PISIDIA - The name applied to a district about 120 miles long and 50 miles broad, immediately N of the plains of Pamphylia. It is entirely occupied by the numerous ranges into which the Taurus here breaks, with the deep intersecting valleys. The name was not applied to a definite political division, and nothing is known of the race inhabiting Pisidia. Until the time of Augustus they were wild mountaineers and brigands. Augustus began their reduction about 25 BC by establishing a chain of Roman posts which included on the N. side Antioch and Lystra, reconstituted as colonies. The name 'Pisidian Antioch' (Ac.13.14 RSV, Antioch of Pisidia) would seem to record this fact, since Antioch (q.v.) was never included in Pisidia. The civilizing of the district seems to have been completed by about AD 74. Until then it was dealt with as part of the province of Galatia, but at that date Vespasian attached a considerable portion of it to Pamphylia, in which province no great military force was maintained. During the 2nd cent. numerous small cities grew up and prospered.
Paul and Barnabas traversed the district twice in the first missionary journey (Ac.13.13, 14.24). It was probably still a dangerous locality, and it is plausibly conjectured that St. Paul refers to it when he speaks of ' dangers from robbers' (2 Co.11.26). The route which they followed is uncertain, but the most likely theory is that of Prof. Ramsay (see Church in the Roman Empire, ch. ii. 2), that they went through Adada, the ruins of which bear the name Kara Bavlo (i.e. Paulo). The dedication of the church to St. Paul may have been due to some surviving tradition of his passing by that way, but we are not informed that he preached at all in Pisidia. There is no evidence that Christianity made any progress in Pisidia before the time of Constantine. From the time of Diocletian we find the name Pisidia applied differently, namely, to a Roman province including Phrygia Galatica, Lycaonia, and the part of Phrygia round Apamea. See PAUL. [Article: Dictionary of the Bible, J.Hastings, 2nd Ed., T&T.Clark, 1963 - A.E.H. - F.C.G.]