Pylae Ciliciae
PYLAE CILICIAE
PYLAE CILICIAE [CILICIA]
PYLAE CILICIAE (Gülek Boğazi, İçel) Turkey.
One of the most famous mountain passes, this cleft to the S of Mt. Tauros has been used by armies from antiquity (Cyrus the Younger, Alexander) almost to the present day. It also carried a great weight of commercial traffic though this could be interrupted in winter (Cic. Ep. ad Att. 5.21.14). The Via Tauri was improved and the pass widened under Caracalla. A tablet recording his work survives at the Cilician Gates today.
BIBLIOGRAPHYR. P. Harper, “Podandus and the Via Tauri,” AnatSt 20 (1970) 149-53.
R. P. HARPER