Page "Galatia" Paragraph 9

The constitution of the Galatian state is described by Strabo and bare striking resemblance to later Germanic kingdoms and early feudalism during the Dark Ages.

According to Strabo their territory was divided in accordance with custom, each tribe was further divided into cantons, each governed by a military aristocratic ruler whose title chief of the tribe gave him the powers of a King-Priest (' tetrarch ').

As such he was the supreme judge in his territory with specific enumerated powers delegated upwards from him toward the larger Kingdom.

Beneath him, he held a council whose powers were essentially unlimited except by agreement of the larger council and in cases of murder, which were tried before a council of 300 drawn from the twelve cantons and meeting at a holy place, twenty miles southwest of Ancyra, written in Greek as Drynemeton ( Gallic * daru-nemeton holy place of oak ).

It is likely it was a sacred oak grove, since the name means " sanctuary of the oaks " ( from drys, meaning " oak " and nemeton, meaning " sacred ground ").

Establishing themselves in the countryside, their individual farms were freeholds, held by a family, whose head represented the family in other assemblies.

Beneath them and working their estates were the local population which was reduced to serfdom.

Meanwhile, the remaining local population of Cappadocians were left in control of the towns and most of the land, paying tithes to their new overlords, who formed a military aristocracy and kept aloof in fortified farmsteads, surrounded by their bands.