TARSUS, anciently the chief city of Cilicia, and one of the most important in all Asia Minor, situated on both sides of the navigable river Cydnus, in the midst of a beautiful and productive plain, and about 18 m. from the sea. It was a great emporium for the traffic carried on between Syria, Egypt, and the central region of Asia Minor. In the time of the Romans, two great roads led from Tarsus, one n. across the Taurus by the " Cilician Gates," and the other e. to Antioch by the " Amanian" and " Syrian Gates." Tarsus, judging from its name, was probably of Assyrian origin; but the first historical mention of it occurs in the Anabasis of Xenophon, where it figures as a wealthy and populous city, ruled by a prince tributary to Persia. In the time of Alexander the Great, it was governed by a Persian satrap; it next passed under the dominion of the and finally became the capital of the Roman province of Cilicia. At Tarsus,
Anthony received Cleopatra, when she sailed up the Cydnus, with magnificent luxury, disguised as Aphrodite. Under the early Roman emperors, Tarsus was as renowned for its culture as for its commerce, Strabo placing it, in respect to its zeal for learning, above even Athens and Alexandria. It was the birthplace of the apostle Paul, who received the greater part of his education here; and here the emperor Julian was buried. Gradually, during the confusions that accompanied the decline of the Roman and Byzan tine power, it fell into comparative decay; but even yet, it is—under the name of Tarsa or Tarsys—the most considerable place in the s.e. of Asia Minor, has a pop. of 30,000 (in winter); and exports corn, cotton, wool, copper, gall-nuts, wax, goats, hair, skins, hides, etc.