CAPPADOCIA kăp’ ə dō’ sh ə (Καππαδοκία, G2838). The name Cappadocia at one time covered the whole eastern mass of Asia Minor, from the line of the Halys River to the upper stream of the Euphrates, and from the Black Sea down to Cilicia. It later became the geographical custom to call the northern portion Cappadocian Pontus, or simply Pontus, and the southern portion Greater Cappadocia. The heartland of the latter region is a rolling plateau, well-watered but mountainous, timbered, and with a harsh winter climate. The climate limited and determined productivity. Only hardy fruits and cereals grew, and the area was chiefly pastoral, the Persian kings taking their tribute in horses, sheep, and mules. There was some mining, but the whole area was remote in terms of ancient transport and communication, and consequently developed slowly.

A species of feudal rule under Iranian barons seems to have been the Pers. system of control, but the area was sparsely populated, poor, and of no great strategic significance to a power centered on the Mesopotamian plain. For the same reason Seleucid efforts at Hellenization and urbanization made slow progress, Mazaca and Tyana being the only significant cities.

Rome, on the other hand, after her clash with the Seleucids and her penetration of Asia Minor in the 2nd cent. b.c., became increasingly aware that Cappadocia was a bulwark of her elusive NE frontier. Devastated by Tigranes of Armenia in the struggle between Rome and Mithridates of Pontus, Cappadocia received significant attention from Pompey in his historic reorganization of the eastern Mediterranean in 64 b.c. He established the royal line, which a generation later was replaced by Antony, who had found the ruler unreliable at the time of the perilous Parthian invasion. Cappadocia fell under full Rom. control under Tiberius in a.d. 17, and in a.d. 70 Vespasian united the area with part of Armenia to form a stronger bulwark against the Parthians, Rome’s unsolved problem of that frontier. Apart from strategic significance, Cappadocia straddled the trade routes to Asia Minor, and for the remainder of the imperial period the region received notable attention. A Christian church was early established there, but by whom is not known (1 Pet 1:1).