Ptolemais in Phoenicia

Coordinates: 32°55′42″N 35°5′2″E / 32.92833°N 35.08389°E / 32.92833; 35.08389
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Old City of Acre
UNESCO World Heritage Site
A coin of Ake (later Ptolemais), depicting Zeus and bearing the Phoenician legend 𐤏𐤊 (ʿK), fron the coinage of Alexander the Great
LocationIsrael
Reference1042
Inscription2001 (25th Session)
Area63.3 ha (156 acres)
Buffer zone22.99 ha (56.8 acres)
Coordinates32°55′42″N 35°5′2″E / 32.92833°N 35.08389°E / 32.92833; 35.08389
Ptolemais in Phoenicia is located in Mediterranean
Ptolemais in Phoenicia
Location of Ptolemais in Phoenicia in Mediterranean
Ptolemais in Phoenicia is located in Israel
Ptolemais in Phoenicia

Ptolemais was a ancient port city on the Canaanite coast in the ancient region of Phoenicia, in the location of the present-day city of Acre, Israel. It was also called Ptolemais in Canaan and Ake-Ptolemais (or Akko, Ake, or Akre in Canaanite Language). It was an ancient bishopric that became a double Catholic titular see.

In the Middle Ages, it was known as Acre amongst some

Latin Christian
order.

History

Greek historians refer to the city as Ake (Ἄκη), meaning "cure."[

Lagid empire, then in the Seleucid Empire
.

Around 37 BC, the Romans conquered the Hellenized Phoenician port city called Akko. It became a colony in southern Roman Phoenicia, called Colonia Claudia Felix Ptolemais Garmanica Stabilis.[2] Ptolemais stayed Roman for nearly seven centuries until the Muslim conquest in 636. Under Augustus, a gymnasium was built in the city. In 4 BC, the Roman proconsul Publius Quinctilius Varus assembled his army there to suppress the revolts that broke out in the region following the death of Herod the Great.

The Romans built a breakwater and expanded the harbor at the present location of the harbor... In the Roman/Byzantine period, Acre-Ptolemais was an important port city. It minted its own coins, and its harbor was one of the main gates to the land. Through this port the Roman Legions came by ship to crush the Jewish revolt in 67AD. It also served was used as connections to the other ports (for example, Caesarea and Jaffa)....The port of Acre (Ptolemais) was a station on Paul's naval travel, as described in Acts of the Gospels (21, 6-7): "And when we had taken our leave one of another, we took ship; and they returned home again. And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, and saluted the brethren, and abode with them one day".[3]

During the rule of the emperor Claudius there was a building drive in Ptolemais and veterans of the legions settled here. The city was one of four colonies (with Berytus, Aelia Capitolina, and Caesarea Maritima) created in the Levant by Roman emperors for veterans of their Roman legions.[4] As a result, Claudius granted it the title Colonia Claudia Felix Ptolemais Garmanica Stabilis.

The city was a center of

Latin
and were fully assimilated within less than two centuries. However, local customs remained Roman.

In 66, Gessius Florus, the

Procurator of Judea, conducted an initial massacre of the Jews living in the city. The next year, the Roman military commander Vespasian, accompanied by his son Titus, moved from Ptolemais to suppress a Jewish uprising in the Galilee campaign
.

In 130, the port of Ptolemais was used as a base for the

Bar-Kochba revolt. After the destruction of Jerusalem many Jews settled in Ptolemais, that was losing its original Phoenician characteristics since Augustus
times.

Ake-Ptolemais was a port near ancient Galilee

In 190, Christianity started to be important in the city: Clarus, the Bishop of Ptolemais, participated in a council of Christian leaders. Ptolemais grew to be an important port in the eastern Mediterranean Sea of the Roman Empire. After Hadrianic times, Ptolemais was the commercial center & port of Jewish Galilee and was starting no longer part of Phoenicia.

In 351, Constantius Gallus suppressed a Jewish rebellion and massacred the Jews of Akko-Ptolemais, who were starting to be the majority of the city's population and rejected Roman domination.

Under Byzantine control, the city lost importance, and around 636 was conquered by Amr ibn al-As. Following the defeat of the Byzantine army of Heraclius by the Rashidun army of Khalid ibn al-Walid in the Battle of the Yarmuk and the capitulation of the Christian city of Jerusalem to Umar, Ptolemais was ruled by the Rashidun Caliphate beginning in 638.

Christianity center

Ptolemais was an important center of early Christianity in the region. Saint Paul visited the city at the end of his third missionary journey.

Towards the end of the third century, Ptolemais was a predominantly Christian city, but with a large Jewish community. An unidentified visitor from Italy reported that in the sixth century, the city had beautiful churches. Indeed, an important discovery was made in 2011: a Byzantine church in the middle of San Giovanni d'Acri, as it was called in the Middle Ages.[5]

Ecclesiastical History

Bishops of Ptolemais in Syria

The

Apostle Paul, returning from his trip to Macedonia and Achea, landed at Tyre
, and from there sailed to Ptolemais, where he stayed some days with the local Christian community (Acts 21.7).

Ptolemais became of

suffragan
of the Metropolitan Archbishopric of Tyre.

