Kingdom of Cilicia (ancient)

History

After the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 612 BC, Cilicia became a fully independent kingdom with its capital at Tarsus. In the newly established kingdom both areas of Cilicia were united. Due to having a significant strategical geography, the Cilicians were able to expand their kingdom to the Halys River in a short period.

In 585 BC, Herodotus praised the Cilician king Syennesis I, the founder of the kingdom, for his efforts in leading negotiations ending the 5 years' war between Lydia and Median Kingdom.

War broke out between the two countries and continued for five years, during which both the Lydians and Medes won a number of victories. On one occasion they had an unexpected battle in the dark, an event which occurred after five years of indecisive warfare. The two armies had already engaged and the fight was in progress, when the day was suddenly turned into night. [...] Both Lydians and Medes broke off the engagement when they saw this darkening of the day; they were more anxious than they had been to conclude peace, and a reconciliation was brought about by Syennesis, a Cilician, and Labynetus of Babylon, who were the men responsible both for the pact to keep the peace and for the exchange of marriages between the two kingdoms. They persuaded Alyattes to give his daughter Aryenis to Astyages, son of Cyaxares - knowing that treaties seldom remain intact without powerful sanctions.

The peaceful governance conducted by the Syennesis dynasty allowed the kingdom survive, and Appuašu, the son of Syennessis, would go on to defend the country against the Babylonian king Neriglissar's campaign, whose army reached Cilicia and crossed the Taurus mountain range. The Achaemenids would go on to defeat Lydians, forcing Appuašu to recognize the authority of the Persians in 549 BC to keep the local administration in Cilicians hands. These events, occurring under the reign of Cyrus the Great, transformed Cilicia into an autonomous satrapy.

The Cilicians were independent in their internal affairs and kept this autonomy for almost 150 years. In 401, Syennesis III and his wife Epyaxa supported the revolt of Cyrus the Younger against his brother Artaxerxes II Mnemon. This was sound policy, because otherwise, Cilicia would have been looted by the rebel army. However, after the defeat of Cyrus at Cunaxa, Syennesis' position was difficult. Most scholars assume that this behavior marked the end of the independence of Cilicia. After 400, it became a normal satrapy.