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Topography and Epigraphy of Nova Isaura1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

W. M. Ramsay
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Extract

If any confirmation were required of the evidence supplied by tbe first inscription published in the J.H.S. 1904, as to the ancient name of Dorla, it would be found in the Roman accounts of the siege of Isaura by Servilius Isauricus. Frontinus, iii. 7, 1, says that Servilius compelled the city to surrender from thirst, flumine ex quo hostes aquabantur averso. Now there are very few cases in which such an operation is possible. Three conditions must be fulfilled: (1) the city must be dependent for its water almost entirely on a river flowing through it or close to the wall; (2) there must be open ground on the opposite side of the river towards which the water can be diverted; (3) the operation must not be on so great a scale as to be beyond the power of an army such as Servilius had with him, a comparatively small and rather lightly equipped force, able to cross the Taurus from Cilicia, and operate on the northern flanks of the mountains.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 25 , November 1905 , pp. 163 - 180
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1905

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References

2 The MS. reading is fugam oppidi. Forum is Hauler's emendation. Mommsen suggested iuga. The last may be right: iugum would suit the single broad ridge on which the city stood better than iuga, but the plural may be applicable. The sequel of the text is mutilated and uncertain, et in eo credebatur epulari diebus certis dea, etc.

3 See e.g. remarks by the present writer in B.C.H. 1898, p. 236; Cities and Bish. of Phrygia, i. pp. 100 f., 361, 367, etc.

4 See Pisidia and the Lycaonian Frontier, § 9, § 22, B.S.A., 1904, pp. 254, 266.

5 See Histor. Geogr. of Asia Minor, p. 74 f., Arch. Jahreshefte, 1904, Beib. pp. 91, 105.

6 I was copying part (b), and had not finished, when my men told me they had found part (a). I went to see it, found it was (as they suspected) a piece of the same gravestone as (b), and made a first copy of it. When I proposed to return to (b) the owner interfered; and to save long delay and bargaining or force, I desisted.

7 J.H.S. 1904, p. 290 f.

8 C.B. ii. p. 720 ff.

9 Ath. Mitth. xiii. 1888, p. 272. Prof.Sterrett, Google Scholar wrongly assigns it to Konia (Epigraph Journey, No. 217). He did not see the stone. I copied it in Ladik in 1882. Sterrett's No. 217 and No. 216 are engraved side by side on one stone: he has been misled by the bad copy of Dr. Saba Diamantides into the false form Orestis instead of Orestine.

10 Isaura Palaia was included in the Tres Eparchiae from c. 137 onwards. Iconium and probably Lystra were in Prov. Galatia until about 297; but probably Isaura Nova went with Derbe and Isaura Palaia in the Tres Eparchiae.

11 See Oest. Jahresh. 1904, Beib. p. 77 ff.