Map 64 Caesarea-Melitene Compiled by T.B
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Map 64 Caesarea-Melitene Compiled by T.B. Mitford, 1996 Introduction The map covers a region dominated by mountains, the watershed of four great rivers flowing into different seas, and the transition between the endless plains of the Anatolian plateau and the highlands of eastern Turkey. Enclosed to the south by the broken ridges of the Taurus, the region is cut transversely by a more rounded massif, the rising north-easterly sweep of the Antitaurus. To the north and west, the mountains drain into the Kızılırmak (ancient Halys) as it flows towards the Black Sea; to the south, into the Seyhan (Saros) and Ceyhan (Pyramos), before they cut through the Taurus to reach the Mediterranean. To the east, large tributaries flow into the Euphrates, the natural frontier between the classical world and Armenia. Much of the central area lies above the tree line, and is snowbound from November to April. Settlement has concentrated on the river plains: along the Halys between Sivas (Sebasteia) and Kayseri (Caesarea), and to the south and east around Elbistan (Ablastha) and Malatya (Melitene). These formed the main axes of communications in antiquity as today, skirting the high Antitaurus and linking Sivas, Kayseri and Malatya. The geography has changed little since ancient times, except in the east where the Keban and Karakaya dams have transformed the Cappadocian section of the Euphrates into two elongated lakes. Most of the area covered by the map fell under Persian rule, and later comprised the eastern half of the Roman and Byzantine province of Cappadocia. But it also includes parts of Pontus, Armenia Minor and Armenia proper. In the fifth century B.C. it was probably traversed by the Persian Royal Road (described by Herodotus 5.52), the great trade route linking the Aegean with northern Mesopotamia and Susa. In Roman times there were military roads of the highest importance in Cappadocia, leading eastwards from Ancyra through Sebasteia towards Satala and northern Armenia, and through Caesarea to the Euphrates at Melitene. Moreover the eastern limes ran up the Euphrates valley, to continue over the Pontic mountains to the Black Sea. Strabo is an excellent source for the region, and draws on firsthand knowledge; he visited Comana, and wrote in Amaseia, the Pontic metropolis (Map 87 A4), under Augustus and Tiberius. He is thus able to describe the physical, historical and political geography of Cappadocia in careful, if not always reliable, detail. There is copious further documentary evidence for the ancient topography. In the mid-second century Ptolemy compiled the coordinates of the mountains, rivers and cities of Cappadocia and Armenia Minor. The main routes diverging from Caesarea and Sebasteia, and their intermediate stations, are known from ItAnt and TabPeut. Segments of the latter reappear in GeogRav, evidently drawing on a common source. The lists of bishoprics from Late Antiquity are no less essential. Cappadocia did not share the civilized structure of the western and coastal provinces of Asia Minor. Isolated and undeveloped, it was a vast region sparsely covered by villages and divided into districts (strategiai) evidently tribal in origin, adapted by the Seleucid kings as a basis for centralized administration, and retained under the Roman Empire. Much of it was occupied by royal, later imperial, lands. About 150 place names are preserved. Most can be located in general terms, although barely half can be identified with any certainty. The fact is that war, invasion and destruction have been endemic in this region since the third century A.D. Almost all physical traces of antiquity– building materials, inscriptions, even road surfaces–have been pressed into reuse in the reconstruction of towns and villages, generally on sites already found convenient. A few ancient place names have survived in continuous use until modern times: Zara, for example, or Zimara on the Euphrates. Others have evolved in recognizable form: Sivas, Kayseri, Malatya. No comprehensive survey work has been undertaken across eastern Cappadocia as a whole. Notable, but partial, journeys of exploration were undertaken a century ago: along the southern routes by Sterrett (1888), Ramsay (1890), Munro (1893) and Hogarth (1893); in Pontus by Anderson (1903) and Cumont (1906); and up the Euphrates 986 MAP 64 CAESAREA-MELITENE valley by Hogarth and Yorke (1896). Grégoire (1909) later traveled south-westwards from Nicopolis (Map 87 D4), and down the R. Halys. Then, in the final decades of Christianity there, many of the names and traces of antiquity were still preserved. So locations could readily be proposed for many ancient names, and lines for many roads. The early results were collated by Ramsay (1890), and mapped by Anderson (1903). They were supplemented some forty years later by von der Osten’s (1929; 1930; 1933) automobile journeys