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TARSUS

(Gk. Tarsós)

The capital of Cilicia in Asia Minor, located on both sides of the Cydnus River ca. 19 km. (12 mi.) inland from the Mediterranean and 40 km. (25 mi.) S of the Cilician Gates, which for three millennia have been the only major pass through the Taurus mountain range between Cilicia and Syria. Because of its strategic location (the Cydnus River was navigable only to the port of Rhegma at Tarsus, where several of the most important roads of Cilicia converged), it became one of the most prominent places in Asia Minor, developing important commercial and social relations with other cities and countries. Archaeological excavations show that it was inhabited from the Neolithic Age until the Islamic invasions.

While the people of Tarsus claimed that their city was founded by Perseus and Hercules, it was settled by Greeks after the Trojan War and developed during the period of Greek colonization. First mentioned in historical record as being rebuilt under the Assyrians by Sennacherib (704-681 b.c.e.), it had a long history as a Semitic town. Xenophon described it during the 5th century as a great and prosperous place (Anab. 1.2). During the Persian period it was ruled by satraps (provincial governors). Alexander the Great prevented the Persians from burning the city (333). It was fought over by his successors, submitting for a while to the Ptolemaic Dynasty but dominated mostly by the Seleucid Dynasty. As a result it was renamed Antioch on the Cydnus (after Antiochus Epiphanes, the Syrian king).

Pompey made Tarsus part of the Roman province of Cilicia in 67 b.c.e., during his attempt to exterminate the pirates from the rugged western coastlands of the country. Cicero served as proconsul in Tarsus during the year 51-50 b.c.e. In the civil war between Caesar and Pompey (47 b.c.e.) the people of Tarsus sided with Caesar, and to honor him changed the name of the city to Juliopolis. Mark Antony declared it a free city and made it exempt from taxes. It was here in 41 b.c.e. that Mark Antony first met Cleopatra, who sailed up the Cydnus disguised as Aphrodite. During the reign of Augustus Paul was born in Tarsus, the population grew to about one half million, and the city reached its peak. It was a strategic location for the Romans during their campaigns against the Parthians and the Persians.

Strabo describes the city during the 1st century c.e. as surpassing Athens and Alexandria in culture and learning (Geog. 14.5.131). The city had a long history as a seat of learning and a school of philosophy.

Perhaps Tarsus’ greatest claim to fame is as the birthplace of the Apostle Paul (Acts 9:11, 30; 11:25; 21:39; 22:3). Whether Paul acquired his Greek and Roman education in Tarsus or as a youth in Jerusalem (Acts 22:3) is debatable.

Bibliography. M. Gough, “Tarsus,” in The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, ed. R. Stilwell (Princeton, 1976), 883-84; W. Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1873, repr. New York, 1966) 2:1105-6.

Richard A. Spencer

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

TARSUS

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)