1. Location

Due to inscriptions from the city found in the area, Derbe was identified with the ruins at Devri Şehrı (the city of Derbe), 4 km N‑NE of the settlement of Sidrova and 4 km S‑SE of Kerti Hüyük. It has also been supported that Kerti Hüyük, a position in use between the Prehistoric and the Roman periods, was the Hellenistic-Roman Derbe, which was transferred to Devri Şehri in the Byzantine years. But this view has been challenged, since the second position was in use already from the Roman years, while the Roman inscriptions of the city came from Devri Şehri.

The name of the city is reported by Strabo and the geographer Ptolemy. The ethnic epithet is found in the singular nominative form as Derbetes, Derbaios and in the plural genitive form as Claudioderbeton. Τhe name changed to Claudioderbe from the Claudian years onwards, perhaps thanks to the imperial favour, before the initial name was restored in the Early Byzantine years, as evidenced by the Synekdemos of Hierocles, the minutes of the Ecumenical Councils and the notitiae episcopatuum. The place name was considered of Hittite origin, which must be wrong. On the other hand, Stephanus Byzantius is the only writer reporting the names Derbeia, Dermen and Delbeian, apart from the usual name Derbe, and adding that that was the Lycaonian version for the juniper (arkeuthos in Greek), which probably flourished in the area, thus the Greek name of the city was Arkeuthe.¹ However, this must be a rather arbitrary conclusion, since this name is not reported by any other source.

Both ancient and modern writers are confused over the Isaurian or Lycaonian origin of the city because Isauria and Lycaonia were not administrative units before the formation of the triple province of Isauria‑Lycaonia‑Cilicia, which emerges at some point between 138 and 146 or between 138 and 161 AD. Besides, the so-called Isaurian tribes, which formed its population, inhabited a vast region also including parts of Pisidia and Lycaonia apart from Isauria.²

However, there must be some connection with the Derbikes, neighbours of the Hyrcani in the Caspian Sea. They probably settled in Isauria-Lycaonia in the years of Cyrus I (558‑530 BC), who brought the Hyrcani to Lydia as part of his policy of creating military colonies in Asia Minor.³ But the available information about the city comes from subsequent periods and the assumption remains ungrounded.

2. History

Derbe first appeared in the forefront of history in the mid-1^st c. BC. It was the realm of the tyrant Antipater Derbetes, who headed a gang of bandits and also controlled the neighbouring city of Laranda. King Amyntas of Galatia attacked him shortly after 31 BC and subordinated the two cities, which, together with Isaura ceded by the Romans to him, formed the Isaurian district of Lycaonia, which was incorporated in the kingdom of Galatia.⁴ After Amyntas died in 25 BC, the city was included in the kingdom of Great Cappadocia of Archelaus I and the territory of his son, Archelaus II, from 17 AD to 35 AD. This is when it was possibly annexed to the kingdom of Antiochus IV of Commagene. After the latter was dethroned in 73, Derbe became one of the cities included in the strategeia of the province of Cappadocia.⁵ In the years of Marcus Aurelius and Leucius Verus (161‑169) it was a member of the Koinon of the Lycaonians. The city survived even in the Early and Middle Byzantine periods, when its bishops are reported in the Synekdemos of Hierocles, the Ecumenical Councils of Constantinople (381), Ephesus (431), Chalcedon (451) and Constantinople (692) as well as the notitia episcopatuum of the 7^th and 9^th centuries. It is probably identified with Dirvi, which belonged to the glebe of the imaret of Ibrahım Bey in Karaman in 1465.

The only known institutions of the city were the boule, the demos and the archons.

3. Economy – Religion

The city minted its own coins only as a member of the Koinon of the Lycaonians in the first half of 164 AD. The obverse depicts Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus as well as their wives Faustina II and Lucilla, while the obverse shows Herakles, Nike and Tyche, probably worshipped in the city. It seems that the emperor was also worshipped in the city, as indicated by the inscription referring to the “archpriest of the Sebastoi”. The citizens were introduced to Christianity by Apostle Paul, who visited the city during his first, second and probably third journeys.⁶

4. Topography

The ruins of the city (blocks of marble and columns) are spread over an area of 500 m in diameter, where pottery sherds dated from the Iron Age to the Seljuk years were found. Some residential areas in the nearby area could belong to the territory of the city, which probably reached as far as the swamps of Kerti Hüyük.⁷