Note (21) — Chapter V · OF THE ANCIENT PLACES ON THE SOUTHERN COAST OF ASIA MINOR.

The testimonies of Strabo, Ptolemy, Scylax, and the Stadiasmus, concur in placing Coracesium at Alaya, the extraordinary situation of which town upon a rocky promontory, precipitous on one side and on the other extremely steep, is well suited to that fortress, which alone held out against Antiochus the Great, when all the other places on the coast of Cilicia had submitted to his arms⁠[247]⁠. Coracesium was one of the positions which particularly assisted in supporting the spirit of piracy upon this coast; and it was the last at which the pirates ventured to make any united resistance to the fleet of Pompey, before they separated and retired to their strong holds in Mount Taurus. For the history of the pirates the reader may consult Strabo, the Mithridatic war of Appian, (who gives an account of their reduction by Pompey,) and Plutarch’s life of the same Roman commander. Their long success was owing to the commodious ports and strong positions of the coast, to the strength of Mount Taurus behind, and to the frequent disputes of the kings of Cyprus, Egypt, and Syria, among one another and with the Romans; which made it occasionally the interest of every party to support the Cilician cities in piracy and independence. Thus, like the Barbary states in the present day, the opportunity was afforded them of collecting plunder and captives from every vessel and shore that was unable to resist them. The sacred island of Delus became the entrepôt of their trade; and the increasing luxury of the Romans gave encouragement to their commerce in slaves.