Ariarathia

Ariarathia or Ariaratheia () was a town of ancient Cappadocia, in the Sargarausene region, inhabited during Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine times.

==History== thumb|Ariarathia in the 5th century It was founded by Ariarathes IV of Cappadocia (r. 220–163 BCE). It was detached from Cappadocia and assigned to the province of Armenia Minor when that province was established. The town had city rights. The town belonged to the so-called Armenian Hexapolis and remained under Byzantine control in the seventh century. In lack of archaeological findings, it seems that the city vanished during the eighth or ninth century when the Muslim onslaught rendered the area between Caeserea and Melitene a no man's land.