Claudiopolis also called Ninica and Ninica Claudiopolis, was an ancient city of Cilicia

Cilicia

In antiquity, Cilicia was the south coastal region of Asia Minor, south of the central Anatolian plateau. It existed as a political entity from Hittite times into the Byzantine empire...

. Ammianus mentions Silifke

Silifke

-Antiquity:Located a few miles from the mouth of the Calycadnus River, Seleucia was founded by Seleucus I Nicator in the early 3rd century BCE, one of several cities he named after himself. It is probable that there were already towns called Olbia and Hyria and that Seleucus I merely united them...

 and Claudiopolis as cities of Cilicia, or of the country drained by the Calycadnus; and Claudiopolis was a colony of Claudius Caesar

Claudius

Claudius , was Roman Emperor from 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, he was the son of Drusus and Antonia Minor. He was born at Lugdunum in Gaul and was the first Roman Emperor to be born outside Italy...

. It is described by Theophanes of Byzantium

Theophanes of Byzantium

Theophanes of Byzantium was a Byzantine historian.He wrote, in ten books, the history of the Eastern Empire during the Persian war under Justin II, beginning from the second year of Justin , in which the truce made by Justinian I with Khosrau I was broken, and going down to last year of the war...

 as situated in a plain between the two Taurus Mountains

Taurus Mountains

Taurus Mountains are a mountain complex in southern Turkey, dividing the Mediterranean coastal region of southern Turkey from the central Anatolian Plateau. The system extends along a curve from Lake Eğirdir in the west to the upper reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the east...

, a description which exactly, corresponds to the position of the basin of the Calycadnus. Claudiopolis may therefore be represented by Mut, which is higher up the valley than Seleucia, and near the junction of the northern and western branches of the Calycadnus. It is also the place to which the pass over the northern Taurus leads from Laranda

Laranda

Laranda may refer to:*An alternate spelling of Larende, and ancient town of south-central Turkey, known today as Karaman*An alternate spelling of Larunda , a nymph in Ancient Roman myth*Laranda a genus of Phalangopsinae cricket...

. Pliny

Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...

 (v. 24) mentions a Claudiopolis

Claudiopolis (Cappadocia)

Claudiopolis was an ancient city of Cappadocia mentioned by Pliny . From its name one can adduce that it was named for Roman emperor Claudius....

 of Cappadocia

Cappadocia

Cappadocia is a historical region in Central Anatolia, largely in Nevşehir Province.In the time of Herodotus, the Cappadocians were reported as occupying the whole region from Mount Taurus to the vicinity of the Euxine...

, and Ptolemy

Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...

 (v. 7) has a Claudiopolis

Claudiopolis (Cataonia)

Claudiopolis was an ancient city of Cataonia mentioned by Ptolemy .Its name suggests that it was named for the Roman emperor Claudius....

 in Cataonia

Cataonia

Cataonia was one of the divisions of ancient Cappadocia.It is described by Strabo, who had visited it, as a level plain surrounded by mountains: on the south by the Amanus, and on the west by the Antitaurus, which branches off from the Cilician Taurus and contains deep narrow valleys Cataonia was...

. Both these passages and those of Ammianus and Theophanes are cited to prove that there is a Claudiopolis in Cataonia, though it is manifest that the passage in Ammianus at least can only apply to a town in the valley of the Calycadnus in Cilicia Trachea. The two Tauri of Theophanes might mean the Taurus and Antitaurus. But Hierocles

Hierocles (author of Synecdemus)

Hierocles or Hierokles was a Byzantine geographer of the sixth century and the attributed author of the Synecdemus or Synekdemos, which contains a table of administrative divisions of the Byzantine Empire and lists of the cities of each...

 places Claudiopolis in Isauria

Isauria

Isauria , in ancient geography, is a rugged isolated district in the interior of South Asia Minor, of very different extent at different periods, but generally covering what is now the district of Bozkır and its surroundings in the Konya province of Turkey, or the core of the Taurus Mountains. In...

, a description which cannot apply to the Claudiopolis(es) of Pliny and Ptolemy. The city apparently received the Roman colony

Colony

In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....

name Colonia Iulia Felix Augusta Ninica, and minted coins in antiquity.