A little further on he met with undoubted remains of a Temple of Bacchus, with the thyrsus or Bacchic emblem, and an inscription stating that one Calpurnius was “High Priest for life to the most glorious god Bacchus.” Another building, Mr. Arundell thinks, from the number of fluted columns, must have been a portico, “or the Temple of Lunus, or of Men Arcæus, whose worship was established at Antioch.”^[87] Le Quien, in his “Oriens Christianus,” enumerated twenty-six bishops of Antioch. One of these, Methodius, and six other metropolitans subscribed the protest of the Eastern Church against the errors of Calvin. Hamilton, subsequently, found at Antioch an inscription reading ANTIOCHEAE CAESARE, which proves the truth of Arundell’s inferences (i. p. 474).

Cilicia had but few towns of much importance, and these chiefly on the coast or not far inland. Indeed, when we have mentioned Tarsus, Soli, Mallus, and Mopsuestia, we have noticed the principal places in this province. Of these, Tarsus^[88] alone calls for any lengthened description. Of the early history of this city little is known, but a tradition, illustrated by one of its coins, asserted that Sardanapalus was buried there.^[89] Its situation, however, led to its becoming the capital of Cilicia, a position it long retained. Tarsus stood on a rich and fertile plain on both sides of the river Cydnus. Historically, it is first noticed by Xenophon, as, in his day, a great and wealthy city, under a Persian satrap named Syennesis, the unwise ally of Cyrus the Younger. It remained under the Persian rule till the time of Alexander the Great, who nearly lost his life by imprudently bathing when too hot in the Cydnus (Curt. iii. 5; Arrian, ii. 4). In later days it was, generally, under the Seleucidæ, though, for a brief period, subject to the second and third Ptolemy.

Supporting the cause of Cæsar, the great Julius himself paid Tarsus a visit, when the Tarsians changed the name of their city to Juliopolis. Augustus made it a “libera civitas.” Hence, St. Paul, her most illustrious son, spoke truly, when he said it was “no mean city,” and urged with equal truth and justice that he was “free-born,” while his judge had only obtained this right “at a great price.” The fact is, its position on the immediate confines of Syria and of Mesopotamia was of the highest importance to the Romans in their conflict with the Parthians and Persians. It still retains its old name, slightly modified into Tarsous, and is still the chief city of this part of Karamania.

Tarsus^[90] was famous in early days for a remarkable class of coins, known as Satrap-money. Among these are coins of Tiribazus, Pharnabazus, Syennesis, and of other rulers, between B.C. 410 and B.C. 370. A description of a coin of Pharnabazus will show their general character. On the obverse of this silver piece is a bearded and helmeted head, possibly the mythological type of Bellerophon or Perseus, either of which would be appropriate to the Græco-Asiatic population of Cilicia, and the name of Pharnabazus in Phœnician letters. On the reverse, is a seated representation of the Jupiter of Tarsus, with the legend, Baal-Tarz, evidently the Zeus Tersios of the Greeks, recorded on another coin as ΔΙΟΣ ΤΑΡΣΕΩΝ, “Of the Jupiter of the Tarsians.” The Duc de Luynes attributed this coin to the famous Pharnabazus (B.C. 413-374), who, originally Satrap of the N.W. district of Asia Minor, is memorable for the steady resistance he made to the Greeks, while the ruler of Lydia, Tissaphernes, on the other hand, accepted Lacedæmonian gold. If so, this coin must have been struck when Pharnabazus had given (B.C. 397, 8) the command of the Persian fleet to the Athenian Conon, as Tarsus was then the centre of the operations against Cyprus. Another extremely rare coin of Pharnabazus, with his name in Greek, was struck at Lampsacus in Mysia, perhaps, for the payment of the Greek mercenaries of Artaxerxes.

