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The Christians of Phrygia from Rome to the Turkish Conquest
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The towns and villages of Phrygia, a predominantly rural region of inner Asia Minor, provide richer documentation of their early Christian communities than any other part of the Roman empire. This includes the earliest lengthy Christian funerary text, coin types depicting Noah and the Flood introduced by Christians at the Phrygian emporium of Apamea, the famous ‘Christians for Christians’ inscriptions, and more than a hundred other pre-Constantinian grave monuments, The abundant evidence for the Christian presence up the Turkish invasions throws new light on continuity between Late Antiquity and the Middle Byzantine period, and on the warfare between the Byzantines and Turks in the 11th century. This is the first exhaustive regional study since 1897.
Stephen Mitchell is emeritus Professor of Ancient History at the University of Exeter, senior research associate Berlin TOPOI, a former chairman of the British Institute at Ankara, and a Fellow of the British Academy. He has written a History of the Later Roman Empire (2nd 3d. 2015) and widely on the history, culture and religions of Asia Minor in antiquity, including Anatolia. Land, Men and Gods in Asia Minor (1993), Pisidian Antioch. The Site and its Monuments (1998), The Greek and Latin inscriptions of Ankara (2 vols. 2012, 2019), and Roman Archaeology in an Anatolian Landscape (2021).
"[W]e can count ourselves fortunate that he [sc. Stephen Mitchell] was able to complete this masterful, well-illustrated survey of the Christians of Phrygia, spanning more than a millennium. […] To have alerted us to the Phrygian form of early Christianity is one of the many merits of Mitchell’s book, whose detailed indices and clear maps also make it an easy-to-consult book. It is an enduring monument and the culmination of a lifetime of solid scientific work." – Jan Bremmer, in: Vigiliae Christianae, 79/3 (2025).
"Es ist dem Buch zu wünschen, dass es ähnlich lange in Benutzung bleibt wie sein nun (mehr als) ersetzter Vorläufer: William Mitchell Ramsays The Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia von (1897)." – Philipp Pilhofer, in: Theologische Revue, 121 (Juni 2025).
“The Christians of Phrygia is an authoritative work, and no one except the late Stephen Mitchell could have written it.” – Paul McKechnie, in: Novum Testamentum 67 (2025) 538.
“This book – written by a scholar who devoted so much of his life to studying the epigraphy, written sources, and archaeological remains of Asia Minor – is a testament to interdisciplinary research, and to engagement in different academic cultures. … [W]e are fortunate that a scholar of such calibre and such experience has left behind such a detailed, engaging, and persuasive book on so many subjects of the highest interest.” – Anna M. Sitz, in: The Byzantine Review 7 (2025) 431-2.
"Es ist dem Buch zu wünschen, dass es ähnlich lange in Benutzung bleibt wie sein nun (mehr als) ersetzter Vorläufer: William Mitchell Ramsays The Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia von (1897)." – Philipp Pilhofer, in: Theologische Revue, 121 (Juni 2025).
“The Christians of Phrygia is an authoritative work, and no one except the late Stephen Mitchell could have written it.” – Paul McKechnie, in: Novum Testamentum 67 (2025) 538.
“This book – written by a scholar who devoted so much of his life to studying the epigraphy, written sources, and archaeological remains of Asia Minor – is a testament to interdisciplinary research, and to engagement in different academic cultures. … [W]e are fortunate that a scholar of such calibre and such experience has left behind such a detailed, engaging, and persuasive book on so many subjects of the highest interest.” – Anna M. Sitz, in: The Byzantine Review 7 (2025) 431-2.
Readers with academic interests in the archaeology and history of Asia Minor in antiquity, the social and historical world of early Christianity, in Christian epigraphy.