Korykos was a coastal city of Cilicia whose rich architectural and epigraphical record compensates for the deficiencies of the late antique sources, which state only that Justinian I restored the local bath and poorhouse. Five major churches, richly decorated basilicas of varying style, reflect considerable activity around 480-550, and 636 funerary inscriptions, of which 393 name occupations, allow the social and economic structure to be reconstructed. The population included manufacturers and sellers of a vast range of products. As an important port near the frontier, Korykos became headquarters of a droungarios of the Kibyrrhaiotai: one such droungarios, Apsimar, became emperor as Tiberios II. The troops from Korykos were called Kourikiotai. Korykos was later incorporated in the theme of Seleucia. Around 1000, after a brief Turkish occupation, Alexios I rebuilt Korykos, which was described by his historian daughter as formerly well fortified but recently ruined. By that date the city consisted of a castle whose concentric walls occupied a small part of the ancient site. It was lost to the Armenians in the late 12th century. The castle manifests several stages of construction, some perhaps as early as the 7th century.