CICCAR (siecar), (Heb. a topographical term applied especially to the Jordan. (See JORDAN; CITIES OF THE PLAIN.) CILICIA (sl-lish'i-a), (Gr. Kaucla, Cilicia), the southeastern part of Asia Minor, bounded on the west by Pamphylia; separated on the north from Cappadocia by the Taurus range, and on the east by Amanus from Syria; and having the Gulf of Issus (Iskenderoon) and the Cilician Sea (Acts xxvii:5) on the south.
By the ancients the eastern part was called Cilicia Propria proper, or the level Cilicia ; and the western, the rough or mountainous. The former was well watered, and abounded in various kinds of grain and fruits (Xenoph. i :2. sec. 22). The chief towns in this division were Issus (Xenoph. Anal). i:4), at the southeastern extremity, celebrated for the victory of Alexander over Darius Codomannus (B. C. 333), and not far from the passes of Amanus or the so-called gates of Anianus (Polyb. xii :8) ; Soler, originally a colony of Argives and Rhodians, the birthplace of Menander, the comic poet (B. C. 262), the stoic philosopher Chrysippus (B. C. 206), and of Aratus, author of the astronomical poem The Things Seen (B. C. 27o) ; and Tarsus, the birthplace of the Apostle Paul. (See TARSUS.) Cilicia Trachea furnished an inexhaustible • supply of cedars and firs for ship-building; it was also noted for a species of goat, of whose skins cloaks and tents were manufactured. Its breed of horses was so superior that 36o (one for each day of the year) formed part of the annual tribute to the king of Persia (Herod. iii :9o). The neighborhood of Corycus produced large quantities of saffron. Herodotus says that
the first inhabitants of the country were called Hypachwi, 'Tiraxagot; and derives the name of Cilicia from Cilix. son of Agenor, a Phmnician settler (vii :9i). He also states that the Cilicians and Lycians were the only nations within the Halys who were not conquered by Crcesus (i :28). Though partially subjected to the Assyrians,Medes, Persians, Syrians, and Romans, the Eleuthero, or free, Cilicians, as the inhabitants of the moun tainous districts were called, were governed by their own kings (Reguli, Tacit. ii :78) till the time of Vespasian. The seacoast was for a long time occupied by pirates, who carried on the ap propriate vocation of slave-merchants, and found ample encouragement for that nefarious traffic among the opulent Romans (Manncrt, vi:i ; Stra bo, xiv :3) ; but at last their depredations became so formidable that Pompey was invested with extraordinary powers for their suppression. which he accomplished in forty days. He settled the surviving freebooters at Sola, which he rebuilt and named Pompeiopolis. Cicero was proconsul of Cilicia, and gained some successes over the mountaineers of Amanus, for which he was re warded with a triumph (Epist. ad Fain. xv :4). Many Jews were settled in Cilicia ( Acts yi According to the modern Turkish divisions of Asia Minor, Cilicia Proper belongs to the Pashalic of Adana; and Cilicia Trachea to the Liwah of Itchil in the Mousselimlik of Cyprus.