Greek Coin of Cilicia

Struck circa 4th century BC (400-300 BC) at uncertain mint in Cilicia (Possible issue of Laranda in Lycaonia)
Silver AR Obol - 11mm, 9h, ~0.7 grams
Reference: SNG France 2, 457
Certification: NGC Choice VF 8243483-007

Obverse: Bearded head Baaltars or another Deity facing right

Reverse: Forepart of wolf right; inverted crescent above

Collector's Notes:
Provenance: From The Ancient Art in Miniature Collection

See the Genuine History Collection

Cilicia is a geographical region of southern Anatolia in West Asia, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia borders Pamphylia to the west, Lycaonia and Cappadocia to the north, Commagene to the north-east, Syria to the east and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Cilician plain (Turkish: Çukurova). The region includes the provinces of Mersin, Adana, Osmaniye and Hatay.

Following the collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, an independent state, called Cilicia (Ancient Greek: Κιλικία, romanized: Kilikía) by the ancient Greeks, was established in southeastern Anatolia in the 6th century BC under the rule of a native dynasty, with its capital at the city of Tarsus.

In the mid-6th century BC, the kingdom of Cilicia supported the founding king of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, Cyrus II, in his wars against Croesus of Lydia, as a consequence of which Cilicia became a vassal of the Achaemenid empire as from c. 542 BC, and the Cilician rulers became part of the Achaemenid administration.

Under early Achaemenid rule, Cilicia maintained a significant degree of autonomy and the native rulers at Tarsus acted as satraps (governors) for the Achaemenid administration, with their authority extending until as far west as Aspendus. Cilicia remained under efficient administration, and it would continue to provide troops for the Achaemenid wars in Anatolia, Egypt and Cyprus.

In 401 BC, the Achaemenid king of kings Artaxerxes II abolished the autonomy of Cilicia in reaction to the local Cilician ruler Syennesis III's support for the rebellion of Cyrus the Younger, resulting in the kingdom of Cilicia being abolished and fully integrated into the Achaemenid empire as a normal province ruled by and appointed by the Achaemenid king of kings, which it would remain until the end of the Achaemenid Empire in 333 BC.

Following the Battle of Issus, Cilicia became part of the empire of Alexander III of Macedon. During Alexander III's invasion, a lesser officer named Arsames who had fled to Cilicia from the northwest to organise new resistance there defended it against the Macedonian forces. After Alexander's death it was long a battleground of the rival Hellenistic monarchs and kingdoms, and for a time fell under Ptolemaic dominion, but finally came to the Seleucids, who, however, never held effectually more than the eastern half. During the Hellenistic period, the Teucrid dynasty ruled at the city of Olba.

Although no later Persian empire ever regained control of Cilicia, one Seleucid officer named Aribazus and attested as administrator of Cilicia in 246 BC was possibly of Persian descent. During the Hellenistic era, numerous cities were established in Cilicia, which minted coins showing the badges (gods, animals, and objects) associated with each polis. The Seleucids, especially Antiochus IV, focused on Hellenising Cilicia by establishing or rebuilding several poleis, such as Seleucia on the Calycadnus, Antioch on the Cydnus (Tarsus), Seleucia on the Pyramus (Mopsuestia), Hierapolis (Castabala), and Epiphaneia. In the 3rd century BC, sporadic Ptolemaic presence was attested in Rugged Cilicia. With the weakening of the Seleucid kingdom in the late 2nd century BC, piracy spread in Cilicia.

In 102 BC, the Roman Republic established a provincia of the praetor Marcus Antonius in Cilicia to fight the Cilician pirates, with the command being renewed repeatedly. In 83 BC, the Armenian king Tigranes II conquered Plain Cilicia, and he deported Cilicians to Tigranocerta. Between 78 and 74 BC, Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus conquered the population of Rugged Cilicia, which made a permanent Roman presence in Cilicia possible. In 69 BC, Lucullus returned the Cilician deportees to Tigranocerta back to their homeland.

