Chapter 3 Fortifications and Geography 3.1 Fortifications in Their Historical Landscape Seleukia – modern-day Silifke – and Mersin [near by Zephyrion and Pompeiopolis],3 the Mopsus Survey, con- 3.1.1 Cilicia: Crossroads between the West and East ducted by G. Lehman, A. Killebrew, and B. Halpern, found Located on the periphery of the Middle East, where pow- also 150 sites in the Cilician plain. erful empires rose and agriculture, trade, and economy According to the surveys of Ergün Lafli ‘a large city in flourished during pre-classical times, Cilicia was attached Cilicia, such as Zephyrion, might have extended to c. 2 km to northern Syria and Mesopotamia on the one hand and in its greatest dimension and most likely had a population by the Anatolian plateau to Europe on the other. Because of 50,000, but most were much smaller’.4 The urban wealth of its geographical location, Cilicia played a key role in the of these cities was based until the sixth century ad on ag- history of Asia-Minor throughout the Classical and Medi- riculture, while trade and manufacture of linen were also eval period. In 27 bc, Rome completed its conquest and most likely significant.5 The surveys by Lafli in the hinter- annexation of Cilicia as part of the empire’s extended land of Pompeiopolis and Zephyrion not only demon- provinces in the east. The Romans divided the province of strate that settlements were numerous, but that sites in Cilicia into the same districts as the Hittites before them these areas were predominantly to be found on flat and divided them into Cilicia Campestris (Cilicia Pedias) grounds or low mounds. and Cilicia Aspera (Cilicia Trachea).1 By ad 530 this had In nearly all cases these sites were located in well- been replaced by a three-fold division. In his Synekdemos, watered areas and so had sufficient agricultural resources containing a table of administrative divisions of the to support their population and the nearby cities by their eastern empire, the Byzantine geographer Hierokles lists farming.6 Earlier tell sites were mainly avoided according under Cilicia Prima the metropolis of Tarsus and seven to Lafli or had occupation limited to isolated buildings or other cities: Pompeiopolis, Sebaste, Korykos, Adana, Au- small villages. While the arrangement of Late Roman sites gusta, Mallos, and Zephyrion. Hierocles lists under Cilicia was seemingly random, clear patterns from the Roman Secunda had Anazarbos as metropolis with eight cities: period can be discerned by their location either along ca- Mopsuestia, Aigeai, Epiphaneia, Alexandreia, Rossos, nals, rivers or routes around the plain. Lafli concluded Irenopolis, Phlabias, and Kastabala. Cilicia Tertia, which that ‘in the hinterland of the cities of Pompeiopolis and included Isauria, had Seleukia as metropolis with 22 cities: Zephyrion, two possible main routes along local rivers to Kelenderis, Anemurion, Titiupolis, Lamos, Antiocheia, the north served for the transportation of goods and thus Iuliosebaste, Kestroi, Selinus, Iotape, Diokaisareia, Olba, connected Pompeiopolis and the Cilician coast with Klaudiopolis, Hierapolis, Dalisandros, Germanikopolis, Eirenuopolis, Philadelphia, Meloe, Adrasos, Sbide, Neapo- lis, Lauzadeai.2 3 Pompeiopolis, formerly Soloi, lies 12 km west of the current city 3.1.2 Settlement Patterns in Byzantine Cilicia (450–650) centre of Mersin, in the small village of Viranşehir. Since Pompeiop- olis was located on the border of the Cilician plain and upland or Recent surveys have demonstrated settlement patterns rough Cilicia, it was located in a higher fertile area than most of the which indicate a form of continuation between the Hel- regions west of it and at the head of some major inland routes. For lenistic, Late Roman, and early Byzantine periods. A phe- more information see E. Lafli, Ergün. 2003. “Seleucia in Pisidia dur- nomenon of widespread urbanization and additionally a ing the Hellenistic period”, Orbis Terrarum (Journal of Historical peak of settlements can be observed during the fourth to Geography of Ancient World) 7, 55–98. sixth centuries ad. While the surveys carried out by the 4 Ibid., 77. University of Mersin, under the direction of Ergün Lafli, 5 R.E. Blanton, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Settlement Patterns have pointed out that by the Late Roman period a high of the Coast Lands of Western Rough Cilicia (Oxford 2000): 20. 