Arsuz (
Arabic: أرسوز;
Greek: Αρσούς) is a municipality and
district of
Hatay Province,
Turkey.[2] Its area is 462 km2,[3] and its population is 101,233 (2022).[1] It covers the southwestern part of the agglomeration of
İskenderun and the adjacent countryside and coast. In ancient times, it was known as Rhosus (
Ancient Greek: Ῥῶσός and Ῥωσός[4]) and was a former
bishopric and
titular see.
Geography
The town center of Arsuz is located 40 kilometres (25 mi) South of İskenderun and 118 kilometres (73 mi) from
Antakya (administrative center of Hatay Province). While the town center is relatively small near the end of a coastal road leading south from İskenderun, the entire coastal region between İskenderun and the town center is often simply referred as Arsuz. This area is predominantly small rural farms (generally located inland towards the mountains) and small groups of summer homes (generally located near the coastline).
History
Arsuz had many names throughout history, including: Rhosus, Rhossos, Rhossus, Rhopolis, Port Panel/Bonnel, Kabev and Arsous. The earliest documents about it date from the
Seleucid Empire, of whose
Antioch became the capital.
Malalas writes that the city was founded by Cilix, son of Agenor.[5][6]Harpalus erected a brazen statue of
Glycera by the side of his own statue at Rhosus.[7][8]Demetrius I of Macedon moved the statue of the goddess
Tyche from
Antigonia to the Rhosos.[6]
Some Christians in Rhosus accepted as truth the
DoceticGospel of Peter and for them in around AD 200
Serapion of Antioch composed a treatise condemning the book.[15]Theodoret[16] relates the history of the hermit Theodosius of Antioch, founder of a monastery in the mountain near Rhosus, who was forced by the inroads of barbarians to retire to Antioch, where he died and was succeeded by his disciple Romanus, a native of Rhosus; these two religious are honoured by the
Greek Orthodox Church on 5 and 9 February.[14]
Between 1918 and 1938 the town was under
French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon with the rest of Iskenderun district. In 1938, it became part of the independent
Hatay Republic, but in June 1939 the Hatay legislature voted to join Turkey. The district Arsuz was created in 2013 from part of the district of
İskenderun.[18][19]
German traveler
Martin Hartmann listed 31 settlements in the Ottoman
nahiyah of Arsuz, 10 being
Alawite (381 houses), 8 being
Turkish (205 houses), and 12 without any information. The town of Arsuz (70 houses) was almost wholly
Greek Christian with the exception of three Arab and one Turkish families.[21]
Theodore, about 600, mentioned by monk-hagiographer
John Moschus.
Titular see
No later than the 15th century the diocese was nominally restored as Latin
titular bishopric of Rhosus (Latin) / Rosea (until 1925) / Roso (Curiate Italian) / Rhosien(sis) (Latin adjective)
It is vacant since decades, having had the following incumbents, so far of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank:[26]
Jean de Montmartin,
Friars Minor (O.F.M.) (1434.09.01 – death 1436?), no actual prelature
Heinrich Hopfgarten (1455.11.21 – 1460.03.24) as
Auxiliary Bishop of
Archdiocese of Mainz (Germany) (1455.11.21 – 1460.03.24); later Bishop of
Risano (1455.11.21 – 1460.03.24)
Daniel [no last name?!],
Augustinian Order (O.E.S.A.) (1470.12.10 – death 1487?), no actual prelature
Adrien Aernoult, O. Carm. (1517.09.18 – 1536.11) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Diocese of Cambrai (France) (1517.09.18 – 1536.11)
Miguel de Sanguesa,
Cistercian Order (O. Cist.) (1537.04.20 – 1548) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Tarazona (Spain) (1537.04.20 – 1548); later Bishop of
Risano (1537.04.29 – death 1548)
Johann Michael Wenzel von Spaur (1722.04.20 – death 1743.03.28) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Diocese of Trento (Italy) (1722.04.20 – 1743.03.28)
Claude-François-Ignace Franchet de Rans (1756.04.05 – death 1810.02.21) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Archdiocese of Besançon (France) (1756.04.05 – 1810.02.21)
János Bradács, O.S.B.M. (1768.01.27 – 1771.09.19) as last Vicar Apostolic of
Mukacheve of the Ruthenians (Ukraine) (1768.01.27 – 1771.09.19), next promoted as first Bishop of Mukacheve of the Ruthenians (1771.09.19 – death 1772.07.04)
Bernard Angus MacEachern (1819.01.12 – 1829.08.11) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Archdiocese of Québec (
Canada) (1819.01.12 – 1829.08.11), later first Bishop of
Charlottetown (Canada) (1829.08.11 – death 1835.04.23)
Antonio Burbano, O.E.S.A. (1837.05.19 – death 1839?) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Popayán (
Colombia) (1837.05.19 – 1839?)
Joannes Bocheński (1850.05.20 – death 1857.01.25) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Lviv of the Ukrainians (Byzantine Rite Metropolitanate, Ukraine) (1850.05.20 – 1857.01.25)
Pietro Saulini (1876.06.26 – death 1878.02.28) as Bishop of
Alatri (Italy) (1878.02.28 – 1887)
Emmanuel-Marie-Ange de Briey (1880.02.27 – 1884.08.30) as
Coadjutor Bishop of
Meaux (France) ([1880.02.12] 1880.02.27 – 1884.08.30), next succeeded as Bishop of Meaux (1884.08.30 – death 1909.12.11)
Gennaro Portanova (1883.08.09 – 1885.02.01) as Coadjutor Bishop of
Ischia (Italy) (1883.08.09 – 1885.02.01); later succeeding as Bishop of Ischia (1885.02.01 – 1888.03.16), Metropolitan Archbishop of
Reggio Calabria (Italy) (1888.03.16 – 1908.04.25), created
Cardinal-Priest of
S. Clemente (1899.06.22 – 1908.04.25)
Trudo Johannes Jans, O.F.M. (1923.12.13 – 1929.09.09) as last
Apostolic Vicar of
Southwestern Hupeh 湖北南境 (China) (1923.12.13 – 1924.12.03), restyled first Apostolic Vicar of
Apostolic Vicar of
Yichang 宜昌 (China) (1924.12.03 – death 1929.09.09)
José Garibi Rivera (1929.12.16 – 1934.12.22) as Auxiliary Bishop of Guadalajara (
Mexico) (1929.12.16 – 1934.12.22); later
Titular Archbishop of
Bizya (1934.12.22 – 1936.02.18) as
Coadjutor Archbishop of
Guadalajara (Mexico) (1934.12.22 – 1936.02.18), succeeding as Metropolitan Archbishop of Guadalajara (Mexico) (1936.02.18 – retired 1969.03.01), created
Cardinal-Priest of
S. Onofrio (1958.12.18 – death 1972.05.27), President of Conferencia del Episcopado Mexicano (C.E.M.) (1960 – 1963)
Pétridès, Sophron (1912). "Rosea" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Bibliography
Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig, 1931, p. 436
Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris, 1740, Tomo II, coll. 905-908
Konrad Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi, vol. 1, p. 423 (note 4 on 'Rosensis'); vol. 2, pp. 224–225; vol. 3, p. 287; vol. 5, p. 334; vol. 6, p. 357