Late Bronze Age Hittite period In the 2nd millennium B.C. Sis was one of the
Hittite settlements on the
Cilician plain between the mountains and the
Mediterranean coast.
Roman Period onwards During the 1st century B.C. Sis appears to have been an unfortified village in the Roman province of
Cilicia Secunda. The names Sisan or Sisia are first mentioned in the 5th and 6th centuries in Greek and Latin sources. In 703–04 A.D., the
Byzantine settlers repulsed an
Arab attack, but were soon forced to abandon the town, which became a frontier post for the
Abbasid Caliphate. The
Caliph Al-Mutawakkil reconstructed the
Byzantine defenses in the mid-9th century. The Byzantine Emperor
Nikephoros II Phokas recaptured Sis in 962 from the
Abbasids, only to have it become an
Armenian possession in 1113, when it was occupied by Rubenid Baron
T‛oros I and repaired. With Sis fallen, the
Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia also fell and its territory was annexed into the
Mamluk Sultanate. According to
Gregory of Akner, Into the early
20th century Armenians continued to inhabit the town where several late medieval residential structures were preserved. The castle at Sis is one of the largest fortified sites in the
Levant. If laid from end to end, the circuit walls would measure almost 3 kilometers in length. ==See also==