Claudiopolis (Cilicia)

Claudiopolis (Greek: Κλαυδιόπολις) also called Ninica and Ninica Claudiopolis, was an ancient city of Cilicia. Ammianus mentions Silifke and Claudiopolis as cities of Cilicia, or of the country drained by the Calycadnus; and Claudiopolis was a colony of Claudius Caesar. It is described by Theophanes of Byzantium as situated in a plain between the two Taurus Mountains, a description which exactly, corresponds to the position of the basin of the Calycadnus. Claudiopolis may therefore be represented by Mut, which is higher up the valley than Seleucia, and near the junction of the northern and western branches of the Calycadnus. It is also the place to which the pass over the northern Taurus leads from Laranda. Pliny (v. 24) mentions a Claudiopolis of Cappadocia, and Ptolemy (v. 7) has a Claudiopolis in Cataonia. Both these passages and those of Ammianus and Theophanes are cited to prove that there is a Claudiopolis in Cataonia, though it is manifest that the passage in Ammianus at least can only apply to a town in the valley of the Calycadnus in Cilicia Trachea. The two Tauri of Theophanes might mean the Taurus and Antitaurus. But Hierocles places Claudiopolis in Isauria, a description which cannot apply to the Claudiopolis(es) of Pliny and Ptolemy. The city apparently received the Roman colony name Colonia Iulia Felix Augusta Ninica, and minted coins in antiquity.