CAESAREA MAZACA (mod. Kaisarieh)  ,

chief town of a sanjak in the Angora vilayet of Asia Minor . Mazaca, the residence of the kings of Cappadocia, later called Eusebea (perhaps after Ariarathes Eusebes), and named Caesarea probably by Claudius, stood on a low spur on the north side of Erjies Dagh (M . Argaeus) . The site, now called Eski-shehr, shows only a few traces of the old town . It was taken by Tigranes and destroyed by the Persian king Shapur (Sapor) I. after his defeat of Valerian in A.U . 260 . At this time it is stated to have contained 400,000 inhabitants . In the 4th century Basil, when bishop, established an ecclesiastical centre on the plain, about r m. to the north-east, and this gradually supplanted the old town . A portion of Basil's new city was surrounded with strong walls and turned into a fortress by Justinian; and within the walls, rebuilt in the 13th and 16th centuries, lies the greater part of Kaisarieh, altitude 3500 ft . The town was captured by the Seljuk sultan, Alp Arslan, 1064, and by the Mongols, 1243, before passing to the Osmanli Turks . Its geographical situation has made it a place of commercial importance throughout history . It lay on the ancient trade route from Sinope to the Euphrates, on the Persian " Royal Road " from Sardis to Susa, and on the great Roman highway from Ephesus to the East .

It is still the most important trade centre in eastern Asia Minor . The town is noted for its

fruit, especially its vines; and it exports tissues, carpets, hides, yellow berries and dried fruit . Kaisarieh is the headquarters of the American mission in Cappadocia, which has several churches and schools for boys and girls and does splendid medical work . It is the seat of a Greek bishop, an Armenian archbishop and a Roman Catholic bishop, and there is a Jesuit school . On the 3oth of November 1895 there was a massacre of Armenians, in which several Gregorian priests and Protestant pastors lost their lives . Pop., according to Cuinet, 71,000 (of whom 26,000 are Christians) . Sir C . Wilson gave it as 5o,000 (23,000 Christians) . (C . W . W.; J . G .

C .