Foundation and prehistory Archaeological evidence suggests
Gözlükule, a mound located in southeastern Tarsus, was the site where humans first settled in the area. Excavations conducted under Princeton University archaeologist
Hetty Goldman in the 1930s and 1940s at the mound found evidence that the site was occupied from
Neolithic to Islamic times. A fortified town existed at the site of Tarsus since at least as early as the 3rd millennium BC. The settlement stood at the crossing of several important trade routes linking
Anatolia to
Syria and beyond. Because most of the ruins lie under the modern city, archaeology has barely touched the ancient city. As an important port in a merchant marine trade network spanning the eastern Mediterranean and beyond from before the third millennium, the city was always an important centre for cultural interchange with traces of its influence visible from pre-Homeric Greek evidence onwards. The city may have been of
Anatolian or
Semitic origin; it is first mentioned as
Tarsisi in
Neo-Assyrian records of the campaigns of
Esarhaddon, as well as several times in the records of
Shalmaneser I and
Sennacherib, the latter having had the city rebuilt. A Greek legend connects it with the memory of the Assyrian king
Sardanapalus (Ashurbanipal), still preserved in the
Dunuk-Tach, called 'tomb of Sardanapalus', a monument of unknown origin. During the Hellenistic era it was a centre for exchange between Neo-Platonic, Gnostic and Mystery traditions.
Stephanus of Byzantium quotes
Athenodorus of Tarsus on another legend: Much of this legendary account of the foundation of Tarsus, however, appeared in the Roman era, and it is not reliable. The geographer
Strabo states that Tarsus was founded by people from
Argos who were exploring this coast. Another legend claims that
Bellerophon fell off his winged horse
Pegasus here, hurting his foot in the process, and that the city was named
tar-sos (
the sole of the foot) in memory of his accident. Other candidates for legendary founder of the city include the hero
Perseus and
Triptolemus, son of the earth-goddess
Demeter, doubtless because the countryside around Tarsus is such good farmland. Later the coins of Tarsus bore the image of
Hercules due to another tale in which the hero was held prisoner here by the local god
Sandon. Tarsus has been suggested as a possible site for the biblical
Tarshish, to which the prophet
Jonah wanted to flee, but
Tartessos in Spain has also been offered as a possible location for this. (See further)
Early antiquity In historical times, the city was first ruled by the
Hittites, followed by
Assyria, and then by the
Persian Empire. As the principal town of
Cilicia, Tarsus was the seat of a Persian
satrapy from 400 BC onward. Indeed,
Xenophon records that in 401 BC, when
Cyrus the Younger marched against
Babylon, the city was governed by King
Syennesis in the name of the Persian monarch. At this period the god of the city was Sandon, of whom a large monument existed at Tarsus at least until the 3rd century AD. Coins showed Sandon standing on a winged and horned lion, and it is now thought likely that the
Lion of Saint Mark on the pillar in the
Piazza San Marco in
Venice was in origin a winged lion-griffin copied from such a monument in Tarsus.
Alexander the Great passed through with his army in 333 BC and nearly met his death here after bathing in the Cydnus. By this time Tarsus was already largely influenced by
Greek language and culture, and as part of the
Seleucid Empire it became more and more
Hellenised. Strabo praised the cultural level of Tarsus in this period with its philosophers, poets and linguists. The schools of Tarsus rivalled those of
Athens and
Alexandria. A reference in the Bible (
2 Maccabees (4:30)) records the city's revolt against
Antiochus IV Epiphanes in about 171 BC. The king had renamed the town
Antiochia on the Cydnus although the name did not stick because too many cities were named Antioch. At this time the library of Tarsus held 200,000 books, including a huge collection of scientific works.
Roman period figurine made in Tarsus,
Roman Era. After crushing the feared
Cilician pirates,
Pompey brought Tarsus under
Roman rule In 67 BC, and it became the capital of the
Roman province of Cilicia. To flatter
Julius Caesar, it was briefly named
Juliopolis.
Cassius Longinus planned to kill him here as early as 47 BC, and
Cleopatra and
Mark Antony met and was the scene of the celebrated feasts they gave during the construction of their fleet (41 BC). In
William Shakespeare's 1606 play
Antony and Cleopatra (Act 5, Scene 2) Cleopatra says she is going to Cydnus to meet Antony after his death, (i.e. she will commit suicide to meet him in the afterlife). "Go fetch / My best attires: I am again for Cydnus, / To meet Mark Antony." in Tarsus In the Roman period, the city was an important intellectual centre, boasting its own academy. One of its leading lights, the philosopher
Athenodorus Cananites, was the tutor of the first Roman emperor,
Augustus, a fact which secured continuous imperial patronage for the city.
