Claudiopolis () also called Ninica and Ninica Claudiopolis, was an ancient city of

Cilicia Cilicia () is a geographical region in southern Anatolia, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Cilician plain (). The region inclu ...

Ammianus Ammianus Marcellinus, occasionally anglicized as Ammian (Greek: Αμμιανός Μαρκελλίνος; born , died 400), was a Greek and Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquity ( ...

mentions

Seleucia Seleucia (; ), also known as or or Seleucia ad Tigrim, was a major Mesopotamian city, located on the west bank of the Tigris River within the present-day Baghdad Governorate in Iraq. It was founded around 305 BC by Seleucus I Nicator as th ...

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 Theophanes of Byzantium (; fl. 6th century) was a Byzantine historian. He wrote, in ten books, the history of the Eastern Empire during the Persian war under Justin II, beginning from the second year of Justin (567), in which the truce made by J ...

as situated in a plain between the two

Taurus Mountains The Taurus Mountains (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Toros Dağları'' or ''Toroslar,'' Greek language, Greek'':'' Ταύρος) are a mountain range, mountain complex in southern Turkey, separating the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coastal reg ...

, a description that exactly corresponds to the position of the basin of the Calycadnus. Claudiopolis may therefore be represented by

Mut Mut (; also transliterated as Maut and Mout) was a mother goddess worshipped in ancient Egypt. Her name means ''mother'' in the ancient Egyptian language. Mut had many different aspects and attributes that changed and evolved greatly over th ...

, 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 mentions a Claudiopolis of

Cappadocia Cappadocia (; , from ) is a historical region in Central Anatolia region, Turkey. It is largely in the provinces of Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde. Today, the touristic Cappadocia Region is located in Nevşehir ...

, and

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

has a Claudiopolis in

Cataonia Cataonia () was one of the divisions of ancient Cappadocia. It is described by Strabo, who had visited it, as a level plain surrounded by mountain- on the south by the Amanus, and on the west by the Antitaurus, which branches off from the Ci ...

. Both these passages and those of Ammianus and Theophanes are cited to prove that there is a Claudiopolis in Cataonia, but it is manifest that the passage in Ammianus at least can apply only to a town in the valley of the Calycadnus in

Cilicia Trachea Cilicia () is a geographical region in southern Anatolia, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Çukurova, Cilician plain (). The re ...

. The two Tauri of Theophanes might mean the Taurus and Antitaurus, but Hierocles places Claudiopolis in

Isauria Isauria ( or ; ), in ancient geography, is a rugged, isolated district in the interior of Asia Minor, of very different extent at different periods, but generally covering what is now the district of Bozkır and its surroundings in the Konya P ...

, a description that cannot apply to the places so named of Pliny and Ptolemy. The city apparently received the Roman

colony A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their ''metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often orga ...

name Colonia Iulia Felix Augusta Ninica and minted coins in antiquity. Later assigned to the province of

, the town became a bishopric. It is no longer the seat of a residential bishop but 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 archbi ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

under the name of Claudiopolis in Isauria. Its site is located near modern

, Asiatic Turkey.

References

Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Turkey Roman towns and cities in Turkey Coloniae (Roman) Populated places in ancient Cilicia Former populated places in Turkey {{Mersin-geo-stub