Location | Turkey |
---|---|
Region | Bursa Province |
Coordinates | 40°22′35″N 28°53′00″E / 40.37639°N 28.88333°E |
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.
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]
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]
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]
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 :