Aureliopolis

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

Aureliopolis in this entry is Tmolus-Aureliopolis, a city and episcopal see of Lydia under the metropolis of Sardis; it must be distinguished from the separate Catholic title Aureliopolis in Asia.

Tmolus and Aureliopolis

The city called Tmolus stood in Lydia near the mountain range of the same name. Coinage of the Roman imperial period uses both the Tmolian ethnic and the name Aureliopolis, linking the two designations in contemporary evidence. The new honorific name was adopted in the age of Marcus Aurelius or soon afterward rather than describing a separate Christian foundation.

Modern gazetteers place the ancient community in the vicinity of Salihli in western Türkiye, but its exact urban remains are less securely defined than those of neighboring Sardis. The historical identification rests on combined geographical, numismatic, and ecclesiastical evidence. It should not be expressed as a certainty about every proposed ruin.

Evidence from civic coinage

Coins catalogued by the Roman Provincial Coinage project pair the name Aureliopolis with the people of Tmolus and depict the mountain god Tmolos. They give direct ancient evidence that the old and new names belonged together. Coin types document civic identity, not the date at which a bishopric began.[1]

Two Catholic titles

Aureliopolis in Lydia is distinct from Aureliopolis in Asia, another late-antique see preserved in Catholic directories. The qualifiers were standardized to prevent appointments and historical lists from being confused. The unqualified title in the 1913 notice is identified as Lydia because it names Sardis's province and cites the Lydian succession.[2][3]

Bishops and councils

Antiochus of Tmolus or Aureliopolis is associated with the Council of Nicaea in 325. John participated in the Council of Ephesus in 431, and other bishops appear in synodal and conciliar documents through the eighth century. The well-known date of Ephesus is 431; an occasional printed 321 is a transcription error.

Theodotus is connected with councils at Constantinople in the late seventh century, and Nicholas appears at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. Such subscriptions identify the bishop and ecclesiastical province at a moment in time. They do not demonstrate that the same civic name or diocesan rank remained unchanged between every recorded council.

Suffragan of Sardis

Aureliopolis belonged to the ecclesiastical province of Lydia under the metropolitan bishop of Sardis. Byzantine notitiae continued to list the see into the medieval period. Its rank in those lists expresses administrative order, while archaeology and documentary history are needed to assess the town's size and eventual decline.

The residential bishopric disappeared as the political and demographic geography of western Anatolia changed. Later Latin use of the title did not restore that territorial church. Distinguishing residential succession, notitial memory, and titular appointment keeps three different kinds of evidence in their proper places.

Modern titular usage and the old entry

Catholic directories now call the title Aureliopolis in Lydia. They record a succession of Latin titular bishops and show the see as vacant after 2004. A vacancy can change, so the enduring point is the title's identity and province rather than a supposedly permanent present holder.[4]

The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia offered only the province and dates 325 to 787. The modern article adds the Tmolus identification, direct numismatic evidence, conciliar context, and the essential distinction from Aureliopolis in Asia. The original sentence is retained below solely as a marked historical source.

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

A titular see of Lydia in Asia Minor, whose episcopal list (325-787) is given in Gams (p. 447).[5]

References

  1. 1.Roman Provincial Coinage: Tmolus-Aureliopolis — Oxford-based catalogue record directly linking the names Tmolus and Aureliopolis
  2. 2.Pleiades: Tmolus/Aureliopolis — Scholarly ancient-world gazetteer record for the Lydian city and its location
  3. 3.GCatholic: Aureliopolis in Lydia — Historical directory account of the title's province, renaming, and later use
  4. 4.Catholic-Hierarchy: Aureliopolis in Lydia — Directory record distinguishing the Lydian titular see and listing its holders
  5. 5.1913 Catholic Encyclopedia: Aureliopolis