Sketches in the Religious Antiquities of Asia Minor

It is well known that in pre-Greek time a large part of Asia Minor was portioned out in theocracies, i.e. priest-kings representing the god, at great sanctuaries ruled over a considerable district whose population were servants and subjects of the central hieron. Such were Pessinus, Comana Pontica, Comana of Cappadocia, Venasa, Tyana, Antioch of Pisidia, the hieron of Sabazios in the Milyadic country, etc. It would appear to be a necessary characteristic of such a theocracy that there should be only one centre, one hieron, one sanctuary. In the case of Antioch, however, this seems not to have been the case. Strabo, p. 577, indeed describes the hieron at Antioch as if it were a single centre ruling a wide tract of country peopled by a large population; but in p. 557 he says that there were two sanctuaries in the Antiochian country, ‘the hieron of the Askaian (Men), which is beside Antioch-towards-Pisidia, and the hieron (of Men) in the region of the Antiochians.’ The meaning of ‘the region of the Antiochians’ as a geographical term I hope shortly to discuss in the Journal of Roman Studies, and will only say here that it applies to the entire Phrygian region of the Galatic province, of which Antioch was the metropolis. But why has Antioch apparently two hiera? Why has this ancient theocracy two seats of the god?