1. Administration and History

Tabia (modern Büyüknefes) was situated 25 km to the east of Ankyra. The topography of the area is known partly from references to the town where Zoilus was martyred in the Early Byzantine period. In 399 Tabia was included in the province of Galatia I following the partition of the province of Galatia. Synekdemos of Hierokles (6^th century) reports Tabia among the seven cities of Galatia I.¹ At the same time, the city was an episcopal see of the metropolis of Ankyra from the 4^th-5^th c. onwards.

In the Middle Byzantine period the city initially belonged to the theme of Armeniakon. The district included the village of Annia, the birthplace of Sergios Tychikos, the last Paulician spiritual leader. Tabia was directly connected with Ankyra through the road leading from Ankyra to the theme of Armeniakon. The roads ran northeast to Amaseia, Neocaesarea and Komana of the Pontos and southeast to Caesarea via Sebasteia. The road continued after Caesarea, though without a destination verified by modern researchers.

The outskirts of Tabia were an easy and apparent target for Arab raiders, who were constantly threatening Ankyra between 630 and 740. However, the city of Tabia must have evaded the rapacious raid of 727.² In the second half of the 9^th century the wider area became the target of the Arab emir of Melitene Abdarahman ibn Halid.³ In the years of Leo VI (886-912) there were reforms in the territorial status of Asia Minor themes. During these administrative changes the bandon based in Tabia was detached from the theme of Armeniakon and was incorporated (along with the bandon of Komodromon) in the tourma of Saniana, of the neighbouring theme of Charsianon, which also included Myriokephalon, the Holy Cross and Berinoupolis, former banda of the theme of Boukellarion.⁴ In the last quarter of the 11^th century the Türkmen started to settle in the wider area. Tabia must have been a Seljuk possession in the 12^th, 13^th and 14^th centuries, while towards the late 12^th century it probably came under the Byzantines. From the early 14^th or the early 15^th century onwards it was certainly dominated by the Ottomans.

2. Αrchaeological Remains

Traces of the fortification enclosure as well as architectural fragments and parts of inscriptions on walls in the nearby village of Yuzgat have survived from the Byzantine city of Tabia, which was built on two isolated hills. One of the inscriptions comes from the Church of St. Plato.