Colybrassus

Coordinates: 36°43′54″N 31°58′31″E / 36.731600°N 31.975400°E / 36.731600; 31.975400
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36°43′54″N 31°58′31″E / 36.731600°N 31.975400°E / 36.731600; 31.975400 Colybrassus or Kolybrassos (Ancient Greek: Κολυβρασσός; Armenian: Surp Sope) was a city in Cilicia Tracheia (modern-day Turkey) that belonged to the Roman province of Pamphylia Prima, identified as such by Ptolemy.[1][2]

Colybrassus: Remains of a temple

Remains[edit]

Greek inscription at Colybrassus

Inscriptions found on the site show that it was located at present-day Ayasofya on the Susuz Dağ, some 20 kilometres (12 mi) northeast of Alanya, at 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) above sea level.[2][3][4]

The remains include the walls of a temple of Hercules that rise to 25 feet and the 20-foot walls of another unidentified temple,[5] and a small theatre or odeion.[6] Part of the city wall is preserved, with steps leading to the up to its gate, and in what was the necropolis there are several sarcophagi and a tomb cut in the rock.[2]

History[edit]

Cited by the geographer Ptolemy as an important city center, in 113 BC, in Roman times housed the Legio Pontica. In Byzantine times it was the seat of a bishopric and the patron saint of the city took the name of Άγια Σοφία (Hagia Sophia). After the collapse of the Byzantine power in Anatolia in 1199, the city became part of the possessions of the Armenian prince Kervard with the name of "Surp Sope". The name was derived directly from the Armenian church dedicated to St. Sophia. After that date the city disappears from history.[citation needed]

Bishopric[edit]

The bishopric of Colybrassus was a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Side, the capital of the Roman province of Pamphylia Prima. Of its bishops, Longinus was at the First Council of Constantinople in 381, Nessius at the Council of Ephesus in 431, and Tates at the Trullan Council of 692.[7][8][9]

No longer a residential bishopric, Colybrassus is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.[10]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Temporini, Hildegard (1980). Politische Geschichte: Provinzen und Randvoelker - Griescher Balkanraum: Kleinasien. Walter de Gruyter. p. 1234. ISBN 9783110080155. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
  2. ^ a b c G.E. Bean, "Kolybrassos (Ayasofya) Turkey" in The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites (Princeton University Press 1976)
  3. ^ Tomaschitz, Kurt (Vienna). "Colybrassus." in Brill's New Pauly. Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider. 2011 ISBN 9789004122598 Accessed: 18 January 2015
  4. ^ Keith Hopwood, "Coastal Cities of Western Rough Cilicia" in Anatolia Antiqua, Year 1991, Vol. 1, Issue 1, p. 308
  5. ^ Theodora S. MacKay, "The Major Sanctuaries of Pamphylia and Cilicia" in Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung (Walter de Gruyter 1974 ISBN 9783110018851), p. 2143
  6. ^ H.P. Isler, "Teatro e Odeon" in Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica (1997), citing G. E. Bean, T. Β. Mitförd, Journeys in Rough Cilicia 1964-1968 (Böhlau in Komm., 1970, ISBN 9783205042792), p. 130
  7. ^ Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. I, coll. 1011-1012
  8. ^ Raymond Janin, v. Colybrassos, in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. XIII, Parigi 1956, col. 351
  9. ^ Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 450
  10. ^ Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 873

External links[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

  • TIB 8: Hansgerd Hellenkemper and Friedrich Hild, "Lykien und Pamphylien", 2004, ISBN 3-7001-3280-8