place
Pindenissum
also: Pindenissum, Pindenissus, Pindenissitae
A fortified hill town of the Free Cilicians (Eleutherocilices) on Mount Amanus, harbouring runaways and awaiting the Parthians; besieged for fifty-seven days and captured by Cicero in 51 BC, the action for which he claimed a supplicatio (Fam. 15.4).
Reading notes
- Ad Familiares 2.10 §3 battering with mounds, mantlets, and towers a most strongly walled town, Pindenissus
Pindenissus was a hilltop stronghold of the Free Cilicians (Eleutherocilices) in the Amanus range; Cicero besieged it for 57 days in all. The town was so obscure that Cicero jokes it will add nothing to his reputation — only the name of a famous place dignifies a conquest.
- Ad Familiares 15.4 §10 who were harbouring runaway slaves and were waiting in eager expectation of the Parthians' coming
Cicero justifies the assault on Pindenissus as a matter of imperial prestige (existimatio imperi): the town sheltered fugitives and hoped for a Parthian advance, so its crushing would overawe other disaffected communities.