Tarsus

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Ametropolitansee of Cilicia Prima. It appears to have been ofSemitic origin and is mentioned several times in the campaigns of Salmanasar and Sennacherib. The Greek legend connects it with the memory of Sardanapalus, still preserved in the Dunuk-Tach, calledtomb of Sardanapalus, a monument of unknown origin. When in the year 401 B.C., the younger Cyrus marched against Babylon, the city was governed by King Syennesis in the name of the Persian monarch. Tarsus was already Greek and had a tendency to become more and more hellenized. Alexander the Great came near meeting his death there after a bath in the Cydnus, the modern Tarsus-Irmak. By its literaryschools, Tarsus rivalled Athens and Alexandria. It was then comprised in the kingdom of theSeleucides, took the name of Antioch, and theBible (2 Maccabees 4:30) records its revolt against Antiochus IV Epiphanes, about 171 B.C. Pompey subjected it toRome. To flatter Caesar it took the name ofJuliopolis; it was there that Cleopatra and Anthony met, and it was the scene of the celebrated feasts which they gave during the construction of their fleet. Tarsus was already the caput Ciliciae, themetropolis, where the governor resided. When the province was divided it remained the civil and religiousmetropolis of Cilicia Prima. The greatest glory of Tarsus is that it was the birthplace ofSt. Paul (Acts 9:11;21:39;22:3), who took refuge there after hisconversion (Acts 9:30), and was joined by Barnabas (Acts 11:25). It is probable that at the time aChristian community was established there, although the firstbishop, Helenus, dates only from the third century; he went several times to Antioch in connexion with the dispute concerningPaul of Samosata (Eusebius,Church History VI.46 andVII.5).Le Quien (Oriens christianus, II, 869-76) mentions twenty-two of itsbishops, of whom several are legendary. Among them are Lupus, present at the Council ofAncyra in 314; Theodorus, at that of Nicaea in 325; Helladius, condemned at Ephesus, and who appealed to thepope in 433; above all the celebratedexegete Diodorus, teacher ofTheodore of Mopsuestia and consequently one of the fathers ofNestorianism. From the sixth century themetropolitan See of Tarsus had seven suffraganbishoprics (Echos d'Orient, X, 145); the Greek archdiocese is again mentioned in the tenth century (op. cit., X, 98), and has existed down to the present day, being comprised in the Patriarchate of Antioch. Owing to the importance of Tarsus manymartyrs wereput to death there, among them beingSt. Pelagia, St. Boniface, St. Marinus, St. Diomedus, and Sts. Cerycus and Julitta; several Roman emperors wereinterred there --- namely, Tacitus, Maximinus Daza, andJulian the Apostate. TheArabs took possession of Tarsus from the seventh century and kept it until 965, when Nicephorus Phocas annexed it again to theByzantine Empire. The union continued for nearly a century. Thecrusaders captured it again from theTurks in 1097, and then it was disputed between Latins, Greeks, andArmenians of the Kingdom of LesserArmenia; these last became definitively masters until about 1350, when it was sold to the Egyptians. Since then Tarsus has belonged to theMussulmans. About the end of the tenth century, theArmenians established adiocese of their rite, which still exists;St. Nerses of Lambroun was its most distinguished representative in the twelfth century. Tarsus, which has preserved it name, is a caza of the vilayet ofAdana on the railroad fromAdana toMersina; the city numbers about 18,000 inhabitants, of whom 10,000 areMussulmans, the remainder are Greek orschismaticArmenian. Only a fewCatholics are found there.

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