Tyana

TY´ANA(Τὰ Τύανα: Eth. Τυανεύςor Τυανίτης), also called Thyana or Thiana, and originally Thoana, from Thoas, a Thracian king, who was believed to have pursued Orestes and Pylades thus far, and to have founded the town (Arrian, Peripl. P. E. p. 6; Steph. B. s. v.). Report said that it was built, like Zela in Pontus, on a causeway of Semiramis; but it is certain that it was situated in Cappadocia at the foot of Mount Taurus, near the Cilician gates, and on a small tributary of the Lamus (Strab. 12. p. 537, 13. p. 587.) It stood on the highroad to Cilicia and Syria at a distance of 300 stadia from Cybistra, and 400 stadia (according to the Peut. Table 73 miles) from Mazaca (Strab. l. c.;Ptol. 5.6.18; comp. Plin. vi. 3; It. Ant. p. 145). Its situation on that road and close to so important a pass must have rendered Tyana a place of great consequence, both in a commercial and a military point of view. The plain around it moreover, was extensive and fertile, and the whole district received from the town of Tyana the name of Tyanitis (Τυανῖτις, Strab. l. c.). From its coins we learn that in the reign of Caracalla the city became a Roman colony; afterwards, having for a time belonged to the empire of Palmyra, it was conquered by Aurelian, in A.D. 272 (Vopisc. Aurel. 22, foll.), and Valens raised it to the rank of the capital of Cappadocia Secunda (Basil. Magn. Epist. 74, 75; Hierocl. p. 700; Malala, Chron.; Not. Imp. ) Its capture by the Turks is related by Cedrenus (p. 477). Tyana is celebrated in history as the native place of the famous impostor Apollonius, of whom we have a detailed biography by Philostratus. ln the vicinity of the town there was a temple of Zeus on the borders of a lake in a marshy plain. The water of the lake itself was cold, but a hot well sacred to Zeus, issued from it (Philostr. Vit. Apoll. 1.4; Amm. Marc. 23.6; Aristot. Mir. Ausc. 163.) This well was called Asmabaeon, and from it Zeus himself was surnamed Asmabaeus. These details about the locality of Tyana have led in modern times to the discovery of the true site of the ancient city. It was formerly believed that Kara Hissarmarked the site of Tyana; for in that district many ruins exist, and its inhabitants still maintain that their town once was the capital of Cappadocia. But this place is too far north to be identified with Tyana; and Hamilton ( Researches, 2. p. 302, foil.) has shown most satisfactorily, what others had conjectured before him, that the true site of Tyana is at a place now called Kiz Hissar, south-west of Nigdeh, and between this place and Erekli. The ruins of Tyana are considerable, but the most conspicuous is an aqueduct of granite, extending seven or eight miles to the foot of the mountains. There are also massy foundations of several large buildings, shafts, pillars, and one handsome column still standing. Two miles south of these ruins, the hot spring also still bubbles forth in a cold swamp or lake. (Leake, Asia Minor, 61; Eckhel, 3. p. 195; Sestini, p. 60.)
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