A place rendered memorable from Paul’s preaching. (See Acts 13. and 14.)
the chief city of Lycaonia, in Asia Minor. An assault being meditated at the place by the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles upon the Apostles Paul and Barnabas, who, by preaching in the synagogue, had converted many Jews and Greeks, they fled to Lystra; where the designs of their enemies were put in execution, and St. Paul miraculously escaped with his life, Acts 14. The church planted at this place by St. Paul continued to flourish, until, by the persecutions of the Saracens, and afterward of the Seljukian Turks, who made it the capital of one of their sultanies, it was neatly extinguished. But some Christians of the Greek and Armenian churches, with a Greek archbishop, are yet found in the suburbs of this city, who are not permitted to reside within the walls. Iconium is now called Cogni, and is still a considerable city; being the capital of the extensive province of Caramania, as it was formerly of Lycaonia, and the seat of a Turkish beglerberg, or viceroy. It is the place of chief strength and importance in the central parts of Asiatic Turkey, being surrounded by a strong wall of four miles in circumference; but, as is the case with most eastern cities, much of the enclosed space is waste. It is situated about a hundred and twenty miles inland from the Mediterranean, on the lake Trogilis. Mr. Kinneir says, Iconium, the capital of Lycaonia, is mentioned by Xenophon, and afterward by Cicero and Strabo; but does not appear to have been a place of any consideration until after the taking of Nice by the crusaders in 1099, when the Seljukian sultans of Roum chose it as their residence. These sultans rebuilt the walls, and embellished the city: they were, however, expelled in 1189 by Frederic Barbarossa, who took it by assault; but after his death they reentered their capital, where they reigned in splendour till the irruption of Tchengis Khan, and his grandson, Holukow, who broke the power of the Seljukians. Iconium, under the name of Cogni, or Konia, has been included in the dominions of the grand seignior ever since the time of Bajazet, who finally extirpated the Ameers of Caramania. The modern city has an imposing appearance from the number and size of its mosques, colleges, and other public buildings; but these stately edifices are crumbling into ruins, while the houses of the inhabitants consist of a mixture of small huts built of sun-dried bricks, and wretched hovels thatched with reeds. The city, according to the same authority, contains about eighty thousand inhabitants, principally Turks, with only a small proportion of Christians. It is represented as enjoying a fine climate, and pleasantly situated among gardens and meadows; while it is nearly surrounded, at some distance, with mountains which rise to the regions of perpetual snow. It was formerly the capital of an extensive government, and the seat of a powerful pasha, who maintained a military force competent to the preservation of peace and order, and the defence of his territories. But it has now dwindled into insignificance, and exhibits upon the whole a mournful scene of desolation and decay.
Ico´nium, a town, formerly the capital of Lycaonia, as it is now, by the name of Koniëh, of Karamania, in Asia Minor. It is situated in N. lat. 37° 51′, E. long. 32° 40′, about one hundred and twenty miles inland from the Mediterranean. It was visited by St. Paul in A.D. 45, when many Gentiles were converted; but some unbelieving Jews excited against him and Barnabas a persecution, which they escaped with difficulty (Act 13:51; Act 14:1, etc.). He undertook a second journey to Iconium in A.D. 51. The church planted at this place by the apostle continued to flourish, until, by the persecutions of the Saracens, and afterwards of the Seljukians, who made it one of their sultanies, it was nearly extinguished. But some Christians of the Greek and Armenian churches, with a Greek metropolitan bishop, are still found in the suburbs of the city not being permitted to reside within the walls.
Koniëh is situated at the foot of Mount Taurus, upon the border of the lake Trogolis, in a fertile plain, rich in valuable productions, particularly apricots, wine, cotton, flax, and grain. The circumference of the town is between two and three miles, beyond which are suburbs not much less populous than the town itself. The town, suburbs, and gardens are plentifully supplied with water from streams which flow from some hills to the westward, and which, in the north-east, join the lake, which varies in size with the season of the year. In the town carpets are manufactured, and blue and yellow leathers are tanned and dried. Cotton, wool, hides, and a few of the other raw productions which enrich the superior industry and skill of the manufacturers of Europe, are sent to Smyrna by caravans.
