During Classical Antiquity, the city became known as Cybistra (
Ancient Greek: Κυβιστρα,
romanized: Kubistra;
Latin: Cybistra).[8][1]
History
Bronze Age
Ḫubišna was first mentioned in the texts of the
Hittite Empire, as a country located in southern Anatolia, in the part of the
Lower Land corresponding to the later Classical
Tyanitis.[1]
According to the
Telepinu Proclamation, Ḫubišna was one of the places which the 17th century BCE founder-king of the Hittite Old Empire,
Labarna I had conquered and over which he had subsequently appointed his sons as rulers.[2]
During the 16th century BCE, the late Hittite Old Empire king
Ammuna carried out several military campaigns to attempt to re-subjugate former states which had revolted against Hittite suzerainty, including Ḫubišna.[2]
Little is known about the kingdom of Ḫubišna. The king Puḫame of Ḫubišna did not initially submit to the
Neo-Assyrian king
Shalmaneser III (
r. 859 – 824 BCE) after 24 other king of the Tabalian region submitted to him following his attack on the
kingdom of Tabal proper during his campaign there in 837 or 836 BCE. Puḫame became a tributary of Shalmaneser III only after he passed through the kingdom and capital of Ḫubišna;.[18][1][19][2][20]
By
c. 738 BC, the Tabalian region, including Ḫubišna, had become a tributary of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, either after the Neo-Assyrian king
Tiglath-pileser III's (
r. 745 – 727 BCE) conquest of Arpad over the course of 743 to 740 BC caused the states of the Tabalian region to submit to him, or possibly as a result of a campaign of Tiglath-pileser III in Tabal.[21][22][6] Therefore, the king Uirimi of Ḫubišna was mentioned in the records of the Neo-Assyrian Empire as one of five kings who offered tribute to Tiglath-Pileser III in 738 and 737 BCE.[1][19][2]
In 679 BCE, the Assyrian king
Esarhaddon (
r. 681 – 669 BCE) defeated the
Cimmerians and killed their king
Teušpa at Ḫubišna. Esarhaddon appears to have reached Ḫubišna by passing through the
Göksu river valley and bypassing the Anti-Taurus Mountains and Tabal proper.[1][19][2][23][24][25]
Strabo, after mentioning
Tyana, says "that not far from it are Castabala and Cybistra, forts which are still nearer to the mountain," by which he means
Taurus.[31] Cybistra and Castabala were in that division of Cappadocia which was called Cilicia. Strabo makes it six days' journey from
Mazaca to the
Pylae Ciliciae, through Tyana, which is about half way; then he makes it 300
stadia, or about two days' journey, from Tyana to Cybistra, which leaves about a
day's journey from Cybistra to the Pylae.
William Martin Leake observed, "We learn also from the Table that Cybistra was on the road from Tyana to Mazaca, and sixty-four
Roman miles from the former."
Ptolemy places Cybistra in
Cataonia.[32]
When
Cicero was proconsul of Cilicia (51/50 BCE), he led his troops southwards towards the Taurus through that part of Cappadocia which borders on Cilicia, and he encamped "on the verge of Cappadocia, not far from Taurus, at a town Cybistra, in order to defend Cilicia, and at the same time hold Cappadocia.[33] Cicero stayed five days at Cybistra, and on hearing that the
Parthians were a long way off that entrance into Cappadocia, and were hanging on the borders of Cilicia, he immediately marched into Cilicia through the Pylae of the Taurus, and came to Tarsus.[34] This is quite consistent with Strabo.
Aro, Sanna (2023). "Vanishing kingdoms: Tabal and Tuwana during the seventh century BC". In Draycott, Catherine M.; Branting, Scott; Lehner, Joseph W.; Özarslan, Yasemin (eds.). From Midas to Cyrus and Other Stories: Papers on Iron Age Anatolia in Honour of Geoffrey and Françoise Summers. BIAA Monograph Series.
London,
United Kingdom:
British Institute at Ankara. pp. 113–135.
ISBN978-1-912-09011-2.
Weeden, Mark (2017). "Tabal and the Limits of Assyrian Imperialism". In Heffron, Yağmur; Stone, Adam;
Worthington, Martin (eds.). At the Dawn of History: Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honour of J. N. Postgate. Vol. 2.
Winona,
United States:
Eisenbrauns. p. 721-736.
ISBN978-1-57506-471-0.