TARSUS in CILICIA 164BC Club Zeus Original Authentic Ancient Greek Coin i41642

Item: i41642

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Greek city of
Tarsos
in
Cilicia

Bronze 14mm (2.92 grams) Struck circa 164-50 B.C.
Reference: BMC 21,184,134; Levante 975
Club with monograms in left and right fields; all within oak wreath.
TAPΣEΩN, Zeus enthroned left, holding Nike and scepter.

The first city of Cilicia and
capital of the native rulers down to circa 400 B.C., Tarsus was situated in the
fertile eastern plain on the river Kydnos, about 12 miles from the sea. In the
4th century, until the arrival of Alexander in 333 B.C., Tarsus was the chief
mint of the Persian satraps. Eventually, in the 1st century B.C., it became the
capital of the Roman province of Cilicia.

You are bidding on the exact

Guarantee of Authenticity.

In the
ancient Greek

religion, Zeus was the
“Father of Gods and men” (πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν
τε)
who ruled the Olympians of
Mount Olympus

as a father ruled the family. He was the
god of sky

and
thunder

in
Greek mythology
.
His
Roman

counterpart is
Jupiter

and
Etruscan

counterpart is Tinia
.

Zeus was the child of
Cronus

and
Rhea
,
and the youngest of his siblings. In most traditions he was married to

Hera, although, at the
oracle of Dodona
,
his consort was
Dione
:
according to the Iliad
,
he is the father of
Aphrodite

by Dione. He is known for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and
heroic offspring, including
Athena
,
Apollo

and Artemis
,
Hermes
,
Persephone

(by Demeter
),
Dionysus
,
Perseus
,
Heracles
,
Helen of Troy
,
Minos
,
and the Muses

(by Mnemosyne
);
by Hera, he is usually said to have fathered

Ares,
Hebe

and Hephaestus
.

As
Walter Burkert

points out in his book, Greek Religion, “Even the gods who are not his
natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence.”
For the Greeks, he was the
King of the Gods
,
who oversaw the universe. As
Pausanias

observed, “That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men”. In
Hesiod’s Theogony

Zeus assigns the various gods their roles. In the Homeric Hymns he is
referred to as the chieftain of the gods.

His symbols are the
thunderbolt
,
eagle
,
bull
,
and oak
.
In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical “cloud-gatherer”
also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the
Ancient Near East
,
such as the
scepter
.
Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses: standing,
striding forward, with a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated
in majesty.

Tarsus (Greek:

Ταρσός,

Armenian

: Տարսոն, Darson) is a

historical city
in

south-central Turkey

, 20 km inland from

Mediterranean Sea

. It is part of

Adana-Mersin Metropolitan Area

, fourth largest

metropolitan area

in

Turkey
with a

population of 2.75 million. Tarsus is an administrative district in

Mersin Province

and lies in the core of

Çukurova
, a

geographical, economical and cultural region.

With a history going back over 9,000 years Tarsus has long been an important

stop for traders, a focal point of many civilisations including the

Ancient Romans

when Tarsus was capital of the province of

Cilicia
,

scene of the first meeting between

Mark

Antony
and

Cleopatra

and birthplace of

Saint Paul

.

//

 Geography

Located on the mouth of the Tarsus Çay (Cydnus),

which empties into the

Mediterranean Sea

, Tarsus is a junction point of land and sea routes

connecting the Cilician

plain (today called

Çukurova
),

central Anatolia

and the Mediterranean sea. The climate is typical of the

Mediterranean

region, summers very very hot, winters chilly and damp.

Tarsus has a long history of commerce and is still a commercial centre today,

trading in the produce of the fertile Çukurova plain; also Tarsus is a thriving

industrial centre refining and processing that produce same for export.

Industries include agricultural machinery, spare parts, textiles,

fruit-processing, brick building and ceramics.

Agriculture is an important source of income, half of the land area in the

district is farmland (1,050 km²) and most of the remainder is forest and

orchard. The farmland is mostly well-irrigated, fertilised and managed with the

latest equipment.

 Etymology

The ancient name is Tarsos, (Greek:

Ταρσός) possibly derived from a

pagan god, Tarku; at other times the city was named Tarsisi;

Antiochia on the Cydnus (Greek:

Αντιόχεια του Κύδνου,

Latin
:

Antiochia ad Cydnum); and Juliopolis. [Տարսոն, Darson in

Western Armenian

and Tarson in

Eastern Armenian

] . The

Hittites

referred to Tarsus as Tarsa.^[1]

Pegasus

the winged horse was a mortal. Because of his faithful service to Zeus the Greek

god, he was honored with a constellation.[5] On the last day of pegasuses life,

Zeus transformed him into a constellation, then a single feather fell to the

earth near the city of Tarsus {Ταρσός} in Greek.

 History

 Antiquity

 Foundation

and prehistory

Excavation of the mound of Gözlükule reveals that the prehistorical

development of Tarsus reaches back to the

Neolithic Period

and continues unbroken through

Chalcolithic

and

Early Bronze Ages

.

