Tarsus
Tar'sus. The chief town of Cilicia, "no mean city," in other respects,
but illustrious to all time, as the birthplace, and early residence, of the
apostle Paul. Act_9:11; Act_21:39; Act_22:3.
Even in the flourishing period of Greek history, it was a city of some
considerable consequence. In the civil wars of Rome, it took Caesar's aide, and
on the occasion of a visit from him, had its name changed to Juliopolis.
Augustus made it a "free city." It was renowned as a place of
education under the early Roman emperors. Strabo compares it, in this respect,
to Athens unto Alexandria. Tarsus also was a place of much commerce. It was
situated in a wild and fertile plain, on the banks of the Cydnus. No ruins of
any importance remain.
Source:
Smith’s Bible Dictionary
Tarsus
tar´sus (Ταρσός,
Tarsós, ethnic Ταρσεύς,
Tarseús) :
1. Situation
2. Foundation Legends
3. Tarsus under Oriental Power
4. Tarsus under Greek Sway
5. Tarsus in the Roman Empire
6. The University
7. The Tarsian Constitution
8. Paul of Tarsus
9. Later History
LITERATURE
1. Situation:
The chief city of Cilicia, the southeastern portion of Asia Minor. It
lay on both banks of the river Cydnus, in the midst of a fertile alluvial
plain, some 10 miles from the seacoast. About 6 miles below the city the river
broadened out into a considerable lake called Rhegma (Strabo xiv. 672), which
afforded a safe anchorage and was in great part fringed with quays and
dockyards. The river itself, which flowed southward from the Taurus Mountains
with a clear and swift stream, was navigable to light craft, and Cleopatra,
when she visited Antony at Tarsus in 38 BC, was able to sail in her richly
decorated barge into the very heart of the city (Plut. Ant. 26). The
silting-up of the river's mouth seems to have resulted in frequent floods,
against which the emperor Justinian (527-65 AD) attempted to provide by cutting
a new channel, starting a short distance North of the city, to divert the
surplus water into a watercourse which lay to the East of Tarsus. Gradually,
however, the original bed was allowed to become choked, and now the Cydnus
flows wholly through Justinian's channel and passes to the East of the modern
town. Two miles North of Tarsus the plain gives way to low, undulating hills,
which extend to the foothills of Taurus, the great mountain chain lying some 30
miles North of the city, which divides Cilicia from Lycaonia and Cappadocia.
The actual frontier-line seems to have varied at different periods, but the
natural boundary lies at the Cilician Gates, a narrow gorge which Tarsian
enterprise and engineering skill had widened so as to make it a wagon road, the
chief highway of communication and trade between Cilicia and the interior of
Asia Minor and one of the most decisive factors in Anatolian history. Eastward
from Tarsus ran an important road crossing the Sarus at Adana and the Pyramus
at Mopsuestia; there it divided, one branch running southeastward by way of
Issus to Antioch on the Orontes, while another turned slightly northward to
Castabala, and thence ran due East to the passage of the Euphrates at Zeugma.
Thus the fertility of its soil, the safety and convenience of its harbor and
the command of the main line of communication between Anatolia and Syria or
Mesopotamia combined to promote the greatness of Tarsus, though its position
was neither a healthful or a strong one and the town had no acropolis.
2. Foundation Legends:
Of the foundation of the city various traditions were current in
antiquity, and it is impossible to arrive any certain conclusion, for such
foundation legends often reflected the sympathies and wishes of a city's later
population rather than the historic facts of its origin. At Anchiale, about 12
miles Southeast of Tarsus, was a monument commonly known as the tomb of
Sardanapalus, king of Assyria, bearing an inscription “in Assyrian letters”
stating that that monarch “built Anchiale and Tarsus in a single day” (Strabo
xiv. 672; Arrian Anab. ii. 5). The statement of Alexander Polyhistor,
preserved by Eusebius (Chron. i, p. 27, ed Schoene), that Sennacherib,
king of Nineveh (705-681 BC), rounded the city, also ascribes to it an Assyrian
origin.
