town or village

Tarsus

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Events

1. AD 965Tarsus surrenders to Nikephoros II Phokas

In ancient writers

• Xenophon, Anabasis 1.2.23 — In 401 BC Cyrus the Younger reached Tarsus, a large and prosperous city of Cilicia with the palace of King Syennesis; the river Cydnus, two plethra wide, flows through its middle.
• Strabo, Geography 14.5.12–13 — Tarsus lies in a plain, with the cold swift Cydnus flowing past its gymnasium; its people pursue philosophy and the whole round of learning so eagerly that they surpass Athens and Alexandria, though the students are all natives.
• Plutarch, Life of Antony 26.1–3 — Cleopatra sailed up the Cydnus to Tarsus in a gilded barge with purple sails and silver oars, dressed as Venus; the whole town streamed to the riverbank until Antony sat alone in the marketplace.

Questions

• Where was Tarsus, Paul's home town?

History

Tarsus lies in the plain of Cilicia in southern Turkey, about 20 km inland from the Mediterranean. In antiquity the cold, swift river Cydnus flowed through the middle of the city and into a lagoon near the coast that served as its harbour. The mound of Gözlükule, excavated by Hetty Goldman in the 1930s and 1940s, shows settlement from the Neolithic onward, and Hittite texts of the second millennium BC name the town Tarsa. In 401 BC Xenophon found it a large and prosperous city, the seat of the Cilician king Syennesis, who ruled under the Persians.

Alexander the Great reached Tarsus in 333 BC and fell gravely ill there, by one account after bathing in the Cydnus. After the battle of Philippi, Mark Antony made Tarsus a free city exempt from taxes, and in 41 BC Cleopatra sailed up the Cydnus to meet him in her gilded barge. Strabo, writing under Augustus, says its people surpassed even Athens and Alexandria in their zeal for philosophy and learning; the Stoic Athenodorus, teacher of Augustus, governed the city on his return home.

Paul was born in Tarsus. He called himself "a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city", and said he was brought up in Jerusalem at the feet of Gamaliel. In Damascus the Lord sent Ananias to seek "Saul, of Tarsus". After his conversion the brethren sent Paul away to Tarsus, and he went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia until Barnabas came to Tarsus to seek him and brought him to Antioch. On a later journey Paul went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches.

Under the empire Tarsus remained the leading city of Cilicia. When the emperor Julian died on his Persian campaign in 363, he was buried, as he had directed, in a suburb of Tarsus beside the road to the passes of the Taurus. Diodorus, its bishop from 378, who earlier at Antioch had guided John Chrysostom and Theodore of Mopsuestia in the ascetic life, upheld the Nicene faith at the Council of Constantinople in 381.

Scripture: Acts 9:11; Acts 9:30; Gal 1:21; Acts 11:25–26; Acts 15:41; Acts 21:39; Acts 22:3

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (5)

Acts 9:11

And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth,

Acts 9:30

Which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Cæsarea, and sent him forth to Tarsus.

Acts 11:25

Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul:

Acts 21:39

But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.

Acts 22:3

I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.

King James Version

Tours through this place

• The conversion of Saul →