the Roman period, the city was an important intellectual centre, boasting its own academy. One of its leading lights, the philosopher Athenodorus Cananites, was the tutor of the first Roman emperor, Augustus, a fact which secured continuous imperial patronage for the city. When the province of Cilicia was divided, Tarsus remained the civil and religious metropolis of Cilicia Prima, a grand city with palaces, marketplaces, roads and bridges, baths, fountains and waterworks, a gymnasium on the banks of the Cydnus, and a stadium. Tarsus was later eclipsed by nearby Adana but remained important as a port and shipyard. Several Roman emperors were interred here: Marcus Claudius Tacitus, Maximinus II and Julian the Apostate, who planned to move his capital here from Antioch if he returned from his Persian expedition. Christian and Byzantine eras Tarsus was the city where, according to the Acts of the Apostles, "Saul of Tarsus" was born although he was "brought up" () in Jerusalem. Paul was a Roman citizen (Acts 21:39; Acts 22: 25–29) "from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city". Saul, who would eventually become Paul the Apostle after his professed encounter with Jesus (Acts ), returned here after his conversion (). About eight years later, Barnabas retrieved him from Tarsus to help with the work of preaching and teaching in Syrian Antioch (). By this time a Christian community probably already existed, although the first recorded bishop, Helenus, dates only from the 3rd century. Owing to the importance of Tarsus, many martyrs were put to death there, among them Saint Pelagia of Tarsus, Saint Boniface of Tarsus, Saint Marinus of Tarsus, Saint Diomedes, Saint Quiricus and Saint Julitta. The city remained largely pagan, however, up to the time of Julian the Apostate (r. 361–363), who reportedly planned to make it his capital. Following his death during his campaign against Sassanid Persia, he was buried next to the city walls, opposite the earlier tomb of the Tetrarch Maximinus Daia. Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565) undertook public works in the city, altering the course of the Cydnus river and rebuilding the bridge. Towards the end of his reign, the city suffered from riots stirred up by the Hippodrome Blues faction. A cave near Tarsus is one of several places said to be the location of the legend of the Seven Sleepers, common to Christianity and Islam. Bishopric The first recorded bishop of Tarsus,