Rhosus

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For the moth genus, see Rhosus (moth).

Rhosus is the name of several ancient sites and/or present Roman Catholic titular sees in what is now Turkey.

Contents 1 Cilician Rhos(s)us 2 Other 3 Sources and references 4 Notes

[edit] Cilician Rhos(s)us

A titular bishopric in the former Roman province of Cilicia Secunda, suffragan to Anazarba. Rhosus or Rhossus was a seaport situated on the Gulf of Issus, later Alexandretta, southwest of Alexandria (modern Iskenderoun or Alexandretta). It is mentioned by Strabo^[1], Ptolemy^[2], Pliny the Elder^[3] who (mis?)places it in Syria and Stephanus Byzantius; later by Hierocles^[4], and George of Cyprus^[5], who locate it in Cilicia Secunda.

Towards 200 AD, Serapion of Antioch composed a treatise on the Gospel of Peter for the faithful of Rhosus who had become heterodox on account of that book^[6]. Theodoret^[7], who places it in Cilicia, relates the history of the hermit Theodosius of Antioch, founder of a monastery in the mountain near Rhosus, who was forced by the inroads of barbarians to retire to Antioch, where he died and was succeeded by his disciple Romanus, a native of Rhosus; these two religious are honoured by the Greek Church on 5 and 9 February.

Six bishops of Rhosus are known^[8]:

• Antipatros, at the Council of Antioch, 363
• Porphyrius, a correspondent of St. John Chrysostom
• Julian, at the Council of Chalcedon, 451
• a little later a bishop (name unknown), who separated from his metropolitan to approve of the reconciliation effected between John of Antioch and St. Cyril
• Antoninus, at the Council of Mopsuestia, 550; Theodore, about 600.

The see is mentioned among the suffragans of Anazarba in Notitiæ episcopatuum of the Patriarchate of Antioch, of the sixth century^[9] and one dating from about 840^[10]. In another of the tenth century Rhosus is included among the exempt sees^[11].

In the twelfth century the town and neighbouring fortress fell into the hands of the Armenians. In 1268 this castle was captured from the Templars by Sultan Bibars^[12]. Rhosus is near the village of Arsous in the former Ottoman vilayet of Adana.

[edit] Other

• a place on the Pierian coast in Macedonia, site of the wedding of Seleucus I Nicator, king of Syria, and Stratonice, daughter of king Demetrius I Poliorcetes.

[edit] Sources and references

• "Rhosus". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company. 
• "Rosea". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company. 

[edit] Notes

1. ^ XIV, 5; XVI, 2.
2. ^ V, 14.
3. ^ V, xviii, 2.
4. ^ Synecdemus 705, 7.
5. ^ Descriptio orbis romani, 827.
6. ^ Eusebius, "Histor. eccles.", VI, xii, 2.
7. ^ Philoth. Histor., X, XI.
8. ^ Le Quien, Oriens christianus, II, 905.
9. ^ Vailhé in "Echos d'Orient", X, 145.
10. ^ Gustav Parthey, Hieroclis synecd. et notit. gr. episcopat., not. Ia, 827.
11. ^ Vailhé, ibid. 93 seq.
12. ^ Alishan, "Sissouan", Venice, 1899, 515.

This article incorporates text from the entry Rhosus in the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.