Apamea_(Bithynia)

Apamea Myrlea

Apamea Myrlea

Human settlement

Apamea Myrlea (/ˌæpəˈmiːə mərˈliːə/; Ancient Greek: Απάμεια Μύρλεια) was an ancient city and bishopric (Apamea in Bithynia) on the Sea of Marmara, in Bithynia, Anatolia; its ruins are a few kilometers south of Mudanya, Bursa Province in the Marmara Region of Asian Turkey.

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Name

To distinguish this city from the many others called Apamea,[1][2][3] the name Apamea Myrlea used here adds to the name (Apamea) it was given when rebuilt as an important city the name (Myrlea) it previously bore as a smaller town.[4] It was also referred to as Apamea Myrlēon (Apamea of Myrlea).[5]

History

The town was founded as a colony of the Colophonians and was called Μύρλεια (Myrleia or Myrlea). Philip V of Macedon took the town, as it appears, during his war against the king of Pergamon, and gave it to his ally, King Prusias I of Bithynia, who fortified and enlarged it – indeed almost rebuilt it[6] – around 202 BC, renaming it Ἀπάμεια (transcribed as Apameia, Apamea, or Apamia), after his wife, Apama III.[2]

The place was on the west coast of the Gulf of Gemlik, and northwest of Bursa, then called Prusa, for which it served as a port.[1]

The Romans made Apamea a colonia, apparently in the time of Augustus, or perhaps Julius Caesar, in view of the adjective "Iulia" that appear on its coins under Roman rule.[2] Its earlier coins were stamped Ἀπαμέων Μυρλεάνων, but in Roman times they bore the label C.I.C.A. (= Colonia Iulia Concordia Apamea).[7]

When Pliny the Younger was governor of Bithynia, he consulted Trajan about a claim by the colonia not to have its accounts of receipts and expenditures examined by the Roman governor.[2]

A passage of Ulpian shows use of the adjectival form of the name was Apamenus: "Apamena: est in Bithynia colonia Apamena.[2]

Ecclesiastical history

This Apamea in the Late Roman province of Bithynia became the seat of a Christian bishop in the 4th century and was at first a suffragan of Nicaea, but became an autocephalous archdiocese some time before the Fourth Council of Constantinople (Roman Catholic) in 869, at which its archbishop Paulus took part.[8][9]

Titular see

No longer a residential bishopric, Apamea in Bithynia is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see,[10] of the intermediary Archiepiscopal rank.

Since the Latin Catholic archdiocese was thus nominally restored (in ?1633), it has had the following archiepiscopal incumbents, but is vacant since decades :

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Hogarth, David George (1911). "Apamea s.v. 4" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). p. 159.
  2. [2]
    "Apameia" in William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854)
  3. [3]
    See also the disambiguation page Apamea
  4. [4]
    Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, entry "Ăpămēa"
  5. [5]
    William Smith, A Classical Dictionary, p. 83
  6. [6]
    William Smith, A Classical Dictionary, p. 581
  7. [7]
    Asia Minor Coins – ancient coins of Apamea
  8. [8]
    Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. I, coll. 655–658
  9. [9]
    Gaetano Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica, Vol. 2, p. 235
  10. [10]
    Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 834

Further reading
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