The ancient name for the S coastal part of Turkey around the Taurus Mts. It was famous for its timber and its pirates.
In Antiquity, Cilicia (Κιλικία) was the name of a region, now known as Çukurova, and often a political unit, on the southeastern coast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey), north of Cyprus.
Geography
Cilicia extended along the Aegean coast east from Pamphylia, to Mount Amanus (Giaour Dagh), which separated it from Syria. North 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 since Antiquity the Cilician Gates. Ancient Cilicia was naturally divided into Cilicia Trachea and Cilicia Pedias divided by the Lamas Su. Cilicia was given an eponymous founder in the 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 and protector of an oracle nearby.
Cilicia Trachea ("rugged Cilicia"; Greek Κιλικία Τραχεία), the Assyrian Khilakku from which we get "Cilicia," is a rugged mountain district formed by the spurs of Taurus, which often terminate in rocky headlands with small sheltered harbours, a feature which, in classical times, made the coast a string of havens for pirates (see : Side), but which in the Middle Ages led to its occupation by Genoese and Venetian traders. Cilicia lacked large cities.
Cilicia Pedias ("flat Cilicia"; Through the rich plain of Issus ran the great highway that linked east and west on which stood the cities of Tarsus (Tarsa) on the Cydnus, Adana (Adanija) on the Sarus, and Mopsuestia (Missis) on the Pyramus.
Early history
Cilicia had a continuous settlement pattern from Neolithic period onwards (Akpinar, 2004; 3400 BC, and Early Bronze Age IA: 3400-3000 BC, EBA IB: 3000-2700 BC, EBA II: 2700-2400 BC,EBA III A-B: 2400-2000 BC (Mellink, 1991: 168-170).
The Cilicians appear as Khilikku in Assyrian inscriptions, and in the early part of the 1st millennium BC were one of the four chief powers of western Asia. but, up to 1909 at all events, Hittite monuments had not been found in Cilicia;
Under the Persian empire Cilicia was apparently governed by tributary native kings, who bore a Hellenized name or title of "Syennesis";
The Persian Royal Road
The great highway from the west existed before Cyrus conquered Cilicia. After crossing the low hills east of the Pyramus it passed through a masonry (Cilician) gate, Demir Kapu, and entered the plain of Issus. Both passes are short and easy, and connect Cilicia Pedias geographically and politically with Syria rather than with Asia Minor.
Hellenism and Roman Cilicia
Similarly Alexander found the Gates open, when he came down from the plateau in 333 BC;
After Alexander's death it was long a battleground of rival Hellenistic marshals and kingdoms, and for a time fell under Ptolemaic dominion (i.e.
Cilicia Trachea became the haunt of pirates, who were subdued by Pompey in 67 BC following a battle at Korakesion (modern Alanya), and Tarsus was made the capital of the Roman province of Cilicia. Cilicia Pedias became Roman territory in 103 BC, and the whole was organized by Pompey, 64 BC, into a province which, for a short time, extended to and included part of Phrygia. It was reorganized by Julius Caesar, 47 BC, and about 27 BC became part of the province Syria-Cilicia Phoenice.
Under Emperor Diocletian's Tetrarchy (circa 297), Cilicia was governed by a Consularis; with Isauria and the Syrian, Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Libyan provinces, formed the Diocesis Orientis (in the third century the African component was split off as diocesis Aegyptus), part of the pretorian prefecture also called Oriens ('the East', also including the dioceses Asiana and Pontus, both in Anatolia, and Thraciae on the Balkans), the rich bulk of the eastern Roman Empire.
In the 7th century it was invaded by the muslim Arabs, who held the country until it was reoccupied by the Byzantine emperor Nicephorus II in 965.
Roman Cilicia exported the goats-hair cloth, Cilicium, of which tents were made.
Armenian kingdom
During the time of the Crusades, the area was controlled by the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. The Seljuk invasion of Armenia was followed by an exodus of Armenians southwards, and in 1080, Ruben, a relative of the last king of Ani, founded in the heart of the Cilician Taurus a small principality, which gradually expanded into the kingdom of Lesser Armenia or Armenia Minor.
Haithon I (r.
Cilicia Trachea was conquered by the Ottomans in the 15th century, but Cilicia Pedias remained independent until 1515.
See also: List of monarchs of the Armenian Kingdom of CiliciaOttoman Empire
The Armenian population of Cilicia was affected by the Armenian Genocide. On 1 January 1919, Cilicia was occupied by French troops. It has two French Governors, even several months later than the 9 March 1921 peace treaty with ten still Ottoman Turkey which ended fighting in According to the Treaty of Sèvres of 1920, Cilicia was to be a part of French Syria, but this treaty had never been in effect, because of the Turkish War of Independence.
Republic of Turkey
After the Franco-Turkish war, and consequant battles during Turkish War of Independence the region become part of Republic of Turkey in 1921 with the Treaty of Lausanne. The modern Turkish provinces Mersin, Adana, and Osmaniye are located in former Cilicia.
Mythological namesake
Greek mythology also mentions another Cilicia, as a small region situated immediately southeast of the Troad in northwestern Asia Minor, facing the Gulf of Adramyttium. The connection (if any) between this rather obscure Cilicia (which appears to have been under the thumb of Troy) and the much more well-known and well-defined region mentioned above is unclear. This Trojan Cilicia is mentioned in Homer's Iliad and Strabo's Geography, and contained equally obscure localities as Thebes, Lyrnessus and Chryse.
Sources and references
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
Ancient Cilicia - texts, photographs, maps, inscriptions: www.kilikien.de Jona Lendering, "Ancient Cilicia" Notitia dignitatum Cilicia Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia WorldStatesmen- Turkey Akpinar, E. Anatolian Contacts with Chalcolithic CyprusBulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No.
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