Laodikeia Katakekaumene, whose name is preserved in the modern village of Ladık (now officially Halıcı), was a Seleukid foundation of the third century BC. Very little is known of the town’s history in the Hellenistic and early Roman imperial periods; the only known coinage is a small issue minted late in the reign of Vespasian. The chief interest of Laodikeia derives from the vast number of funerary inscriptions of the Roman and late Roman periods (more than four hundred in total) which have been recorded at Ladık and nearby villages. The 21 monuments included in MAMA XI were seen in the summer of 1957 by Michael Ballance and Alan Hall at Ladık and the neighbouring village of Nevine (Bahçesaray); all but two of them (MAMA XI 255 and 265) are previously unpublished.1
In the Roman imperial period, much of the steppe-country to the north of Ladık was carved up into large senatorial and imperial estates. Laodikeia evidently served as an administrative centre for several of these estates: numerous slaves and freedman engaged in domanial administration are attested at Laodikeia (see MAMA XI 257-259). The dependent territory of Laodikeia has usually been considered to have extended over much of the southern part of the steppe west of Lake Tatta (Tuz gölü), but positive evidence is lacking. I have therefore assigned the inscriptions of the south-eastern part of the steppe and the northern Boz Dağ range, including those of Zıvarık–Altınekin, to Northern Lykaonia (MAMA XI 275-293).2
Laodikeia Katakekaumene, whose name is preserved in the modern village of Ladık (now officially Halıcı), was a Seleukid foundation of the third century BC. Very little is known of the town’s history in the Hellenistic and early Roman imperial periods; the only known coinage is a small issue minted late in the reign of Vespasian. The chief interest of Laodikeia derives from the vast number of funerary inscriptions of the Roman and late Roman periods (more than four hundred in total) which have been recorded at Ladık and nearby villages. The 21 monuments included in MAMA XI were seen in the summer of 1957 by Michael Ballance and Alan Hall at Ladık and the neighbouring village of Nevine (Bahçesaray); all but two of them (MAMA XI 255 and 265) are previously unpublished.1
In the Roman imperial period, much of the steppe-country to the north of Ladık was carved up into large senatorial and imperial estates. Laodikeia evidently served as an administrative centre for several of these estates: numerous slaves and freedman engaged in domanial administration are attested at Laodikeia (see MAMA XI 257-259). The dependent territory of Laodikeia has usually been considered to have extended over much of the southern part of the steppe west of Lake Tatta (Tuz gölü), but positive evidence is lacking. I have therefore assigned the inscriptions of the south-eastern part of the steppe and the northern Boz Dağ range, including those of Zıvarık–Altınekin, to Northern Lykaonia (MAMA XI 275-293).2
List of monuments from Laodikeia
Notes
1. Aulock 1976: 45-7, 72-3; Waelkens 1986: 254-8; TIB Phrygien 327-8, s.v. Laodikeia (2); Cohen 1995: 346-8; RPC II 1612-13. Inscriptions: Ramsay 1888, nos. 1-141; Robinson 1926: 196-216, nos. 2-35; MAMA I 1-285; MAMA VII 1-104d. On the early Christian inscriptions of Laodikeia, see Mitchell 1993: I 100-8; Thonemann 2011b.
2. Administrative centre: Mitchell1993: I 154-6, 164. Territory: Calder, MAMA I pp. xiv-xvii; MAMA VII, pp. xiv, xvii.