| Provincia Cilicia Ἐπαρχία Κιλικίας | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Province of theRoman Republic and theRoman Empire | |||||||||||||
| 64 BC–8th century | |||||||||||||
.svg) Roman Cilicia, c. 125 AD | |||||||||||||
| Capital | Tarsus (modern-dayMersin,Turkey) | ||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||
• Conquest byPompey | 64 BC | ||||||||||||
| 8th century | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Today part of | Turkey | ||||||||||||
Cilicia (/sɪˈlɪʃiə/)[1] was an earlyRoman province, located on what is today the southern (Mediterranean) coast ofTurkey.Cilicia wasannexed to the Roman Republic in 64 BC byPompey, as a consequence of his victoryover the Cilician pirates and in theThird Mithridatic War. It was subdivided byDiocletian in around 297, and it remained under Roman rule for several centuries, until falling to theIslamic conquests.
The area 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, theRoman 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 ofCilicia Pedias became Roman territory in 103 BC, duringMarcus Antonius’s first campaign against the pirates. While the entire area of Cilicia was his "province" (or more correctly, his area ofimperium) during hispropraetorial command, only a small portion of that region was made a Roman province at that time.
In 96 BC,Lucius Cornelius Sulla was appointed the propraetorial governor of Cilicia, during which time he stopped an invasion byMithridates II of Parthia. In 80 BC, the governor of Cilicia wasGnaeus Cornelius Dolabella, who was later convicted of illegally plundering the province. His replacement in 78 BC wasPublius Servilius Vatia Isauricus. He was given the responsibility of clearing out the pirates, and his posting lasted until 74 BC.[2] From 77 to 76 BC, he achieved a number of naval victories against the pirates off the Cilician coast, and was able to occupy theLycian andPamphylian coasts.[3] After the pirates fled to their fortified strongholds, Vatia Isauricus began attacking their coastal fortresses. He captured the town ofOlympos before going on to capturePhaselis and subduingCorycus and a number of minor pirate strongholds.[4]
Then in 75 BC Vatia Isauricus advanced across a Roman army across theTaurus Mountains for the first time, and succeeded in defeating the Isauri along the northern slopes. He laid siege to their principal town, Isaura, and managed to capture it after diverting the course of a river, thereby depriving the defenders in the town from their only source of water, after which they soon surrendered.[4] By 74 BC, Vatia Isauricus had organized the territory he had conquered and incorporated it into the province of Cilicia.[4] Nevertheless, much of Cilicia Pedias was still held byTigranes the Great and belonged to the kingdom ofArmenia, while Cilicia Trachea was still under the domination of the pirates.
Vatia Isauricus was succeeded as proconsul of Cilicia byLucius Licinius Lucullus who used Isauricus' veterans and fleet to fight in the war againstMithridates VI of Pontus (see:Third Mithridatic War). Since Tigranes was Mithridates' ally Lucullus eventually moved against his possessions in Cilicia Pedias and added them to the Roman province of Cilicia.
It was not untilPompey was granted his extraordinary command against the pirates in 67 BC, and the decisiveBattle of Korakesion (in modernAlanya), that the pirates were finally driven out and subdued, and Cilicia Trachea was brought under Roman control. After Pompey was granted command of theThird Mithridatic War, he forced the surrender of King Triganes and proceeded to strip off of the king the parts of Cilicia Pedias that Triganes still possessed. By 64 BC, as part of hisgeneral settlement of the East, Pompey had organized the new province, adding all of his recent conquests to the original province of Cilicia, and madeTarsus the capital of the new province.
