CILICIA, an ancient division of Asia Minor, now included in the Turkish eyelet of Koniah. The Taurus range, which separated it from Cappadocia, bounded it on the n., the gulf of Issus and the Cilician sea on the s., while the Amanus and Pamphylia bounded it respectively on the e. and west. Lat. 36° to 38° n., long. 32° 10' to 37° 8' e. The eastern portion of C. was fertile in grain, wine, etc. ; while the western and more mountainous portion furnished inexhaustible supplies of timber to the ancients. The pass called by the Turks Golek Beighilz is that by which the younger Cyrus passed from Tyana in Cappadocia to Tarsus; and it is also the same by which Alexander the great entered Cilicia. Pop. about 100,000, mostly nomadic.
In early ages, C. was ruled by its own kings, the dynasty of Syennesis being apparently the most important. The Cilicians were a distinct people in the time of Xenophon; but the Greeks appear to have got a footing after the time of Alexander. The Cilicians were notorious pirates, but having carried on their depredations too close to the shores of Italy. the Roman arms were turned against them, and C. was made a Roman province in Pompey's time.
GrovANNI, one of the restorers of the art of painting in Italy, which had fallen into neglect during the barbarism of the dark ages, was b. at Florence in
1240. At this time, the fine arts were practiced in Italy chiefly by Byzantines, and had degenerated into a worn-out mechanical conventionalism. C. at first studied under Byzantine masters, and adopted their traditional forms, but gradually excelled his teachers, made innovations on the fixed patterns set before him, and gave life and individuality to his works. Two remarkable pictures of the Madonna by C. are still preserved in Florence—one (chiefly Byzantine in style) in the academy; the other, dis playing a more purely original genius, in the church of Santa Maria Novella. It is said that this latter work in the time of C. was admired as a miracle of art, and was carried to the church in a sort of triumphal procession. More remarkable pictures in point of expression or dramatic effect, are found in C.'s frescoes in the church of San Francisco at Assisi. C. died soon after 1300. What strikes one as very wonderful about 0.'s pictures, is the accuracy of his naked figures, considering that he had no better pro fessional guides than the Byzantine artists. His draperies were also very good, hut he had apparently no knowledge of perspective, though acquainted with architecture. His greatest pupil was Giotto (q.v.).