[1] Synnada was situated in the south-eastern part of eastern Phrygia, or Parorea, thus named because it extended to the foot of the mountains of Pisidia, at the extremity of a plain about 60 stadia in length, and covered with opium plantations.

It enters written history when the Roman consul Gnaeus Manlius Vulso passed through that city on his expeditions against the Galatians (189 BCE).

In Strabo's time it was still a small town,[3] but when Pliny wrote it was an important place, being the conventus juridicus for the whole of the surrounding country.

Under Diocletian at the time of the creation of Phrygia Pacatiana, Synnada, at the intersection of two great roads, became the metropolis (capital).

[8] Eusebius of Caesarea speaks of its pious bishop Atticus who entrusted to the layman Theodore the duty of instructing the Christians.