Castabala (city)

Castabala (Greek: Καστάβαλα), also known as Hieropolis and Hierapolis (Greek: Ίεράπολις) was a city in Cilicia (modern southern Turkey), near the Ceyhan River (ancient Pyramus).

The Turkish town of Kırmıtlı, in the Osmaniye district of Osmaniye Province, is about 3 miles wsw of the ancient city.

The ruins were first identified from inscriptions in March 1890 by the British explorer J. Theodore Bent.^[1]

Early history

Castabala was one of the cities of the Late Hitite period. The name Castabala was probably of Luwian origin. The city was captured by Achaemenid Empire and became part of the Cilician satrapy and then by Alexander the Great. First mentioned in literature when Alexander the Great made a stage before the Battle of Issos.^[2]

During the Hellenistic period and Roman period it was called Hieropolis, known as either Hieropolis on the Pyramos or as Hieropolis Castabala.^[2] In the first century BC, after the Cilician pirates were defeated, it became the capital of Tarcondimotus a ruler of a small client kingdom.^[3] Later, the city became a part of Cappadocia Province in the Roman Empire.

At the city there was the sanctuary of Artemis Perasia (Περασίας Ἀρτέμιδος ἱερόν).^[2]^[4] According to Strabo, the priestesses were walking with naked feet over hot embers without pain.^[4] He also added that "some tell us over and over the same story of Orestes and Tauropolus, asserting that she was called Perasian because she was brought from the other side."^[4]

Roman Period

The city was important enough in the Roman province of Cilicia Secunda to become a suffragan of its capital Anazarbus's Metropolitan Archbishopric, but would fade.^[5]