Jassus

Jassus

A titular see of Caria, and suffragan of Aphrodisias. The city was founded by colonists from Argos at an unknown date, and was re-established after a war with the natives of Caria by the people of Miletus. It is situated at the inner end of a gulf, on an islet now connected with the continent by a narrow strip of land; according to Polybius its walls were ten stadia in circumference. Its fisheries (Strabo, XIX, ii, 21) are yet famous. During the Peloponnesian War Jassus was taken by the Lacedaemonians, and later it was captured by Philip of Macedon, who was compelled by the Romans to return it to King Ptolemy of Egypt. Numerous Greek inscriptions found among its ruins aid in the reconstruction of its domestic history. Four of its bishops are known: Themistius in 421, Flacillus in 451, David in 787, and Gregory in 878 (Lequien, "Oriens Christianus", I, 913). The see is mentioned in the "Nova Tactica", tenth century (Gelzer, "Georgii Cyprii descriptio orbis romani", nos. 340, 1464), and more recently in the "Notitiae Espiscopatuum". It is now called Asin-Kaleh, and is a small town in the sanjak of Mentéché and the Turkish province of Smyrna. In 1835 Texier visited it and found it completely ruined and deserted, its walls of white marble, also theatres, several burial sites, and mausolea still standing; since then the Turks have carried away most of the material for building purposes.

Spon and Wheler, Voyages, I (Amsterdam, 1679), 1273; Chandler, Travels in Asia Minor, 226; Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, II (London, 1878), 5; Waddington, Inscriptions d'Asie mineure, n. 251-312; Texier, Asie mineure (Paris, 1862), 632-37; Bulletin de correspondance hellenique, V, 491-506; VIII, 454-58; XI, 213-18; XIII, 23-37; XIV, 614; XV, 545-48.

S. VAILHÉ