DAĞ PAZARI
(“Koropissos”) Cilicia Aspera, Turkey.
Ca. 34 km N of Mut (Claudiopolis) and ca.
48 km SE of Karaman, this large and impressive site at
ca. 1400 m above sea level is protected on three sides by
steep descents towards the swift-flowing stream of the
Kavak Gözü; to the N, the natural strength of its elevation above the main road was reinforced by a wall. Occupied at least from the 5th c. B.C., the place had civic
status by the time of Septimius Severus and was a bishopric by the 5th c.
Circled by ramparts (1.2 m thick by 5 m high) with
9 m square towers at intervals, the highest point was defended by a redoubt. An aqueduct brought water to the
city from the S, and there was a hippodrome on flat
ground to the N. A columnar heroon stands S of the
river, and weathered, apparently uninscribed sarcophagi
flank the Mut-Karaman road. As a bishopric, Dağ Pazari
almost certainly boasted a monastery (now destroyed), a
cathedral with an adjoining baptistery, a funerary church
extra muros, and an ambulatory church with certain similarities to foundations at Meryemlik (Seleucea on the
Kalykadnos) and Alahan, ca. 21 km NW of Mut, the
last three sometimes attributed to Zeno, the Isaurian
emperor.
The identification of the site with Koropissos (Coriopio
in the
Peutinger Table), on the route between Iconium
and Seleucea, is supported by an inscription mentioning
Koropissos which was found and copied near Mut in
1961.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. J. Davis,
Life in Asiatic Turkey
(1879) 325; W. Ramsay,
Historical Geography of Asia
Minor (1890) 366, 369; G. Forsyth, “Architectural Notes
on Cilicia,”
DOPapers 11 (1957) 233-36.
M. GOUGH