in the north and east of Cappadocia. His map of ancient sites shows the distribution of settlements in Hittite and earlier times. The detail and conjecture of these earlier travelers cannot always be corroborated, however. For they followed–or created–rudimentary maps, and it was only the publication in 1947 of the Turkish military series (1:200,000) that permitted accurate location of physical and cultural features, and of the roads and tracks linking them. These Turkish maps retain almost all the village-names known to earlier scholars, and form the indispensable foundation of the present compilation. They show that the lines proposed for several roads are unsustainable: Grégoire's roads leading north and west from Zara, for example, or Ramsay's road north-east from Arabissos. They permit precise tracking of milestones (collated by French 1985; 1988) along the strategic road from Caesarea to the Euphrates. And they show where settlement has been possible, and where it has not. In collating evidence for the ancient place names, RE remains essential. More recent work is carefully summarized in TIB Kappadokien to provide a comprehensive study of the geography of Cappadocia in the Byzantine period. Sinclair (1989; 1989a) describes ancient sites and roads in a broader historical framework; Bryer and Winfield (1985) discuss the tortured geography of southern Armenia Minor, where the lines followed by ancient roads are not all firmly established. I have covered the eastern frontier on foot over many years. But across eastern Cappadocia as a whole, exploration has been patchy; of this, the omission from the map of a place as important as Divriği is an unwelcome reflection. Directory All place names are in Turkey Abbreviation TIB Kappadokien F. Hild and M. Restle, Tabula Imperii Byzantini 2, Kappadokien (Kappadokia, Charsianon, Sebasteia und Lykandos), DenkWien 149, 1981 Names Grid Name Period Modern Name / Location Reference E4 Ablastha R?L Elbistan TIB Kappadokien 260 H4 Ad Aras AHRL Pirot? Dillemann 1962, 117 B1 Agranai RL near Muşalım Kalesi TIB Kappadokien 137 §Agriane B1 Akdağmadeni R?L TIB Kappadokien 138 F2 Alacahan R?L? han with ancient remains TIB Kappadokien 138 H1 Analib(l)a RL Hasanova? RE; Bryer 1985, 25, 31 § Bubalia L § Dalana? § Dar(a)nalis B3 Anisa HR Kara Eyük / Kültepe Cumont 1932 C4 Antitaurus M. HRL Antitaurus TIB Kappadokien 143 D4 Arabissos/ CRL Afşin, formerly Yarpuz TIB Kappadokien 144, 264 Tripotamos F2 Arane A?HRL Akçakale TIB Kappadokien 146 § Aranda §Arangae B2 Arapözü L ruins to S TIB Kappadokien 147 B3 Arasaxa RL Akmesçit, formerly TIB Kappadokien 147 § Arathia Zerezek MAP 64 CAESAREA-MELITENE 987 Grid Name Period Modern Name / Location Reference F4 Arca RL Akcadağ, formerly Arga RE Arka 4; TIB Kappadokien 152 §Karmala? §(M)arkala? A3 Archalla R Erkilet? TIB Kappadokien 147 § Archelais G2 Arege RL? signal station, 8 miles Sinclair 1989a, 68 WNW Kemaliye A3 Argaeus M. RL S Caesarea RE ’Αργαῖον ὄρος G3 [Argaous] L Arguvan TIB Kappadokien 150 C3 Ariaratheia HRL Pınarbaşı, formerly Azizie TIB Kappadokien 151 C2 Armaxa R Gemerek? RE § Armaza G2 Armenia Minor HR RE H3 Arsanias fl. See Map 89 D3 Aşağı Kızıl Çevrek L? 11 miles NE Pınarbaşı von der Osten 1933, 123 H2 Aşutka RL? 3 miles N Dutluca T.B. Mitford B1 Azapbaşlı R?L ruins 1 mile N Azapbaşlı TIB Kappadokien 155 B4 Bagadania RL land S Argaeus M. TIB Kappadokien 178 G4 Bahçebaşı ARL 3 miles S Eski Malatya, TIB Kappadokien 249 formerly Orduzu D1 [Bathys Rhyax]/ L/ 8 miles SE Yıldızeli TIB Kappadokien 157-58 [Krya Pege]? L B3 Bünyan C Persian royal park Cook 1983, 180 Caesarea = Mazaka H1 Capotes? M. R Kurtlu Tepe RE; T.B. Mitford B2 Cappadocia CHRL RE Kappadokia B2 Cappadox? fl. See Map 63 Carsa(g)is = Chorsabia G4 Chabina fl. RL Cendere See Map 67 H1 Charax? RL Bozoğlak, formerly Ihtik RE 4; Mitford 1998 H1 Chorsabia/ RL Melik Şerif? Cumont 1906, 327; RE Carsa(g)is § Elegarsina RE Elegarsina H2 Chosomachon R?L Çemişgezek Howard-Johnston 1983, 255-56 Chryse = Comana B4 Cilicia HR around and NE Caesarea TIB Kappadokien 43 D4 Coduzalaba/ R/ Köy Yeri / Sarız? RE Sabalassos? R C4 Comana/ ACHRL Şar TIB Kappadokien 208-209 Hierapolis/ Chryse Comassa=Kamisa F3 Dalanda RL Darende? Ramsay 1890, 309-10 § Delendis H3 Dascusa RL Pağnik? TIB Kappadokien 169-70 § Daseusa § Dagousa C3 Dasmenda? RL Kuşkalesi RE; TIB Kappadokien 300-301 G1 Dastracus M. R Kızıl Dağ?, SE Nicopolis RE; Magie 1950, 1222; T.B. Mitford G4 Dulluk Tepe RL signal station, 2 miles SE Mitford 1980, 1186 Melitene C3 Ekrek R?L Köprübaşı, 30 miles E TIB Kappadokien 173 Kayseri H4 Elegeia R vicinity of Kömürhan RE 2 Erp(h)a = (H)Erp(h)a G2 Eski Arabkir RL ruins 2 miles NW Arabkir TIB Kappadokien 146 C3 Euagina/ RL vicinity of Gemerek RE Euagena Sebagena? § Eudagina 988 MAP 64 CAESAREA-MELITENE Grid Name Period Modern Name / Location Reference E1 Eudoixata R Tutmaç? RE § Eudoxiana? B2 Eulepa RL Gölova, formerly Palas TIB Kappadokien 137 § Aipolioi H1 Euphrates fl.