the Seleucid Empire. Throughout the Hellenistic Period, the city gained considerable local autonomy, minting its own coinage and largely conducting its own affairs. Rhodes appealed to the Roman Senate to liberate Soli from the Seleucids on the grounds of their common heritage, but this case was dropped. Tigranes the Great of Armenia sacked Soli during the Seleucid Empire's collapse (83 BCE), and took the city's citizens to inhabit Tigranocerta, his newly founded capital. Roman Period In 67 BCE, the lex Gabinia was passed by the Roman Senate, endowing Pompeius Magnus (Pompey) with proconsular powers to combat piracy in the Eastern Mediterranean. After subduing the pirates, he resettled some surrendered pirates in the depopulated Soli, renaming it Pompeiopolis (not to be confused with the Pompeiopolis in nearby Paphlagonia, also founded around this time). The harbor was improved and expanded with Roman concrete, and new city walls, a theater and baths were built. The harbor was renovated again by 130 CE under the aegis of Antoninus Pius (though the project may have been begun by Hadrian), and the port city flourished under Roman rule. After defeating Valerian at Edessa in spring of 260 CE, Sassanid King Shapur I invaded Cilicia and was defeated while besieging Soli-Pompeiopolis. The exact circumstances of the battle are disputed. The Soli-Pompeiopolis became a bishopric sometime around 300 CE. In 525 CE, the city was leveled by a powerful earthquake and largely abandoned. Etymology Diogenes Laërtius wrote that Solon founded Soli as an Athenian colony, and named the city after himself. This account is in conflict with the work of Strabo and comparative archaeological studies of the region. While largely discredited, the idea was preserved in the word solecism, derived from σόλοικος (sóloikos, "speaking incorrectly"), as since the dialect of Greek spoken there was thought to be corrupted form of Attic Greek."...[Solon then] lived in Cilicia and founded a city which he called Soli after his own name. In it he settled some few Athenians, who in process of time corrupted the purity of Attic and were said to "solecize."Alternately, soloi could derive from local economic resources, namely "metal ingots" or "a mass of iron." The city may be mentioned in the Šunaššura Treaty, between Hittite king Šuppiluliuma I and Kizzuwatna, as Ellipra or Pitura. These may alternately refer to the Yumuktepe site, but certainly refer to one of the few harbor settlements on the border between Kizzuwatna