Raphanea or Raphaneae (; ; colloquial: Rafniye) was a city of the late Roman province of Syria Secunda. Its bishopric was a suffragan of Apamea.
History
Josephus mentions Raphanea in connection with a river Σαββατικον, referred now to as Sambation that flowed only every seventh days (probably an intermittent spring now called Fuwar ed-Deir) and that was viewed by Titus on his way northward from Berytus after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.Josephus, The War of the Jews or The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem, book 7, chapter 5, 1
Near Emesa, Raphanea was the fortified headquarters of the Legio III Gallica from which was launched the successful bid of 14-year-old Elagabalus to become Roman Emperor in 218.Jasper Burns, Great Women of Imperial Rome (Routledge 2006 ), p. 209
Raphanea issued coins under Elagabalus,Kevin Butcher, Roman Syria and the Near East (Getty Publications 2003 ), p. 117 and many of its coins are extant.American Numismatic Society: RaphaneaRaphanea Genius Coin
HieroclesSynecdemus, 712, 8. and Georgius Cyprius870 (Heinrich Gelzer, Georgii Cyprii descriptio orbis romani, 44) mention Raphanea among the towns of Syria Secunda. The crusaders passed through it at the end of 1099; it was taken by Baldwin I and was given to the Count of Tripoli."Historiens des croisades", passim; Rey in "Bulletin de la Société des antiquaires de France", Paris, 1885, 266. It was then known as Rafania.Sophrone Pétridès, "Rhaphanaea" in Catholic Encyclopedia (New York 1912)
Episcopal see
The only bishops of Raphanea known are:Le Quien, "Oriens christianus", II, 921. Bassianus, present at the Nicaea, 325; Gerontius at Philippopolis, 344; Basil at Constantinople, 381; Lampadius at Chalcedon, 451; Zoilus about 518; Nonnus, 536.
The see is mentioned as late as the 10th century in the Notitia episcopatuum of Antioch.Vailhé, "Échos d'Orient", X, 94.
References
External links
Raphanea(e) in the Tabula Peutingeriana