1. Location

Tarsus is one of the well-known and important cities of ancient Cilicia in Asia Minor, between the modern cities Adana and Mersin. The city has a long and prosperous past, which depended mainly on its strategic location. The city is located on the western part of the Cilician plain, where Taurus Mountains make a wide curve towards the west, framing the plain on the north and northwest and approaching the Mediterranean Sea (between nearly 5-15 km) with steep cliffs. The well-known pass called the Cilician Gates (Cilicia Pylai), which connects the plain with the central Anatolian plateau, is in this part of the Taurus range. In Homer’s Iliad this part of the plain was mentioned for the first time as Aleia¹. On the other hand, a small and short stream, the Cydnus, is born from the foothills of the mountains and, after reaching the plain it flows through the city and then heads toward the sea. As a matter of fact, there was a lagoon here between Tarsus and the sea up to the forties of the last century called Rhegma and the river flowed once into this lagoon. But now, the lagoon has almost dried up and on one part of it a eucalyptus grove is planted. Strabo² mentioned that the ancient port of the city was in this lagoon. All the above cited features regarding the geographic location of Tarsus made it possible for the city to be connected with the overseas lands by means of its harbor on the one hand, and on the other hand to be located at a starting point towards inland routes, where main roads from the east and west met.

2. Name

The name Tarsus is certainly inherited from an older name.³ Indeed, in the Hittite texts, the name of the city appeared as Tarsha, which seems to be of Luwian descent, the first known settlers of the region in the Bronze Age and it may further be related to the Luwian god Tarkhu, who was believed to have been the founder of the town. Later, in the Iron Age, the name of the city was written in the Assyrian annals as Tarzu, also used later by the Persians. Therefore, the name Tarsos mentioned by Xenophon⁴ in 401 BC was probably transformed due to Persian usage. On the coins from 425-400 BC,⁵ the name of the city was either written as TERSI in Greek, or (TRZ) in Aramaic words, which clearly demonstrates the Greek and Persian character of the population in this time. In the time of the Seleucids, Tarsus received a dynastic name and became Antioch on the Cydnus for a short while. In the Roman period, the name became Tarsus in Latin, which has survived until today.

3. History

3.1. Prehistory

All the topographical factors and the etymology of the name described here laid the way for Tarsus to be the center of the area ever since urbanization started in Cilicia. There is no doubt that the earliest settlers of the city were local Anatolian people, in other words, the people of Cilicia. But the oldest known settlers by name were the Luwians, who came to the scene of history at about 2300 BC and were also akin to the Hittites of the Central Anatolian plateau in the 2^nd millennium BC. It is also worth mentioning that the Luwians had contact with other oriental peoples in a very early period and the cosmopolitan character of Tarsus, which was one of the prominent features of big cities even in antiquity, began in this early age. The oldest settlement emerging on one of the banks of the Cydnus River developed rapidly at this time. This is Gözlü Kule, a mound in the southern part of modern Tarsus, where, as excavations have shown, the oldest layers begins in the Neolithic period and goes on to the Medieval Ages.

It was very natural for a city like Tarsus to have various foundation legends, most of which were gathered in the Hellenistic Period and thus have mostly Hellenic elements; although all may have roots going back to earlier periods, possibly to the 2^nd millennium BC and even further back. The legendary founders may be associated with legendary persons of Anatolia and the East. One legend, for instance, mentions that Hercules founded Tarsus. This well-known hero of Greek mythology was originally combined with local deity of the 2^nd millennium BC, named Shanta or, later, Baal Tarz (the God of Tarsus), who was depicted in oriental posture on the late Classical, Hellenistic and Roman coins of the city.⁶ Another story, which is based on the accounts of the ancient Greek legends, explains that Sardanapalus, a fabulous Assyrian king in Greek tradition built Tarsus on both sides of the Cydnus in one day only.⁷ This may be connected with the event when the Assyrian King Sennacherib reestablished the Assyrian domination in the region after the revolt of the Tarsians around 696 BC.

