238 Robert L. Mowery If Paul preached in Pisidian Antioch sometime during the years 45- 48, as suggested by many scholars, he must have met people who had frequently walked past the statue that Caristanius had erected and who probably still remembered the games, sacrifices and venatio that Caristanius had provided. These benefactions would have given the people of Pisidian Antioch a memorable diversion from the humdrum existence that characterized many of their lives. But the statue would have reminded them of more than Caristanius’ benefactions, for it would have trumpeted the power of Rome, the power of the emperor, the power of the Roman legions, and, by implication, the divine power that had protected the emperor and given him victory. The statue and inscription thus implicitly lauded the power of a pagan divinity rather than the God proclaimed by Paul (85). 4. According to Acts 13,50, the Jews incited “the devout women of high standing” and “the leading men of the city”, and they (who?) (86) stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from their territory. Given the likelihood that Acts 13,50 and 2 Tim 3,11 preserve independent traditions concerning persecution that Paul encountered at Pisidian Antioch, it is reasonable to conclude, as argued above, that Paul actually faced persecution in this city. Whether or not “the devout women of high standing” and “the leading men of the city” actually played a role in this persecution is more difficult to determine; given the absence of corroborating evidence, the most that can be said is that it is possible that these two groups played such a role (87). If “the leading men of the city” played such a role, one of these “leading men” could well have been Caristanius. The Caristanii were not the only prominent family in first century Pisidian Antioch. Mitchell, for example, has highlighted the Sergii Paulli. After citing evidence that associates this family with Pisidian Antioch, Mitchell has speculated that L. Sergius Paullus, a prominent family member who was proconsul of Cyprus at the time of the Pauline mission (Acts 13,7), urged Paul to go to Pisidian Antioch, “no (85) The speech that Paul is portrayed delivering in the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch repeatedly proclaims the acts of God, for God is the grammatical subject of more than a dozen third person verbs in this speech. See Acts 13,17-23.30.34- 35.37. (86) Cf. BARRETT, Acts, I, 660. (87) During the stories of other conflicts involving Paul in Acts 13-20, the author of Acts sometimes portrayed the local authorities opposing Paul, sometimes portrayed them adopting other stances, and sometimes did not mention them. See vv. 14,1-6.19; 16,16-24.35-39; 17,1-9.13-14; 18,12-17; 19,23-41; 20,3.