Cilicia - Roman Cilicia

Roman Cilicia

See also: Cilicia (Roman province) and Cibyrrhaeot Theme

Cilicia Trachea became the haunt of pirates, who were subdued by Pompey in 67 BC following a Battle of Korakesion (modern Alanya), and Tarsus was made the capital of the Roman province of Cilicia. Cilicia Pedias became Roman territory in 103 BC first conquered by Marcus Antonius Orator in his campaign against pirates, with Sulla acting as its first governor, foiling an invasion of Mithridates, 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. At first the western district was left independent under native kings or priest-dynasts, and a small kingdom, under Tarcondimotus, was left in the east; but these were finally united to the province by Vespasian, AD 72. It had been deemed important enough to be governed by a proconsul, containing 47 known cities.

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 late fourth century the African component was split off as Diocese of Egypt), part of the pretorian prefecture also called Oriens ('the East', also including the dioceses of Asiana and Pontica, both in Anatolia, and Thraciae in the Balkans), the rich bulk of the eastern Roman Empire.

Cilicia had numerous Christian communities, and after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century was included in the territories of the patriarchate of Antioch. The region was divided into two ecclesiastical provinces: Cilicia Prima, with a metropolitan diocese at Tarsus and suffragan dioceses for Pompeiopolis, Sebaste, Augusta, Corycus, Adana, Mallus and Zephyrium; and Cilicia Secunda, with a metropolitan diocese at Anazarbus and suffragan dioceses for Mopsuestia, Aegae, Epiphania, Irenopolis, Flavias, Castabala, Alexandria, Citidiopolis and Rhosus. Bishops from the various dioceses of Cilicia were well represented at the Council of Nicaea in 325 and at the later ecumenical councils.

In the 7th century Cilicia was invaded by the Muslim Arabs. The Arabs did not finally evict the Romans from the area until the early 8th century, when Cilicia was transformed into a fortified frontier zone (thughur) by the Caliphate. The Muslims held the country until it was reoccupied by the Emperor Nicephorus II in 965. From this period onward, the area increasingly came to be settled by Armenians, especially as Imperial rule pushed deeper into the Caucasus over the course of the eleventh century.

Roman Cilicia exported the goats-hair cloth, Cilicium, of which tents were made. Tarsus was also the birthplace of the early Christian missionary and author St. Paul, writer (or purported writer) of 13 of the 27 writings included in the New Testament.