Cilicia

Cilicia ( sil-ISH-ə) 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.

Name

The name of Cilicia (Κιλικία) was derived from the Akkadian toponym Ḫilakku (𒆳𒄭𒋃𒆪), which was the name used by the Neo-Assyrian Empire to designate the western part of what would become Cilicia.

The English spelling Cilicia is the same as the Latin, as it was transliterated directly from the Greek form Κιλικία. The palatalization of c occurring in Western Europe in later Vulgar Latin (c. 500–700) accounts for its modern pronunciation in English.

Geography

Cilicia is located on the southern coast of Anatolia, and it historically extended from Coracesium or the river Melas in the west to the Amanus Mountains in the east, while to the north and northwest it was bounded by the Taurus Mountains, which are passable in very few places, such as the Cilician Gates, and in the south it was bounded by the Gulf of Iskenderun.

Cilicia consisted of two main contrasting regions:

to the west was a mountainous region characterised by rough terrain, corresponding to the Neo-Assyrian period territory of Ḫilakku and the Graeco-Roman region of Rough Cilicia;

to the east was a flat and water-rich fertile region defined by a smooth terrain, corresponding to the Neo-Assyrian period territory of Ḫiyawa and the Graeco-Roman region of Plain Cilicia.

The western mountainous part of Cilicia was called Rugged Cilicia or Rough Cilicia (Ancient Greek: Κιλικία Τραχεῖα, romanized: Kilikía Trakheîa; Latin: Cilicia Aspera), while the eastern region was dominated by the alluvial plain of the rivers Cydnus, Sarus, and Pyramus, and was therefore known as Plain Cilicia or Flat Cilicia (Ancient Greek: Κιλικία Πεδιάς, romanized: Kilikía Pediás; Latin: Cilicia Campestris).