Arcadiopolis

Evidence type: Historical account
GuideThe narrative and institutional claims in this entry are judged by historical evidence. Any doctrinal text it reports retains its own magisterial authority and must be graded proposition by proposition.
Contents

Arcadiopolis in this ecclesiastical entry is the late-antique city and episcopal see in the Roman province of Asia, probably associated with the vicinity of modern Tire in western Türkiye, and not the better-known Thracian Arcadiopolis at Lüleburgaz.

Which Arcadiopolis?

Several late-antique cities were named for an emperor Arcadius, and surviving church lists contain more than one Arcadiopolis. The 1913 entry's placement in Asia Minor and its references to the Ephesian province identify Arcadiopolis in Asia. The Thracian city, now Lüleburgaz, belonged to Europa and had a separate episcopal succession.

Arcadiopolis in Asia is commonly associated with the vicinity of Tire in the Küçük Menderes valley. The identification is less archaeologically secure than that of many major ancient cities, so the modern location should be expressed as probable rather than as a precisely excavated episcopal quarter.

The distinguishing provincial name

Modern Catholic directories add in Asia to the title precisely to avoid ambiguity. The qualifier refers to the Roman province of Asia, not to the entire continent. It also separates the see from Arcadiopolis in Europe and from namesakes reported in Egypt and other regions.[1]

A renamed late-antique community

Arcadiopolis may represent an older settlement renamed in imperial honor. Such renamings complicate the comparison of classical geography, council acts, and medieval episcopal lists. A change of name need not indicate a new city, while a similar name in another province need not indicate the same one.

Bishops in the council record

Bishops assigned to Arcadiopolis in Asia appear in the records of the ecumenical councils from the fifth century onward. Alexander is connected with the Council of Ephesus in 431, while later representatives occur in the documentation of Chalcedon and Constantinople. The subscriptions locate the see within the ecclesiastical province centered on Ephesus.

Christopher of Arcadiopolis in Asia is named in the acts of the Second Council of Constantinople in 553. Later lists connect bishops of the see with the Quinisext Council and the Second Council of Nicaea. These witnesses establish continuity at intervals, not a complete year-by-year succession from 431 to 879.[2]

Province and later notitiae

As a suffragan of Ephesus, Arcadiopolis occupied a defined place in the hierarchy of the patriarchate of Constantinople. Byzantine notitiae continued to list the see after the age of the early councils. Their rankings can change over time and need not measure the population or prosperity of the town.[3]

The residential bishopric eventually disappeared amid the demographic and political transformation of western Anatolia. No single entry in a notitia records the whole process. The later absence of a bishop and the survival of a remembered title are separate historical facts.

Titular see and the older notice

The Latin Catholic Church preserved the name as Arcadiopolis in Asia among its titular sees. In 1933 the expanded form was adopted in directories to distinguish it from Arcadiopolis in Europe. The title is now vacant and conveys no territorial jurisdiction over Tire.

The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia acknowledged two sees of the same name but printed bare date ranges from older episcopal catalogues. The fuller article explains which one the entry concerns and why council subscriptions, provincial affiliation, and cautious geography matter more than a compressed list of dates.[4]

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

A titular see of Asia Minor. Its episcopal list (431-879) is given in Gams (p. 444); there is also in Gams (p. 427) the episcopal list of another see of the same name (431-879).[5]

LEQUIEN, Oriens Christ. (1740), I, 1711-12.

References

  1. 1.GCatholic: Arcadiopolis in Asia — Directory history of the title and its 1933 distinguishing name
  2. 2.Acts of the Second Council of Constantinople — Modern scholarly translation of the council acts naming Christopher of Arcadiopolis in Asia
  3. 3.Catholic-Hierarchy: Arcadiopolis in Asia — Current directory record for the distinguished titular see and its province
  4. 4.Corpus Notitiarum Episcopatuum — Scholarly corpus for interpreting Byzantine episcopal lists and provincial order
  5. 5.1913 Catholic Encyclopedia: Arcadiopolis