Raphanea
Not to be confused with Raphana in southern Syria Phoenice
Raphanea or Raphaneae (present-day Rafniye) was a city of the late Roman province of Syria Secunda. Its bishopric was a suffragan of Apamea.
History
Josephus mentions Raphanea in connection with a stream that flowed only every seventh days (probably an intermittent spring now called Fuwar ed-Deir) and that was viewed by Titus on his way northward from Berytus after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.[1]
Near Emesa, Raphanea was the fortified headquarters of the Legio III Gallica from which was launched the successful bid of 14-year-old Elagabalus to become Roman Emperor in 218.[2]
Raphanea issued coins under Elagabalus,[3] and many of its coins are extant.[4][5][6]
Hierocles[7] and Georgius Cyprius[8] mention Raphanea among the towns of Syria Secunda. The crusaders passed through it at the end of 1099; it was taken by Baldwin I and was given to the Count of Tripoli.[9] It was then known as Rafania.[10]
Episcopal see
The only bishops of Raphanea known are:[10][11]
- Bassianus, present at the Nicaea, 325;
- Gerontius at Philippopolis, 344;
- Basil at Constantinople, 381;
- Lampadius at Chalcedon, 451;
- Zoilus about 518;
- Nonnus, 536.
The see is mentioned as late as the 10th century in the Notitia episcopatuum of Antioch.[10][12]
References
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- Raphanea(e) in the Tabula Peutingeriana
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- ↑ Josephus, The War of the Jews or The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem, book 7, chapter 5, 1
- ↑ Jasper Burns, Great Women of Imperial Rome (Routledge 2006 ISBN 978-1-13413185-3), p. 209
- ↑ Kevin Butcher, Roman Syria and the Near East (Getty Publications 2003 ISBN 978-0-89236715-3), p. 117
- ↑ American Numismatic Society: Raphanea
- ↑ Elagabalus AE21mm Raphanea in Syria
- ↑ Raphanea Genius Coin
- ↑ Synecdemus, 712, 8.
- ↑ 870 (Heinrich Gelzer, Georgii Cyprii descriptio orbis romani, 44)
- ↑ "Historiens des croisades", passim; Rey in "Bulletin de la Société des antiquaires de France", Paris, 1885, 266.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Sophrone Pétridès, "Rhaphanaea" in Catholic Encyclopedia (New York 1912)
- ↑ Le Quien, "Oriens christianus", II, 921.
- ↑ Vailhé, "Echos d'Orient", X, 94.
