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The earliest record of the name of Cappadocia dates from the late
6th century BC it where appears in the trilingual inscriptions of two
early Achaemenid Kings, Darius I and Xerxes, as one of the countries
(Old Persian dahyu-) which are part of the Persian Empire. In these
lists of countries the Old Persian name is Katpatuka but it is clearly
not a native Persian word. The Elamite and Akkadian language versions
of the inscriptions contain a similar name.
Herodotus tells us that the name of the Cappadocias (Katpatouka) was
applied to them by the Persians, while they were termed by the Greeks
"Syrians" or "White Syrians" (Leucosyri). One of the Cappadocia tribes
he mentions are the Moschoi, associated by Flavius Josephus with the
biblical figure Meshech, son of Japheth, "and the Mosocheni were
founded by Mosoch; now they are Cappadocias." AotJ I:6. Also see
Ketubot 13:11 in the Mishna.
Under the later kings of the Persian empire they were divided into two
satrapies, or governments, the 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 was still in existence in the time of Strabo
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.
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