Mopsuestia
MOPSUE´STIA (Μόψου ἑστία or Μοψουεστία: Eth. Μοψεάτης), a considerable town in the extreme east of Cilicia, on the river Pyramus, and on the road from Tarsus to Issus. In the earlier writers the town is not mentioned, though it traced its origin to the ancient soothsayer Mopsus; but Pliny (Plin. Nat. 5.22), who calls it Mopsos, states that in his time it was a free town. (Comp. Strab. 14. p. 676; Cic. ad Farm. 3.8; Steph. B. s. v.; Procop. de Aed. 5.5; Ammian. 14.8; Phot. Cod. 176; Ptol. 5.8.7; It. Ant. p. 705; Hierocl. p. 705; It. Hieros. p. 680, where it is called Mansista.) A splendid bridge across the Pyramus was built at Mopsuestia by the emperor Constantius. (Malala, Chron. xiii.) It was situated only 12 miles from the coast, in a fertile plain, called Ἀλήιον πεδίον. (Arrian, Arr. Anab. 2.5; Eustath. ad Dionys. COIN OF MOPSUESTIA.
Per. 872.) In the middle ages the name of the place was corrupted into Mamista; its present name is Messis or Mensis. Ancient remains are not mentioned, and travellers describe Mensis as a dirty and uninteresting place. (Leake, Asia Minor, p. 217; Otter's Reisen, 1.100.8.)
[L.S](Μόψου ἑστία, also Μόψου πόλις and Μόψος). Now Messis; an important city of Cilicia Campestris, on both banks of the river Pyramus, twelve Roman miles from its mouth, on the road from Tarsus to Issus, in the beautiful plain called τὸ Ἀλήϊον πεδίον, was a civitas libera under the Romans. The two parts of the city were connected by a handsome bridge built by Constantius over the Pyramus. In ecclesiastical history, it is notable as the birthplace of Theodore of Mopsuestia. In the Middle Ages it was called Mampsista.
Some 19 km E of Adana and sited at a most important crossing of the Ceyhan (Pyramos) where the foothills of the Jebel-i-Nur most nearly approach the river. Two km NE it is dominated by the limestone outcrop crowned today by the 12th c. castle known as Yilan Kale, a fortress of the Little Armenian kingdom.
Its legendary founder Mopsos, whose wanderings in Cilicia and Syria are an early feature of Greek mythology, appears in the literary sources and may have been a historic figure. Mopsukrene, near the Cilician Gates, adds substance to the legend. The city was in Persian hands until Alexander's time, and was later renamed Seleucea on the Pyramos for Seleucus IV Epiphanes. It was issuing semiautonomous coinage by the 2d c. B.C., and in 67 B.C. adopted a new era to celebrate Pompey's conquest of the Cilician pirates and their resettlement in such established cities as Mopsuestia. It joined in the intercity rivalry of Roman Cilicia, styling itself “free” and the center of “holy, ecumenical games,” as well as “Hadriane” in honor of the emperor. Captured by the Parthians in 260, it later became a Christian bishopric, the see of the famous Theodore, declared a heretic after the Council of Chalcedon (451).
A magnificent Roman bridge, a theater, stadium, and colonnaded street still exist, while W of the city mound is a huge basilican church with mosaics (5th c?).
BIBLIOGRAPHYTheopomp. FHG 1.296; Callinus apud Strab. 14.668.
N. Hammond, CAH II 23-24; R. D. Barnett, “Mopsus,” JHS 73 (1953) 140-43; B. V. Head, Hist. Num. (2d ed. 1911) 721, 725; D. Magie, Roman Rule in Asia Minor (1950) 273, 620.
M. GOUGH