Following the settlements of the Neolithic (5000-4000 BC) and Chalcolithic cultures (4000-3000 BC) discovered at Gözlü Kule,⁸ came the Early Bronze Age (3000-2000 BC) levels. As the finds at the site have shown, the inhabitants of these periods led a life of agriculture and trade. They were culturally in close contact mainly with the people of the Amuq Plain in North Syria, the cultures of the Central Anatolian plateau, Troy and Egypt. During the period of the Early and Middle Bronze Ages, there were various destruction levels discovered on the mound. Following a hardly attestable Middle Bronze Age, clearer periods of Tarsus begin as depicted in the mound’s levels, i.e. the Late Bronze Age or the period of the Kizzuwatna Kingdom, which ruled over the Cilician Plain including North Syria in the 2^nd half of the second millennium BC as well. According to the Hittite texts, in which the oldest name of the city in the written sources appears, the city of Tarsha was one of the main cities. In another text dating to the 15^th century BC, the name Ishputahshush, a king of Kizzuwatna, withwhom the Hittite King made a treaty, appears. It is also worth mentioning that a seal impression (bulla) of this king was discovered at Gözlü Kule, proving the appearance of the Hittites in the Cilician plain, who later dominated in Kizzuwatna and certainly Tarsus around the 14^th century BC. Another seal impression from Gözlü Kule belongs to the Hittite Queen, Putu-Hapa, who was a princess of the Kizzuwatna Dynasty.⁹

Thus, it is clear that the Hittites occupied Cilicia in the 14^th century BC and Tarsus was a Hittite city up to the time of the migration of the “Sea Peoples” at the end of the 2^nd millennium BC. Some painted pottery unearthed above the collapsed and burnt Hittite levels at Gözlü Kule belong to the Late Mycenaean IIIc “Granary style”, which proves the contact of Tarsus with Achaeans from the Aegean.¹⁰ Following these cultural remains there is a long gap in the history of the city, although a few sherds of Protogeometric pottery were found on the mound.

3.2. Iron Age

The first account of Tarsus in the Iron Age comes from the Neo Assyrian texts, which mentions the coming of King Shalmanassar III (859-825 BC) to the Cilician Plain (called Que in these texts) and dethroning the King Kate, whose capital was Tarzu.¹¹ This account reveals also that the Hittite name Tarsha became Tarzi or Tarzu at this time. From this time on, the Cilician Plain including Tarsus was under Assyrian domination periodically until the end of the 7^th century BC. It is clear that the Ionians and other peoples from the Aegean and Phoenicians from Palestine begun to settle in Tarsus as late as the beginning of the 7^th century BC. Probably with the support of these migrant peoples, the Tarsians revolted against the Assyrian domination in 696 BC. Nevertheless, as the annals state, the Assyrian King Sennacherib suppressed this revolt, destroyed the city on the mound utterly and rebuilt a new Tarsus on both sides of the Cydnus River, according to the Babylonian convention, as in Babylon a river, the Euphrates, flows through the city. According to the excavation reports, this account may be confirmed from a thick burnt layer on the mound,¹² but it is worth mentioning that Iron Age finds were also discovered at the Tarsus Republic Square, nearly 150 m NW of the mound.¹³ Therefore, it can be suggested that Iron Age Tarsus was not limited only to the small settlement on the Gözlü Kule mound, but other dwellings must have been spread out on the plain even before Sennacherib’s newly founded Tarsus.

3.3. Archaic and Classical period

The sovereignity of the Assyrians came to an end around the third quarter of the 7^th century after the invasion of the Cimmerians and probably after that an independent Cilician Kingdom was established, most probably Tarsus being its capital city. Later, in the middle of the 6^th century BC, Babylonians invaded Cilicia. But real and effective invasion started around 547 BC by the Persians and Tarsus fall in the hands of them. The Persians left the cities of Cilicia semiautonomous until the Battle of Cunaxa (401 BC) and Tarsus became the residential city of the local kings called Syennesis, one of whom had taken part in the Salamis naval battle in 480 BC.¹⁴ When Xenophon came to Tarsus in 401 BC, he described the city as a prosperous one in Cilicia, while a certain Syennesis was still on the throne.¹⁵ This situation lasted until the early 4^th century BC, when Persians changed their policy. They appointed satraps to govern the provinces, including Cilicia, Syria and Cyprus. The first satrapal coins of Tarsus appear after 425 BC, on which the name of the city was written in Aramaic letters as Tarzi or in Greek letters as TEPSI.¹⁶ This again reveals the mixed character of the city. The first satrapal coins of Tarsus apparently not only bear the features of the Greek workmanship of this period, but also various types of Greek figures, especially mythological characters such as Athena, Hera, Hercules, etc. Some of the coins from this period depicted Baal Tarz, a bearded god sitting on his throne similar to the type of the Olympian Zeus, sometimes holding his scepter and sometimes a bunch of grapes and wheat, revealing the agrarian character of the city.¹⁷

