TARSUS (Lat., from Gk. Tapak, Torsos, Tapaoi, Tarsoi). The chief city of ancient Cilicia, and of Eastern Asia Minor, situated on both sides of the navigable river Cydnus, in the midst of a beautiful and productive plain, about 10 miles from the sea. From its situation Tarsus commanded the pass over Mount Taurus, the tilician Gates, which formed the only means of communication with Northern and Western Asia Minor, and in almost equal measure the route to Northern Syria and the East by the Amanian or Syrian Gates. The first mention of the place as Tarzi is on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser II., about the middle of the ninth century B.C., where its capture by the Assyrians is recorded. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Cilicia, which was long ruled, under Persian suzerainty, by a line of kings who bore the hereditary name of Syennesis, and later was the residence of a Persian satrap. With the conquest of Alexander the Great, it passed into Greek hands, and during the follow ing period was usually in the power of the Seleu of Syria. At the end of that century it passed
under the Roman supremacy, and upon the or ganization of the Province of Cilicia (me. 64) it became the capital. Later, Mark Antony made it a free city, and it was here that in B.C. 38 he was visited by Cleopatra. Under the Empire the free city seems to have enjoyed a popular form of government with a property qualification for the franchise. This gives additional point to the claim of the Apostle Paula native of this place —to be a citizen of Tarsus, as that implied a certain social position. It was a place of conse quence even in Byzantine times, but suffered from its proximity to the Syrian frontier. The modern town, though large, is dirty and mean, containing no vestige of its ancient splendor, and but few ruins. The most conspicuous ruin is the large concrete foundation of a Roman building, popularly called the Tomb of Sardana palus.