Neocaesarea, Titular See of Hierapolis

Neocæsarea

A titular see, suffragan of Hierapolis in the Patriarchate of Antioch sometimes called Cæsarea as in "Georgii Cyprii Descriptio orbis romani" (ed. Gelzer, 1882). Among its bishops were Paul, whose hands were burned by order of Licinius and who attended the Council of Nicæa in 325 (Theodoret, "Hist. eccl.", I, VII); Meletius, opposed to the Council of Ephesus in 431; Patricius (451) and John (553). In the sixth-century "Notitia episcopatuum" of Anastasius (Echos d'Orient, Paris, X, 145) this see is mentioned as a suffragan of Hierapolis. According to Procopius (De Ædificiis II, 9), Justinian accomplished great things there. Neocæsarea was a fort on the Euphrates, not far from Zeugma. Chabot thinks its site was the actual ruins of Balkiz (La frontière de l'Euphrate de Pompée à la conquête arabe, Paris, 1907, 278 sq.).

LE QUIEN, Oriens christianus, II (Paris, 1741), 947; GELZER, Georgii Cyprii Descriptio orbis romani (Leipzig), 151; CHABOT, Journal asiatique, II (Paris, 1900), 279 sq.

S. VAILHÉ.