ANCYRA, an ancient city of Galatia (mod. Angora, q.v.), in Asia Minor, on a tributary of the Sangarius. Originally a pros perous Phrygian city, Ancyra became the centre of the Tectosages, one of the three Gaulish tribes that settled in Galatia about 232 B.C. In 189 B.C. Ancyra was occupied by Cn. Manlius Vulso, who made it his headquarters in his operations against the tribe. In 63 B.C. Pompey placed it (together with the Tectosagan territory) under one chief, and it continued under native rule till it became the capital of the Roman province of Galatia in 25 B.C. Inscrip tions and coins show that its civilization in the 1st century A.D. consisted of a layer of Roman ideas and customs super-imposed on Celtic tribal characteristics, and that not until about A.D. 150 did the true Hellenic spirit begin to appear. Christianity was intro duced (from the north or north-west) perhaps as early as the I st century, but there is no shred of evidence that the Ancyran Church (first mentioned A.D. 192) was founded by St. Paul or that he ever visited northern Galatia. The real greatness of the town dates from the time when Constantinople became the Roman metropolis, when its situation gave it an importance which it retained throughout the middle ages. See further ANGORA (I ). An important ecclesiastical synod was held here in A.D. 314.
The modern town contains many remains of Roman and Byzan tine periods. The most important monument is the Augusteum, a temple of white marble erected to "Rome and Augustus" during the lifetime of that emperor by the common council or diet of the three Galatian tribes. The temple was afterwards converted into a church, and in the 16th century a fine mosque was built against its south face. On the walls of the temple is engraved the famous Monumentum Ancyranum, a long inscription in Latin and Greek describing the Res gestae divi Augusti. The inscription is a grave and majestic narrative of the public life and work of Augustus. The original was written by the emperor in his 76th year (A.D. 13-14) to be engraved on two bronze tablets placed in front of his mausoleum in Rome.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-C. Ritter, Erdkunde von Asien, vol. xviii. (1837Bibliography.-C. Ritter, Erdkunde von Asien, vol. xviii. (1837- 59) ; Hamilton, Researches in A.M. (1842) ; Texier, Descrip. de l'Asie Min. ; Perrot, Explor. de la Galatie (1862) ; Humann and Puchstein, Reisen in Kleinasien (189o) . For Mon. Ancyr. Mommsen, Res gestae divi Augusti (1883) ; and Inscr. graecae ad res Romanas pertinentes, iii. 0902). For coins, Brit. Museum Catal. Galatia (1899) ; Babelon-Reinach, Recueil general d'A.M. See also GALATIA.