Көне Аназарб қаласы: Тарихы мен орналасуы

Ancient Greek city in Anatolia

Anazarbus, also known as Justinopolis (Ἀναζαρβός / Ίουστινούπολις, medieval Ain Zarba; modern Anavarza; عَيْنُ زَرْبَة), was an ancient Cilician city. Under the late Roman Empire, it was the capital of Cilicia Secunda. Roman emperor Justinian I rebuilt the city in 527 after a strong earthquake hit it. It was destroyed in 1374 by the forces of the Mamluk Empire, after their conquest of Cilician Armenia.

It was situated in Anatolia in modern Turkey, in the present Çukurova (or classical Aleian plain) about 15 km west of the main stream of the present Ceyhan River (or classical Pyramus river) and near its tributary the Sempas Su. A lofty isolated ridge formed its acropolis. Though some of the masonry in the ruins is certainly pre Roman, the Suda's identification of it with Cyinda, famous as a treasure city in the wars of Eumenes of Cardia, cannot be accepted in the face of Strabo's express location of Cyinda in western Cilicia.

According to the Suda, the original name of the place was Cyinda or Kyinda or Quinda ; and that it was next called Diocaesarea (Διοκαισάρεια). A city in Cilicia called Kundu rebelled against the Assyrian king Esarhaddon in 7th century BC, but it's unclear if there is a connection. At least it's known a city called Anazarbus (Ἀνάζαρβος) and Anazarba (Ἀνάζαρβα) and Anazarbon (Ἀνάζαρβον), situated on the river Pyramus, existed in the first century BC and was a part of the small client kingdom of Tarcondimotus I until it was annexed by Rome. How the city obtained the name is a matter of conjecture. According to Stephanus of Byzantium, after the city was destroyed by an earthquake, the emperor Nerva sent thither one Anazarbus, a man of senatorial rank, who rebuilt the city, and gave to it his own name. This account cannot be accurate, as Valesius remarks, for it was called Anazarbus in Pliny's time. Dioscorides is called a native of Anazarbus; but the period of Dioscorides is not certain. It was also the home of the poet Oppian. Its later name was Caesarea ad Anazarbum, and there are many medals of the place in which it is both named Anazarbus and Caesarea at or under Anazarbus. On the division of Cilicia it became the chief place of the Roman province of Cilicia Secunda, with the title of Metropolis. Early in the sixth century, in the reign of Eastern Roman emperor Justin I, it was named Justinopolis or Ioustinoupolis (Ἰουστινούπολις). The city suffered from an earthquake in 526 and was rebuilt by Justinian I and renamed Justinianopolis or Ioustinianoupolis (Ἰουστινιανούπολις); but the old name persisted, and when Thoros I, king of Lesser Armenia, made it his capital early in the 12th century, it was known as Anazarva. Its great natural strength and situation, not far from the mouth of the Sis pass, and near the great road which debouched from the Cilician Gates, made Anazarbus play a considerable part in the struggles between the Eastern Roman Empire and the early Muslim invaders. It had been rebuilt by Harun al Rashid in 796, refortified at great expense by the Hamdanid Sayf al Dawla In late 1097 or early 1098 it was captured by the armies of the First Crusade and after the conquest of Antioch it was incorporated into Bohemond of Taranto's Principality of Antioch. The site briefly exchanged hands between the Byzantine Empire and Armenians, until it was formally part of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. Anazarbus was one of a chain of Armenian fortifications stretching through Cilicia. The castle of Sis (modern Kozan, Adana) lies to the north while Tumlu Castle and Yilankale are to the south, and the fortresses of Amouda and Sarvandikar are to the east. The Mamluk Empire of Egypt finally destroyed the city in 1374.

The Crusaders are probably responsible for the construction of an impressive donjon atop the center of the outcrop. Most of the remaining fortifications, including the curtain walls, massive horseshoe shaped towers, undercrofts, cisterns, and free standing structures date from the Armenian periods of occupation, which began with the arrival of the Rubenid Baron T‛oros I, c. 1111. Within the fortress are two Armenian chapels and the magnificent (but severely damaged) three aisle church built by T‛oros I to celebrate his conquests. The church was once surrounded by a continuous, well executed dedicatory inscription in Armenian. The present wall of the lower city is of late construction. It encloses a mass of ruins conspicuous in which are a fine triumphal arch, the colonnades of two streets, a gymnasium, etc. A stadium and a theatre lie outside the walls to the south. The remains of the acropolis fortifications are very interesting, including roads and ditches hewn in the rock. There are no notable structures in the upper town. For picturesqueness the site is not equaled in Cilicia, and it is worthwhile to trace the three fine aqueducts to their sources. In 2017, archaeologists discovered a limestone statue of the goddess Hygieia and the god Eros. The statue is thought to date to the third or fourth century B. C.

In the 4th century, one of the bishops of Anazarbus was Athanasius, a "consistent expounder of the theology of Arius." His theological opponent, Athanasius of Alexandria, in De Synodis 17, 1 refers to Anazarbus as Ναζαρβῶν. Maximin of Anazarbus attended the Council of Chalcedon. A 6th century Notitia Episcopatuum indicates that it had as suffragan sees Epiphania, Alexandria Minor, Irenopolis, Flavias, Castabala and Aegeae. Rhosus was also subject to Anazarbus, but after the 6th century was made exempt, and Mopsuestia was raised to the rank of autocephalous metropolitan see, though without suffragans.