Themisonium
Themisonium or Themisonion (Ancient Greek: Θεμισώνιον), was a town of ancient Phrygia, near the borders of Pisidia, whence in later times it was regarded as a town of Pisidia.[1] Pausanias relates that the Themisonians showed a cave, about 30 stadia from their town, in which, on the advice of Heracles, Apollo, and Hermes, they had concealed their wives and children during an invasion of the Celts, and in which afterwards they set up statues of these divinities. According to the Tabula Peutingeriana, Themisonium was 34 miles from Laodicea on the Lycus.[2]
In the late Roman Empire it belonged to the Roman province of Phrygia Pacatiana Prima.
Its bishopric was a suffragan of Laodicea in Phrygia, the capital and metropolitan see of the province.[3][4]
Its site is unlocated.[5]
Canonical status and jurisdiction
Themisonium is a titular see of the Catholic Church.[6]
From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
A titular see in Phrygia Pacatiana, suffragan of Laodicea. Themisonium was a city of Phrygia, but near the limits of Pisidia, so that at one time it was said to be in that province. The inhabitants relate that during an invasion of the Gauls, warned by a dream which they attributed to the gods, Hercules, Apollo, and Hermes, they took refuge with their wives and children in a grotto or cave thirty stadia from their city, and placed at the entrance for protection the statues of the three divinities. The coins of the city show the god, Lycabas Sozon. It may be identified with the village of Kara Eyuk Bazar, vilayet of Smyrna.
Le Quien (Oriens christianus, I, 813) mentions the name of only one bishop of Themisonium, but he really belongs to Temenothyrae. On the other hand (ibid., 821), there was a see at Thampsiopolis, with two bishops: Zosimus, who lived in 451, and John, present at the Council of Constantinople, 869. These two sees are certainly one and the same: Thampsiopolis, mentioned in the "Notitiae episcopatuum" from the tenth to the thirteenth century, is no other than Themisonium. If the earlier "Notitiae episcopatuum" says nothing of this see it is probably because it was united with Agathe Come, of whose bishops there is no notice, and which disappeared from the later "Notitiae". To the two bishops mentioned above we may add Magnus, present at the Council of Seleucia, 359.
SMITH, Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Georg., s. v.; RAMSAY, Asia Minor (London, 1890), 135; IDEM, The cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia (New York, 1895), 260, 274, and passim.
References
- Back to citation Strabo. Geographica. Vol. xii. p.576. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition; Pausanias (1918). "32.1". Description of Greece. Vol. 10. Translated by W. H. S. Jones; H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann – via Perseus Digital Library; Ptolemy. The Geography. Vol. 5.2.26; Stephanus of Byzantium. Ethnica. Vol. sub voce; Pliny. Naturalis Historia. Book 5.29; Hierocles. Synecdemus. Vol. p. 674; Ravenna Cosmography, 1.18.
- Back to citation Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Themisonium
- Back to citation Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 986
- Back to citation Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Themisonium". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- Back to citation Talbert, Richard, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-691-03169-9, with accompanying Map-by-Map Directory.
- Back to citation Wikidata item Q776351