The towns along the coast of Cilicia have been very carefully studied by Captain Beaufort, who has identified many of them. The first of these, passing from W. to E., was Coracesium, a place historically interesting as having been held for a long time by Diodotus Tryphon, who, having revolted from Antiochus, set the first example of active defiance to the Seleucidæ; Coracesium was, also, the last place where the pirates made a united resistance to the forces of Pompey.^[91] The whole story of these freebooters is very interesting. It is clear that their successes were mainly due to two things; first, the peculiar fitness of their ports along the seashore of Cilicia for prolonged resistance, with the high range of Taurus to fall back on if over-pressed; and, secondly, to the internecine squabbles of the kings of Cyprus, Egypt, and Syria with themselves and with the Romans, which made it, from time to time, the interest of each party to wink at their worst deeds. The Sacred Island of Delos was their chief western entrepôt; the increasing luxury of the Romans at the same time giving ample encouragement to their traffic in slaves.

The promontory of Alaya, identified by Captain Beaufort with Coracesium, rises, he says, abruptly “from a low, sandy isthmus which is separated from the mountains by a broad plain; two of its sides are cliffs of great height, and absolutely perpendicular, indeed the eastern side, on which the town is placed, is so steep that the houses seem to rest on each other.” Other places along this coast eastwards are, Laertes (the birthplace of Diogenes Laertius), ἐπὶ λόφου μαστοειδοῦς, “on a hill, in form like a woman’s breast,” and Selinus, a river and a town (now Selinty), the first of which is mentioned by Strabo, and the second by Livy. Its later name of Trajanopolis it owed to the sudden death there of the Emperor Trajan (A.D. 117), but, at a later period, the old name was revived in connection with an episcopal church (Hierocles). Beaufort speaks of its magnificent cliffs—“On the highest point of these,” he says, “are the ruins of a castle which commands the ascent of the hill in every direction, and looks perpendicularly down on the sea.” He notices also several other large structures, and, among these, a mausoleum (perhaps that of Trajan), an agora, a theatre, and an aqueduct. The supposed mausoleum, 70 feet long and 50 feet wide, is constructed of large well-cut blocks of stone and contains only one vault. Cyprus, distant sixty-five miles, can be clearly seen from this headland.

The next important seaport was Anemurium (now Anamur), in the neighbourhood of which Beaufort discovered a perfect city of tombs. “These tombs,” says he, “are small buildings detached from each other and mostly of the same size, though varying in their proportions; the roofs are arched, and the exterior of the walls is dashed with a composition of plaster and small particles of burnt red brick. Each tomb consists of two chambers: the inner one is subdivided into cells or receptacles for the bodies, and the outer apartment is supplied with small recesses and shelves, as if for the purpose of depositing the funereal offerings, or the urns that contained the ashes. The castle strongly resembles some of the ancient castles of Great Britain. Its keep or citadel is placed on a small rocky eminence, and commands two open courts.... The extreme dimensions are about 800 feet by 300 feet.”

Celenderis (now Chelindreh) was noted in ancient history as the place which Piso, the enemy of Germanicus, attempted to take (Tacit. An. xi. 80), and appears, also, in the Ecclesiastical annals, as one of the episcopal towns of Isauria. As the nearest point of communication with Cyprus, it is still occupied by a small population. There are some remains of a fortress which Tacitus describes as of great strength; while many arched vaults, sepulchres and sarkophagi may be seen on the spot. All along this part of the coast of Cilicia the presence of the Crusaders is clearly shown in the names of existing places, as, for instance, in Cavalière and Provençal Island; indeed, Vertot records that, during the settlement of the Christian knights at Rhodes, they took possession of several islands and castles along the shores of Asia Minor. Another place, some eight or nine miles inland, Selefkeh, the ancient Seleuceia ad Calycadnum, is also specially noticed by De Jauna in his History of Armenia, as given by the king of Armenia to the knights of Rhodes for their services. This town, which owed its real or supposed origin to Seleukus Nicator, was famous for its schools of literature and philosophy: Athenæus and Xenarchus, two well-known Peripatetics, having been born there. Seleucia was still in existence in the time of Ammianus, and the ecclesiastical historians, Socrates and Sozomen, speak of Councils having been held here.

