Gala´tia, a province of Asia Minor, bounded on the north by Bithynia and Paphlagonia, on the south by Lycaonia, on the east by Pontus and Cappidocia, and on the west by Phrygia and Bithynia. It derived its name from the Gallic or Keltic tribes who, about 280 years B.C., made an eruption into Macedonia and Thrace. At the invitation of Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, they passed over the Hellespont to assist that prince against his brother Ziboeta. Having accomplished this object, they were unwilling to retrace their steps; and, strengthened by the accession of fresh hordes from Europe, they overran Bithynia and the neighboring countries, and supported themselves by predatory excursions, or by imposts exacted from the native chiefs. After the lapse of forty years, Attalus I, king of Pergamus, succeeded in checking their nomadic habits, and confined them to a fixed territory, Of the three principal tribes, the Trocmi settled in the eastern part of Galatia, near the banks of the Halys; the Tectosages in the country round Ancyra; and the Tolistobogii in the south-western parts, near Pessinus. They retained their independence till the year B.C. 189, when they were brought under the power of Rome by the consul Cn. Manlius, though still governed by their own princes. In the year B.C. 25Galatia became a Roman province. Under the successors of Augustus the boundaries of Galatia were so much enlarged, that it reached from the shores of the Euxine to the Pisidian Taurus. In the time of Constantine a new division was made, which reduced it to its ancient limits; and by Theodosius I or Valens it was separated into Galatia Prima, the northern part, occupied by the Trocmi and Tectosages, and Galatia Secunda or Salutaris: Ancyra was the capital of the former, and Pessinus of the latter.
From the intermixture of Gauls and Greeks, Galatia was also called Gallo-Græcia, and its inhabitants Gallo-Græci. But even in Jerome's time they had not lost their native language.
The Gospel was introduced into this province by the Apostle Paul. His first visit is recorded in , and his second in .
This Encyclopedia of Biblical Literature is a 6 volume set in 1 book. It has over 2Read More
John Kitto was an English biblical scholar of Cornish descent.Born in Plymouth, John Kitto was a sickly child, son of a Cornish stonemason. The drunkenness of his father and the poverty of his family meant that much of his childhood was spent in the workhouse. He had no more than three years of erratic and interrupted education. At the age of twelve John Kitto fell on his head from a rooftop, and became totally and permanently deaf. As a young man he suffered further tragedies, disappointments and much loneliness. His height was 4 ft 8 in, and his accident left him with an impaired sense of balance. He found consolation in browsing at bookstalls and reading any books that came his way.
From these hardships he was rescued by friends who became aware of his mental abilities and encouraged him to write topical articles for local newspapers, arranging eventually for him to work as an assistant in a local library. Here he continued to educate himself.
One of his benefactors was the Exeter dentist Anthony Norris Groves, who in 1824 offered him employment as a dental assistant. Living with the Groves family, Kitto was profoundly influenced by the practical Christian faith of his employer. In 1829 he accompanied Groves on his pioneering mission to Baghdad and served as tutor to Groves's two sons. In 1833 Kitto returned to England via Constantinople, accompanied by another member of the Groves mission, Francis William Newman. Shortly afterwards he married, and in due course had several children.
A London publisher asked Kitto to write up his travel journals for a series of articles in the Penny Magazine, a publication read at that time by a million people in Britain, reprinted in America and translated into French, German and Dutch. Other writing projects followed as readers enquired about his experiences in the East amidst people living in circumstances closely resembling those of Bible times.
Wikipedia