The city, like all those renowned for superior sanctity, abounds with dervishes, who meet the passenger at every turning of the streets, and demand paras with the greatest clamor and insolence. The bazaars and houses have little to recommend them to notice.
A large and opulent city of Asia Minor now called Konieh. The provinces of Asia Minor varied so much at different times, that Iconium is assigned by different writers to Phrygia, to Lycaonia, and to Pisidia. Christianity was introduced here by Paul, A. D. 45. But he was obliged to flee for his life for a persecution excited by unbelieving Jews, Mal 13:51 14:1-6. They pursued him to Lystra, where he was nearly killed, but afterwards, A. D. 51, he revisited Iconium, Mal 14:19-21 2Ti 3:11 . The church continued in being here for eight centuries, but under the Mohammedan rule was almost extinguished. At present, Konieh is the capital of Caramania. It is situated in a beautiful and fertile country, 260 miles southeast of Constantinople, and 120 from the Mediterranean. It is very large, and its walls are supported by 108 square towers, forty paces distant from each other. The inhabitants, 40,000 in number, are Turks, Armenians, Greeks, and Jews.\par
Ico’nium. (little image). The modern Konieh, was the capital of Lycaonia, in Asia Minor. It was a large and rich city, 120 miles north from the Mediterranean Sea, at the foot of the Taurus mountains, and on the great line of communication between Ephesus and the western coast of the peninsula on one side, and Tarsus, Antioch and the Euphrates on the other.
Iconium was a well-chosen place for missionary operations. Act 14:1; Act 14:3; Act 14:21-22; Act 14:16:1-2; Act 18:23. Paul’s first visit here was on his first circuit, in company with Barnabas; and on this occasion, he approached it from Antioch in Pisidia, which lay to the west. The modern Konieh is between two and three miles in circumference and contains over 30,000 inhabitants. It contains manufactories of carpets and leather.
Now Konieh, N. of mount Taurus, in the central table land of Asia Minor, Lycaonia. On the route between western Asia and Ephesus on one side, and Tarsus, Antioch, and Euphrates on the other. An admirable center for missionary labours, as several great roads intersected one another here. Paul with Barnabas first visited it from Antioch in Pisidia which lay on the W. (Act 13:50-51; Act 14:1-21; Act 14:22). They preached in the synagogue first, as was Paul’s wont, and with such power of the Holy Spirit "that a great multitude both of Jews and also of Greeks believed." The Lord attested "the word of His grace," moreover, with "signs and wonders done by their hands," while "they abode long time speaking boldly in the Lord."
But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles so as to be "evil affected against the brethren." An assault of Jews and Gentiles with their rulers, to stone them, being threatened, they withdrew to Lystra and Derbe in the eastern and wilder parts of Lycaonia. Paul revisited Iconium to "confirm their souls in the faith," and to remind them as a motive to continuing endurance that "we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." In undesigned coincidence Paul in incidentally alludes (2Ti 3:11) to "persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what (how grievous) persecutions I endured ... but out of them all the Lord delivered me."
On his second missionary circuit Paul with Silas came from Syrian Antioch through Cilicia, and up through the Taurus passes into Lycaonia, and by Derbe and Lystra proceeded westward to Iconium (Act 16:1-3). In this neighbourhood he took Timothy as his associate, on the recommendation of the brethren at Lystra and Iconium, and here probably took place Timothy’s circumcision and ordination (1Ti 1:18; 1Ti 4:14; 1Ti 6:12; 2Ti 1:6).