Early Christian and Byzantine eras in Tarsus (the church and its surroundings are on the
UN World Heritage tentative list) Tarsus was the city where, according to the
Acts of the Apostles, Saul of Tarsus was born, although he was brought up in Jerusalem. He was a Roman citizen (
Acts 21:39; Acts 22:25–29) "of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city". Saul, who eventually became
Paul the Apostle after his professed encounter with Jesus (), returned here after his conversion (). About eight years later,
Barnabas retrieved him from Tarsus to help with the work of preaching and teaching in
Syrian Antioch (). By then, a
Christian community probably already existed although the first recorded bishop,
Helenus, dates only from the 3rd century. Owing to the importance of Tarsus, many martyrs were put to death there, including
Saint Pelagia of Tarsus,
Saint Boniface of Tarsus,
Saint Marinus of Tarsus,
Saint Diomedes,
Saint Quiricus and Saint Julitta. The city remained largely pagan until the reign of
Julian the Apostate (r. 361–363), who reportedly planned to make it his capital. Following his
death during his campaign against
Sassanid Persia, he was buried next to the city walls, opposite the earlier tomb of the
Tetrarch Maximinus Daza. In the early 5th century, Christian chronicler
Palladius recorded the presence of
Samaritan and Jewish synagogues in Tarsus (407/408 CE). Under Emperor
Justinian I (r. 527–565), public works were carried out in the city, including alterations to the course of the Cydnus river and the rebuilding of the bridge. Towards the end of his reign, the city suffered from riots instigated by the Hippodrome Blues faction. It was not until the early
Abbasid period that Tarsus, by then lying in ruins, was reoccupied and refortified, this time as an advance strongpoint within the fortified zone of the
al-ʿAwāṣim, stretching from Tarsus northeast to
Malatya, and as an assembly point for expeditions against the Byzantine Empire. The first attempt was undertaken by
al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba al-Ta'i in 778/9 but was apparently unsuccessful and the city was not fully restored until 787/8, by
Abu Sulaym Faraj on the orders of Caliph
Harun al-Rashid (). Three thousand
Khurasanis and 2,000 Syrians (a thousand each from
Antioch and
al-Massisa) were given houses and land in the new fortress city. Tarsus was apparently recovered by the Byzantines soon after, at some point around the turn of the century. The city probably remained in Byzantine hands during the Abbasid civil war of the
Fourth Fitna, but returned to Muslim control by 830 when Caliph
al-Ma'mun () recommenced offensive campaigns against Byzantium using the city as a base. Henceforth and until the Byzantine reconquest in the 10th century, Tarsus was one of the main centres for the holy war (
jihād) against Byzantium, comprising annual raids (
ṣawāʿif) into Byzantine lands through the
Cilician Gates when the mountain snows had melted and passage was possible. These raids were mounted by the local garrisons, maintained by the taxation not only of the frontier zone of the
al-ʿAwāṣim but also by generous subsidies from the caliphal government, and large numbers of volunteer warriors of the faith (
mujahidun or
ghazis). Tarsus remained under direct
Abbasid control until 878/9, when it and the wider Cilician border zone were given to the autonomous ruler of Egypt,
Ahmad ibn Tulun. The local governor
Yazaman al-Khadim returned the city to the direct allegiance of
Baghdad from 882 on, but was forced to recognise the
Tulunids again in 890. Tulunid possession of the border zone lasted until the death of Ibn Tulun's heir
Khumarawayh in 896, after which Caliph
al-Mu'tadid () re-asserted direct control. The area remained under Abbasid rule for the next four decades. After a brief period when the border zone was under
Ikhshidid control, in 946/7, Tarsus recognised the overlordship of the
Hamdanid emir
Sayf al-Dawla of
Aleppo, who had become the new master of northern Syria and the Byzantine borderlands. Facing a resurgent Byzantium, he was able to stem the tide for a while, but in 965,the Byzantine emperor
Nikephoros II Phokas () captured the city, ending Muslim rule there. Throughout this period, the
governors of Tarsus also operated an active mint in the city. The terms of the city's surrender allowed any Muslim who wished to leave with as many of his possessions as he could carry. Many of those who left eventually settled, according to
al-Muqaddasi, at
Baniyas. Most of those who remained behind became Christians and the main mosque was either torn down or turned into a stable. The city remained under Byzantine rule until 1085. It was thereafter disputed between Latin
Crusaders, Byzantines (1137–1172),
Seljuk Turks and the Armenians of the
Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (Kingdom of Lesser Armenia). The city was the capital of the
Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia between 1080 and 1198. The Armenians became definitive masters until about 1359 when the city was captured by the
Ramadanid Emirate and
Mamluk Sultanate. Finally, the area was brought under the control of the
Ottoman Empire by
Selim I in 1516. In the Middle Ages, Tarsus was renowned throughout the Middle East; a number of Arab writers praised it as a beautiful and well-defended city, its walls having two layers of fortifications with five gates and earthworks outside, surrounded by rich farmland and watered by the river and the lake.
Ottoman and modern period Under Ottoman rule, Tarsus initially formed part of the
Eyalet of Aleppo. After the
Ottoman conquest of Cyprus in 1571 it became the seat of a
sanjak (sub-province) within the
Cyprus Eyalet, before being transferred in 1608 to the
sanjak of
Adana as a
kaza (district). Visiting in 1671 the traveller
Evliya Çelebi recorded
"a city on the plain, an hour from the sea, surrounded by strong walls two-storeys high, moated on all sides, with three distinct neighbourhoods inside the walls". Despite its excellent defences, Tarsus was captured from the Ottomans in 1832 by the
Mamluks of
Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt, son of
Muhammad Ali, and remained for eight years in Egyptian hands. The Egyptians began growing cotton on the surrounding plain. Following the return of Ottoman rule this cotton drove substantial growth in the local economy, due to increased world demand for the crop during shortages caused by the
U.S. Civil War. A new road was built to the port in
Mersin and the city of Tarsus grew and thrived. Still today many large houses in the city stand as reminders of the wealth generated during this period. However, after 3,000 years as a flourishing port, by the end of the 19th century neglect meant Tarsus lost its access to the sea as the delta became a swamp. At this point it was a typical Ottoman city with communities of Muslim Turks, Christian Greeks and
Armenians. With the founding of the
Turkish Republic in the 1920s, the swamp was drained and the River Berdan was dammed to build Turkey's first hydro-electric power station. Irrigation, roadworks and a railway brought the economy of Tarsus back to life, with new factories particularly producing textiles. ==Composition==