Lycaonia

Ancient region in Asia Minor. Lycaonia remained virtually independent of Persia, but was included in the empire of Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia. After his death it belonged to the Seleucids until the defeat of Antiochus (III) the Great 190 BC by the Romans, who gave it to their ally Eumenes II of Pergamum.

Lycaonia was bordered on the north by Galatia, on the east by Cappadocia, on the south by the Taurus range, on the west by Pisidia and Phrygia. The land provided good pasture for sheep and wild asses, but it suffered from lack of water and a salty soil; some of the inhabitants lived largely by plunder. The principal towns in the 1st century AD were Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe.