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Tarsus : City of St. Paul At the of St. Paul's birth and
upbringing, Tarsus was the most important city in the Cilician plain (Cukurova)
which was then know as Smooth Cilicia’.
When St. Paul was born, Tarsus was already very ancient. Excavations at
Gozlu Kule tumulus near the present city have shown that this site was
occupied since the Neolithic period, from about the seventh millennium BCE.
During its later Bronze Age history the tumulus is thought to have been
the capital of the kingdom of Kizzuwatna. The famous Hittite queen
Puduhepa, before she moved to the Hittite capital Hattusas, was a
priestess in Kizzuwatna, whose capital was ' Tarsa'. The first Greek
elements in the settlement's culture date from the beginning of the
twelfth century BCE, the time of upheavals created by the Sea People.
In the Assyrian annals the tumulus appears as ‘Tarzi’, and the capital of
the kingdom of Que. The reference to Coa (Que or Cilicia) in the Second
Book of Chronicles is related approximately to this period of the city' s
history in the tenth century BCE: 'Solomon also imported horses from Egypt
and Coa (Cilicia). The agents would acquire them by purchase from Cilicia,
and would then bring up chariots from Egypt and export them at six hundred
silver shekels, with the horses going for a hundred and fifty shekels. At
these rates they served as middlemen for all the Hittite and Aramean kings’
(2 Chr 1: 16-17).
King Sennacherid (705-651) of Assyria, is know to have moved the city from
the tumulus to its present location on the Cydnus river (Tarsus Cayi) to a
point some 15 km from the sea. Before reaching the Mediterranean Cydnus
flowed into a large lagoon, which was know as the lake of Rhegma in roman
times, and was navigable up to the city. At present the area where this
lake existed is a fertile cotton field. In the Old Testament, Tarsi’s is
used as a place- name in the Mediterranean after the sixth-fifth centuries,
from which metals like silver, iron or lead came to Tyre in Phoenicia.
Some scholars regard this place as being Tarsus, the major port in Cilicia
having connections with inland states of Anatolia rich in metals, horses
and slaves: ' Tarsish traded with you, so great was your wealth,
exchanging silver, iron, tin, and lead for your wares' (Ez 27: 12). All of
what was built in ancient Tarsus after its re-foundation on the plain lies
under the silt of the Cydnus River and the city’s apartment houses, some
six meters deep.
Following the collapse of the Assyrian kingdom, Cilicia seems to have
survived as an independent state until Anatolia was captured by Cyrus the
Great (555-530 BCE) of the Persian Empire. Tarsus was the first urban
center with the amenities of civilization after crossing the Cilician
Gates to the south, and thus an indispensable stage to recover before
traveling on to Syria and the countries beyond. According to Xenophon,
Cyrus the Younger, and to Arrian, Alexander the Great did not miss the
chance of enjoying the opportunities the city offered.
In Anabasis Cyrus, after crossing the ' impassable' Cilician Gates (401
BCE) found himself in large and well- watered Cilician plain ' full of an
kinds of trees and of vines’, which' produces quantities of sesame and
millet and wheat and barley’, its capital ' a large and prosperous city '
with a river called the Cydnus running ' through the middle of the city’.
Strabo in Geography says that an immersion in the Cydnus was ' beneficial
both to beasts and to men who suffer from sinews '.
It is know if Alexander knew this when he plunged into the river some four
hundred years before Strabo, a venture that ended up immediately with
acute pneumonia and almost cost him his life. Sometime after it came under
Roman rule in 50 BCE the Roman statesman Cicero is know to have served as
the first Roman governor of Cilicia, staying at Tarsus. One of the most
memorable events of the city's early Roman history, which was later
commemorated by Shakespeare, was the love story of Mark Antony (Marcus
Antonius) and Cleopatra (41 BCE), which began here.
Some eight years before Cleopatra had had herself delivered to Caesar in
Alexandria by a merchant, wrapped in a carpet. This time she arranged a
parade, which was exaggerated by later writes, but still appropriate to
the vulgar and ambitious character of Antony. She had built for herself a
barge with fittings in gold and silver and equipped with purple silk sails.
The vessel 's crew, young boys and girls, were dressed as Erotes and
Nereids. The sound of music and scent of rich perfumes reached across the
water to the Tarsians who had flocked to the Cydnus ' banks. ' Cleopatra
herself reclined beneath a canopy of cloth of gold’.
This was beginning of a love story, which lasted about a decade, with the
well - know fatal end. Among many things, which Antony would bestow on his
beloved after a few years, was the cedar - rich mountains of Rough Cilicia,
which was a major timber source of the Roman world for ship - building.
Recent excavations have shown that Tarsus was a smaller flourishing copy
of Antioch on Orontes during the Roman period. A prosperous city in the
first century, St. Paul‘s pride in his home is evident when he says ‘ I am
a Jew, of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city' (Acts 21: 39).
Acts mentions St. Paul's Tarsus citizenship only twice (Acts 21: 39; Heb
22: 3) and does not give any information about it. The ancient street
which has recently been excavated, the remains of the Via Tauris
connecting the city to the Cilician Gates and the large floor mosaic which
was brought to light in the city give us an idea about the Tarsus of St.
Paul 's time.
When he begins his defense before the king Herod Agrippa II (150-100), St.
Paul makes it clear that he spent all hiss youth among Jews in Jerusalem (Acts
26: 4) having been sent there to study under Gamaliel (Acts 22:3).
Although ancient literature refers to Tarsus as a seat of Greek philosophy,
famous for its Stoic school, it is known that St. Paul, having spent most
of his youth in Jerusalem, did not have the chance to make use of this
opportunity. St. Paul returned to his native city to teach the gospel,
before joining St. Barnabas in Antioch. Though not explicitly stated in
acts it likely that he visited his city again when he traveled to Galatia
and Pisidia during his Second Journey and third journey.
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