Pharbaetus

Pharbaetus (Pharbaethus) is a Catholic titular see. The original diocese was a suffragan of Leontopolis, in Augustamnica Secunda, Egypt.

The name is the transcription, with the Coptic article P, of the Egyptian name Harbait (Harbayt, Harbet, Horbeit). This name is reproduced under the form Karbeuthos in George of Cyprus. ["Descriptio orbis romani", ed. Gelzer, 706.] It is the capital of the nome of this name in Lower Egypt described by Herodotus [II, 166.] , Strabo [XVII, i, 20.] , and Pliny [V, 9, 11.] .

Bishops

There is a record of Bishop Arbetion at Nicæa in 325 [Gelzer, "Patrum nicænorum nomina", LX.] , and Bishop Theodorus in 1086 [Renaudot, "Historia patriarcharum alexandrinorum", 458.] , but it is possible that the latter was bishop of another Pharbætus situated further to the west, and which according to Vansleb was equally a Coptic see. John of Nikiu [Chronicle, CV.] relates that under the Emperor Phocas (602-10) the clerics of the province killed the Greek governor Theophilus.

References

*Heinrich Gelzer, "Georgii Cyprii Descriptio orbis romani", 114-16;
*ROUGÉ, Géographie ancienne de la Basse Egypte (Paris, 1891), 66-74;
*AMÉLINEAU, La Géographie de l'Egypte à l' époque copte (Paris, 1893), 330.

Notes