Die Moagetiden von Kibyra und ihre Nachbarn: pisidische Lokaldynasten in der Kabalis, der Milyas und der Ebene von Tabai vom 3. bis 1. Jh. v.u.Z.

For a long time, rule by local dynasts was thought to have become sporadic in Asia Minor after 188. In fact, before the discovery of new inscriptions in recent decades, their coexistence with the Attalid Empire was not considered possible. However, a systematic examination now reveals the autocratic rulers of Cibyra, Boubon, Tabae and Olbasa from the late 3rd to the early 1st century as a group of local dynasts of Pisidian origin. Their families had migrated to the Cabalis, the Milyas and the plain of Tabae during the Pisidian westward expansion of the late 3rd century. There, the Pisidians spread a political system, which is referred to in this paper as “informal autocratic rule”. The aim of this study is to show that cities ruled in this way were institutionally modeled on the Greek polis, but were in fact controlled by local dynasts. This study focuses on Cibyra’s Moagetid dynasty, the best-documented example of local dynasts in southwestern Asia Minor after 188. Based on recently published inscriptions, all of Cibyra’s autocratic rulers from the late 3rd century to the year 82 can be identified as members of a single family, distinguished from the Boubonian dynasts and arranged chronologically. For this period, it can therefore be demonstrat­ed that Cibyra, as Strabo 13, 4, 17 emphasizes, was “always ruled by tyrants”.