6 E. Lafli, “Preliminary Archaeological and Topographical Notes on concentration of settlements was to be found in between Classical and Medieval Settlement Patterns in the Mersin Area of Cilicia (Southern Turkey)”, In: Actes du X?Vème Congrès uispp, Uni- 1 See Strabo, xiv 5, 1. Throughout this book I will refer to these two versité de Liège, Belgique, 2–8 septembre 2001. Séction 13: Époque ro- regions as Cilicia Pedias/or Cilician plain and Cilicia Trachea. maine. Sessions générales et posters. British Archaeological Reports, 2 Hieracles, 704, 1–706, 2; 708, 1–710, 9. International Series 1312 (Oxford 2004) 77–90. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���� | doi 10.1163/9789004417410_004 52 Chapter 3 Cilicia Prima and Secunda Flavias Roman Settlement Anazarbos © 2019, Mappa Mundi Cartography Eirenopolis Hieropolis Kastabala Augusta Adana Mopsuestia Epiphaneia Tarsos Zephyrion Mallos Pompeiopolis Aigaï Alexandretta Korykos Sebaste Rosos Figure 12 Cilicia Prima and Secunda central Anatolia’.7 An important product on this trade herding and could therefore only support basic subsis- route was Cilician timber, which was considered excellent tence for a limited population. for ship-building and was exported to Egypt throughout In spite of substantial differences in settlement-pattern the Hellenistic and the later medieval periods.8 Apart and land-use, the Taurus range until the seventh century from that, the grain trade from central Anatolia to Cyprus, had never represented a political dividing line of any real Syria, and Egypt, brought special advantages to these long-term importance.10 All this time it had rarely been a coastal settlements and cities. The development of many frontier – that is, it had rarely functioned to prevent access settlements in Cilicia in this period went concurrent with from one political area to another; nor had it been seen the process of Christianisation.9 explicitly as marking a transition between two ideologi- When analysing the settlement patterns in Cilicia Tra- cally opposed and hostile political-military systems.11 This chea and the Cilician plain, it is remarkable how densely ended in the seventh century ad with the spread of Islam. this area, especially between Seleukia and Tarsus, was The Arabs brought their military machine to Asia Minor populated. On the other hand the areas of the Taurus and and their attacks caused a considerable decline in trade Anti-Taurus mountains were characterized by mountain and population. By the early eighth century they had valleys, passes and pasturelands. More surveys in the Tau- occupied almost the entire province of Cilicia. rus mountains are needed to confirm the suggested con- trast between the densely populated coastlines and the 3.1.3 Cilicia on the Islamic-Byzantine Frontier: numerous sites that are located in the uplands and to ex- The Construction of the Frontier or al-thughūr amine whether there was already a rise in fortified sites in The Arab conquest of the Byzantine provinces of Arabia, the mountains. As there were only scanty agricultural re- Palestine i–iii, Syria i–ii, Syria Euphratensis, Osrhoene, sources available, this area would be exploited by pastoral and Mesopotamia, as well as the diocese of Egypt, was completed by the early 640s.12 The first Islamic-Byzantine frontier was established at the northern extent of the 7 E. Lafli, Medieval Settlement Patterns, 79. 8 For the Hellenistic period see Strabo, xiv, 5.3; for the medieval pe- 10 H. Ahrweiler, Recherches sur l’administration de l’empire byzantin riod see Ibn Saʿīd, Kitāb al-Jughrāfīyā, 195. aux ix–xie siècles, (London 1971): 20. 9 T. Vorderstrasse, “The Romanization and Christianization of the 11 J. Haldon, The Development of a Frontier Culture: Byzantium and Antiochene Region: The Material Evidence from Three Sites”. In: the Caliphate from the 7th to the 11th centuries (Leuven 1990): 38. Culture and Society in Later Roman Antioch, edited by I. Sandwell 12 al-Balādhurī, 253; MS, ii, 424; R.-J. Lilie, Die byzantinische Reaktion and J. Huskinson, (Oakville 2002): 91–94. auf die Ausbreitung der Araber. Studien zur Strukturwandlung .