an ancient kingdom of Asia, situated between the 36th and 40th degrees of north latitude, and bounded on the east by Syria, or rather by Mount Amanus, which separates it from that kingdom; on the west by Pamphylia; on the north by Isauria, Cappadocia, and Armenia Minor; and on the south by the Mediterranean Sea. The whole country was divided by the ancients into Cilicia Aspera and Cilicia Campestris; and the former was called by the Greeks Petrea or Stony, from its abounding with stones.

According to Josephus, Cilicia was first peopled by Tarshish the son of Javan, and his descendants, and hence the whole country was named Tarsus. The ancient inhabitants were in process of time driven out by a colony of Phoenicians, who under the conduct of Cilix first settled in the island of Cyprus, and thence passed into the country which, from their leader, they called Cilicia. Several other colonies from different nations afterwards settled in this kingdom, particularly from Syria and Greece, and hence the Cilicians in some places used the Greek tongue, in others the Syriac; but the former was greatly corrupted by the Persian, the predominant language of the country being a dialect of that tongue. We find no mention of the kings of Cilicia after their settlement in that country till the time of Cyrus: to him, however, they voluntarily submitted, and continued subject to the Persians till the overthrow of that empire; but they were governed, till the time of Artaxerxes Mnemon, by kings of their own nation. After the downfall of the Persian empire, Cilicia became a province of the kingdom of Macedon; and, on the death of Alexander, it fell to the share of Seleucus, and continued under his descendants till it was reduced into a Roman province by Pompey. As a proconsular province, it was first governed by Appius Claudius Pulcher, and after him by Cicero, who reduced several strongholds on Mount Amanus, in which some Cilicians had fortified themselves, and held out against his predecessor. It was on this occasion that the division formerly mentioned, into Petrae and Campestris, took place. The latter became a Roman province; but the former was governed by kings appointed by the Romans, till the reign of Vespasian, when the family of Tracondemetus being extinct, this part also became a province of the empire, and the whole was divided into Cilicia Prima, Cilicia Secunda, and Isauria; the first including all Cilicia Campestris, the second the coast of Cilicia Petrae, and the last the inland parts of the same division. It is now a province of Asiatic Turkey, and is called Caramania, having been the last province of the Carmanian kingdom which held out against the Ottoman race.