Pamphylians

Origins of the Pamphylians

According to Encyclopædia Britannica, the Pamphylians were “a mixture of aboriginal inhabitants, immigrant Cilicians (Greek: Κίλικες) and Greeks”. However, Herodotus and Strabo record that the Pamphylians were descended from Greeks who came with Calchas and Amphilochos after the Trojan War. Additionally, Pausanias states that they were a Greek race. Theopompus, as well, informs us that Pamphylia was inhabited by Greeks. Some modern scholars suggest that they migrated to Pamphylia from Arcadia and generally the Peloponnese in the 12th century BC. The significance of the Greek contribution to the origin of the Pamphylians can be attested alike by tradition and archaeology, and Pamphylia can be considered a Greek country from the early Iron Age until the early Middle Ages.