An inland province of Asia Minor bounded north by Bithynia and Galatia, east by Cappadocia, south by Lycia, Pisidai, and Isauria, and west by Mysia, Lydia, and Caria. It was called Phrygia Pacatiana, and also Phrygia Major, in distinction from Phrygia Minor, which was a small district of Mysia near the Hellespont, occupied by some Phrygians after the Trojan War. The eastern part of Phrygia Major was also called Lycaonia. This region was a high table land, fruitful in corn and wine, and celebrated for its fine breed of cattle and of sheep. Of the cities belonging to Phrygia, Laodicea, Hierapolis, Colosse, and Antioch of Pisdia, are mentioned in the New Testament. St. Paul twice traveled over it, preaching the gospel, Ac 2:10; 16:6; 18:23.

dry, an irregular and ill-defined district in Asia Minor. It was divided into two parts, the Greater Phrygia on the south, and the Lesser Phrygia on the west. It is the Greater Phrygia that is spoken of in the New Testament. The towns of Antioch in Pisidia (Ac 13:14), Colosse, Hierapolis, Iconium, and Laodicea were situated in it.

The W. part of the center of Asia Minor; varying in its definition at different times, and contributing parts to several Roman provinces (Ac 2:10). Paul passed through Phrygia in his second (Ac 16:6) and third (Ac 18:23) missionary journeys. An ethnological not political division. The Taurus range separated Phrygia from Pisidia on the S.; Caria, Lydia, Mysia, Bithynia were on its W. and N.; Galatia, Cappadocia, and Lycaonia on the E. It is a tableland. The Phrygia meant in Scripture is the southern portion (called "greater Phrygia") of the region above, and contained Laodicea, Hierapolis, Colosse, and Iconium. It was peopled by an Indo Germanic race from Armenia, who formed the oldest population of Asia Minor.

The Phrygians were an Aryan race who seem to have had their first home in Thrace, and to have crossed into Asia through the same southward movement of tribes that brought the Hellenes into Greece. In Asia they occupied at one time the greater part of the country W. of the Halys, probably displacing a Semitic race from whom they may have learned the worship of Cybele. We must regard Homer's Trojans as part of the Phrygian race, and the Trojan War as a contest between them and Greek settlers from Thessaly. In more historical times the name Phrygia applies to an inland region varying in extent at different times, but bounded at its widest by the Sangarius on the N., the Halys on the E., the Taurus range on the S. It thus covered the W. part of the great plateau of Asia Minor and the upper valleys of the rivers M

Phryg'ia

District in the centre of Asia Minor, but its boundaries are not definitely known. It was visited by Paul. Ac 2:10; 16:6; 18:23.

Phryg'ia

(dry, barren). Perhaps there is no geographical term in the New Testament which is less capable of an exact definition. In fact there was no Roman province of Phrygia till considerably after the first establishment of Christianity in the peninsula of Asia Minor. The word was rather ethnological than political, and denoted in a vague manner the western part of the central region of that peninsula. Accordingly, in two of the three places where it is used it is mentioned in a manner not intended to he precise.

Ac 16:6; 18:23

By Phrygia we must understand an extensive district in Asia Minor which contributed portions to several Roman provinces, and varying portions at different times. (All over this district the Jews were probably numerous. The Phrygians were a very ancient people, and were supposed to be among the aborigines of Asia Minor. Several bishops from Phrygia were present at the Councils of Nice, A.D. 325, and of Constantinople, A.D. 381, showing the prevalence of Christianity at that time --ED.)