The most probable solution undoubtedly is that the town was at one time destroyed by fire, and that on being rebuilt it received the distinguishing surname.

Some ancient authors describe it as situated in Lycaonia[4] and others as a town of Pisidia,[5] and Ptolemy[6] places it in Galatia, but this discrepancy is easily explained by recollecting that the territories just mentioned were often extended or reduced in extent, so that at one time the town belonged to Lycaonia, while at another it formed part of Pisidia.

[7] It was situated to the northwest of Iconium (now Konya), on the high road leading from the west coast to Melitene on the Euphrates.

[8] Numerous fragments of ancient architecture and sculpture have been found and visitors in the 19th century described seeing inscribed marbles, altars, columns, capitals, friezes, and cornices dispersed throughout the streets and among the houses and burying grounds.

[1] The Christian community of Laodicea might go back to the journeys of Paul and existed latest by the second century as attested by inscriptions.