The settlement was located at the crossing of several important trade routes,

linking Anatolia

to Syria

and beyond. Because the ruins are covered by the modern city, archaeology has

barely touched the ancient city. The city may have been of

Semitic

origin; it is mentioned as Tarsisi in the campaigns of

Esarhaddon
,

as well as several times in the records of

Shalmaneser I

and

Sennacherib

. A Greek legend connects it with the memory of

Sardanapalus

(Ashurbanipal), still preserved in the Dunuk-Tach, called ‘tomb

of Sardanapalus’, a monument of unknown origin.

Stephanus of Byzantium

quotes

Athenodorus of Tarsus

as relating another legend:

Much of this legend of the foundation of Tarsus, however, appeared in the

Roman era, and none of it is reliable. The geographer

Strabo
states

that Tarsus was founded by people from

Argos
who were

exploring this coast. Another legend states that the winged horse

Pegasus
was

lost and landed here, hurting his foot, and thus the city was named tar-sos

(the sole of the foot). 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 excellent farmland. Later the

coinage of Tarsus bore the image of

Hercules
,

due to yet another tale in which the hero was held prisoner here by the local

god Sandon
.

Tarsus has been suggested as a possible identification of the biblical

Tarshish
,

where the prophet Jonah

wanted to flee, but

Tartessos

in Spain is a more likely identification for this. (See further^[2])

 Early

antiquity, Greece and Persia

In historical times, the city was first ruled by the

Hittites
,

followed by Assyria

, and then the

Persian Empire

. 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.

Alexander the Great

passed through with his armies in 333 BC and nearly met

his death here after a bath 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

hellenized

. Strabo praises the cultural level of Tarsus in this period with

its philosophers, poets and linguists. The schools of Tarsus rivaled

Athens
and

Alexandria
.

2

Maccabees
(4:30) records its revolt in about 171 BC against

Antiochus IV Epiphanes

, who had renamed the town Antiochia on the Cydnus.

In his time the library of Tarsus held 200,000 books, including a huge

collection of scientific works. The name didn’t last, however, due to the

confusion of so many cities named Antioch.

 Rome

Pompey

subjected Tarsus to Rome, and it became capital of the Roman province of

Cilicia
, the

metropolis where the governor resided. In 66 BC, the inhabitants received Roman

citizenship. To flatter

Julius Caesar

, for a time it took the name Juliopolis. It was also

here that

Cleopatra

and

Mark

Antony
met and was the scene of the celebrated feasts they gave during the

construction of their fleet (41 BC).

When the province of Cilicia was divided, Tarsus remained the civil and

religious metropolis of Cilicia Prima, and was a grand city with palaces,

marketplaces, roads and bridges, baths, fountains and waterworks, a gymnasium on

the banks of the

Cydnus

, and a stadium. Tarsus was later eclipsed by nearby

Adana
, but

remained important as a port and shipyard. Several Roman emperors were interred

here:

Marcus Claudius Tacitus

,

Maximinus

, and

Julian the Apostate

, who planned to move his capital here from Antioch if he

returned from his Persian expedition.^[3]

 Christianity

Tarsus was the birthplace of

Saint Paul

(Acts

9:11; 21:39; 22:3), who returned here after his conversion (Acts 9:30). From

here Barnabas

retrieved him to help with the work in Syrian Antioch (Acts 11:25). Already by

this time a Christian

community probably existed, although the first recorded bishop,

Helenus

, dates only from the third century; Helenus visited

Antioch

several times in connection with the dispute concerning

Paul of Samosata

. Later

bishops of Tarsus

included

Lupus

, present at the

Council of Ancyra

in 314; Theodorus, at the

Council of Nicaea

in 325; Helladius, who was condemned at the

Council of Ephesus

and who appealed to the bishop of Rome in 433; above all

the celebrated exegete Diodorus, teacher of

Theodore of Mopsuestia

and consequently one of the fathers of

Nestorianism

.^[4]

From the sixth century the metropolitan see of Tarsus had seven suffragan

bishoprics;^[5]

the

Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople

archdiocese is again mentioned in

the tenth century (^[6]),

and has existed down to the present day, part of the

Patriarchate of Antioch

.

Owing to the importance of Tarsus, many martyrs were put to death here, among

them being

Saint Pelagia

,

Saint Boniface

,

Saint Marinus

,

Saint Diomedes

,

Saint Quiricus and Saint Julitta

.

At about the end of the tenth century, the Armenians established a diocese of

their rite, which still exists;

Saint Nerses of Lambroun

was its most distinguished representative in the

twelfth century.

A cave in Tarsus is one of a number of places claiming to be the location of

the legend of the

Seven Sleepers

, common to Christianity and Islam.

