Cilicia

In antiquity, Cilicia (/sɪˈlɪʃiə/) or less often Kilikia (Armenian: Կիլիկիա; Greek: Κιλικία; Middle Persian: Klikiyā, Parthian: Kilikiyā, Turkish: Kilikya), was the south coastal region of Asia Minor. It existed as a political entity from Hittite times into the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia and Byzantine Empire. Cilicia extends inland from the southeastern coast of modern Turkey, due north and northeast of the island of Cyprus. Cilicia corresponds to the modern region of Çukurova in Turkey.

Geography and nomenclature

Cilicia extended along the Mediterranean coast east from Pamphylia, to the Amanus Mountains, which separated it from Syria. North and east of Cilicia lie the rugged Taurus Mountains that separate it from the high central plateau of Anatolia, which are pierced by a narrow gorge, called in antiquity the Cilician Gates. Ancient Cilicia was naturally divided into Cilicia Trachaea and Cilicia Pedias by the Lamus river. Salamis, the city on the east coast of Cyprus, was included in its administrative jurisdiction. The Greeks invented for Cilicia an eponymous Hellene founder in the purely mythic Cilix, but the historic founder of the dynasty that ruled Cilicia Pedias was Mopsus, identifiable in Phoenician sources as Mpš, the founder of Mopsuestia who gave his name to an oracle nearby.Homer mentions the people of Mopsus, identified as Cilices (Κίλικες), as from the Troad in the northernwesternmost part of the Anatolian peninsula.

Cilicia (satrapy)

Cilicia (modern Turkish name is Çukurova) was a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire, with its capitol at Tarsus. It was conquered sometime in the 540's by Cyrus the Great. Cilicia was a vassal, and although it had a vassal king it had to pay a tribute of 360 horses and 500 talents of silver, according to Herodotus. The fertile Çukurova (Cilician) plains were the most important part of the satrapy.

There were several sanctuaries that remained more or less independent from Persian rule. Some of these included Castabala, Mazaca, and Mallus.

The last vassal king of Cilicia became involved in the civil war between Artaxerxes II and Cyrus the Younger. Having sided with Cyrus the Younger, who was defeated, the king was dethroned and Cilicia became an ordinary satrapy.

The second to last satrap (governor) of Cilicia was the Babylonian Mazaeus. Shortly aftwards, his successor was expelled by Alexander the Great.

See also

References

Cilicia (Roman province)

Cilicia was an early Roman province, located on what is today the southern (Mediterranean) coast of Turkey. Cilicia was annexed to the Roman Republic in 64 BC by Pompey, as a consequence of his military presence in the east, after pursuing victory in the Third Mithridatic War. It was subdivided by Diocletian in around 297, and it remained under Roman, and subsequently Byzantine, rule for several centuries, until falling to the Islamic conquests.

First contact and establishment of the province (103 – 47 BC)

Cilicia was a haven for pirates that profited from the slave trade with the Romans. When the Cilician pirates began to attack Roman shipping and towns, the Roman senate decided to send various commanders to deal with the threat. It was during the course of these interventions that the province of Cilicia came into being.

Parts of Cilicia Pedias became Roman territory in 103 BC, during Marcus Antonius Orator’s first campaign against the pirates. While the entire area of “Cilicia” was his “province”, or more correctly, his area of imperium during his propraetorial command, only a small portion of that region was made a Roman province at that time.