On the other hand, the Greeks had their own traditions, claiming Tarsus
as a Greek or semi-Gr foundation. Strabo says that it owed its rise to the
Argives who with Triptolemus wandered in search of Io (xiv. 673), while others
spoke of Heracles or Perseus as the founder. It must be admitted that these
tales, taken by themselves, give us little aid.
3. Tarsus Under Oriental Power:
Ramsay believes that Tarsus existed from time immemorial as a native
Cilician settlement, to which was added, at some early date unknown to us, a
body of Ionians, which migrated from the western coast of Asia Minor under the
auspices and direction of the oracle of Clarian Apollo near Colophon. The
earliest historical record of the town is found on the Black Obelisk of
Shalmaneser, about 850 BC, where it figures among the places captured by that
king. It is thus proved that Tarsus already existed at that remote date. For
many centuries it remained an oriental rather than a Hellenic city, and its
history is almost a blank. After the fall of the Assyrian empire, Cilicia may
have regained its independence, at least partially, but it subsequently became
a province of the Persian empire, paying to the Great King an annual tribute of
260 white horses and 500 talents of silver (Herodotus iii. 90) and
contributing considerable fleets, when required, to the Persian navy. From time
to time we hear of rulers named Syennesis, who appear to have been vassal
princes in a greater or less degree of dependence upon the oriental empires.
Two clear glimpses of the city are afforded us, thanks to the passage through
it of Hellenic troops engaged upon eastern expeditions. Xenophon (Anab.
i. 2, 21 ff) tells how, in 40l BC, Cyrus the Younger entered Cilicia on his
famous march against his brother Artaxerxes, and how some of his Greek
mercenaries plundered Tarsus, which is described as a great and prosperous
city, in which was the palace of King Syennesis. The king made an agreement
with Cyrus, who, after a delay of 20 days, caused by the refusal of his troops
to march farther, set out from Tarsus for the Euphrates. Again, in 333 BC,
Alexander the Great passed through the Cilician Gates on his way to Issus,
where he met and routed the Persian army under Darius III. Arsames, the satrap
of Cilicia, failed to post a sufficient force at the pass, the garrison fled
without resistance and Alexander thus entered the province without striking a
blow. The Persians thereupon set fire to Tarsus, but the timely arrival of the
Macedonian advance guard under Parmenio saved the city from destruction. A bath
in the cold waters of the Cydnus which Alexander took while heated with his
rapid advance brought on a fever which all but cost him his life (Arrian Anab.
ii. 4; Q. Curtius Hist. Alex. iii. 4 f) For two centuries Tarsus
had been the capital of a Persian satrapy, subject to oriental rather than to
Hellenic influence, though there was probably a Hellenic element in its
population, and its trade brought it into touch with the Greeks. The Cilician
coins struck at Tarsus confirm this view. Down to Alexander's conquest, they
ordinarily bear Aramaic legends, and many of them show the effigy of Baal Tarz,
the Lord of Tarsus; yet, these coins are clearly influenced by Greek types and
workmanship.
4. Tarsus Under Greek Sway:
Alexander's overthrow of the Persian power brought about a strong
Hellenic reaction in Southeastern Asia Minor and must have strengthened the
Greek element in Tarsus, but more than a century and a half were to elapse
before the city attained that civic autonomy which was the ideal and the boast
of the Greek pólis. After Alexander's death in 323 BC his vast
empire was soon dismembered by the rivalries and wars of his powerful generals.
Cilicia ultimately fell under the rule of the Seleucid kings of Syria, whose
capital was Antioch on the Orontes. Though Greeks, they inherited certain
features of the old Persian policy and methods of rule; Cilicia was probably
governed by a satrap, and there was no development within it of free city life.
