citizens of Tarsus, or inherited it as a peculiar honor of his own family, is a question yet to be decided. But whatever may have been the precise extent of the municipal favors enjoyed by Tarsus, it is certain that it was an object of peculiar favor to the imperial Caesars during a long succession of years, not only before but after the apostle's time, being crowned with repeated acts of munificence by Augustus, Adrian, Caracalla and Heliogabalus, so that through many centuries it was the most favored city in the eastern division of the Roman empire.
The history of Cilicia since the apostolic age, is briefly this: It remained attached
to the eastern division of the Roman empire, until about A. D. 800, when it first fell
under the Muhammedan sway, being made part of the dominion of the Califs by Haroun
Al Rashid. In the thirteenth century it reverted to a Christian government,
constituting a province of the Armenian kingdom of Leo. About A. D. 1400, it fell
under the sway of Bajazet II., Sultan of the Ottoman empire, and is at present included
in that empire,—most of it in a single Turkish pashalic, under the name of
Adana.
Roman citizens.—Witsius very fully discusses this point, as follows. (Witsius in Vit. Paul. § 1. ¶ V.)
"It is remarkable that though he was of Tarsus, he should say that he was a Roman citizen, and that too by the right of birth: Acts xxii. 28. There has been some discussion whether he enjoyed that privilege in common with all the Tarsans, or whether it was peculiar to his family. Most interpreters firmly hold the former opinion. Beza remarks, "that he calls himself a Roman, not by country, but by right of citizenship; since Tarsus had the privileges of a Roman colony." He adds, "Mark Antony, the triumvir, presented the Tarsans with the rights of citizens of Rome." Others, without number, bear the same testimony. Baronius goes still farther,—contending that "Tarsus obtained from the Romans, the municipal right," that is, the privileges of free-born citizens of Rome; understanding Paul's expression in Acts xxi. 39, to mean that he was a municeps of Tarsus, or a Tarsan with the freedom of the city of Rome. Now the municipal towns, or free cities, had rights superior to those of mere colonies; for the free-citizens were not only called Roman citizens as the colonists were, but also, as Ulpian records, could share in all the honors and offices of Rome. Moreover, the colonies had to live under the laws of the Romans, while the municipal towns were allowed to act according their own ancient laws, and country usages. To account for the distinction enjoyed by Tarsus, in being called a "municipium of Romans," the citizens are said to have merited that honor, for having in the civil wars attached themselves first to Julius Caesar, and afterwards to Octavius, in whose cause they suffered much. For so attached was this city to the side of Caesar, that, as Dion Cassius records, their asked to have their name changed from Tarsus to Juliopolis, in memory of Julius and in token of good will to Augustus; and for that reason they were presented with the rights of a colony or a municipium, and this general opinion is strengthened by the high testimony of Pliny and Appian. On the other hand Heinsius and Grotius strongly urge that these things have been too hastily asserted by the learned; for scarcely a passage can be found in the ancient writers, where Tarsus is called a colony, or even a municipium. "And how could it be a colony," asks Heinsius, "when writers on Roman law acknowledge but two in Cilicia? Ulpian (Liber I. De censibus) says of the Roman colonies in Asia Minor, 'there is in Bithynia the colony of Apamea,—in Pontus, Sinope,—in Cilicia there are Selinus and Trajanopolis.' But why does he pass over Tarsus or Juliopolis, if that had place among them?" Baronius proves it to have been a municipium, only from the Latin version of Acts, where that word is used; though the term in the original Greek ([Greek: politês]) means nothing more than the common word, citizen, (as it is rendered in the English version.) Pliny also calls Tarsus not a colony, nor a municipium, but a free city. (libera urbs.) Book V. chap xxvii. Appian in the first book of the civil wars, says that Antony granted to the Tarsans freedom, but says nothing of the rights of a municipium, or colony. Wherefore Grotius thinks that the only point established is, that some one of the ancestors of Paul, in the civil wars between Augustus
