Maximopolis

Maximopolis

A titular see of Arabia, suffragan of Bostra. The true name of the city is Maximianopolis, and so it appears in the "Notitia episcopatuum" of the Patriarch Anastasius in the sixth century ("Echos d'Orient", X, Paris, 1907, 145). Pursuant to a decree of the Propaganda (1885), the title is to be suppressed in future; Torquato Amellini having confounded this town with Maximianopolis in Palestina Secunda ("Catalogo dei vescovati titolari", Rome, 1884, appendix 8). Its last titular was consecrated in 1876. Two ancient bishops of this see are known: Severus, a signatory of the Council of Chalcedon in 451 (Mansi, "Coll. Conc.", VII, 168), and Peter, known by an inscription (Waddington, "Inscriptions grecques et latines de Grece et l'Asie-Mineure", no. 2361). The name which preceded that of Maximianopolis is not known, and we are equally ignorant of its actual identification, though many authorities place it at Sheikh-Miskin, a locality in the Hauran, famous for the extent and beauty of its ruins, where an inscription has been found bearing the name of Bishop Thomas ("Bulletin de corresp. hellenique," Paris, 1897, 52).

S. VAILHÉ