Circesium

Circesium
Shown within Syria
Location Syria
Region Deir ez-Zor Governorate
Coordinates 35°09′24″N 40°25′33″E / 35.156758°N 40.425739°E / 35.156758; 40.425739Coordinates: 35°09′24″N 40°25′33″E / 35.156758°N 40.425739°E / 35.156758; 40.425739

Circesium (Classical Syriac: ܩܪܩܣܝܢ‎ qerqesīn) was an ancient city in Osrhoene, corresponding to the modern city of Buseira, in the region of Deir ez-Zor in Syria, at the confluence of the Khabur River with the Euphrates.[1]

History

Circesium is located at the confluence of the Khabur River with the Euphrates, where the river was commonly crossed. An earlier city in this location called Sirhi appears in Assyrian texts.[2] A Roman military station likely existed in this location as early as 256 AD, when the place is listed in an inscription by Shapur I, the Sassanid king, among towns taken by him from the Romans.[3] The site was of considerable strategic importance, and, having reverted to Roman rule, the Roman Emperor Diocletian extended and reinforced it, in order to better withstand the Persians.

Circesium passed temporarily into the hands of the Persians by the treaty made by the Emperor Jovian (363).[4]

According to the Notitia Dignitatum, at the beginning of the 5th century it was the seat of the Praefectus of the Legio IIII Parthica.

The city was restored by Justinian I.[2]

Benjamin of Tudela and many after him identified it wrongly with Kharkamis (Carchamish) (known to the Greeks as Europos or Oropos), one of the capitals of the Hittites, located at Jirbas or Jerablus.[2]

Bishopric

The bishopric of Circesium was a suffragan of Edessa, the capital of the Roman province of Osrhoene.

A Nestorian writer says that a Bishop Jonas of this see was one of the participants at the First Council of Nicaea (325) who had suffered mutilation during the preceding persecution. However, his name does not appear in the authentic list. Abrahamius, took part in the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and was a signatory of the joint letter that the bishops of the province of Osrhoene sent to Byzantine Emperor Leo I the Thracian in 458 regarding the murder of Patriarch Proterius of Alexandria. Nonnus was a supporter of Severus of Antioch and was expelled by Emperor Justin I in 518. He also acted as a representative of the Monophysites at a conference held in Constantinople in 532. Davithas (David) was a member of the council called by Patriarch Menas of Constantinople in 536, and Thomas was at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553. Michael the Syrian lists fourteen Jacobite bishops of the see, apart from Nonnus, the last being of the 11th century.[5][6][7]

No longer a residential bishopric, Circesium is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Maps, Weather, and Airports for Al Busayrah, Syria
  2. 1 2 3 Sophrone Pétridès, "Circesium" in Catholic Encyclopedia (New York 1908)
  3. ↑ electricpulp.com. "CIRCESIUM – Encyclopaedia Iranica". www.iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 2017-12-20.
  4. ↑ Encyclopaedia of Islam. Nw Ed. IV: Karkisiya. p.654.
  5. ↑ Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. II, coll. 977-980
  6. ↑ Raymond Janin, v. Circesium, in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. XII, Paris 1953, coll. 836-837
  7. ↑ Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 437
  8. ↑ Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 870
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