddioceses established byDiocletian,c. 293. Permanentpraetorian prefectures established after the death ofConstantine I. Empire permanently partitioned after 395. Exarchates ofRavenna andAfrica established after 584. After massive territorial losses in the 7th century, the remaining provinces were superseded by thetheme system in c. 640–660, although inAsia Minor and parts of Greece they survived under the themes until the early 9th century.
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