LE-23 Phrygia Pacatiana

The province’s valleys and routes linked western Anatolia with inland centres. Farming, livestock, textile traditions, urban manufacture, and trade supported towns and rural settlements. Laodicea’s importance rested on more than its administrative title: it belonged to a dense regional civic and commercial world.

Christian communities and bishops became influential within this established urban network. Earthquakes, rebuilding, religious change, and later military pressures altered particular cities. The distinction from Phrygia Salutaris reflected a late administrative division, not the existence of two completely separate ancient Phrygian peoples or the disappearance of connections across their boundary.