A Roman province on the southeastern coast of Asia Minor, backed by the Taurus Mountains and centered on Tarsus — Paul's own birthplace (Acts 21:39, not yet on these pages), which he calls ‘no obscure city.’ The letter this council sends is addressed in part to Cilicia's congregations (v23), and by the chapter's own end Paul is passing back through it on foot with Silas, strengthening exactly the congregations that letter reached (v41) — very likely congregations Paul himself had planted in his own home region during the silent years between his conversion and Barnabas fetching him to Antioch.