Colybrassus or Kolybrassos (; ) was a city in Cilicia Tracheia (modern-day Turkey) that belonged to the Roman province of Pamphylia Prima, identified as such by Ptolemy.G.E. Bean, "Kolybrassos (Ayasofya) Turkey" in The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites (Princeton University Press 1976)
Remains
Inscriptions found on the site show that it was located at present-day Ayasofya on the Susuz Dağ, some northeast of Alanya, at above sea level.Tomaschitz, Kurt (Vienna). "Colybrassus." in Brill's New Pauly. Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider. 2011 Accessed: 18 January 2015Keith Hopwood, "Coastal Cities of Western Rough Cilicia" in Anatolia Antiqua, Year 1991, Vol. 1, Issue 1, p. 308
The remains include the walls of a temple of Hercules that rise to 25 feet and the 20-foot walls of another unidentified temple,Theodora S. MacKay, "The Major Sanctuaries of Pamphylia and Cilicia" in Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung (Walter de Gruyter 1974 ), p. 2143 and a small theatre or odeion.H.P. Isler, "Teatro e Odeon" in Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica (1997), citing G. E. Bean, T. Β. Mitförd, Journeys in Rough Cilicia 1964-1968 (Böhlau in Komm., 1970, ), p. 130 Part of the city wall is preserved, with steps leading to the up to its gate, and in what was the necropolis there are several sarcophagi and a tomb cut in the rock.
History Cited by the geographer Ptolemy as an important city center, in 113 BC, in Roman times housed the Legio Pontica. In Byzantine times it was the seat of a bishopric and the patron saint of the city took the name of Άγια Σοφία (Hagia Sophia). After the collapse of the Byzantine power in Anatolia in 1199, the city became part of the possessions of the Armenian prince Kervard with the name of "Surp Sope". The name was derived directly from the Armenian church dedicated to St. Sophia. After that date the city disappears from history.
Bishopric The bishopric of Colybrassus was a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Side, the capital of the Roman province of Pamphylia Prima. Of its bishops, Longinus was at the First Council of Constantinople in 381, Nessius at the Council of Ephesus in 431, and Tates at the Trullan Council of 692.Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. I, coll. 1011-1012Raymond Janin, v. Colybrassos, in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. XIII, Parigi 1956, col. 351Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 450
No longer a residential bishopric, Colybrassus is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ), p. 873
References
External links coins of Colybrassus coins of Colybrassus
Bibliography TIB 8: Hansgerd Hellenkemper and Friedrich Hild, "Lykien und Pamphylien", 2004,