Claudias

Claudias or Qlaudia (Qalāwdhiya, Syriac: Qlawdiyoye, Kaloudia) was a fortress in the Taurus Mountains and, by extension, its district. Its precise location is now unknown. Claudias was an ancient fortress, possibly identical with the Claudiopolis mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his Historia naturalis (AD 77). This lay somewhere between Melitene and Samosata. Claudias is mentioned by Ptolemy, Ammianus Marcellinus (as Laudias), the Notitia Dignitatum and the Tabula Peutingeriana (as Glaudia). It guarded the valley of the Euphrates below Melitene and towards Anzitene. It may be identified with Kerar Kalesi in Pütürge. Claudias changed hands several times during the early Arab–Byzantine wars. Most of northern Mesopotamia came under Arab rule in 637–642. The governor (epitropos) of Claudias in the late 7th century was a certain John, mentioned in the Life of Theodotus of Amida. The Emperor Constantine V captured Claudias from the Arabs and razed it in or about 755. The Christian population was transferred to Constantinople. The Caliph al-Mansur took and rebuilt it in 757 or 758. The Byzantines recaptured it in the early 10th century. It is mentioned in the late 10th-century Byzantine treatise on skirmishing, De velitatione bellica. By the late 11th century, it had passed into the hands of the Danishmendids. By that time it had declined in value as

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