FAUSTINOPOLIS
(Başmakçi, Niğde) Cappadocia,
Turkey.
Formerly a village called Halala, it was
raised to the status of colony by M. Aurelius. His wife
Faustina the Younger died there on the journey from
Syria in A.D. 176. It was a city and bishopric of Cappadocia Secunda according to Hierokles and the
Notitiae.
The town, in the foothills of Tauros on the main Tyana-Cilician Gates route, was identified by an inscription honoring Gordian III. The ruins include a rocky acropolis.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
M. H. Ballance, “Derbe and Faustinopolis,”
AnatSt 14 (1964) 140-42.
R. P. HARPER