Claudias

Claudias or Qlaudia (Arabic: Qalāwdhiya; Syriac: Qlawdiyoye; Greek: Καλούδια, romanized: Kaloudia) was a fortress in the Taurus Mountains and, by extension, its district.

Claudias was an ancient fortress, possibly identical with the Claudiopolis mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his Historia naturalis (AD 77).

[1] Claudias is mentioned by Ptolemy, Ammianus Marcellinus (as Laudias), the Notitia Dignitatum and the Tabula Peutingeriana (as Glaudia).

The governor (epitropos) of Claudias in the late 7th century was a certain John, mentioned in the Life of Theodotus of Amida.

The 14th-century Persian writer Ḥamd-Allāh Mostawfi refers to Erqalawdiya as a fortress and a fertile region, but he is relying on early sources.