Alia (Phrygia)

Alia was a town of ancient Phrygia, inhabited in Roman and Byzantine times.^[1] It was located in the Roman province of Phrygia Pacatiana, whose capital was Laodicea on the Lycus, and became the seat of a bishop. The names of some of the bishops of Alia are known through their participation in church councils: Caius at the Council of Chalcedon (451), Glaucus at the Second Council of Constantinople (553), Leo at the Second Council of Nicaea (787), and Michael and Georgius, the one a supporter of Patriarch Ignatius of Constantinople, the other a supporter of Photius, at the Council of Constantinople (879).^[2][3]

No longer a residential bishopric, Alia is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.^[4][5]

Some authorities locate the town at Islamköy, now known as Banaz;^[6] others identify a place near Asar,^[1][7] both of which are in Asiatic Turkey.

References

1. Richard Talbert, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 62, and directory notes accompanying. ISBN 978-0-691-03169-9.
2. Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. I, coll. 807-810
3. Sophrone Pétridès, v. 1. Alia, in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. II, Paris 1914, col. 442
4. Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 829
5. Catholic Hierarchy
6. GCatholic
7. Lund University. Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.