230 Robert L. Mowery 1) the ethnic diversity of first century Pisidian Antioch, 2) the religious landscape of this city, 3) the likely impact of Caristanius’ benefactions on the people of the city, and 4) Caristanius’ possible participation in the events narrated in Acts 13,50. 1. Since Caristanius’ inscription is a Latin inscription, it provides an additional piece of evidence concerning the prominence of Latin in first century Pisidian Antioch. Augustus had settled a colony of Latin- speaking veterans on this site about 25 BCE (38), and these veterans, who were probably Italians (39), continued to use Latin, despite the fact that they lived in central Anatolia (40). Augustus’ veterans were not the first residents of Pisidian Antioch, for a Seleucid king had established a Greek colony on this site three centuries earlier (41). While many of the descendants of these colonists were probably still living in the region, only a few may have gained full citizenship in the Roman colony (42). The language of the upper classes during Caristanius’ lifetime was Latin, not Greek. Besides the descendants of Augustus’ veterans and the descendants of the Seleucid colonists, there must have been some people whose ancestors had lived in this area before the Seleucid settlers arrived. Since Pisidian Antioch is located near the border of Phrygia and Pisidia, the two most likely groups would have been Phrygians and Pisidians (43). But the descendants of the Italian veterans were the dominant group. Levick has concluded that Pisidian Antioch and the other Roman colonies in southern Asia Minor possessed “a peculiarly Italian culture surrounded by a diluted form of Greek civilization which in Pisidia and southern Phrygia had reached only the towns and their immediate neighbourhood” (44). Acts 13,14-52 emphasizes the presence of another group, a community of Jews. Paul is portrayed speaking in Greek while addressing the Jews in the local synagogue as “Israelites” (v. 16), (38) See B. LEVICK, Roman Colonies in Southern Asia Minor (Oxford 1967) 29-35, 193-194; R. SYME, Anatolica. Studies in Strabo (Oxford 1995) 225. (39) See LEVICK, Roman Colonies, 56-67; MITCHELL – WAELKENS, Pisidian Antioch, 9. According to Syme, Anatolica, 235, the name “Caristanius” is Italian. (40) See the pointed comments of LEVICK, Roman Colonies, 143-144. (41) Cf. MITCHELL – WAELKENS, Pisidian Antioch, 5-7. (42) See LEVICK, Roman Colonies, 69-76; BREYTENBACH, Paulus, 46-47. (43) For these and other possible ethnic groups, see S. MITCHELL, “Population and the Land in Roman Galatia”, ANRW II, 7, 2 (1980) 1056-1068; BREYTENBACH, Paulus, 45-50. (44) Roman Colonies, 130.