Iconium (î-cô’-ni-ŭm), place of images (?). A large and rich city of Asia Minor, in the province of Lycaonia. It was on the great Roman highway from Ephesus to Tarsus, Antioch, and the Euphrates, and at the foot of Mount Taurus, in a beautiful and fertile country, about 300 miles southeast of Constantinople and about 120 miles inland from the Mediterranean. Paul visited it on his first and second missionary journeys. Act 13:51; Act 14:1; Act 14:19; Act 14:21; Act 16:2; 2Ti 3:11. On the South Galilean view, Paul again visited the city. Act 18:22-23.
[Ico’nium]
City in Lycaonia in the centre of Asia Minor, visited by Paul and Barnabas when they had been driven from Antioch of Pisidia. Multitudes of Jews and Greeks believed the word of God’s grace, and the apostles wrought many signs and wonders there. They had to flee for their lives but returned again. Act 13:51; Act 14:1; Act 14:19; Act 14:21; Act 16:2. In 2Ti 3:11 Paul speaks of the persecutions he had endured at this city. It is now called Konieh, a town of some extent, 37° 53’ N, 32° 25’ E.
ICONIUM, now called Konia, is an ancient city of continuous importance from early times to the present day. Situated at the western edge of the vast central plain of Asia Minor, and well watered, it has always been a busy place. It is surrounded by beautiful orchards, which cover the meanness of its modern buildings. About the beginning of the Christian era it was on the border of the two ethnic districts, Lycaonia and Phrygia. It was in reality the easternmost city of Phrygia, and the inhabitants considered themselves Phrygians, but ancient writers commonly speak of it as a city of Lycaonia (wh. see), the fate of which it generally shared. In the 3rd cent. b.c. it was ruled by the Seleucids, and about b.c. 164, probably, it passed under the power of the Galatæ (Asiatic Celts). It was the property of the Pontic kings from about 130, was set free during the Mithridatic wars, and in b.c. 39 was given by Mark Antony to Polemon, king of Cilicia Tracheia. In b.c. 36 Antony gave it to Amyntas, who was at that time made king of Galatia (wh. see). On his death in b.c. 25 the whole of his kingdom became the Roman province of Galatia. Iconium could thus be spoken of as Lycaonian, Phrygian, or Galatic, according to the speaker’s point of view. In the time of the Emperor Claudius, it, along with Derbe, received the honorary prefix Claudio-, becoming Claudiconium (compare our Royal Burghs), but it was not till Hadrian’s time (a.d. 117–138) that it became a Roman colony (wh. see). Its after history may be omitted. It was eighteen miles distant from Lystra, and a direct route passed between them.
The gospel was brought to Iconium by Paul and Barnabas, who visited it twice on the first missionary journey (Act 13:51; Act 14:21). The presence of Jews there is confirmed by the evidence of inscriptions. According to the view now generally accepted by English-speaking scholars, it is comprehended in the ‘Phrygo-Galatic region’ of Act 16:6 and the ‘Galatic region and Phrygia’ of Act 18:23. It was thus visited four times in all by St. Paul, who addressed it among other cities in his Epistle to the Galatians. During the absence of Paul it had been visited by Judaizers, who pretended that Paul was a mere messenger of the earlier Apostles, and contended that the Jewish ceremonial law was binding on the Christian converts. Paul’s Epistle appears to have been successful, and the Galatians afterwards contributed to the collection for the poor Christians of Jerusalem. The alternative view is that Iconium is not really included in the Acts narrative after Act 16:2 ff., as the words quoted above from Act 16:6; Act 18:23 refer to a different district to the far north of Iconium, and that the Epistle to the Galatians, being addressed to that northern district, had no connexion with Iconium. In any case, Iconium is one of the places included in the (province) Galatia which is addressed in First Peter (about a.d. 80 probably), and the large number of Christian inscriptions which have been found there reveal the existence of a vigorous Christian life in the third and following centuries.
