The White Syrians Of Aramaean Cappadocia

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A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, Volume II, Pages 171-172.
LEUCOSYRI, the ancient name of the Syrians inhabiting Cappadocia, by which
they were distinguished from the more southern Syrians, who were of a darker
complexion. (Herod. i.72, vii.72; Strabo, xvi. p.737; Pliny, H.N. vi.3; Eustath. ad
Dionys. 772,970.) They also spread over the western parts of Pontus, between the
rivers Iris and Halys. In the time of Xenophon (Anab. v.6,§8&c.) they were united
with Paphlagonia, and governed by a Paphlagonian prince, who is said to have had
an army of 120,000 men, mostly horsemen. This name was often used by the
Greeks, even at the time when it had become customary to designate all the
inhabitants of the country by their native, or rather Persian name, Cappadoces; but
it was applied more particularly to the inhabitants of the coastal district on the
Euxine, between the rivers Halys and Iris. (Hecat. Fragm. 194,200,350; Marcian.
Heracl. p.72.) Ptolemy (v.6§2) also applies the name exclusively to the inhabitants
about the Iris, and treats of their country as part of the province of Cappadocia. The
Leucosyri were regarded as colonists, who had been planted there during the early
conquests of the Assyrians, and were successively subject to Lydia, Persia, and
Macedonia; but after the time of Alexander [The Great, RS] their name is scarcely
mentioned, the people having become entirely amalgamated with the nations
among which they lived.
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A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, Volume II, Page 1245.
TYANA (Ta Tuana, Tuaneus, Tuanites), also called Thyanan or Thiana, and
originally Tohana, from Thoas, a Thracian king, who was believed to have pursued
Orestes and Pylades thus far, and to have founded the town. Reports said that it was
built, like Zela in Pontus, on a causeway of Semiramis; but it is certain that it was
situated in Cappadocia at the foot of Mount Taurus, near the Cilician Gates, and on
a small tributary of the Lamus. It stood on the highroad to Cilicia and Syria at a
distance of 300 stadia from Cybistra, and 400 stadia from Mazaca.
Its situation on that road and close to so important a pass must have rendered Tyana
a place of great consequence, both in a commercial and a military point of view.
The plain around it, moreover, was extensive and fertile, and the whole district
received from the town of Tyana the name of Tyanitis.
From its coins we learn that in the reign of Caracalla the city became a Roman
colony; afterwards, having for a time belonged to the empire of Palmyra, it was
conquered by Aurelian, in A.D. 272, and Valens raised it to the rank of the capital
of Cappadocia Secunda. Its capture by the Turks is related by Cedrenus.