Cyrrhus


Cyrrhus is a city in ancient Syria founded by Seleucus Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals. Other names for the city include Hagioupolis, Nebi Huri, Khoros. A false etymology of the sixth century connects it to Cyrus, king of Persia due to the resemblance of the names. The former Roman/Byzantine bishopric is now a double Catholic titular see.

Location

Its ruins are located in northern Syria, near the Turkish border.
It lies about 70 km northwest of Aleppo and 24 km west of Killis, in Turkey. Cyrrhus was the capital of the extensive district of Cyrrhestica, between the plain of Antioch and Commagene.
The site of the city is marked by the ruins at Khoros, 20 km from Azaz, Syria, standing near the Afrin Marsyas River, a tributary of the Orontes, which had been banked up by Bishop Theodoret.

History

The Cyrrhus in Syria was founded by Seleucus Nicator shortly after 300 BC, and was named after the Macedonian city of Cyrrhus. Andronicus of Cyrrhus built the Tower of the Winds in Athens.
It was taken by the Armenian Empire in the 1st century BC, then became Roman when Pompey took Syria in 64 BC. By the 1st century AD, it had become a Roman administrative, military, and commercial center on the trade route between Antioch and the Euphrates River crossing at Zeugma, and minted its own coinage. It was the base of the Roman legion Legio X Fretensis. The Sassanid Persian Empire took it several times during the 3rd century.
In the 6th century, the city was embellished and fortified by Byzantine Emperor Justinian. It was however taken by the Muslims in 637 and known at that time under the name of Qorosh and later by the Crusaders in the 11th century. Nur ad-Din Zangi recaptured it in 1150. Muslim travelers of the 13th and 14th century report it both as a large city and as largely in ruins.

Archaeology

The city has been excavated by the Lebanese Syrian Archaeological Mission of Cyrrhus. Initial results indicate a square layout with Hippodamian grid road plan and a central main road with Colonnades typical of the Hellenistic east. The road layout seems to have survived until into the Islamic times.
Remains in Cyrrhus include two Roman s in working order, a dilapidated theatre outside the town and foundations of a Basilica church and some city fortifications.
In the 6th century a Byzantine citadel was built on the top of the hill behind the theatre. with evidence of Greek and Egyptian influences in the design work.
This citadel is still largely unexcavated.

Ecclesiastical history

Cyrrhus became a Christian bishopric at an early date, a suffragan of Hierapolis Bambyce, capital and metropolitan see of the Roman province of Euphratensis. Under Justinian, it became an autocephalous ecclesiastical metropolis subject directly to the Patriarch of Antioch but without suffragans. Its bishop Syricius was present at the First Council of Nicaea in 325. The Arian Abgar was at the Council of Seleucia. Theodoret mentions as another Arian a bishop called Asterius of the time of the Roman Emperor Valens. Isidorus attended the First Council of Constantinople in 381. The most celebrated of the bishops of Cyrrhus is Theodoret himself, a prolific writer, well known for his rôle in the history of Nestorianism, Eutychianism, and Marcionism. He tells us that his small diocese contained 800 churches, which supposes a very dense population. In 476, a bishop named Ioannes held a synod against Peter the Fuller. At the close of that century the bishop was a Nestorian named Sergius, who was replaced by another of the same name who was of the directly opposite theological opinion, being a Jacobite, and was deposed by Emperor Justin I in 518. Michael the Syrian lists 13 other Jacobite bishops of the see.
A magnificent basilica held the relics of Saints Cosmas and Damian, who had suffered martyrdom in the vicinity about 283, and whose bodies had been transported to the city, whence it was also called Hagioupolis. Many holy personages, moreover, chiefly hermits, had been or were then living in this territory, among them Saints Acepsimas, Zeumatius, Zebinas, Polychronius, Maron, Eusebius, Thalassius, Maris, James the Wonder-worker, and others. Bishop Theodoret devoted an entire work to the illustration of their virtues and miracles.

Residential (Arch)Bishops of Cyrrhus

The city was taken in the early 11th century by the Crusaders who made new Bishopric, dependent on Edessa under the name Coricié.

Titular sees

No longer a residential bishopric, Cyrrhus is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see, in two different rite-specific traditions, in the apostolic succession of the Byzantine archdiocese.

Bishops of Crusader Coricié

Latin titular see

Established no later then as Titular archbishopric of Cyrrhus / Cirro / Cyrrhen, alias Cyrrhus of the Latins
It has been vacant for decades, having had the following incumbents, of the fitting Archepiscopal rank with an Episcopal exception:
No later than 1896 was established the Antiochene rite Titular archbishopric of Cyrrhus / Cirro / Cyrrhen Maronitarum, alias Cyrrhus of the Maronites.
In 1956 it was suppressed, having had only these incumbents, both of the fitting Archiepiscopal rank and without actual prelature :