The Road-System of Eastern Asia Minor with the Evidence of Byzantine Campaigns

Abstract

Of late years a good deal of discussion has been devoted to the Road-System of Cappadocia and the Tauros region in ancient times, and it might seem at first sight superfluous to discuss the subject over again. But conclusions already reached must always be tested in the light of new facts; and in the case before us several new facts have come to hand, which illuminate our subject and enable us to introduce into it a considerable amount of simplification. I propose, therefore, in the following paper to describe the roads which traversed this part of the country and then to prove their direction as well as their importance from the evidence of Byzantine campaigns. This is the simplest order to follow, because one campaign generally covers several routes and it would involve a sacrifice of clearness to break up the campaigns into a series of disjecta membra.At every period in the history of Asia Minor the most important roads from the west converged towards Caesareia-Mazaka (Kaisariye), which in later times became the metropolis of Cappadocia, and radiated thence towards east and south. Sebasteia-Sivas forms another centre only second in importance to Caesareia; and the entire road-system of Eastern Asia Minor is most easily described and most clearly understood by taking these two cities as the starting-points. I shall therefore begin with the roads leading East and South from Caesareia and afterwards go on to those radiating from Sebasteia-Sivas.