ECONOMIC LIFE AND CULTURE Economic Conditions.—Phrygia was at all times an agricul tural and, still more, a pastoral land. The only industrial products of greater importance were the marble of Docimium, which was exported in large quantities to Rome under the empire, and the dark-coloured woollens of Laodiceia and Colossae (in South Phrygia, on the River Lycus). The southern border of Phrygia, as we have seen, was traversed by a trade route which, in the days of Greek and Roman rule, attained considerable importance. On the other hand the Royal road, which ran through the heart of Phrygia, played no great part as a highway of commerce, and there is no evidence of any notable quantity of traffic having been carried along the valley of the Sangarius. Phrygia's chief source of wealth lay in its grasslands, which produced fine breeds of horses and of sheep. The horses were exported as far as Rome for use in the circus. The sheep provided a clip of wool which supplied the looms, not only of Phrygia itself, but also of Miletus, Pergamum and other Greek centres of the textile industry.
Under economic conditions such as these, Phrygia was always a land of villages rather than of cities. In the days of the native monarchy Gordium and the "Midas city" grew to be consider able towns, and Celaenae (subsequently renamed Apameia) was probably at all times a trading centre of some importance. Under the rule of the Syrian and Pergamene dynasties a number of new cities with a predominantly Greek population were founded, but most of these were little more than garrison towns or settlements of veterans : the only places that require mention here are the industrial cities of Laodiceia and Colossae (noticed above). The villages were usually built on the slopes of the lower hills, near the site of a temple or of a great landowner's manor-house. The soil for the most part belonged to the successive kings or over lords of the country, to their principal vassals, and to the priest hoods of the more important temples. The actual cultivators lived mostly in a condition of serfdom.
Phrygian music is only known to us from the descriptions of Greek critics, who considered it too florid and exciting. Its favourite instrument was a double flute, which the Greeks re garded as the prototype of their own aulos. But the double flute was also known in prehistoric Crete, and can therefore not be regarded as a Phrygian invention.
The alphabetic script of the Phrygians bears a closer re semblance to archaic Greek than to Phoenician ; but its exact relation to either of these has not yet been determined. It is only represented by a few texts : all the later inscriptions from Phrygia are in Greek or Latin characters. The Phrygian tongue, which may best be studied in the fairly numerous texts (mostly epitaphs) of the early centuries A.D., is akin to Armenian. In the period of Greek and Roman rule it gave way to Greek in the towns, but on the countryside it remained in use until the 5th or 6th century A.D. (See ASIANIC LANGUAGES.) Religion.—The religion of Phrygia was plainly a composite product. The Phrygian immigrants of c. 1200 B.C. brought with them several typical Indo-European gods, such as Papas, the equivalent of the Greek Zeus, and Men, a male moon-deity. The god Sabazius, who was usually equated by ancient writers with the Thracian Dionysus, may be referred to the same group. But the gods of the Phrygian invaders were never able to displace the original Asianic deities, of whom the foremost were Cybele, the "Great Mother," and Attis, a youth who died untimely but in death retained his beauty of figure. This couple, which had sev eral parallels in the religions of the Near East, evidently repre sented the generative force of nature and the vegetation that withers and blooms with each new season. The worship of these deities was highly orgiastic, and their priests, the so-called "galli," carried their devotion to the point of self-mutilation. The princi pal sanctuary of Cybele stood at Pessinus, by Mt. Dindymus in central Phrygia, where a hierarchy of priests exercised theocratic rule over the inhabitants of the extensive temple estates. Not only did the cult of Cybele and Attis maintain itself against the religion of the Phrygian newcomers, but it partially absorbed them. Nay more, it more than held its own against the religions of Greece and Rome, and it competed against these on European soil. The worship of Cybele spread to Greece in the 5th century B.C. ; in 204 B.C. it was officially established at Rome ; in the days of the Roman empire it was carried on the tide of oriental immi gration into every part of Italy and penetrated the western provinces as far as the Rhineland and Britain. Thus the religion of Phrygia was its most distinctive contribution to ancient Medi terranean civilization. The influence of the native Asianic re ligion may also be traced in the various heresies, and especially the heresy of Montanus (himself a Phrygian), that arose in Phrygia after the spread of Christianity. Nevertheless the con version of Phrygia to Christianity was remarkably early and complete. Christian inscriptions begin there in the and century and are abundant in the third. In all probability the mass of the people had been converted by 300, and Eusebius is no doubt correct in saying that in one Phrygian city at that time every soul was a Christian.
(5924-25)• (M. C.)