A. Souter.
A titular see of Lycaonia. Xenophon (Anab., I, ii, 19) says that it is the easternmost town of Phrygia; other writers e.g., Cicero (Ad. famil., III, 6; XV, 3), Ammianus Marcellinus (XIV, 2), place it in Lycaonia, and others in Galatia. It is known that the boundaries of these provinces were often changed. It was the possession of M. Antoninius Polemon, dynast of Olbe, to whom Anthony gave it, and who reigned from 39 to 26 B.C. (Pliny, "Hist. Natur.," V, 37; Strabo XII, vi, 1). Iconium later formed part of the Roman Province of Galatia, when the latter was constituted 25 B.C. Under Claudius the town became a Roman colony, mentioned on many coins and inscriptions. St. Paul preached here during his first mission and converted a goodly number of Jews and pagans; shortly afterwards he returned to organize the church he had founded (Acts 14:20; 16:2); he speaks elsewhere of the persecutions he endured there (2 Timothy 3:11). Saint Thecla was one of his converts there. Christianized rather early, the town was the scene in 235 of a council which decreed that the baptism of heretics was invalid. Le Quien (Oriens Christ., I, 1067-74) mentions thirty-six bishops down to the year 1721; the best-known is St. Amphilochius, the friend of St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nazianzus. The list might well be completed and brought down to the present time, for Iconium is yet the centre of a schismatical Greek diocese.What constitutes the reputation of the town is that from 1063 to 1309 it was the capital of the sultans of the Seljuk Turks, who on the extinction of their dynasty adopted as their heir Osman, the founder of the present [1910] dynasty. A great number of monuments or works of art of the period have been preserved, such as the ruins of the mosque of the Sultan Ala-ed-Din, the blue medresseh (school), a vast hall of the palace with a magnificently decorated roof, the golden mosque, the mosque of Selim II, the tomb of Djelal-Eddin, a mystical poet and founder of the whirling dervishes. The superior-general of these Turkish religious, surnamed Tchelebi, always resides at Koniah and has the privilege of girding each new sultan with the sabre of Osman, which for Turkish sovereigns corresponds to the ceremony of coronation. Koniah, the capital of a vilayet which numbers more than a million inhabitants, itself possesses nearly 50,000 inhabitants, three-fourths of whom are Mussulmans. There are about 300 Catholics.In 1892 the Augustinians of the Assumption established a mission here with a school which is very prosperous to-day. The Oblate Sisters of the Assumption conduct a dispensary and a school. The Greek and above all the Armenian schismatics are very numerous. The town is connected with Constantinople by a railroad, and important works of irrigation have been set on foot in order to cultivate the plain which has hitherto been very arid. Koniah is one of the holy cities of Islam. It contains more than 10,000 dervishes (Turkish monks) and theological students.-----------------------------------HAMILTON, Researches in Asia Minor, II, 205; RAMSAY, Historical Geography of Asia Minor (London, 1890), 332, 377-78, 393-95; SMITH, Dict. Greek and Roman Geog., II, 12; SARRE, Reise in Kleinasien (Berlin, 1896), 28-106; TEXIER, Asie Mineure (Paris, 1862), 661-663; CUINET, La Turquie d’Asie, I (Paria, 1892), 801-872; HUART, Konia, la ville des derviches tourneurs (Paris, 1897).S. VAILHÉ Transcribed by John Fobian In memory of Dorothy Fobian Schmidt The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIICopyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
1. Topographical Position
The topographical position of Iconium is clearly indicated in Acts, and the evidence of Acts has been confirmed by recent research. Was Iconium in Phrygia or in Lycaonia, and in what sense can it be said to have belonged to one ethnical division or the other? The majority of our ancient authorities (e.g. Cicero, Strabo, Pliny), writing from the point of view of Roman provincial administration, give Iconium to Lycaonia, of which geography makes it the natural capital. But Xenophon, who marched with Cyrus’ expedition through Phrygia into Lycaonia, calls Iconium the last city of Phrygia. The writer of Act 14:6 makes the same statement when he represents Paul and Barnabas as fleeing from Iconium to the cities of Lycaonia - implying that the border of Phrygia and Lycaonia passed between Iconium and Lystra, 18 miles to the South. Other ancient authorities who knew the local conditions well speak of Iconium as Phrygian until far into the Roman imperial period. At the neighboring city of Lystra (Act 14:11), the natives used the “speech of Lycaonia.” Two inscriptions in the Phrygian language found at Iconium in 1910 prove that the Phrygian language was in use there for 2 centuries after Paul’s visits, and afford confirmation of the interesting topographical detail in Acts (see Jour. Hell. Stud., 1911, 189).
