Anatolia: Land, Men, and Gods in Asia Minor Volume I: The Celts in Anatolia and the Impact of Roman Rule (Celts in Anatolia & the Impact of Roman Rule) [Paperback]

Stephen Mitchell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0198150296 | ISBN-13: 978-0198150299 | Publication Date: August 24, 1995

This is the first comprehensive study of the history of Asia Minor in antiquity to be written for nearly fifty years and the first attempt to treat Anatolian history as a whole over the millennium from the time of Alexander the Great to the peak of the Byzantine Empire. The first volume is in two parts. The first examines the region in the Hellenistic period, when it was dominated by Celtic tribes who settled in the interior of Asia Minor in the first half of the third century B.C. The second covers the period of the Roman Empire and looks in detail at the changes brought about by imperial rule.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Immediately takes it place as one of the best books about the eastern Roman empire....These two folio-sized volumes contain thousands of up-to-the-minute footnotes, eighteen excellent maps, and sixty-five photographs...as well as over a quarter of a million words of text. Amazingly, it is all very readable; even more amazing is that it is all worth reading."--Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"Mitchell's excellent 2-volume work aptly fills important needs for the study of Anatolia....The writing is clear and often exciting, the arguments sound, and the supporting evidence more than ample....Will remain standard for many decades."--Choice

About the Author

Stephen Mitchell is at University College of Swansea.

Product Details

• Paperback: 266 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (August 24, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198150296
• ISBN-13: 978-0198150299
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,152,643 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History brought to life., September 25, 2001

By 

W. Weinstein "William Weinstein" (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anatolia: Land, Men, and Gods in Asia Minor Volume I: The Celts in Anatolia and the Impact of Roman Rule (Celts in Anatolia & the Impact of Roman Rule) (Paperback)

This title, in two volumes, covers the vast sweep of Asia Minor's history, from Alexander to the height of the Byzantine Empire. The first volume concentrates on two major periods; the early part of the 3rd century BC when Celtic tribes settled throughout the interior, and the coming of the Romans and their colonisation of the eastern flank of their empire. Mr Mitchell has crafted an enormously readable history of the region. The detail is extraordinary but the prose never becomes turgid or obtuse. By examining the intertwined complexities of people's relations to the land and their Gods, Mr Mitchell has broken new ground and produced a book that is that most unusual of beasts, both readable and scholarly.

3.0 out of 5 stars A Disappointing Study, November 24, 2011

By 

Dr. Ranajit Pal (Calcutta, India) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anatolia: Land, Men, and Gods in Asia Minor Volume I: The Celts in Anatolia and the Impact of Roman Rule (Celts in Anatolia & the Impact of Roman Rule) (Paperback)

I started reading the book with great expectations but was greatly disappointed. In particular, the author stresses the relationships between the people to the land, and that of men to the gods, but fails to look deeper. He brings in a lot of information from many sources but sadly does not ask the relevant questions. He claims to have covered data from literary sources, archaeological remains, inscriptions, and also coins but fails to make any sense out of these. This is not only relevant to world history, but as he himself notes, Asia Minor was termed 'das Christliche Land' by the the learned Adolph von Harnack. The author does not realize that Galilee was not the Christliche land. This can also be inferred from F. Carotta's recent work on the Roman background of Christianity. The topics covered have a significance which reaches far beyond the boundaries of Anatolia but sadly the author lacks the breadth of vision to appreciate it. The Christian churches mentioned by St. Paul at Lystra, Derbe, Antioch in Pisidia etc. are the oldest known, but the author remains blind to the fact that behind these time-worn establishments hides a cherubic figure, Amyntas of Galatia, who may be Jesus Amen, the founder of Christianity. His palace was at Isauria which reveals his name Isa. Antioch and its sister cities Lystra and Tavium were all centers of Amyntas of Galatia, the forgotten hero of Asia Minor of the 1st century B.C., who may have been called Amen. He mentions Augustus' destruction of Amyntas' shrine of Men Askaenos but has no idea of the link of this to Christian history. He has no idea that Augustus falsely claimed the title 'son of god' but being the son of Adobogiona, the chief priestess of the holy Pessinus shrine, Amyntas was the legitimate `son of god' and that this was the point of contention between the two. Adobogiona was related to Mithradates VI Eupator which explains why Amyntas had to be hated by the Romans. The Mithradatic ancestry also explains Jesus' fame as a healer. As Attis was linked to Pessinus, Amyntas may also have been seen as an embodiment of Attis. This, of course, necessitates that that Jesus belonged to an earlier era; his widely suspected birth-date, i.e. 0AD, may be the worst blunder in world history. Guignebert pointed to an error of + - 15 years, but if one goes a little farther back (~50 B. C.), Jesus Christ and his men appear as radiant historical figures. Augustus' bilingual inscription at Ancyra, the Res Gestae, has been hailed as the `queen of inscriptions' by Th. Mommsen but no one noted that these were located precisely at the centers of Amyntas. Tacitus mentioned Augustus' extensive tampering with history. He killed the Alexandrian historian Timagenes who may have been sympathetic to Julius Caesar, Cleopatra and Amyntas. R. Syme saw through Augustus' chicanery but even he missed that the main target was Amyntas and Christian history. Augustus writes that in 25 B.C. the gates of the Janus temple were kept open but omits that in that same year he had annexed Amyntas' territory. There can be no doubt that Amyntas, whose palace was at Isauria, was Isa Chrestos himself . St. Paul and St. Thomas were Asinius Pollio and Hermaeus Soter respectively. In my view this book makes a mockery of the history of Asia Minor.