ABSTRACT

First of all, Balboura itself: its early history is rather obscure, but its origins as a polis seem to have been in the late third or early second century BC. It belonged to a tetrapolis composed of four towns-Cibyra, Bubon and Oenoanda, as well as Balboura-which was then divided between Lycia and Asia by the Roman general L. Licinius Murena in 84 BC (Bean 1978, 166-70). Lycia as a whole was under the rule of the Ptolemies after the third century BC, but was conquered by Antiochus III in 197 BC; after Antiochus’ defeat by the Romans it was regarded as enemy territory and given to the Rhodians. The constant protests at Rhodian rule by the Lycians, however, led to their independence and selfgovernment under the Koinon (Federation) of the Lycians. Lycian freedom came to an abrupt end in the reign of Claudius, who annexed the area and attached it to neighbouring Pamphylia as a province under the control of a governor, Q.Veranius (Gordon 1953, 243ff.). It seems to have been freed again by Nero, but was then definitively taken under Roman control by Vespasian (Keil 1936; Magie 1950, 529-30).