The Taurus Mountains are more rugged and less dissected by rivers than the Pontic Mountains and historically have served as a barrier to human movement inland from the Mediterranean coast except where there are mountain passes such as the historic Cilician Gates ( G�lek Pass ), northwest of Adana.
32.
The city was originally called Oiniandos, and was located in the area of the famous G�lek Pass ( Cilician Gates ) . In the 2nd century BC the city was renamed Epiphania, in honour of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, King of Syria from 175 BC to 164 BC.
33.
Publius Ventidius Bassus, an officer under Mark Antony, defeated and then executed Labienus at the Battle of the Cilician Gates ( in modern Mersin Province, Turkey ) in 39 BC . Shortly afterward, a Parthian force in Syria led by general Pharnapates was defeated by Ventidius at the Battle of Amanus Pass.
34.
Setting up camp at Dorylaion, the Emperor divided his forces : a strong corps was sent to reinforce the garrison of Amorion, while he himself set out with the remainder ( circa 25, 000 according to Haldon and 40, 000 according to Treadgold ) to interpose himself between the Cilician Gates and Ancyra.
35.
Following the Muslim conquests and the establishment of the frontier between the Byzantine Empire and the Caliphate along the Taurus Mountains, Tyana became important as a military base due to its strategic position on the road to Cilicia and Syria via the Cilician Gates, which lie some 30 km to the south . and remained deserted for some time before being rebuilt.
36.
Because of the importance of Northern Syria to the vital routes linking the Cilician gates with Mesopotamia, defense of this area was crucial, and was soon put to the test by Egyptian expansion under Pharaoh Rameses II . The outcome of the Battle of Kadesh is uncertain, though it seems that the timely arrival of Egyptian reinforcements prevented total Hittite victory.
37.
It is doubtful whether the son of Andromenes is the Amyntas mentioned by Curtius as commander of a portion of the Macedonian troops at the battle of Issus, 333 BC; or again, the person spoken of as leading a brigade at the forcing of the Cilician Gates ( now called the G�lek Pass ), 331 BC . But Amyntas was a common name among the Macedonians.
38.
Above the Cilician Gates and a few kilometers from the village is G�lek Kalesi ( Armenian : "'Kuklak "'; Arab : "'Kawlk "'), a large fortification of considerable antiquity which retains evidence of Byzantine and Arab periods of occupation, but is primarily a construction of the 12th and 13th centuries attached to the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia.
39.
The Arab raids remained frequent in the 9th century, and an Arab army occupied Loulon, one of the key fortresses guarding the northern exit of the Cilician Gates, in 833 879 . From the great Byzantine victory at the Battle of Lalakaon in 863, and the destruction of the Paulician state at Tephrike in 872 ( or 878 ) onwards the security situation improved considerably, but the area remained a target of Arab raids.
