On its face, the linework here indicates the impossible existence of a Cilician boundary
only 20 m.p. (30 km) from Iconium, as well as a connecting road just 89 m.p.
(132 km) long from Iconium to Tyana in the east, with Barata halfway along it. Those distances
are clearly inaccurate, falling far short of the journeys required on the ground.
Hild points out that several intermediate stations from Iconium to Fines Cilicie must have just vanished from the chart if this arrangement had ever in any sense been correct.
A second reason to suppose some kind of copying error here is that the red TP line to Iconium runs exactly along the base of a "mountain" icon, a graphic indelicacy which is generally a distress signal in other places on the TP. Iconium is shown with four exits on the right, an exceptionally and suspiciously high number (see discussion of this at emendation 9,2:3).
Talbert (TPPlace2322) appears to oversee the problem, contending that the distance figure has been delayed "to help guide users".
Two emendations have been proposed, both by Miller. His Figure 220 (Richtigstellung, col. 665) suggests inserting Cibistra and rerouting the line so that it simply bypasses Iconium and reaches a terminus at Barata. Despite appearances on the chart, Barata is well to the east of Iconium. Miller points out the word Cibistra is written just a little higher on the page, and may have been "displaced" there (725).
Oddly, Miller's text ignores the proposed bypass (perhaps he worked on these two sections of his book years apart) and instead composes the following stretches (692) (text absent from manuscript in brackets, the numbers are Roman miles, some emendations by me for clarity):
Miller's argument therefore requires more nuance. The fact that the label denoting Cizistra* has been misspelled suggests that an over-officious editor may have looked at two similars (a miniscule Z often resembles a B), falsely imagined he had detected a duplication, and eliminated the lower of the two texts (for Kybistra), leaving his own grubby fingerprint here by his mistake in changing "Cizistra" to "Cibistra". This was not the "displacement" which Miller suggests.
French does not discuss the difficulty, but his map shows this connection as part of his route number 22, with Cybistra explicitly included. The unmarked points stretching 100 km west of it on route 22 are denoted in French's other maps as Sidamaria (a junction) and Barata. French's explorations suggest there are indeed remains hereabouts of a well-trafficked route.
Talbert draws attention to another open question with a bearing on the problem: the significance of the mark L, which is written below Barata (TPPlace2321) followed by a dot and with a stroke through it. He and Miller assume it means 50, although that is an unusually high number for a stage. The number XXXIX inscribed on the TP above Barata appears to relate to the Tyana-Tarsus route.
My solution follows selected elements of Miller Figure 220, where Barata is shown as a terminus (as it is Figure 219 too). I would restore Cibistra as the place 20 m.p. to the left of Fines Cilicie, treat the distance of 50 m.p. (above) as pertaining to the Cibistra-Barata distance (implying a stop was omitted by the chartmaker for simplification, perhaps the junction postulated by emendation 3 below, or perhaps Sidamaria). The distance is tight, but just suffices if the postulated position of Barata in DARE (at Kızılkale?) turns out to be correct. I entirely eliminate the Iconium-Tyana line.
Hild points out that several intermediate stations from Iconium to Fines Cilicie must have just vanished from the chart if this arrangement had ever in any sense been correct.
A second reason to suppose some kind of copying error here is that the red TP line to Iconium runs exactly along the base of a "mountain" icon, a graphic indelicacy which is generally a distress signal in other places on the TP. Iconium is shown with four exits on the right, an exceptionally and suspiciously high number (see discussion of this at emendation 9,2:3).
Talbert (TPPlace2322) appears to oversee the problem, contending that the distance figure has been delayed "to help guide users".
Two emendations have been proposed, both by Miller. His Figure 220 (Richtigstellung, col. 665) suggests inserting Cibistra and rerouting the line so that it simply bypasses Iconium and reaches a terminus at Barata. Despite appearances on the chart, Barata is well to the east of Iconium. Miller points out the word Cibistra is written just a little higher on the page, and may have been "displaced" there (725).
Oddly, Miller's text ignores the proposed bypass (perhaps he worked on these two sections of his book years apart) and instead composes the following stretches (692) (text absent from manuscript in brackets, the numbers are Roman miles, some emendations by me for clarity):
With Cibistra, Miller is partly mistaken. The Kybistra we are concerned with (Κύβιστρα) was later named Herakleia (or Ηράκλεια Κυβίστρα) and is now Ḫattusa (Hattusa), 13 kilometres southeast of Ereğli (see DARE and Der Neue Pauly). The "Cibistra" above Ad Fines on the TP does not denote the same place, but misspells (by a single letter) Kyzistra (Κύζιστρα), a different town which is located in a different region, is mentioned in Ptolemy's Geography (Ptol. 5,6,15), and is duly identified by DARE as “the ancient place attested as Kyzistra, located at Zengibar Kalesı" (see also placement on Talbert Map D and entries in Trismegistos and Der Neue Pauly).yconio[ca. 60 m.p.][Hyde?], [mentioned in Hierocles Synecdemus and Plin. Historia Naturalis] jetzt Karabunar[ca. 30]Cybistra; jetzt Eregli20Fines Cilicie; jetzt auf der Nordseite des Bulgar Dagh.25In Monte Tauro; jetzt Nemrun
Miller's argument therefore requires more nuance. The fact that the label denoting Cizistra* has been misspelled suggests that an over-officious editor may have looked at two similars (a miniscule Z often resembles a B), falsely imagined he had detected a duplication, and eliminated the lower of the two texts (for Kybistra), leaving his own grubby fingerprint here by his mistake in changing "Cizistra" to "Cibistra". This was not the "displacement" which Miller suggests.
French does not discuss the difficulty, but his map shows this connection as part of his route number 22, with Cybistra explicitly included. The unmarked points stretching 100 km west of it on route 22 are denoted in French's other maps as Sidamaria (a junction) and Barata. French's explorations suggest there are indeed remains hereabouts of a well-trafficked route.
Talbert draws attention to another open question with a bearing on the problem: the significance of the mark L, which is written below Barata (TPPlace2321) followed by a dot and with a stroke through it. He and Miller assume it means 50, although that is an unusually high number for a stage. The number XXXIX inscribed on the TP above Barata appears to relate to the Tyana-Tarsus route.
My solution follows selected elements of Miller Figure 220, where Barata is shown as a terminus (as it is Figure 219 too). I would restore Cibistra as the place 20 m.p. to the left of Fines Cilicie, treat the distance of 50 m.p. (above) as pertaining to the Cibistra-Barata distance (implying a stop was omitted by the chartmaker for simplification, perhaps the junction postulated by emendation 3 below, or perhaps Sidamaria). The distance is tight, but just suffices if the postulated position of Barata in DARE (at Kızılkale?) turns out to be correct. I entirely eliminate the Iconium-Tyana line.
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