Nakoleia

"Nacoleia" redirects here. For the genus of moths, see Nacoleia (moth).

Nakoleia (Greek: Νακώλεια^[1] and Νακόλεια^[2]) also known as Nakolaion (Νακώλαιον),^[1] Latinized as Nacolia or Nacolea, was an ancient and medieval city in Phrygia. It corresponds to present-day Seyitgazi, Eskişehir Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey.

History

It was a town of Phrygia Salutaris, taking its name in legend from the nymph Nacole (Νακώλη^[1] and Νακόλη^[2]), and had no history in antiquity.^[3]

A map of Byzantine Anatolia with Nakoleia located in the Opsician Theme

The area was known for its fertility in late Roman times, thanks to the river Parthenios (Seyit Su), and was wooded in the late 4th century (it is now deforested).^[4] It was there that Valens defeated the usurper Procopius in 366 AD (see Battle of Thyatira); under Arcadius it was occupied by a garrison of Goths under Tribigild who revolted against the emperor in 399 AD.^[4] As many towns in the region, the town venerated especially the archangel Michael and at least one church is attested to him in the town.^[5]

During the Byzantine-Arab wars in the 8th century, the town became a frequent target for Arab raids and was besieged several times. In 782, the town was temporarily captured by the Abbasid Caliphate in 782.^[3][4] Pantoleon the Deacon relates a story in the Miracula S. Michaelis in which attacking Arabs are forced to abandon their siege of the town by the intervention of the archangel after offending him by shooting with a catapult at his church.^[6]

The armies of the First Crusade most likely passed by this town in 1097.^[7] The town was permanently conquered by the Seljuk Turks in the late 12th century who called it Kala'-i-Mashihya, the Christian Castle.^[8]

Bishopric

At first a suffragan of Synnada, the see of Nakoleia became important in the early 8th century, when its bishop Constantine became one of the leading proponents of Byzantine Iconoclasm under Leo III the Isaurian (ruled 717–741) and was later condemned as an heresiarch at the Second Council of Nicaea (787).^[3][4] Nakoleia was elevated to the rank of an archbishopric between 787 and 862, and eventually to a metropolitan see between 1035 and 1066, when its incumbent appears in the last place among the metropolitans attending a council.^[3][4] The see continued in existence as a metropolis, without suffragans, until the 14th century.^[4] Nakoleia is included, with archiepiscopal rank, in the Catholic Church's list of titular sees^[9] and has been left without titular bishops since 1973.^[10]

References

1. Suda, nu, 19
2. Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, N467.9
3. Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Nacolia" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
4. Kazhdan, Alexander (1991). "Nakoleia". In Kazhdan, Alexander (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford University Press. p. 1434. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6.
5. Evcim, Seckin; Olcay Uçkan, Bedia Yelda (2019). Durak, Koray; Jevtic, Ivana (eds.). "The Other Beliefs in Byzantine Phrygia and Their Reflections in Rock-Cut Architecture". Identity and the other in Byzantium: Papers from the fourth International Sevgi Gönül Byzantine Studies Symposium, İstanbul 23–25 June 2016: 171–188. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
6. Theophanes Confessor (1997). The chronicle of Theophanes Confessor. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 630. ISBN 0198225687. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
7. Beihammer, Alexander Daniel (February 2017). Byzantium and the Emergence of Muslim-Turkish Anatolia, Ca. 1040-1130. Taylor & Francis. p. 308. ISBN 9781351983860. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
8. Brown, John P. (May 2013). The Darvishes Or Oriental Spiritualism. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781135029890. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
9. Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 936
10. "Nacolia (Titular See)". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. Retrieved 26 January 2014.

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