Caesarea-Mazaca (Kayseri)

History

• 

  Cappadocia
• Settled in the Bronze Age, named Mazaka in Hattic, the oldest known language of Anatolia
• Northern slope of Argaeus, a dead volcano (Erciyes Dağı)
• Mentioned in tablets from nearby Kültepe?
• Late Bronze Age: Hittite
• Cappadocia was called Tabal, Persian Empire; Persian Royal road crosses road from Sinope to Tarsus, from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean
• Alexander the Great
• Ariarathes II makes Cappadocia independent (r.c.301-c.280); Ariathes III (r.c. 255-220) makes it a kingdom

• 

  Ariarathes V Eusebes (r. 163-131/130) renames Mazaca "Eusebia near the Argaeus"
• Archelaus (r. 41 BCE -17 CE),calls it "Caesarea in Cappadocia" (there was already another Caesarea in Judaea)
• Part of Roman province Cappadocia
• 260 Destroyed by Sasanian king Shapur
• Christian martyrs Dorothea and Theophilus
• c.365: Residence of Procopius before he decided to revolt
• Bishop Basil establishes ecclesiastic center in the mortheastern part of the city, which in the Middle Ages woud supplant the ancient city center: orphanage, hospital for lwpers, almshouses, houses for the elderly
• The circle of scholars around Saint Macrina, which included her brothers Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzus together with Gregory of Nyssa, is usually called the "Cappadocian fathers". They played an important role in the discussions on the Trinity.

Bronze Age cylinder seal

Caesarea, Figurine of two Roman lovers

Caesarea-Mazaca, Roman tombstone

Caesarea-Mazaca, Ivory Penbox