an important province of Asia Minor, of which the ancient boundaries are exceedingly various and indistinct. Phrygia proper was, according to Ptolemy, bounded on the N. by Pontus and Bithynia; W. by Mysia, Troas, the Ægean Sea, Lydia, Maeonia, and Caria; S. by Lycia; E. by Pamphylia and Galatia. The once extensive territory inhabited by the Phrygians was limited during the conquests of Cyrus to Lesser Phrygia on the Hellespont, and to Greater Phrygia. The former, as far as can be ascertained, included Troas, and bordered in the E. on Bithynia and the Greater Phrygia, and in the S. on Lydia. The Greater Phrygia, again, formed the central country of Asia Minor, bounded on the N. by Bithynia and Paphlagonia, E. by the river Halys, and S. by Mount Taurus.

The origin and nationality of the inhabitants of Phrygia is a subject wrapt in great obscurity. Some regard them as Thracians (Bryges), others as Armenians, and others again as of mixed origin. It seems most probable that at some very remote period they had descended from the Armenian highlands; for, as we may gather from numerous hints afforded by ancient writers, there must have been a time when the Phrygian race formed by far the most important part of the entire population of Asia Minor. The Pelasgian races seem to have belonged to the Great Phrygian stock; and the Trojans, Myrians, Maeonians, Mygdonians, and Dorianians are all traceable to the same origin. Moving westward, the Phrygians seem at an early period to have settled about the central parts of Emathia in Europe. These Phrygians (or Bryges) are met with in all directions; and indeed this important race seems at one time to have constituted the main element of the population of the greater part of Thrace, Macedonia, and Illyricum. Yielding gradually to the pressure of the northern peoples, the Phrygians seem to have migrated back to Asia—an event dated by Xanthus about ninety years before the Trojan war, and which may serve to account for the Thracian origin assigned to them by tradition. The Phrygians are repeatedly alluded to in the Homeric poems (Iliad, ii. 862; iii. 185; x. 431; xvi. 717; xxiv. 535); and are generally admitted to be one of the most ancient nations of Asia Minor (Herodotus, ii. 2).

The religious ideas of the Phrygians seem to have exercised a great influence over the mythological development of the Greeks. Phrygia was a country rich in all kinds of produce. Agriculture was their chief occupation; they bestowed much care on the cultivation of the vine; and the country was distinguished for the excellent breed of its sheep, and for the fineness of their wool. Phrygian marble was much prized, and gold seems to have been found in its streams. It possessed well-built towns in the time of Homer (Iliad, iii. 400), which were great commercial emporia. Such were Pesinus, Gordium, Celaene, and Apamea, the last of which was long a chief centre of trade for the whole of Asia Minor.

After the overthrow of the Persian power in Asia Minor by Alexander the Great, Phrygia seems gradually to have lost its original boundaries in the distribution of territory which ensued, as well as by the frequent changes to which it was subjected by subsequent conquest.