Cappadocia appears in the biblical account given in the book of Acts 2:9.

The Cappadocians were named as one group hearing the Gospel account
from Galileans in their own language on the day of Pentecost shortly after the resurrectionof Jesus Christ. Acts 2:5 seems to suggest that the
Cappadocians in this account were "God-fearing Jews". See Acts of the Apostles.

The region is also mentioned in the Jewish Mishnah, in Ketubot 13:11.

Under the later kings of the Persian Empire, the Cappadocians were divided into two satrapies, or governments, with one comprising the central and
inland portion, to which the name of Cappadocia continued to be applied by Greek geographers, while the other was called Pontus. This division had
already come about before the time of Xenophon. As after the fall of the Persian government the two provinces continued to be separate, the
distinction was perpetuated, and the name Cappadocia came to be restricted to the inland province (sometimes called Great Cappadocia), which alone
will be the focus of this article.

The kingdom of Cappadocia still existed in the time of Strabo (c. 64 BC – c. AD 24 ) as a nominally independent state. Cilicia was the name given to
the district in which Caesarea, the capital of the whole country, was situated. The only two cities of Cappadocia considered by Strabo to deserve that
appellation were Caesarea (originally known as Mazaca) and Tyana, not far from the foot of the Taurus.

Geography and climate[edit]

Fairy chimneys in Uçhisar, Cappadocia.

Cappadocia lies in central Anatolia, in the heartland of what is now Turkey. The relief consists of a high plateau over 1000 m in altitude that is pierced
by volcanic peaks, with Mount Erciyes (ancient Argaeus) near Kayseri (ancient Caesarea) being the tallest at 3916 m. The boundaries of historical
Cappadocia are vague, particularly towards the west. To the south, the Taurus Mountains form the boundary with Ciliciaand separate Cappadocia from
the Mediterranean Sea. To the west, Cappadocia is bounded by the historical regions of Lycaonia to the southwest, and Galatia to the northwest. Due
to its inland location and high altitude, Cappadocia has a markedly continental climate, with hot dry summers and cold snowy winters.[7] Rainfall is
sparse and the region is largely semi-arid.

Fairy Chimneys rock formation near Göreme, in Cappadocia

History[edit]
See also: Cappadocia (satrapy) and List of rulers of Cappadocia

Achaemenid Cappadocia
 Cappadocian soldier of the Achaemenid armycirca 470 BCE. Xerxes I tomb relief.

Location of Achaemenid Cappadocia.[8]

Cappadocia was known as Hatti in the late Bronze Age, and was the homeland of the Hittite power centred at Hattusa. After the fall of the Hittite
Empire, with the decline of the Syro-Cappadocians (Mushki) after their defeat by the Lydian king Croesusin the 6th century, Cappadocia was ruled by a
sort of feudalaristocracy, dwelling in strong castles and keeping the peasants in a servile condition, which later made them apt to foreign slavery. It was
included in the third Persiansatrapy in the division established by Darius but continued to be governed by rulers of its own, none apparently supreme
over the whole country and all more or less tributaries of the Great King.[9][10]

Kingdom of Cappadocia[edit]
Main article: Kingdom of Cappadocia

After ending the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great tried to rule the area through one of his military commanders. But Ariarathes, a Persian
aristocrat, somehow became king of the Cappadocians. As Ariarathes I (332–322 BC), he was a successful ruler, and he extended the borders of the
Cappadocian Kingdom as far as to the Black Sea. The kingdom of Cappadocia lived in peace until the death of Alexander. The previous empire was
then divided into many parts, and Cappadocia fell to Eumenes. His claims were made good in 322 BC by the regent Perdiccas, who crucified
Ariarathes; but in the dissensions which brought about Eumenes's death, Ariarathes II, the adopted son of Ariarathes I, recovered his inheritance and
left it to a line of successors, who mostly bore the name of the founder of the dynasty.

Persian colonists in the Cappadocian kingdom, cut off from their co-religionists in Iran proper, continued to practice Zoroastrianism. Strabo, observing
them in the first century BC, records (XV.3.15) that these "fire kindlers" possessed many "holy places of the Persian Gods", as well as fire
temples.[11]Strabo furthermore relates, were "noteworthy enclosures; and in their midst there is an altar, on which there is a large quantity of ashes and
where the magi keep the fire ever burning."[11] According to Strabo, who wrote during the time of Augustus (r. 63 BC-14 AD), almost three hundred
years after the fall of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, there remained only traces of Persians in western Asia Minor; however, he considered
Cappadocia "almost a living part of Persia".[12]

Under Ariarathes IV, Cappadocia came into relations with Rome, first as a foe espousing the cause of Antiochus the Great, then as an ally
against Perseus of Macedon. The kings henceforward threw in their lot with the Republic as against the Seleucids, to whom they had been from time to
time tributary. Ariarathes V marched with the Roman proconsul Publius Licinius Crassus Dives Mucianus against Aristonicus, a claimant to the throne
of Pergamon, and their forces were annihilated (130 BC). The imbroglio which followed his death ultimately led to interference by the rising power
of Pontus and the intrigues and wars which ended in the failure of the dynasty.[13]