Early in the 2nd century, however, came a change. Antiochus III, defeated by
the Romans in the battle of Magnesia (190 BC), was forced to evacuate most of
his possessions in Asia Minor. Cilicia thus became a frontier province and
gained greatly in importance. The outcome was the reorganization of Tarsus as
an autonomous city with a coinage of its own, which took place under Antiochus
IV Epiphanes (175-164), probably in 171 BC. It is at this time that Tarsus is
first mentioned in the Bible, unless we are to accept the disputed
identification with TARSHISH (which see). In 2 Macc 4:30 f we read that, about
171 “it came to pass that they of Tarsus and Mallus made insurrection, because
they were to be given as a present to Antiochis, the king's concubine. The king
therefore came to Cilicia in all haste to settle matters.” That this
settlement took the form of a compromise and the grant to Tarsus of at least a
municipal independence we may infer from the fact that Tarsus struck its own
coins from this reign onward. At first they bear the name of Antioch on the
Cydnus, but from the death of Antiochus this new appellation falls into disuse
and the old name reasserts itself. But it is almost certain that, in accordance
with Seleucid policy, this reorganization was accompanied by the enlargement of
the citizen body, the new citizens in this case consisting probably of Jews and
Argive Greeks. From this time Tarsus is a city of Hellenic constitution, and
its coins no longer bear Aramaic but Greek legends. Yet it must be remembered
that there was still a large, perhaps a preponderating, native and oriental
element in the population, while the coin types in many cases point to the
continued popularity of non-Hellenic cults.
5. Tarsus in the Roman Empire:
About 104 BC part of Cilicia became a Hem province, and after the
Mithridatic Wars, during which Tarsus fell temporarily into the hands of
Tigranes of Armenia, Pompey the Great reorganized the eastern portion of the
Hem Empire (64-63 BC), and Tarsus became the capital of a new and enlarged
province, administered by Hem governors who usually held office for a single
year. Thus we find Cicero in command of Cilicia from the summer of 51 BC to the
summer of the following year, and though he expressly mentions Tarsus only
rarely in his extant letters of this period (e.g. Ad Att. v. 20,
3; Ad Fam. ii. 17, 1), yet there is reason to believe that he
resided there during part of his year of office. Julius Caesar passed through
the city in 47 BC on his march from Egypt to Pontus, and was enthusiastically
received. In his honor the name Tarsus was changed to Juliopolis, but this
proved no more lasting than Antioch on the Cydnus had been. Cassius temporarily
overawed it and imposed on it a crushing fine, but, after the overthrow of the
republican cause at Philippi and the assignment of the East to Antony's
administration, Tarsus received the position of an independent and duty-free
state (civitas libera et immunis) and became for some time Antony's
place of residence. This privileged status was confirmed by Augustus after the
victory of Actium had made him sole master of the Roman Empire (31 BC). It did
not by itself bestow Roman citizenship on the Tarsinas, but doubtless there
were many natives of the city to whom Pompey, Caesar, Antony and Augustus
granted that honor for themselves and, as a consequence, for their descendants.
6. The University:
It is under the rule of Augustus that our knowledge of Tarsus first
becomes fairly full and precise, Strabo, writing about 19 AD, tells us (xiv.
673 ff) of the enthusiasm of its inhabitants for learning, and especially for
philosophy. In this respect, he says, Tarsus surpasses Athens and Alexandria
and every other university town. It was characterized by the fact that the
student body was composed almost entirely of natives, who, after finishing
their course, usually went abroad to complete their education and in most cases
did not return home, whereas in most universities the students were to a large
extent foreigners, and the natives showed no great love of learning.
Alexandria, however, formed an exception, attracting a large number of foreign
students and also sending out many of its younger citizens to other centers. In
fact, adds Strabo, Rome is full of Tarsians and Alexandrians. Among the famous
men who learned or taught at Tarsus, we hear of the Stoics Antipater,
Archedemus, Nestor, Athenodorus surnamed Cordylion, the friend and companion of
the younger Marcus Cato, and his more famous namesake (called Canaanites after
the village of his birth), who was the tutor and confidant of Augustus, and who
subsequently reformed the Tarsian constitution. Other philosophers of Tarsus
were Nestor, a representative of the Academy, and tutor of Marcellus, Augustus'
nephew and destined successor, and of Tiberius, Plutiades and Diogenes; the
latter was also famous as an improvisatore, and indeed the Tarsians in general
were famed for their ease and fluency in impromptu speaking. Artemidorus and
Diodorus the grammarians and Dionysides the tragic poet, a member of the group
of seven writers known as “the Pleiad,” complete Strabo's list of eminent
Tarsians. A less attractive view of the life in Tarsus is given by Philostratus
in his biography of Apollonius of Tyana, who went there to study in the early
part of Tiberius' reign (14-37 AD). So disgusted was he by the insolence of the
citizens, their love of pleasure and their extravagance in dress, that he shook
the dust of Tarsus off his feet and went to Aegae to pursue his studies in a more
congenial atmosphere (Vit. Apollon. i. 7). But Strabo's testimony is
that of a contemporary and an accurate historian and must outweigh that of
Philostratus, whose work is largely tinged with romance and belongs to the
early years of the 3rd century AD.