Pompey's reorganized Cilicia had six parts: Cilicia Campestris, Cilicia Aspera,Pamphylia,Pisidia,Isauria, andLycaonia; with the largest part ofPhrygia, including theConventus iuridicus of Laodicea, Apamea, and Synnada. To the east of Cilicia Campestris, Pompey left a local dynast,Tarcondimotus I, in control of Anazarbos and Mount Amanus. The Tarcondimotid dynasty would continue to hold the region as loyal allies of Rome until the reign of Tiberius.[5]
In 58 BC, the island ofCyprus was added, which the Romans had taken from the king of Egypt. This was the extent of the Roman province of Cilicia whenCicero wasproconsul of Cilicia in 51–50 BC. The Romans had by now divided it into eight Conventus (or Fora): the Conventus of Tarsus, where the governor resided; the Forum of Iconium forLycaonia; the Forum Isauricum, possibly at Philornelium; the Forum Pamphylium, the place of which is unknown; the Forum Cibyraticum, atLaodicea on the Lycus; the Forum of Apamea; the Forum of Synnada; and Cyprus.
The province was reorganized byJulius Caesar in 47 BC. The Forum (or Conventus) of Cibyra was attached to theprovince ofAsia, together with the greater part ofPisidia, Pamphylia, as well as possibly the Conventus of Apamea andSynnada. Further changes were made byMarcus Antonius in 36 BC, when he gave Cyprus and Cilicia Aspera toCleopatra VII, and eastern Phrygia with Lycaonia, Isauria, and Pisidia, to kingAmyntas of Galatia.
In 27 BC, theRoman emperorAugustus made further changes, reducing the province of Cilicia still further. Cyprus was made a separate province; and Pamphylia with Isauria and Pisidia, after the death of Amyntas in 25 BC, was also made a separate province (the province of Galatia), to which Lycaonia was also attached. The result was that Cilicia was reduced to the original parts Campestris and Aspera, and renamed Syria-Cilicia Phoenice. Under Augustus, Cilicia was an imperial province, administered by a consularLegatus Augusti pro praetore.
As per the late Republican and early imperial methods of provincial rule, the western mountainous parts of Cilicia, which were not easy for a governor to manage, were left to the native princes. There were a total of three of these independent native dynasties. One was that ofOlba, in the mountains between Soli andCyinda, ruled by priest-dynasts. A second was Cilicia Aspera, which Marc Antony had originally given to Cleopatra. Augustus placed this territory under the rule of kingArchelaus of Cappadocia in 25 BC. The son of Tarcondimotos in eastern Cilicia had lost his throne in 30 BC because of his father's unwavering support of Mark Antony, but the kingdom was restored in 20 BC; it was to last another 37 years before Tiberius finally abolished this client kingdom and changed it to a full province.
In 72 AD, during the reign ofVespasian, all three remaining client kingdoms established by Augustus were disestablished, and merged with the imperial province of Cilicia.[6] By the reign ofCaracalla, the proconsular governor was named as a Consularis, and it contained 47 known cities.[7]
Sometime during the rule of theDiocletian and theTetrarchy (probably around 297 AD), Cilicia was divided into three parts:Cilicia Prima, under aconsularis, with its capital at Tarsus;Cilicia Secunda, under apraeses, with its capital at Anazarbus; andIsauria (originallyCilicia Aspera), under apraeses, with its capital at Seleucia. These 3 Cilician provinces, plus the Syrian, Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Libyan provinces, formed theDiocese of the East (in the late 4th century the African component was split off asDiocese of Egypt), part of thepraetorian prefecture of the East, the rich bulk of theeastern Roman Empire.
Cilicia proper remained under East Roman (Byzantine) control until the early 8th century, when it was conquered by theUmayyad Caliphate and became part of the Islamic borderlands (thughur) with the Romans. The region had, however, been almost completely depopulated already since the middle of the 7th century and formed a no man's land between the Romans and the Caliphate. The western parts of the old province of Cilicia remained in Roman hands and became part of theCibyrrhaeot Theme. The status quo would remain unchanged for over 260 years before Cilicia was eventually reconquered for the Romans in the 950s and 960s byNikephoros Phokas andJohn Tzimiskes.
