The earliest record of the name of Cappadocia dates from the late 6th century
BC, when it appears in the trilingual inscriptions of two early
Achaemenid kings,
Darius I and
Xerxes, as one of the countries (
Old Persian dahyu-) of the
Persian Empire. In these lists of countries, the Old Persian name is
Katpatuka, which means "the land/country of beautiful horses".[SUP]
[2][/SUP] "Cappadocia" could come from the Luwian, or Luvian language, meaning "Low Country".[SUP]
[3][/SUP]
Herodotus tells us that the name of the Cappadocians was applied to them by the
Persians, while they were termed by the
Greeks as "Syrians" or "White Syrians"
Leucosyri. One of the Cappadocian tribes he mentions is the
Moschoi, associated by
Flavius Josephus with the biblical figure
Meshech, son of
Japheth: "and the Mosocheni were founded by Mosoch; now they are Cappadocians".
AotJ I:6