Harpasa is a Roman Catholic titular see in the former Roman province of Caria, suffragan of the archbishopric of Stauropolis.
Little is known of the history of this town, situated on the bank of the Harpasus, a tributary of the Mæander. It is mentioned by Ptolemy (V, ii, xix), by Stephanus Byzantius, by Hierocles (Syneed., 688) and by Pliny the Elder (V, xxix). According to Pliny, there was in the neighbourhood a rocking-stone which could be set in motion by a finger-touch, whereas the force of the whole body could not move it.
The Turkish village and ruined castle of Arpaz, in the district of Nazilli, preserves the old name.
Harpasa appears in the lists of the Notitiæ Episcopatuum until the twelfth or thirteenth century. Lequien (Oriens Christianus I, 907) mentions only four bishops: Phinias, who took part in the First Council of Ephesus in 431; Zoticus, represented at the Council of Chalcedon by the prespyter Philotheos, 451; Irenæus, an opponent of the Council of Chalcedon; Leo, in Constantinople at the Photian Council of 879.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.