- Cambysopolis
Cambysopolis is the non-classical name of a Roman Catholic
titular bishopric in the former Roman province ofAsia Minor . The name is owing to a mistake of some medieval geographer.Ancient and ecclesiastical history
After his victory at Issus (333 B.C.)
Alexander the Great built, near the ancient town ofMyriandros , a city called after himAlexandria Minor (or "Alexandria ad Issum", or, more frequently "Alexandria Scabiosa", i.e. mountainous).It became a suffragan diocese of
Anazarbus , the metropolis of the Roman province ofCilicia Secunda .Lequien (II, 903) mentions a dozen bishops; among them
*St. Helenus , martyr
*St. Aristion , martyr
*St. Theodore, martyr
* Paulus, aMonophysite (christologic heretic from the Catholic and orthodox point of view)) (E.W. Brooks, The Sixth Book of the Select Letters of Severus, II, 98).In an Antiochene "
Notitia episcopatuum " of the tenth century [A.P. Kerameus, Maurocordatos' Library (Greek), Constantinople, 1884, p. 66] , instead of "Alexandria Scabiosa", we read the strange form "Alexandroukambousou", in one word. A little later, and surely in the twelfth century, this corrupt form was mistaken for two names and thus arose Alexandrou "and" Kambysou (polis). Hence came two episcopal titles connected with one city, and the name Cambysopolis passed into all the Greek and Latin "Notitiae episcopatuum". TheRoman Curia preserved only the title Cambysopolis; the correct Ancient name, Alexandria Scabiosa, exists no more.Modern history
The city, situated on the bay of the same name, was later called
Alexandretta , and by the TurksIskanderoun when it was in thevilayet (Ottoman province) ofAleppo , and was united to that Syrian latter city by a carriage-road. In the early 20th century it had about 7000 inhabitants (3000 Greeks, 500 Catholics of Latin and Eastern Rites). The Catholic parish was conducted byCarmelites , and there are attached to it Sisters of St. Joseph.On 10 August 1920 the whole
Sandjak (district within the vilayet) of Alexandretta became part ofFrench Syria , and thus on 23 September 1923 part ofAlawite (Latakia) State of French Syria, where in March 1926 - June 1926 the separateState of Alexandretta within French Syria declared, but not recognized by French authorities.On 5 September 1938 the Sandjak of Alexandretta was again separated from Syria as
State of Hatay (under French protection). On 23 July 1939 it was incorporated into the modern republic of Turkey.ources
*Catholic
* [http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Turkey.html#Hatay WorldStatesmen- Turkey]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
