Tamassus (Cyprus)

Tamassus

Tamassus, a titular see in Cyprus, suffragan of Salamis, was situated in the great central plain of the island, south-west of Soli, on the road from Soli to Tremithus. As there were copper mines in the neighbourhood, it is very probably the Temese, mentioned by Homer (Odyssey, I, 184), which was in his time the principal copper market of the island. To-day the three villages of Pera, Episkopio, and Politiko occupy the former site. The coins warrant our use of the spelling, Tamassus. According to the legends of Saints Barnabas and Auxibius, the first consecrated bishop was St. Heraclides, later transferred to Salamis where he was succeeded by St. Myron, like himself a martyr (27 September). Three other bishops are mentioned: Tychon present at the Council of Constantinople, 381; Epaphroditus at the Council of Chalcedon, 451; Nicetas in 1210. The see was suppressed by the Latins in 1222, and never re-established.

SMITH, Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Geog., s. v.; HACKETT, A History of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus (London, 1901), 240 sq., 313; LE QUIEN, Oriens christ., II, 1059; MÜLLER, ed. DIDOT, Notes on Ptolemy, I. 959; DELEHAYE in Analecta Bollandiana, XXVI (Brussels, 1907), 237.

S. PÉTRIDÈS.