7. The Tarsian Constitution:
Strabo also tells us something of an important constitutional reform
carried out in Tarsus under the Emperor Augustus, probably about 15-10 BC.
Athenodorus Canaanites, the Stoic, returned to his city as an old man, after
some 30 years spent at Rome, armed with authority from the emperor to reform
abuses in its civic life. He found the constitution a democracy, swayed and
preyed upon by a corrupt clique headed by a certain Boethus, “bad poet and bad
citizen,” who owed his position partly to his ready and persuasive tongue,
partly to the favor of Antony, whom he had pleased by a poem composed to
celebrate the victory of Philippi. Athenodorus sought at first to mend matters
by argument and persuasion, but, finding Boethus and his party obdurate, he at
length exercised his extraordinary powers, banished the offenders and remodeled
the constitution, probably in a timocratic mold, restricting the full
citizenship to those possessed of a considerable property qualification. On his
death, his place as head of the state was taken for a while by the academic
philosopher Nestor (Strabo xiv. 674 f). Next to Strabo's account our most
valuable source of information regarding Tarsus is to be found in the two
orations of Dio Chrysostom addressed to the Tarsians about 110 AD (Orat.
xxxiii, xxxiv; see Jour. Hell. Studies, XXIV, 58 ff). Though admitting
that the city was an Argive colony, he emphasized its non-Hellenic character,
and, while criticizing much in its institutions and manners, found but a single
feature to commend, the strictness with which the Tarsian women were veiled
whenever they appeared in public.
8. Paul of Tarsus:
Such was Tarsus, in which Paul was born (Act_22:3)
and of which he was a citizen (Act_9:11;
Act_21:39). Its ancient traditions and
its present greatness explain and justify the pride with which he claimed to be
“a citizen of no mean city” (Act_21:39).
It is probable that his forefathers had been among the Jews settled at Tarsus
by Antiochus Epiphanes, who, without sacrificing nationality or religion,
became citizens of a community organized after the Greek model. On what
occasion and for what service Roman civitas had been conferred on one of
Paul's ancestors we cannot say; this only we know, that before his birth his father
had possessed the coveted privilege (Act_22:28).
It is a fascinating, but an elusive, quest to trace in Paul's life and writings
the influence of his Tarsian ancestry, birth and early life. Jerome, it is
true, claims that many Pauline words and phrases were characteristic of
Cilicia, and some modern scholars profess to find traces, in the apostle's
rhetoric and in his attitude toward pagan religion and secular learning, of
Tarsian influence. But such speculations are likely to be misleading, and it is
perhaps best to admit that, save in the trade learned by Paul, which was
characteristic of his birthplace, we cannot with any precision gauge the
effects of his early surroundings. At the same time it is certain that the
character of his native city, its strong oriental element, its Greek
constitution and speech, its position in the Roman Empire, its devotion to
learning, must have made an impression upon one who, uniting Jewish nationality
with membership of a Greek state and Roman citizenship, was to be the great
interpreter to the Greco-Roman world of a religion which sprang from the soil
of Judaism. How long Paul remained at Tarsus before beginning his studies in
Jerusalem we cannot say. His own declaration that he was “born in Tarsus of
Cilicia, but brought up in this city” (Act_22:3)
seems to show that his training at Jerusalem began at an early age, and is
inconsistent with the supposition that he was one of those Tarsian students
who, after studying at their native university, completed their education
abroad. During his first visit to Jerusalem after his conversion, plots were
formed against his life, and he was induced to return to Tarsus (Act_9:30), where, according to Ramsay's
chronology, he remained for some 8 years. Thither Barnabas went to seek him
when he felt the need of a helper in dealing with the new problems involved in
the growth of the Antiochene church and the admission into it of Gentiles in
considerable numbers (Act_11:25).
