TARSUS (Tapo-bs), a celebrated city, the me tropolis of Cilicia, in Asia Minor, on the banks of the river Cydnus, which flowed through it, and divided it into two parts. IIence it is sometimes by Greek writers called Taperof in the plural, per haps not without some reference to a fancied re. semblance in the form of the two divisions of the city to the wings of a bird. Tarsus was a distin guished seat of Greek philosophy and literature, and from the number of its schools and learned men was ranked by the side of Athens and Alex andria (Strati°, xiv. pp. 673, 674). Augustus made Tarsus free (Appian, Bell. Civ. v. 7). This seems to have implied the privilege of bein„r, governed by its own laws and magistrates, with freedom from tribute ; but did not confer the jus coloniamm, nor the Jim civitatis : and it was not therefore, as usually supposed, on this account that Paul enjoyed the privilege of Roman citizen ship. [PAut..] Tarsus, indeed, eventually did be come a Roman colony, which gave to the inhabi. tants this privilege ; but this was not till long after the time of Paul (Deyling, Observat. Sacr. 391,
seq. ; comp. CITIZENSHIP ; CoLowv). We thus find that the Roman tribune at Jerusalem ordered Paul to be scourged, though he knew that he was a native of Tarsus, but desisted on learning that he was a Roman citizen (Acts ix. r ; xxi. 39 ; xxii. 24, 27). In the time of Abulfeda, that is. towards the end of the i3th and beginning of the t4th century, Tarsus was still large, and surrounded by a double wall, and in the occupation of Ar menian Christians (Tab. .5)./rire, p. 133). It is now a poor and decayed town, inhabited by Turks ; but it is not so much fallen as many other anciently great towns of the same quarter, the population being estimated at 3o,000. There are some con siderable remains of the ancient city (Heumann, De Claris Tarsensib., Gott. 1748 ; Altmann, Exerc. de Tarso, Bern. 1731 ; Mannert, ii. 97, se9 ; Rosenmiiller, Bib. Ceog-. 38 ; Beaufort, _Kara mania ; Irby and Mangles, Travels, pp. so2-506 ; see also the articles CITIZENSHIP and COLONY. j. K.