Tarsus

Tarsus was the capital city of the Roman province of Cilicia in southern Asia Minor (modern south-central Turkey), situated on the Cydnus River about 10 miles from the Mediterranean. It was a prosperous commercial city with a distinguished university tradition, renowned for its Stoic philosophers, and a free city under Roman rule. Paul the apostle was born in Tarsus (Acts 9:11; 21:39; 22:3) and later described it as "no mean city" — a city of no small distinction. Paul spent time in Tarsus between his conversion and his call to Antioch (Acts 9:30; 11:25–26). The city's Hellenistic and Roman cultural environment contributed substantially to Paul's bilingual, bicultural background as a diaspora Jew equally at home in Greek and Hebrew worlds.