Castabala

• a town of Cilicia, Plin. 5, 27, 22, § 93; Curt. 3, 7, 5.—Castăbălenses, its inhabitants, Plin. 8, 40, 61, § 143.

CASTA´BALA (Καστάβαλα: Eth. Κασταβαλεύς), a city of Cilicia, one of the praefectures of Cappadocia. Strabo (p. 537) describes Castabala and Cybistra, as not far from Tyana, but as still nearer to the mountain (Taurus). Pliny (Plin. Nat. 6.3) enumerates Castabala with Tyana among the Cappadocian towns. In Castabala there was a temple of Artemis Perasia, where they said that the priestesses walked with bare feet over live coals unhurt. (See Groskurd's Note, Strabo, Transl. 2. p. 453, on the proposals to amend the reading Perasia, which the context of Strabo shows to be his genuine reading.) The site of this place has not yet been fixed satisfactorily, but it may be at Nigde, NE. of Bor. The epigraph on the coins of Castabala is ἱεροπολις κασταβ.

CASTA´BALA (τὰ Καστάβαλα), as it is called by Appian (Mithrid. 100.105), by Ptolemy (Ptol. 5.8), by Pliny (Plin. Nat. 5.27), who mentions it among the towns of the interior of Cilicia. Alexander marched from Soli to the Pyramus, which he crossed to Mallus, and he reached Castabalum, as Curtius (Curt. 3.7) calls it, on the second day. In order to reach Issus from Castabala, it was necessary to pass through a defile, which Alexander had sent Parmenio forward to occupy. This defile, then, was east of Castabala, and it would seem to be the Amanides Pylae of Strabo (p. 676), now Demir Kapú.

The Antonine Itin. places Catabolum, which is Castabalum, east of Aegeae or Ayas, 26 M. P., or 20 geog. miles. The distance from Ayas to a place called Kara Kaya is 16 geog. miles, and from Ayas to some ruins is 19 geog. miles. This would identify the ruins with Castabalum. But the Itin. gives 16 M. P., or 12 geog. miles from Castabalum to Baiae, and the distance from Kara Kaya to Bayas, which is Baiae, was determined by Lieut. Murphy to be 13 geog. miles, while the distance from the ruins to Bayas is 15 geog. miles. Ainsworth prefers the shorter of the two distances, as it was determined by Itinerary, while the other distance from Ayás to the ruins was determined by a boat survey.A ccordingly he identifies Castabala with Kara Kaya worth, Travels in the Track, &c., p. 56; Ainsworth, London Geog. Journ., vol. 10. p. 510, &c.)