Barca

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This article is about a city or area in eastern present-day Libya during its Greek and Roman antiquities. For the same area during its Islamic, Ottoman or subsequent eras, see Barqah. For the football club "Barça", see FC Barcelona. For all other uses see Barca (disambiguation).

Barca or Barce (Arabic: برقة‎)was an ancient Greek colony and later Roman, Byzantine, city in North Africa. It occupied the coastal area of what is modern day Libya. As a Greek city it was part of the Cyrenaican Pentapolis along with the city of Cyrene itself.

According to most archeologists, it was situated at Al Marj, but according to Graham (Roman Africa) at Tolometa, or Tolmeita.

[edit] History

It became part of the Exarchate of Africa until it was conquered by the Arabs in 643-644 CE during the Islamic conquest of North Africa and originally served as the capital of a homonymous province of the Caliphate. When the Ottoman Turks conquered the region in 1521 they adopted the Arabic name Barqah in Turkish, but not the city's status as capital.

After often being destroyed and then restored, during the Roman period it became a mere borough but was, nevertheless, the site of a bishopric. Its bishop, Zopyros (Zephyrius is a mistake), was present at the Council of Nicaea in 325. The subscriptions at Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451) give the names of two other bishops, Zenobius and Theodorus. The see must have disappeared when the Arabs conquered the Pentapolis in 643-44.

It is now a Roman Catholic titular see of Cyrenaica in Libya, Northern Africa, but vacant.

The modern city on the same site, Al Marj, grew up around a 19th century Turkish fort. It was developed by the Italians during their colonial dominance of Libya and today has a population of 120 000.