After Pompey was given the imperium proconsulare maius, he was able to defeat the Cilician pirates in 67 BC, and he arranged for his defeated enemies to be settled in Pompeiopolis (formerly Soli) and other depopulated Cilician towns. This victory strengthened the Roman presence in Cilicia. Cilicia Trachea became the haunt of pirates, who were subdued by Pompey in 67 BC following a Battle of Korakesion (modern Alanya), and Tarsus was made the capital of the Roman province of Cilicia. Cilicia Pedias became Roman territory in 103 BC first conquered by Marcus Antonius Orator in his campaign against pirates, with Sulla acting as its first governor, and the whole was organized by Pompey, 64 BC, into a province which, for a short time, extended to and included part of Phrygia.

In 51 BC, the Parthian Empire was able to take advantage of the weakness of the Roman Republic to invade Cilicia. In 51 or 50 BC, the proconsul Cicero successfully campaigned in Cilicia against the Eleutherokilikes in the Amanus Mountains, which further solidified the Roman presence in Cilicia. It was reorganized by Julius Caesar in 47 BC, and about 27 BC became part of the province Syria-Cilicia Phoenice. At first, the western district was left independent under native kings or priest-dynasts, and a small kingdom, under Tarcondimotus I, was left in the east, but these were finally united to the province by Vespasian, AD 72.

After Julius Caesar's death, the provincia of Cilicia was dissolved in 43 BC, and most of Rugged Cilicia was given to Amyntas of Galatia, then to Archelaus of Cappadocia. Plain Cilicia meanwhile was ruled by the kingdom of Tarcondimotus I as well as other smaller client-states of the Roman Republic or administered as part of Syria. Tarcondimotus I had supported the losing side of both Roman civil wars by offering naval support to Pompey and Mark Antony, due to which his son Tarcondimotus II Philopator was deposed in 30 BC, although he was restored to power between 20 BC and 17 AD. Parts of Cilicia were given to Antiochus IV of Commagene by Caligula, who incorporated the rest of it into Syria.

A province of Cilicia with Tarsus as capital was re-established in 72 AD by Vespasian. In 194 AD, Septimius Severus defeated Pescennius Niger at the Cilician Gates. Under the Severan dynasty, during the late 2nd to early 3rd centuries AD, the city of Anazarbus, which was made into a metropolis, became a rival of Tarsus. In 259 or 260, the Persian Sasanian king of kings Shapur I defeated the Roman Emperor Valerian, whose army included Cilician soldiers. After Valerian's defeat, the Sasanian forces burnt and sacked several cities in Syria, Cilicia, and Cappadocia, and devastated large parts of Cilicia.

Under Emperor Diocletian's Tetrarchy (c. 297), Cilicia was governed by a consularis; with Isauria and the Syrian, Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Libyan provinces, it formed the Diocesis Orientis, part of the pretorian prefecture also called Oriens. After the division of the Roman Empire, Cilicia became part of the eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire. Cilicia was one of the most important regions of the classical world and can be considered as the birthplace of Christianity.

Diocletian made Rugged Cilicia into a province named Isauria, with its capital at Seleucia. Roman Cilicia exported the goats-hair cloth, Cilicium, which was used to make tents. Tarsus was also the birthplace of the early Christian missionary and author St. Paul, likely writer of 13 of the 27 books included in the New Testament.

Cilicia had numerous Christian communities and is mentioned six times in the Book of Acts and once in the Epistle to the Galatians (1:21). After Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century, Cilicia was included in the territories of the patriarchate of Antioch. The region was divided into two civil and ecclesiastical provinces: Cilicia Prima, with a metropolitan diocese at Tarsus and suffragan dioceses for Pompeiopolis, Sebaste, Augusta, Corycus, Adana, Mallus and Zephyrium; and Cilicia Secunda, with a metropolitan diocese at Anazarbus and suffragan dioceses for Mopsuestia, Aegae, Epiphania, Irenopolis, Flavias, Castabala, Alexandria, Citidiopolis and Rhosus. Bishops from the various dioceses of Cilicia were well represented at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 and at the later ecumenical councils.

In 400, Theodosius I divided Plain Cilicia into the provinces of Cilicia Prima, headquartered at Tarsus, and Cilicia Secunda, whose capital was Anazarbus. The Christian Church in Cilicia was under the authority of the Patriarch of Antioch. Cilicia remained prosperous, due to which several, largely ecclesiastical, construction works were undertaken there.

From the middle of the 7th century, Cilicia became more and more close to the border between the Byzantine Empire and the Caliphate, resulting in the depopulation of the region.