Beaufort reports the existence at Selefkeh of many ruins on the west side of the river, and, especially, of an enormous reservoir lined with hard cement (the “opus Signinum” or “Coccio pesto” of the Roman aqueducts). This structure is 150 feet long by 75 feet broad and 35 feet deep, and could, therefore, have held nearly 10,000 tons of water. A little further on is a place called Korghoz, possibly, the Corycus of antiquity, and the site of the Corycian cave, in mythology, the fabled abode of the giant, Typhôs;^[92] but, more probably, the crater of an extinct volcano. Strabo says it was a deep and broad circular valley, the lower part rugged, but covered with shrubs and evergreens, and, especially, with saffron, which was abundant here. From an internal cavity gushed forth a copious stream, which, for a while lost, after a brief course, reappeared near the sea, which it joined. This was called the “bitter water.” Beaufort found two places bearing the name of Korgho Kalaler (castles), there being many signs in the neighbourhood of the former existence of a city of considerable size:—“A mole of great unhewn rocks projects at one angle from the fortress about 100 yards across the bay, terminated by a solid building twenty feet square.”^[93] Can this be the remains of an ancient pharos or lighthouse? We should add that the places, hitherto described, belong to what was usually called Cilicia Tracheia; those we shall now notice, belonging, on the other hand, to the plain country.

Of these we take first, Soli, a colony (Strabo tells us) from Lindus, a relationship the Solians did not forget during subsequent negotiations with the Romans. Soli is first mentioned in Xenophon’s Anabasis, and must, in the following seventy years, have rapidly increased, as Alexander the Great fined the people 200 talents for their attachment to the Persian empire. After having been destroyed by Tigranes, Pompey placed there some of the Cilician pirates whom he had spared; at the same time changing the name of the city to Pompeiopolis. Most of the existing remains are, therefore, Roman. “The first object,” says Beaufort, “which presented itself on landing was a beautiful harbour or basin, with parallel sides and circular ends; it is entirely artificial, being formed by surrounding moles or walls fifty feet in thickness and seven feet in height.... Opposite to the entrance of the harbour a portico rises from the surrounding quay, and opens to a double row of two hundred columns which, crossing the town, communicates with the principal gate towards the country; and from the outside of that gate a paved road continues, in the same line, to a bridge over a small river.... Even in its present state of wreck, the effect of the whole is so imposing, that the most illiterate seaman in the ship could not behold it without emotion.” The actual execution of these columns is, however, poor; and, of the original two hundred, only forty-four are now standing.^[94] Soli was the birthplace of Chrysippus, Philemon, and Aratus.

Adana, which is noticed first in the Mithradatic War, by Appian, and, subsequently, by Pliny, Ptolemy, Dio Cassius, Procopius, and the Byzantine historians, like Tarsus, adopted the name of Hadrian. It is still a place of some size, and the capital of the Pashalik of the same name.

Near the mouth of the river Pyramus (now Gihoon), and further up, are three towns which may be taken together. The first is Mallus, very near the sea, on the left bank of the river over which Alexander threw a bridge, in Mallotis, Strabo’s name for the circumjacent district; or Megarsus (possibly an earlier name for Mallus,) described in Lycophon as standing on a “sea-worn hill”—an expression Beaufort says accurately applies to a place now called Karadash.^[95] Mallus retained its name, slightly modified to Malo, till mediæval times (Sanut. Secret. Fid. li. p. iv. c. 26): 2ndly, above Mallus, Mopsuestia, the creation of a certain mythical hero called Mopsus. According to Pliny, this town was a “free” city, and Procopius states that Justinian repaired the bridge over it (Ædif. v. 5). During the Byzantine period the name was modified to Mensis. Still further up the same river was Anazarba (sometimes called Cæsarea ad Anazarbum), the capital, in the fifth century, of Eastern Cilicia as Tarsus was of the Western—(Hierocles). It was nearly destroyed by earthquakes in the reigns of Justin and Justinian (Procop. Hist. Arcana, c. 18; Cedren., p. 299). Dioskorides and Oppian were born there. The last place in Cilicia to which we shall call attention is Issus, ever memorable as the scene of the famous conflict between Alexander and Darius. Its modern name, Scandaroon or Alexandretta, is obviously derived from Alexandreia. The town stood at the foot of the main chain of Mount Amanus, and, at the head of the gulf to which it gave its name. It was early (as might have been expected from its position) a considerable town, but, in Strabo’s time, had ceased to be more than a small port. Cicero, in his expedition against the mountaineers in the neighbourhood stayed there for some time (Epist. ad Attic. v. 20). The famous defile leading from Cilicia into Syria was to the east of the town.