Cybistra

Cybistra or Kybistra (Ancient Greek: τὰ Κύβιστρα) was a town of ancient Cappadocia or Cilicia. Its site is occupied by the modern town of Ereğli in Konya Province, Turkey.[1][2]

Not to be confused with Heraclea Cybistra or Cyzistra.

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.[3] 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.[4]

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.[5] 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.[6] This is quite consistent with Strabo.

Bishopric

Cybistra was from an early stage a Christian bishopric, as shown by the participation of its bishop Timotheus in the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Cyrus took part in the Council of Chalcedon in 351 and was a signatory of the letter that the bishops of the Roman province of Cappadocia Secunda, to which Cybistra belonged, sent in 458 to Byzantine Emperor Leo I the Thracian after the murder of Proterius of Alexandria. The diocese no longer appears in Notitiae Episcopatuum from the end of the 15th century.[7][8]

No longer a residential bishopric, Cybistra is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.[9]

References
  1. Richard Talbert, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 66, and directory notes accompanying.
  2. Lund University. Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.
  3. Strabo. Geographica. p. 537. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  4. Ptolemy. The Geography. 5.7.
  5. Cicero, ad Fans. 15.2, 4.
  6. Cicero, ad Att. 5.20
  7. Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. I, coll. 401-404
  8. Raymond Janin, v. Cybistra ou Cybista, in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. XIII, Paris 1956, coll. 1143-1144
  9. Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 869

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Cybistra". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.



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