Raphanea Explained
Raphanea or Raphaneae (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Ῥαφάνεια;[1] Arabic: الرفنية|al-Rafaniyya; 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 Sambatiyon 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.[2]
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.[3]
Raphanea issued coins under Elagabalus,[4] and many of its coins are extant.[5] [6] [7]
Hierocles[8] and Georgius Cyprius[9] 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.[10] It was then known as Rafania.[11]
Episcopal see
The only bishops of Raphanea known are:[11] [12]
- 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.[11] [13]
External links
Notes and References
- Web site: Emil Schürer. A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ: Two Divisions in Five Volumes. Aeterna Press. 2014.
- http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/war-7.htm Josephus, The War of the Jews or The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem, book 7, chapter 5, 1
- https://books.google.com/books?id=hL99AgAAQBAJ&dq=Raphanea&pg=PA209 Jasper Burns, Great Women of Imperial Rome (Routledge 2006
- https://books.google.com/books?id=YJPn3-rRjC0C&dq=Rafniyeh&pg=PA117 Kevin Butcher, Roman Syria and the Near East (Getty Publications 2003
- http://numismatics.org/search/results?q=department_facet:%22Greek%22%20AND%20mint_facet:%22Raphanea%22 American Numismatic Society: Raphanea
- http://www.cerberuscoins.com/Elagabalus-AE21mm-of-Raphanea-in-Syria.html Elagabalus AE21mm Raphanea in Syria
- http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=42046.0;wap2 Raphanea Genius Coin
- Synecdemus, 712, 8.
- 870 (Heinrich Gelzer, Georgii Cyprii descriptio orbis romani, 44)
- "Historiens des croisades", passim; Rey in "Bulletin de la Société des antiquaires de France", Paris, 1885, 266.
- http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13018c.htm Sophrone Pétridès, "Rhaphanaea" in Catholic Encyclopedia (New York 1912)
- [Le Quien]
- Vailhé, "Échos d'Orient", X, 94.