3.4. Hellenistic period

Tarsus stayed under the Persian rule until 333 BC. When Alexander the Great came to the city in 332, he stayed in Tarsus for a while and appointed Harpagos as governor before leaving for the East. In 294 BC Seleucus I Nicator reigned in the region; he was clever enough to understand the privileged location of Tarsus. As described above, the city was situated at a strategic point controlling the Cilician Gates and the sea routes between East and West. Unexpectedly, records on the history of Tarsus during the reign of Seleucus and his early followers are insufficient. Thanks to the archaeological finds from Gözlü Kule, Tarsus seems not to have lost its importance as a trade center and its foreign relations continued through that period. An important event in the middle of the 3^rd century BC was the occupation of Tarsus by the Ptolemies of Egypt during the Second Syrian War, which has been proved by a hoard of Ptolemaic coins discovered in Tarsus.

Another important case that occurred during the Seleucid sovereignty in the Hellenistic period was that Tarsus received a dynastic name and became Antioch on the Cydnus. It is a controversial issue when Tarsus received this dynastic name, or whose name was given to the city. According to epigraphic sources found in Delphi, this new name was given either under Antiochus I Soter (ca. 280-261 BC) or Antiochus II Theos (261-246 BC).¹⁸ Another suggestion depends on the semi-autonomous coins of Tarsus. According to the second suggestion,¹⁹ Tarsus received this dynastic name in the time of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who allowed Tarsus (and other towns in Cilicia) to mint semi-autonomous coins, on which this new name appears.²⁰ It is a fact that in the 2^nd century BC, i.e. after the Apameia treaty in 188 BC, the Seleucids lost their power in the whole of Asia Minor except for Cilicia. The Taurus Mountains became the border between the Romans and the Seleucids, and Tarsus, as one of the important cities of Cilicia, began to flourish. It is highly probable that the Seleucid rulers changed their policy over the towns in Cilicia and for the first time paid more attention to their new frontier region. They were concerned with the cities with a long tradition, which were still important commercial and strategic centres. In order to demonstrate their championship of liberty against the Romans, they offered these Cilician cities a semi-autonomous life. Some Cilician poleis, such as Tarsus, gained the right of minting their own bronze coins for local usage. Antiochus IV had also tried to re-organize the towns in the reduced territories of his kingdom bringing in a Greek way of life. However this endeavor did not last long and the Hellenization of the East and of Tarsus came to an end with the death of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 164 B.C. After the weakening power of the Seleucids over Cilicia in the 2^nd half of the 2^nd century, Tarsus probably declared its independence. The first thing that the Tarsians did was to return to the old name of their city. On the obverse of the autonomous coins the head of Tyche is depicted; on the reverse, however, Sandon can be seen, the local god of the Tarsians since the 2^nd millennium BC, perhaps a symbol of their freedom. On the reverse side of another type Baal Tarz reappears, depicted like the Olympian Zeus.²¹

3.5. Roman period

It is not certain when Tarsus passed to Roman rule. It is known that Sulla was one of the officers appointed as the governor of Cilicia by the Senate in the year 92 BC, which is a probable date for this event.²² But in the following years a revolt against the Romans took place in Asia Minor and in 83 BC Tigranes of Armenia invaded Cilicia and probably Tarsus too. When Pompeius suppressed this revolt in 64 BC, he installed a new provincial administration in Asia Minor and Tarsus became the capital and residential city of the Cilician Province to which Lycia, Pamphylia and Pisidia, and later Cyprus were attached. One of the most distinguished of the governors of the province was Cicero, the famous Roman orator and lawyer, who lived in Tarsus in the years 51-50 BC. Caesar visited Tarsus in 47 B.C. and was welcomed with enthusiasm by the Tarsians and the name of the city was also called Iuliopolis in his honour. When Marcus Antonius came to Tarsus to reorganize the Eastern Provinces, he met Cleopatra here to make an alliance against the Roman domination in the East. However, their allied forces were destroyed near Actium in 31 BC by Augustus, who later allowed Tarsus to remain as the capital of Cilicia despite the city's role at Marc Anthony's side in the Battle of Actium. Augustus sent his teacher Athenodoros of Tarsus to the city with broad authority to put administrative matters in order (15 BC).

