Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/638

 620 CILICIA. ihej TMrj be fitted together, so we observed that the rocks overhanging the river on each ude, and riaing ahnoet np to the summits of the mountains, at a distance of two or three hundred feet, had the receding parts corresponding to the projecting parts. The bottom between the steep sides is all rock, and has a deep and very narrow fissure in the middle, so naiTow that a dog or a hare might leap over. This IS the channel of the river whii£ is full to the brim, like a broad canal to the extent of a thousand stadia. Owing to the winding course of the stream, and the great contraction, and the depth of the chaam, the noise fiUls on the ear of persons even as they approach at some distance, like the sound of thunder. Passing through the mountains the river brings down so much alluvium to the sea, some from Cataonia, and some from the Cilician plains, that a prof^ecy ut- tered about it is in vogue, to the following effect: ^ In time to come broad flowing Pyramus Shall push his banks to Cyprus* sacred shore." The same thing happens here, adds Strabo, aa in Egypt, where the Nile is continually making land of the sea by its alluvium. (See the notes on this passage of Strabo about the Pyramus, in Groskurd^s Transl., vol. n. p. 450). Mr. Ainsworth remarks, from his own observations on the plain of Cilicia, as Celt as the ruins of Ana- zarbus, that " its bed is throughout the plain deep and narrow, from tiie nature of the soil, which is alluvial;** and that " in its lower part it divides into several streams on arrivmg at its delta.*' He con- cludes that the army of Cynis crossed this river in the lower parts, where it is most easily forded, at which time its embouchure was probably at Kara- doih. The prophecy is not yet fulfilled; but the river still brings down a great quantity of earth and sand. This deposit has produced a plain of sand along the side of the gulf, like that formed by the Calycadnus. ^ The Jyhoon, half a mile from its month, is 490 feet wide, and is the largest of all the rivers on the south coast of Asia Minor" (Beaufort). It is now as shallow over its bar as the Cydnus and the Sams; though it appears from a passage of Ann& Comnena, quoted by Beaufort, that it was open for galleys even in the time of the crusades. The remainder of Cilicia contains no hurge river, and is closed, as abready described, by the two branches of the Amanus. It lies around the Gulf of Issus, and the more particular description of this gulf, and the examinati<m of the difficult question qH the site of Issus, will come more appropriately in another place. [Issus]. The extensive tract ^ country called Cilicia has a coast line of 430 miles, from Coracesium to Rho- sus, at the southern extremity of the bay of Issus. The direct distance from Coracesium to the Syrian Gates on the east side of the gulf of Issus is about 230 miles. It is, aptly enough, divided into the Mountainous (f; ^W, Herod, ii. 34) and the Level, and a ready communication between the extreme west and eastern parts could only be by sea. The coast, however, of the Tracheia, or Mountainous Ci- licia, nearly as fiur east aa the outlet of the Caly- cadnus, though included in Cilicia by the later geo- graphers, is really a distant country. But the v^ley of the Calycadnus, which lies from west to east, may be considered one of the three natural divisions oi Cilicia; the other two being the plain of Tarsus and Adana, and the plain of Issus. Indeed, from the peninsula of Cape CavaUwe, " the last and highest CILICIA. of the series of noble promontories that project from this coast ** (Beanibrt), the rude oatline of the shon is changed, and the land oommunicatioa along the coast with the eastern part of Cilicia la not difficnlt. There is a road represented in the Table, all akog the coast from the border of Pamphylia to Seleaceia on the Calycadnus, and thence eastward throng Coiyctts, Soli (or Pompeiopdiis), the Aleian pislo, Mallus, Aegae, and Issus, to Bhosna. Aksuds, after reaching Taraus by the pass in the Taurus, kd part of his army to Anehiale, and from Anchiale to Soli; and he afterwards advanced frtun SoG east- wards ta Magarsus and Mallus, on the Pyramos. The two natural chief divisions of Cilicia, the basin of the Calycadnus and the plain country east of the Cydnus, are represented by the modem Turkish go- vernments or pashalifiks of Sdefhek (Selenceia co the Calycadnus) and Adanak. It is difBcult to estimate the extent of the Cilidaa plain, through which the Cydnus, Saras and I^- lamus flow. The level country appears to nai^ somewhat north of Mopsuestia (MitUiy, Adana (^do- fKiA),and Tarsus {Ter800$)i and in this part tlie pkin may be between 40 and 50 miles from east to west The form of the coast makes the dimfnauM of the plain from north to south vezy unequal in difierent parts. The widest part extends north from Cape AorcK&uA, and it may be above SO miles. Tbe level land, that has been named the plain of Issos, is only a narrow strip, except at the head of the gnlf of Issus, when it seems to extend dght or ten miki inland. Cilicia surrounded by mountain barrier^ with a long coast and numerous ports, a iertile plain, and mountains covered with forests, possessed great natural advantages. Its position between Syria co one side, and the rest of Asia Minor on the other, made it the highway frxnn the Hellespont and the Bosporus to the eastern shore of the Meditemneas, and the middle course of the Euphrates. Its prox- imity to Syria invites the cnpidi^ of any one who is master of that countxy; and the Greek rulers of Egvpt coveted the possession of the opposite coast of Cilicia, which contains the matezials fbr shipbuildisgy which Egypt does not. Besides the products of Cilicia mentioned above, Corycus on the coast was famed for its saffiron, whidi was an article of export A doth made of goat^ hair, which the Romans called Cilicium, was the work of Cilician industry; at least the thing seems to have had its name from the Cilician article. The Cilicians, Herodotus says (viL 91), were ori- ginally named Hypachaei, and afterwards they had the name of Cilices from Cilix, the son of Agenor, a Phoenician. According to this tradition, they were of the same stock as the Phoenidana. It is probable that they did belong to some branch of tbe Aramaic nations, and the Assyrian kings seem to have extended their power to the level Cilida. [As- CHiALB.] CiCcia had a king Syennesis, who is represented as mediating, in conjunction with a king of Babylon, to make peace between Croesus the Lydian king and the Medes, b. c. 610. (Herod. I 74.) Cilicia was the fourth division in the arrange- ment of Darius, and it paid the king a yearly ttibnts of 360 white horses and 500 talents of silver (Herodi iii. 90); of which sum 140 talents were expended on the cavalry on duty in Cilida, and the rest came into the Persian king's treasury. Herodotus (v. 52) makes Cilicia extend north of the Taurus to the east of Cappadocia, and he makes the Euphntes the boundary between the Cilicians and the Armenians)