Tabae or Tabai () was a city in

ancient Caria Caria (; from Greek: Καρία, ''Karia''; ) was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid- Ionia ( Mycale) south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Carians were described by Herodotus as being Anatolian mainlanders ...

, although, according to

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

it was located in a plain in

Phrygia In classical antiquity, Phrygia ( ; , ''Phrygía'') was a kingdom in the west-central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River. Stories of the heroic age of Greek mythology tell of several legendary Ph ...

on the boundaries of Caria. The place is now

Tavas Tavas is a municipality and district of Denizli Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,432 km2, and its population is 41,712 (2022). It is on a wide plain on the road to Muğla, near to the district of Kale (and often the two are linked in one brea ...

, near

Kale, Denizli Kale is a municipality and district of Denizli Province, Turkey. Its area is 684 km2, and its population is 19,202 (2022). It is near the town of Tavas. Kale is a 45-minute drive from Denizli on the road from the city of Denizli to the Aegean ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

; some inscriptions and numerous ancient remains have been found.

Stephanus Byzantius Stephanus or Stephen of Byzantium (; , ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD) was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethnica'' (). Only meagre fragments of the dictionary survive, but the epit ...

mentions two cities of this name, one in

Lydia Lydia (; ) was an Iron Age Monarchy, kingdom situated in western Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey. Later, it became an important province of the Achaemenid Empire and then the Roman Empire. Its capital was Sardis. At some point before 800 BC, ...

(which is conjectured to be Tabala), the other in Caria.

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding i ...

says that it was on the frontier of

Pisidia Pisidia (; , ; ) was a region of ancient Asia Minor located north of Pamphylia, northeast of Lycia, west of Isauria and Cilicia, and south of Phrygia, corresponding roughly to the modern-day province of Antalya in Turkey. Among Pisidia's set ...

towards the coast of the Gulf of

Pamphylia Pamphylia (; , ''Pamphylía'' ) was a region in the south of Anatolia, Asia Minor, between Lycia and Cilicia, extending from the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean to Mount Taurus (all in modern-day Antalya province, Turkey). It was bounded on the ...

. The town in question, however, some coins of which are extant, was one which claimed to have been founded by one Tabus. Others derive its name from ''tabi'', which in Semitic languages means "good", and others from a native word ''taba'', meaning "rock", which seems a probable derivation.

History

In 189 BC, the consul Gnaeus Manlius Vulso, having defeated the inhabitants who blocked his passage, exacted from Tabae a fine of 25 talents and 10,000 medimni of wheat.

Bishopric

Tabae was also the seat of a

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

, a

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Catholic Church, a suffragan bishop leads a diocese within an ecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, the metropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led ...

of Stauropolis. Three bishops of Tabae are known: *Rufinus, present at the

Council of Ephesus The Council of Ephesus was a council of Christian bishops convened in Ephesus (near present-day Selçuk in Turkey) in AD 431 by the Roman Emperor Theodosius II. This third ecumenical council, an effort to attain consensus in the church th ...

(431); *Severus, at Constantinople (553); *Basilius, at Nicæa (787). The ''

Notitiae Episcopatuum The ''Notitiae Episcopatuum'' (singular: ''Notitia Episcopatuum'') were official documents that furnished for Eastern countries the list and hierarchical rank of the metropolitan and suffragan bishoprics of a church. In the Roman Church (the mos ...

'' continue to mention the see among the suffragans of Stauropolis until the 13th century. No longer a residential see, Tabae is included in the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

's list of

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbi ...

s.''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ), p. 979

References

;Attribution * *

External links

''Catholic Hierarchy'' page
Populated places in ancient Caria Populated places in Phrygia Former populated places in Turkey Roman towns and cities in Turkey Populated places of the Byzantine Empire History of Denizli Province Catholic titular sees in Asia {{Asia-RC-titularsee-stub