In the Imperial Period Tarsus stayed probably as an ordinary but important Roman city. It is not known when Tarsus and Cilicia Campestris were annexed to the Province of Syria, but, in the time of the Flavians, in 74 AD, the two sides of Cilicia, e.g. Campestris and Aspera, were connected as a single province and Tarsus became its metropolis. It is also known that there was a continual rivalry between Tarsus and other Cilician cities like Mallos and Soloi. Dio Chrysostomos, who was an envoy of the Emperor Trajan, visited the city and gave here two speeches, in which he criticised the luxurious life of the Tarsians. Some events in the life of Tarsus during the Imperial period are also worth mention. For instance, the Emperor Hadrian visited Tarsus in 137 AD and his name was attached to the name of the city as establishing a festival called Hadrianeia. During the reign of the Emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161), Tarsus became the metropolis of the three provinces (Eparchies), namely Cilicia, Lycaonia and Isauria and took the name of the emperor (Antoniane). Later, Septimus Severus, Severus Alexander, and Gordianus passed through Tarsus on their way to the Parthian War and their names were also given to the city.

In the year 260, the Parthian king Shapur I invaded Cilicia and probably caused serious damage to Tarsus. By then, as the remains at Gözlü Kule and at the Republic Square have shown, the city must have been in a weakened situation, considering the fact that several wars between the Romans and Persians presumably continued to the 5^th century AD. In 363 Emperor Julian moved his imperial residence from Antioch to Tarsus, where he was eventually buried, with his successor Jovian (363-364) erecting a grave monument in his honor. During the reign of Theodosius II (408-450), Cilicia was divided into three regions and Tarsus became the metropolis of Cilicia A. The excavations at the Tarsus Republic Square, where new building activities are clearly detected, may be a proof of this situation. In 537 and 550, the Cydnus flooded Tarsus. The riverbed was then diverted to the east side of the city where Justinian constructed a new bridge. From the 7^th up to the 10^th centuries the city was under Byzantine control, although it was invaded and held several times by the Persians and later by the Arabs.

4. The Culture of Tarsus

In the light of the historical evolution of Tarsus, it can be easily understood that it was a cosmopolitan city and sheltered a variety of cultures. Therefore, Tarsian culture is a subject, which concerns not only historians, but also scholars of ancient philosophy and theology. Strabo was the first who mentioned the philosophers of Tarsus and described the philosophical life in the city during the Hellenistic and early Roman period.²³According to him the Tarsians had a high level of education and were concerned with all aspects of knowledge, unlike the Athenians and Alexandrians. This fact indicates the probable presence of a “university” in the city, where some of the best-known philosophers of the ancient world were educated. The city developed and the social life reached to a climax in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. First of all, Tarsus was one of the best-known centres of the Stoic school whose founder was Antipater of Tarsus, Zeno of Tarsus, son of Dioscurides, was another famous stoic philosopher, a follower of Chrysippos of Soloi. There were other schools as well, for instance the Cynics, Platonists and Epicureans. Some of the outstanding figures who contributed to the cultural life of the city were Dionysiades, the poet of tragedy, and Diodorus, a grammarian and poet, Athenodoros, son of Sandon, became the teacher of Augustus for a while. Another Athenodoros of Tarsus was a stoic philosopher and friend of Cato, the Roman general. One of the important figures of the early Roman period in Tarsus was Paul of Tarsus who was a Jewish and Roman citizen. Tarsus was the birthplace of the famous rhetor Hermogenes, who wrote significant books on rhetoric.

In the imperial period various festivals in honor of Hercules-Sandon and the emperors were held in Tarsus. Another important cult of the city was Mithraism.

5. The Economy of Tarsus

Archaeological evidence on the Tarsian economy is rich since the city's first foundation on the Aleia plain. The first major point to consider is that this economy was mainly based on agricultural produce. On the other hand, the environment of Tarsus, especially the Taurus Mountains were rich in forests, mainly constituting pine trees, and in mines, such as iron, lead and silver, exported from Tarsus to foreign lands.

The most productive period of the city must have started in the Hellenistic period. As the excavations at the Tarsus Republic Square have shown, there were workshops for various items of production within the city, like cotton cloth, perfume etc. It is also known that St. Paul was a member of a tent-producing community and Tarsian tents were made of goat-hair, which was called cilicum. Furthermore, Tarsus was famous for its linen-weavers –the linourgoi during the imperial period. There were also handlers who came from various regions and organized the trade of Tarsus. Excavations have revealed that the city was a very productive center of pottery and other clay artifacts as well, such as terra cotta figurines, produced since the prehistoric periods. Especially in the Hellenistic and early Roman periods Tarsian clay figurines and lead glazed vases were exported abroad extensively.

