Castulo (Latin: Castulo; Iberian: Kastilo) was an Iberian town and bishopric (now Latin titular see located in the Andalusian province of Jaén, in south-central Spain,[1] near modern Linares.
Evidence of human presence since the Neolithic period has been found there. It was the seat of the Oretani, an Iberian tribe which settled in the vicinity in the north of the Guadalquivir River beginning in the sixth century BC. According to tradition, a local princess named Himilce married Hannibal, gained the alliance of the city with the Carthaginian Empire.
It probably is the place of the ancient Castax (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Κάσταξ).[2]
In 211 BC, Castulo was the site of Hasdrubal Barca's crushing victory over the Roman army with a force of roughly 40,000 Carthaginian troops plus local Iberian mercenaries.[3] Thereafter the Romans made a pact with the residents of city — who then betrayed the Carthaginians — and they became foederati (allied people) of Rome. According to Livy, the inhabitants of Castulo were intimidated by Scipio Africanus ordering the wholesale massacre of the inhabitants of the neighboring Illiturgis[4]
Its medieval name was Cazlona. It lost importance even more when Andalusia fell under Islamic rule in the Middle Ages, and at the same time the nearby village of Linares grew because of its strong castle —first built as an Arab fortress, then rebuilt by the Christians after the Reconquista— overlooking the city. In 1227 the walls of Castulo were destroyed, and the town was depopulated shortly afterwards.
A Bishopric of Castulo was established around 350 AD on territory split from the Andalusian diocese of Tucci (now also a titular see). Information about Christian bishops of Castulo appears in the first half of the fourth century AD through participation by its bishops in the Council of Elvira and that of Sardica. It may have been reabsorbed by Tucci. The diocese reappears two centuries later, when in 589 a bishop of Castulo, which by then was under Visigoth rule and a suffragan of the Metropolitan of Toledo, took part in the third Council of Toledo. Other bishops of Castulo were at later Visigoth councils down to the tenth Council of Toledo in 656. Thereafter, Castulo is replaced as bishopric by the Diocese of Baeza. Enrique Flórez,[5] [6]
No longer a residential bishopric, Castulo is listed by the Catholic Church as a Latin titular see.[7]
It was nominally restored in 1969 and since has had the following incumbents, so far of the fitting episcopal (lowest) rank with an archiepiscopal exception: