Cappădŏcia

, a country of Asia Minor, between the Halys, the Euphrates, and the Euxine. It receives its name from the river Cappadox, which separates it from Galatia. The inhabitants were called Syrians and Leuco-Syrians by the Greeks. They were of a dull and submi ive disposition, and addicted to every vice, according to the ancients, who wrote this virulent epigram against them: Vipera Cappadocem nocitura momordit; at ill a Gustato periit sanguine Cappadocis. When they were offered their freedom and independence by the Romans, they refused it, and begged of them a king, and they received Ariobarzanes. It was some time after governed by a Roman proconsul. Though the ancients have ridiculed this country for the unfruitfulne of its soil, and the manners of its inhabitants, yet it can boast of the birth of the geographer Strabo, St.  Basil, and Gregory Nazianzen, among other illustrious characters. The horses of this country were in general esteem, and with these they paid their tributes to the king of Persia, while under his power, for want of money. The kings of Cappadocia mostly bore the name of Ariarathes. Horace , bk. 1 , ltr. 6 , li. 39 .— Pliny , bk. 6 , ch. 3 .— Curtius , bks. 3 & 4.— Strabo , bks. 11 & 16.— Hero dot us , bk. 1 , ch. 73 ; bk. 5 , ch. 49 .— Mela , bk. 1 , ch. 2 ; bk. 3 , ch. 8 .