The earliest Tarsian coins, which were important for the economy of the city, begin in the late 5^th century BC, when the city was under the domination of the Persians. After a short interruption in the early Seleucid period, semi autonomous minting started in the 2^nd century BC and continued throughout the Roman Period.

6. Remains

There are only a few remains of buildings dating to the Roman and later periods that have survived until present day in Tarsus. The rest were either destroyed through the centuries or covered completely with erosion soil and therefore lying under the modern city. As pointed out before, most of the pre-and protohistorical remains were shaped as a mound, the Gözlü Kule hill, where the first excavations were carried out. Undoubtedly the remains here do not represent the long and magnificent history of the city. Remains of a temple, bath, and a city gate and some parts of the aqueduct, are the only remnants from the late Hellenistic, Roman and Medieval periods scattered between modern buildings. In addition to these, the northwestern cemetery and a bridge outside the city are worth mentioned. But an outstanding find, revealing the city plan of Tarsus, came into light in the Republic Square in 1994, when a street and a portico with shops and other later buildings were unearthed below the modern town.²⁴

6.1. Temple (Donuktaş)

The remains of the only surviving temple, today called “Donuktaş” are located to the east of modern Tarsus. The temple was once probably placed outside the city walls. Many travelers have visited and described this building since the 19^th century. First of all, it is one of the largest buildings not only in Cilicia, but also in all Asia Minor. Second, its construction material (e.g. concrete) and method are extraordinary for such a building and no close parallels from Asia Minor are to be seen today. Lastly, except for a few architectural materials, no other remarkable evidence related to the superstructure of the building and to the adopted deity has survived to the present. Thus, this temple is one of the speculative subjects for Tarsian archaeology.

It has a rectangular plan, ca. 106,80 m long and 50,70 m wide. The core of the building is of concrete, which resembles a kind of conglomerate, rectangular stones placed haphazardly inside this cement. It is clear that the walls and surface were once covered with marble slabs. The surviving height of the building is max. ca. 7,60 m high and the orientation is northeast to southwest. The entrance was placed on the northeast side, although its probable marble steps have completely disappeared; only a rampart rising through the entrance (pronaos) is seen today. The ground plan of the main hall (naos) is also rectangular and nearly 7,60 m lower than the upper surface of the walls, other massive blocks comprise the substructure of the building. On the northeast side, after a gap behind the rampart there are two parallel walls. The former, placed at the rear, is longer than the latter. Behind the entrance, there stands again a mass of a conglomerate block (ca. 17,50 x 23.00 m) and on both sides of this block there are narrow passages, which were once probably vaulted and might have been used for access into the main hall (naos) from the entrance (pronaos) of the temple. Towards the further end in the southwest side, before the back wall, stands another mass of architecture measuring 9,00 x 14,00 m. All these architectural features imply that this was a temple with a high podium and there was probably a colonnade (10x21) on it encircling the building entirely. If the measurements of the temple are taken into consideration, it becomes clear that the construction went on through the ages, and probably it was not finished, like other temples of similar dimension in Asia Minor.

As mentioned above, it is not clear as yet when and for which deity this temple was built. It is a surprising fact that neither Strabo nor other ancient authors mentioned this building. On the other hand, recent excavations inside the main hall have presented no evidence to solve the problem. A few architectural fragments unearthed inside the main hall were dated to the late 2^nd century AD, which does not imply that the temple was constructed at that time. On the other hand, on some of the earlier imperial coins of Tarsus a temple facade was depicted with 10 columns, which can be a probable representation of this building. Nevertheless, more evidence on the construction date of this temple is needed. Another important feature is that the measures and reconstructed plan of the temple and especially the passages used to gain access to the main hall are comparable with that of the Temple of Apollo at Didyma, in Ionia. Clearly, this does not imply that the temple was dedicated to Apollo, the main god of the city during the Seleucid reign. It is known that Sandon was the oldest and the prominent god of Tarsus, a fact that suggests another possibility, that this building may have been constructed in honor of Sandon.

6.2. Bath

Another remain that reflects the grandiose of Imperial times is that of a bath, whose one of the walls still standing measures nearly 15 m. in length, 5 m. in width and 8,5 m. in height. The walls are built with rubble and bricks. A gap of 5 meters opens up to an internal rectangular area, 10 meters wide. On the right hand side, there is a large vaulted chamber built completely with bricks. Its dimensions are 7 m. long and 2.50 m. wide. On the eastern side there are traces of a dome. Only 5 meters of the northern wall have survived.