 Islam

and beyond

The Tarsus region was annexed by the Forces of

Rashidun Caliphate

under the command of

Khalid ibn Walid

in 637. Tarsus was on the edge of the de facto border with

the Byzantine empire in this period of the

Taurus Mountains

range separating the

Armeniac

and

Anatolic

themes

from Cilicia, Syria and northern Iraq. Tarsus was near the

strategically important

Cilician Gates

which passed through the Taurus Mountains as well as access

to the Mediterranean Sea which was used for both land and naval operations

further in the Byzantine territory. While the region was lost by the Byzantine

Emperor Heraclius

in 637, it is unclear when the city was permanently

occupied by the Arabs as sources indicate the city was garrisoned and retaken

multiple times until the 9th century.^[7]

According to the Arabic geographer

Ibn Hawqal

and the accounts of Arab historian Abu Amr Al-Tarsusi, Tarsus was a stronghold

of Muslim forces with thousands of volunteers from across the Islamic world

coming to fight in jihad against the Byzantine Empire. The city was a base of

operations for the regular summer raids (ṣawāʿif) into Byzantine lands

through the Cilician Gates when the mountain snows had melted and passage was

possible. Later the city was used in defense of the frontier in response to a

resurgent Byzantine empire in the mid-10th century.^[8]

The city was lost in 965, when

Nicephorus Phocas

returned it to the

Byzantine Empire

for nearly a century. The area was retaken by the

Seljuk Turks

, recaptured in 1097 during the

Crusades

and then disputed between Latins, Greeks, and Armenians of the

Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia

(Kingdom of Lesser Armenia); these last became

definitively masters until about 1360, when it was captured by the

Ramazanoğlu

Turks. Finally, the area was brought under the control of the

Ottomans

by Selim I

in 1517.

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

being in two layers with five gates and earthworks outside, surrounded by rich

farmland, watered by the river and the lake. By 1671 the traveller

Evliya Çelebi

records “a city on the plain, an hour from the sea,

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 for 8 years remained in the hands of the Egyptians, who

began growing cotton on the surrounding plain. Upon the return of the Ottomans

this cotton drove a substantial growth in the economy of the area, 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 being a

port for 3,000 years, by the end of the 19th century neglect resulted in Tarsus

no longer having access to the sea, and the delta became a swamp. At this point

Tarsus was a typical Ottoman city with communities of Muslim Turks, Christian

Greeks and Armenians

. At 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.

 Life

in Tarsus today

Tarsus has slightly more in the way of culture (cinema, theatre, museums)

than most Turkish country towns, but in many ways still has a small town feel;

people walk in the road rather than on the pavements. Predictably, the people of

the mountain forests in the hinterland have an even quieter rural existence.

The local cuisine includes:

hummus
;

şalgam

(pickled turnips);

tantuni

(a sandwich of grilled meats; the tiny pizzas called “fındık

lahmacun”; and

cezerye
(a

confection made out of carrots).

 Places

of interest

Tarsus has a great many ancient sites of interest, with many in need of

restoration and research. The best known include:

• Cleopatra Gate – to the west of the city, the only ancient city gate

  still standing, where Anthony and Cleopatra entered the city in 41 BC,

  though the “restoration” of this structure has involved covering much of it

  over with shiny new stone (see

  [2]

  for a picture of the gate before the work was done).

• The Roman bridge of Justinian over the Berdan River. Still in good

  condition.

• Tarsus Museum – contains lots of ancient coins and a severed mummified

  arm.

Sites of religious interest and pilgrimage:

• The church and well of St Paul.

• The tomb of the

  Seven Sleepers

  , busy place of pilgrimage for Muslims today.

• The mosque said to be the burial place of the

  Prophet Daniel

  .

From the Turkish era:

• The old baths; the dark brown spots on the white marble walls are said

  to be the bloodstains of

  Shah Meran

  , the legendary Snake King who was killed in an ambush in the

  baths.

• Tarsus American College

  ; founded in the Ottoman period, still active

  today.

• “Nusret

  (Nusrat)” the

  minelayer

  used to defend the straits before the

  Battle of Gallipoli

  is being restored in Tarsus; it is to be part of a

  memorial park to those lost in the fighting.

Places of natural beauty include:

• Tarsus Waterfall; since the construction of the Berdan dam the water of

  the Tarsus river has been distributed in canals for irrigation, with the

  result that the waterfall can now be seen only in seasons of very heavy

  rainfall.

 Notable

residentss

• Antipater

  ,

  Stoic

  philosopher

• Caliph

  Al-Ma’mun

  died near Tarsus

• Journalist

  Oral Çalışlar

  was born in Tarsus.

• Chrysippus

  , Stoic philosopher

• Cleopatra

• Lokman

  the Physician

• Mark Antony

• Saint

  Nerses of Lambron

  , Archbishop of Tarsus in the

  Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia

• Paul the Apostle

  (Saul

  of Tarsus), Christian apostle, missionary, martyr, and saint, was born

  here and returned for a brief period later in life.

• Saint

  Theodore of Tarsus

  ,

  Archbishop of Canterbury

  .

• Tarsus is one of a number of cities that claims to be the burial place

  of

  Bilal ibn Rabah

  , first

  muezzin
  ,

  or caller to prayer, in Islam.

• Tarsus Idman Yurdu

  is the local football team.