Tarsus
(2002 est. pop.212,000). The town of Tarsus is located in southern Turkey on the Cilician Plain, just twenty kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea. Tarsus was the capital of a minor kingdom as far back as the Bronze Age (2500 BCE) and lies on a navigable river, the Tarsus Cayi, at the junction of the main coastal road and the link to the interior through the Cilician Gates.
Its strategic location made Tarsus a target of various powers' expansions; the Assyrians campaigned there around 700 BCE, and Rome absorbed the city in 67 BCE. The city was especially important during the Roman and early Byzantine empires. The Arabs conquered it in the seventh century, and other invaders—Byzantines, Crusaders, Mamluks—successively took the city until it fell to the Ottomans in the early sixteenth century.
Tarsus is famous as the meeting place of Cleopatra (69–30 BCE, who arrived by barge) and Mark Antony after his triumph at the battle of Philippi; a Roman gate in the city is named after the Egyptian queen. Tarsus was also the birthplace of Saint Paul, who described it as no mean city.
Partly excavated ruins abound in the back streets; the town's current prosperity is based on cotton and light industry. With Tarsus American College and a university, it has remained an educational center.
Further Reading
Cahen, Claude. (2001) The Formation of Turkey. Trans. by P. M. Holt. Harlow, U.K.: Longman.
Wilson, A. N. (1997) Paul: The Mind of the Apostle. New York: Norton.
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