6.3. Gates

There is no visible remain from the city walls of Tarsus. Some remains which belong to the oldest city on Gözlü Kule were identified by the excavators. When the new city was founded on the plain, new walls could have been constructed and used for a long time. It is also known that in the 9^th century AD, Harun el-Rashid of the Abbasids had constructed fortification walls, with gates at various directions. The last remnants of this wall were probably pulled down in the 19^th century during the time of the Egyptian rule in Cilicia. A gate called Iron Gate (Demirkapı), which was placed on the northeast edge of ancient Tarsus was seen and illustrated by V. Langlois. Another gate, which was mistakenly connected to the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra, is the only remaining vestige of the city walls, situated to the southwest of modern Tarsus. It is ca. 8.50 m high and 5.55 m wide and comprised of only one semicircular arch, the height of which is ca 6 m. These measures may help to define the height and width of the city wall of Tarsus. The date of this gate is not known but the spoils from the Roman period used in the façade may confirm a later date, probably medieval or even later, indicating renovations several times.

6.4. Cemetery

The location of the ancient cemetery of Tarsus is not known with certainty, but it is highly probable that the tombs are placed outside of the city wall. In the north, where the Cydnus falls from a wide conglomerate terrace now, there are numerous rock-cut tombs, which can only be seen in the summer time when the level of water decreases. Entry to these graves is either by a ramp or a flight of stairs. The burial chamber measures nearly 3-4 sq.m., and has beds on two sides. These tombs must have belonged to the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and when the watercourse of the river was changed, probably in the time of Justinian, the cemetery was no longer is use. In addition to this cemetery, there are also various marble sarcophagi discovered accidentally and displayed at present in the Museums of Tarsus and Adana, which reveal the high standard of living during the Roman period.

6.5. Aqueduct

Nearly 5 or 6 hundred meters northeast of the Cydnus waterfalls stand some parts of the ruin of the aqueduct. Its walls were constructed with brick measuring 12 m high and the water channel is placed on its upper part.

6.6. Excavations at the Republic Square

Republic Square is located in the centre of modern Tarsus, where a mosaic pavement depicting Orpheus and the abduction of Ganymede in two panels was discovered accidentally in the 1940s. Although there is no detailed description on this find, however, it is evident that there was a large structure with a mosaic floor, probably a bath or other public building. New excavations at the Republic Square started in 1994 under the direction of the present author and are still going on. The report given here covers the work between 1994-2000.²⁵

One of the most impressive remains here is a street, which was discovered at a 5 m depth. It is ca. 68 m long, nearly 7 m wide and lies with a northwest-southeast orientation. It must be part of a main street placed in the west quarter of the ancient city (therefore it is called the “Western Avenue”). Although no similar street has been discovered at other parts of the town, it may be proposed that this street goes towards the east end of the town. Another street constructed probably in the northeast-southwest direction, intersecting the former or meeting with it at downtown, must have existed. A cross section of the street shows the pavement to be higher at the middle, thus convex, helping to evacuate the excess of rainwater towards concave channels of conglomerate at either side. The main part of the street is covered with basalt. There is also an underground drain connected with these side channels, which would have been active during excessive rainfall. At the northeast side of the street a portico including a pavement and a series of shops were uncovered. These buildings were constructed of calcareous stone and the columns of the portico had Corinthian capitals. It is clearly seen that the upper surface of the portico is, however, unusually higher than the surface of the street and there is quite a wide space (nearly 4 m) between the portico and street, which was filled with earth. If this unusual situation is taken into consideration it seems clear that the street and the portico were constructed at different periods. According to stratigraphic evidence, it may be proposed that the street was constructed in the late Hellenistic period, either when the city was under Seleucid rule, i.e. in the 2^nd century BC, or under the earliest domination period of the Romans, i.e. in the 1^st century BC. Then, probably in the 2^nd half of the 1^st or early 2^nd century AD, the portico and a sidewalk including shops at the rear were built only at one side of the street without any relation to it. This proposal may also be proved by historical events of the period.

As pointed out above, Tarsus became a semi-independent city under the reign of Antiochus IV, was allowed to mint its own coins. In the early Roman period, the city became the metropolis of Cilicia. This was also a period in which the importance of the city increased, so that the Tarsians planned to reconstruct their town in the plain on both sides of the Cydnus River, following the key features of Hellenistic town planning, the Hippodamian model -constructing perpendicular and wide streets between rectangular parcels.