The first bishop known is Clarus, who in 190 AD attended a Council meeting which saw some bishops of Phoenicia and Palestine to deal with the issue of the date of the Easter feast. But we must go back to the fourth century to find the next Bishop, Enea, who took part at the first Council of Nicaea in 325 AD and at the Synod held in Antioch in 341 AD. Nectabus was one of the fathers of the first Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 381 AD. Between the 4th and 5th centuries lived Bishop Antiochus, opponent of John Chrysostom. Helladius participated in the first Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. Paul took part in the Council held at Antioch of 445 AD to judge the work of Athanasius of Perrhe and at the Council of Chalcedon of 451 AD. In 518 AD Bishop John signed a Synodal letter against Severus of Antioch and the Monophysite party. Finally, the last known Bishop of Ptolemais is George, who attended the second Council of Constantinople in 553 AD.

It faded after Islam was established in Greater Syria in the 7th century by the first Caliphs, conquering the Sassanid satrapy.

Crusaders

Acre Tower

In the 12th century, the Crusaders started all over in their Kingdom of Jerusalem. From 1107 - 1190 AD including a Latin Catholic Diocese of Acre. Then reconquered in the 13th century for another further decades of Christian domination with Jewish communities peacefully living together.

Titular sees

Long after the Crusader states had perished, the Catholic church nominally restored the see (linked to the Acre succession) as a titular see, actually twice, in different rite-specific branches.

Latin titular see

  • Established by nominal restoration as Episcopal
    Titular bishopric
    of Ptolemais (Latin) / Tolemaide (Curiate Italian)
  • Gained 'territory' (i.e. apostolic succession) in 1870? from the suppressed Episcopal Titular bishopric of Acre (Akka), but suppressed circa 1895
  • Restored and promoted in 1909 as Titular archbishopric of Ptolemais (Latin) / Tolemaide (Italian)
  • Demoted back in 1925 as Episcopal Titular bishopric of Ptolemais (Latin) / Tolemaide (Italian; in 1926 renamed as Tolemaide di Fenicia)
  • Renamed in 1933 as Titular bishopric of Ptolemais in Phœnicia (Latin) / Tolemaide di Fenicia (Italian) / Ptolemaiden(sis) in Phœnicia (Latin adjective)

It is vacant since decades, having had the following incumbents, so far of the (mostly fitting) Episcopal, i.e. lowest) rank (with an archiepiscopal exception) :

BIOs TO BE ELABORATED
  • Edmundo Luís Kunz (1955.08.01 – 1988.09.12)
  • Louis-Eugène-Arsène Turquetil, O.M.I. (1931.12.15 – 1955.06.14)
  • Titular Archbishop: Augustin Dontenwill, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (O.M.I.) (1909.01.19 – 1931.11.30)
  • Cassien-Léonard de Peretti (1875.03.31 – 1892.02.22)
  • Carmelo Pascucci (1871.10.27 – 1874.04.22)

Maronite titular see

(

Antiochian Rite
)

  • Established as Episcopal
    Titular bishopric
    of Giovanni S. d’Acri (Latin 'Saint John of Acre') / Tolemaide di Siria (Curiate Italian), suppressed in 1890 but restored under those 'Crusader' names in 1919;
  • Renamed in 1925 as Titular bishopric of Ptolemais (Latin) / Tolemaide (Curiate Italian; in 1926: renamed Tolemaide di Fenicia), suppressed in 1933
  • Restored in 1956 as Episcopal Titular bishopric of Ptolemais in Phœnicia (Latin) / Tolemaide di Fenicia (Curiate Italian) / Ptolemaiden(sis) in Phœnicia Maronitarum (Latin adjective).

It has had the following incumbents, of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank with an archiepiscopal exception:

Titular Bishops of Giovanni S. d’Acri of the Maronites
  • Jerusalem of the Greek-Melkites
    ([1856.04.01] 1856.06.16 – 1864.08.13); died 1882
  • Grégoire Youssef-Sayour (1856.11.13 – 1864.09.29), without actual prelature; later Patriarch of Antioch of the (Greek-)Melkites (Syria) ([1864.09.29] 1865.03.27 – 1897.07.13) and as above titular Patriarch of Alexandria of the (Greek-)Melkites and of Jerusalem of the (Greek-)Melkites ([1864.09.29] 1865.03.27 – 1897.07.13)
  • Titular Archbishop of Giovanni S. d’Acri of the Maronites: Youssef Massad (1883 – death 1890), not prelature
  • Luigi Giuseppe El-Khazen (1919.02.23 – 1925 see below), no prelature
Titular Bishop of Ptolemais of the Maronites
  • Luigi Giuseppe El-Khazen (see above 1925 – 1933.02.22 see blow), no prelature
Titular Bishops of Ptolemais in Phœnicia of the Maronites

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The Guide to Israel, Zev Vilnay, Ahiever, Jerusalem, 1972, p. 396.
  2. ^ Roman Ptolemais: recent discoveries
  3. ^ History, maps and photos of Ptolemais-Acre/Akko
  4. ^ Butcher, 2003; p. 231
  5. ^ Byzantine church discovered

Sources and external links

Bibliography

  • Butcher, Kevin. Roman Syria and the Near East Getty Publications. Los Angeles, 2003
    ISBN 0892367156 ([1]
    )
  • Moše Šārôn. Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae (CIAP). Volumes 30-31 of Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1, The Near and Middle East, v.30 (Handbuch der Orientalistik). Publisher BRILL, 1997
    ISBN 9004108335 ([2]
    )
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