Tarsus is not again mentioned in the New Testament, but Paul doubtless
revisited it on his second missionary journey, when he “went through Syria and
Cilicia” (Act_15:41), and traveled
thence by way of the Cilician Gates into Lycaonia, and again at the beginning
of his third journey when, after some time spent at Antioch, “he departed, and
went through the region of Galatia, and Phrygia, in order” (Act_18:23).
9. Later History:
This is not the place to discuss in detail the later history of Tarsus,
many passages of which are obscure and difficult. It remained a focus of
imperial loyalty, as is indicated by the names Hadriane, Commodiane, Severiane
and others, which appear, isolated or conjoined, upon its coins, together with
the title of metropolis and such epithets as “first,” “greatest,” “fairest.”
Indeed it was chiefly in the matter of such distinctions that it carried on a
keen, and sometimes bitter, rivalry, first with Mallus and Adana, its neighbors
in the western plain, and later with Anazarbus, the chief town of Eastern
Cilicia. But Tarsus remained the capital of the district, which during the 1st
century of the empire was united with Syria in a single imperial province, and
when Cilicia was made a separate province Tarsus, as a matter of course, became
its metropolis and the center of the provincial Caesar-worship, and, at a later
date, the capital of “the three eparchiae,”Cilicia, Isauria and Lycaonia.
Toward the close of the 4th century Cilicia was divided into two, and Tarsus
became the capital of Cilicia Prima only. Soon after the middle of the 7th
century it was captured by the Arabs, and for the next three centuries was
occupied by them as their northwestern capital and base of operations against
the Anatolian plateau and the Byzantine empire. In 965 it was recaptured,
together with the rest of Cilicia, by the emperor Nicephorus Phocas, but toward
the close of the following century it fell into the hands of the Turks and
afterward of the Crusaders. It was subsequently ruled by Armenian princes as
part of the kingdom of Lesser Armenia, and then by the Memluk sultans of Egypt,
from whom it was finally wrested by the Ottoman Turks early in the 16th
century. The modern town, which still bears the ancient name in the slightly
modified form Tersoús, has a very mixed population, numbering
about 25,000, and considerable trade, but suffers from its unhealthful
situation and the proximity of large marshy tracts. Few traces of its ancient
greatness survive, the most considerable of them being the vast substructure of
a Greco-Roman temple, known locally as the tomb of Sardanapalus (R. Koldewey in
C. Robert, Aus der Anomia, 178 ff).
Literature.
The best account of Tarsus will be found in W. M. Ramsay, The Cities
of Paul (London, 1907), 85-244; the same writer's articles on “Cilicia,
Tarsus and the Great Taurus Pass” in the Geographical Journal, 1903, 357
ff, and on “Tarsus” in HDB should also be consulted, as well as H.
Bohlig, Die Geisteskultur yon Tarsos im augusteischen Zeitalter
(Gottingen, 1913). For inscriptions see LeBas-Waddington, Voyage
archeologique, III, numbers 1476 ff; Inscr. Graec. ad res Roman.
pertinetes, III, 876 ff. For coins, B. V. Head, Historia Numorum2,
729 ff; G. F. Hill, British Museum Catalogue of Coins: Lycaonia, Isauria and
Cilicia, lxxvi ff, 162 ff.
Source:
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Tarsus
The chief city of Cilicia. It was distinguished for its wealth and for
its schools of learning, in which it rivaled, nay, excelled even Athens and
Alexandria, and hence was spoken of as “no mean city.” It was the native place
of the Apostle Paul (Act_21:39). It
stood on the banks of the river Cydnus, about 12 miles north of the
Mediterranean. It is said to have been founded by Sardanapalus, king of
Assyria. It is now a filthy, ruinous Turkish town, called Tersous. (See PAUL.)
Source: Easton’s
Bible Dictionary