Claudiopolis ( grc, Κλαυδιόπολις) also called Ninica and Ninica Claudiopolis, was an ancient city of
Cilicia
Cilicia (); el, Κιλικία, ''Kilikía''; Middle Persian: ''klkyʾy'' (''Klikiyā''); Parthian: ''kylkyʾ'' (''Kilikiyā''); tr, Kilikya). is a geographical region in southern Anatolia in Turkey, extending inland from the northeastern coa ...
.
Ammianus
Ammianus Marcellinus (occasionally anglicised as Ammian) (born , died 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquity (preceding Procopius). His work, known as the ''Res Gest ...
mentions
Seleucia and Claudiopolis as cities of Cilicia, or of the country drained by the
Calycadnus; and Claudiopolis was a colony of
Claudius Caesar. It is described by
Theophanes of Byzantium as situated in a plain between the two
Taurus Mountains
The Taurus Mountains ( Turkish: ''Toros Dağları'' or ''Toroslar'') are a mountain complex in southern Turkey, separating the Mediterranean coastal region from the central Anatolian Plateau. The system extends along a curve from Lake Eğird ...
, a description which exactly, corresponds to the position of the basin of the Calycadnus. Claudiopolis may therefore be represented by
Mut
Mut, also known as Maut and Mout, was a mother goddess worshipped in ancient Egypt and the Kingdom of Kush in present-day North Sudan. In Meroitic, her name was pronounced mata): 𐦨𐦴. Her name means ''mother'' in the ancient Egyptian l ...
, which is higher up the valley than Seleucia, and near the junction of the northern and western branches of the Calycadnus. It is also the place to which the pass over the northern Taurus leads from
Laranda.
Pliny
Pliny may refer to:
People
* Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), ancient Roman nobleman, scientist, historian, and author of ''Naturalis Historia'' (''Pliny's Natural History'')
* Pliny the Younger (died 113), ancient Roman statesman, orator, w ...
mentions a
Claudiopolis of
Cappadocia
Cappadocia or Capadocia (; tr, Kapadokya), is a historical region in Central Anatolia, Turkey. It largely is in the provinces Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde.
According to Herodotus, in the time of the Ionian Re ...
, and
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...
has a
Claudiopolis in
Cataonia. Both these passages and those of Ammianus and Theophanes are cited to prove that there is a Claudiopolis in Cataonia, though it is manifest that the passage in Ammianus at least can only apply to a town in the valley of the Calycadnus in
Cilicia Trachea
Cilicia (); el, Κιλικία, ''Kilikía''; Middle Persian: ''klkyʾy'' (''Klikiyā''); Parthian language, Parthian: ''kylkyʾ'' (''Kilikiyā''); tr, Kilikya). is a geographical region in southern Anatolia in Turkey, extending inland from th ...
. The two Tauri of Theophanes might mean the Taurus and
Antitaurus. But
Hierocles places Claudiopolis in
Isauria, a description which cannot apply to the places so named of Pliny and Ptolemy. The city apparently received the Roman
colony
In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...
name Colonia Iulia Felix Augusta Ninica, and minted coins in antiquity.
Later assigned to the province of
Isauria, the town became a bishopric. It is no longer the seat of a residential bishop, it remains a
titular see
A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbis ...
of the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
under the name of Claudiopolis in Isauria.
Its site is located near modern
Mut
Mut, also known as Maut and Mout, was a mother goddess worshipped in ancient Egypt and the Kingdom of Kush in present-day North Sudan. In Meroitic, her name was pronounced mata): 𐦨𐦴. Her name means ''mother'' in the ancient Egyptian l ...
,
Asiatic Turkey.
References
Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Turkey
Roman sites in Turkey
Coloniae (Roman)
Populated places in ancient Cilicia
Former populated places in Turkey
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