2. In Apostolic Period
In the apostolic period, Iconium was one of the chief cities in the southern part of the Roman province Galatia, and it probably belonged to the “Phrygian region” mentioned in Act 16:6. The emperor Claudius conferred on it the title Claudiconium, which appears on coins of the city and on inscriptions, and was formerly taken as a proof that Claudius raised the city to the rank of a Roman colonia. It was Hadrian who raised the city to colonial rank; this is proved by its new title, Colonia Aelia Hadriana Iconiensium, and by a recently discovered inscription, which belongs to the reign of Hadrian, and which mentions the first duumvir who was appointed in the new colonia. Iconium was still a Hellenic city, but with a strong pro-Roman bias (as proved by its title “Claudian”) when Paul visited it.
3. Later History
About 295 ad, an enlarged province, Pisidia, was formed, with Antioch as capital, and Iconium as a “sort of secondary metropolis.” The Byzantine arrangement, familiar to us in the Notitiae Episcopatuum, under which Iconium was the capital of a province Lycaonia, dates from about 372 ad. Iconium, the modern Konia, has always been the main trading center of the Lycaonian Plain. Trade attracted Jews to the ancient Phrygio-Hellenic city (Act 14:1), as it attracts Greeks and Armenians to the modern Turkish town.
4. Thekla
Paul’s experiences at Iconium form part of theme of the semi-historical legend of Thekla, on which see Professor Ramsay’s Church in the Roman Empire, 380ff.
Literature
Ramsay Historical Commentary on Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, 214ff; Cities of St. Paul, 317ff. To the literature referred to in the notes to the latter book (pp. 448ff) add Ath. Mitth., 1905, 324ff; Revue de Philologie, 1912, 48ff; Journal Hellenic Studies, 1911, 188ff.
(Ἰêüíéïí, now Konia or Konyeh)
This city, which was partly evangelized by St. Paul, occupied one of the most beautiful and fertile inland sites of Asia Minor, compared by T. Lewin (The Life and Epistles of St. Paul3, 1875, i. 144f.) to the oasis of Damascus. Lying in a crescent of Phrygian hills at the western limit of the vast upland plain of Lycaonia, and watered by perennial streams which, through irrigation, make it to-day a garden-city, it must have been a place of importance from the earliest times. Xenophon, the first writer who mentions it (Anab. i. ii. 19), says that Cyrus, travelling eastward, came ‘to Iconium, the last city of Phrygia; thence he pursued his route through Lycaonia.’ The inhabitants always regarded themselves as of Phrygian, not of Lycaonian, extraction, and the strongest evidence that they were right was their use of the Phrygian language. On the other hand, many writers-Cicero (ad Fam. xv. iv. 2), Strabo (xii, vi. 1 [p. 568]), Pliny (Historia Naturalis (Pliny) v. 25), and others-having regard to the later history of Iconium, invariably designate it as a city of Lycaonia (q.v. [Note: quod vide, which see.] ). During the 3rd cent. b.c. it was ruled and, to a great extent, hellenized by the Seleucids. After the battle of Magnesia (187 b.c.), it was presented by the Romans to the king of Pergamos; but as he never took effective possession of it, the Galatians appropriated it about 165 b.c. Mark Antony, the ‘king-maker,’ gave it to Polemon in 39 b.c. and transferred it in 36 to Amyntas, king of Galatia, whoso wide dominions, after his death in 25 b.c., were formed into the Roman province Galatia. Under Claudius the city was honoured with the name of Claud-Iconium, a proof of its strong Roman sympathies, but it was not raised to the rank of a Colonia till the reign of Hadrian. It remained a city of the province Galatia till a.d. 295, when Diocletian formed the province Pisidia, with Antioch as its capital and Iconium as its ‘second metropolis.’ In 372 Iconium became the capital of the new province Lycaonia, an arrangement which held good all through the Byzantine period.
When St. Luke relates that the Apostles Paul and Barnabas, being persecuted at Iconium, ‘fled into the cities of Lycaonia’ (Act_14:6)-an expression which implies that in his view Iconium was not Lycaonian-he adheres to the popular and ignores the official geography. So central and prosperous a city, traversed by a trade-route leading direct to the Cilician Gates, and connected by a cross-road with the great high-way to the Euphrates, naturally attracted many traders and settlers from the outside world. Well-chosen as a sphere of missionary activity, the first attempt to preach the gospel in it proved very successful, and though the enmity of the Jews compelled the apostles to desist from their efforts for a time, St. Luke speaks of the faith of ‘a great multitude both of Jews and of Greeks’ (Act_14:1).
Iconium figures largely in the Galatian controversy. What is certain is that St. Paul and Barnabas preached and made many converts in the city during their first missionary campaign, and that they re-visited it on their homeward journey, ‘confirming the souls of the disciples’ (Act_14:1; Act_14:22). The persecutions which St. Paul endured there are alluded to in 2Ti_3:11. On the South-Galatian theory, he paid the city two more visits, if, as Ramsay and others assume, Iconium is included in ‘the region of Phrygia and Galatia’ (Act_16:6) and in ‘the region of Galatia and Phrygia’ (Act_18:23). In the interval between the Apostle’s last two visits, he received the alarming tidings that his Galatian churches-which, on this hypothesis, were Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe-were being perverted by Judaizers, whoso fatal errors his Epistle to the Galatians was immediately written to confute. Some indication that his vehement letter and his final visit accomplished his purpose is afforded by the fact that the Galatian Church contributed part of the Gentile love-offering to the poor saints in Jerusalem (1Co_16:1). On the North-Galatian theory St. Paul, using ‘Galatians’ in the popular, not the Roman, sense, wrote to churches which he had founded in Galatia proper, which Livy calls Gallo-Graecia (see Galatia).
It is a mere legend that Sosipater (Rom_16:21) was the first and Terentius or Tertius (Rom_16:22) the second bishop of Iconium. The city is the principal scene of the Acta Pauli et Theclae, which date back to the 2nd cent. and have a foundation in fact (see W. M. Ramsay, The Church in the Rom, Emp., 1893, p. 375ff.). The Council of Iconium was held in 235. When the city became the capital of the Seljuk State, which was founded about 1072, its splendour gave rise to the proverb, ‘See all the world; but see Konia.’ To-day it has a population of 50,000.
Literature.-W. M. Leake, Asia Minor, 1824; W. J. Hamilton, Researches in Asia Minor, 1842; Murray’s Guide to Asia Minor, ed. C. Wilson, 1895, p. 133f.; W. M. Ramsay, The Cities of St. Paul, 1907, pp. 315-382.
James Strahan.
The town of Iconium was situated in the south of the province of Galatia in Asia Minor. Paul established a church in Iconium on his first missionary journey and revisited the town on several occasions (Act 14:1; Act 14:21; Act 16:6; Act 18:23). Timothy, who accompanied Paul on some of his journeys, was well known in Iconium and was an eye-witness of some of the persecutions Paul suffered there (Act 14:1-6; Act 16:1-2; 2Ti 3:10-11). (For map and other details see GALATIA.)