Chersonasus or Chersonasos (), later Chersonesus or Chersonesos (Χερσόνησος), was a town and ''

polis Polis (: poleis) means 'city' in Ancient Greek. The ancient word ''polis'' had socio-political connotations not possessed by modern usage. For example, Modern Greek πόλη (polē) is located within a (''khôra''), "country", which is a πατ ...

'' (city-state) on the north coast of

ancient Crete The history of Crete goes back to the 7th millennium BC, preceding the ancient Minoan civilization by more than four millennia. The Minoan civilization was the first civilization in Europe. During the Iron Age, Crete developed an Ancient Greece-i ...

. It functioned as the harbour of

Lyktos Lyktos (Greek language, Greek: or ) was a city in ancient Crete. During the Classical Greece, Classical and Roman Greece, Roman periods, it was one of the major settlements on the island. Its ruins are located near the modern-day village of Ly ...

, and had a temple of

Britomartis Britomartis (;) was a Greek goddess of mountains, nets, and hunting who was primarily worshipped on the island of Crete. She was sometimes described as a nymph, but she was more commonly conflated or syncretized with the goddesses Artemis, Athena ...

, According to the ''

Stadiasmus Maris Magni The ''Stadiasmus Maris Magni'' or ''Stadiasmus sive Periplus Maris Magni'' () is an ancient Roman periplus or guidebook detailing the ports sailors encounter on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The ''stadiasmus'' provides distances, sailing ...

'', which spells that name Cherrhonesus or Cherronesos (Χερρόνησος), it had a harbour and was located 130 stadia from Herakleion and 260 stadia from Olus.''

'' §§ 349-350. By land, it was 16 M.P. from

Knossos Knossos (; , ; Linear B: ''Ko-no-so'') is a Bronze Age archaeological site in Crete. The site was a major centre of the Minoan civilization and is known for its association with the Greek myth of Theseus and the minotaur. It is located on th ...

. In the fourth century BCE, it struck coins. It was Christianised early, and the site of a bishopric.

Michel Le Quien Michel Le Quien (8 October 1661, Boulogne-sur-Mer – 12 March 1733, Paris) was a French historian and theologian. Biography Le Quien studied at , Paris, and at twenty entered the Dominican convent in Faubourg Saint-Germain, where he made ...

mentions four Greek bishops, from 441 to 789; the see still figures in later "

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 ...

" of the twelfth or thirteenth century. Seven Latin bishops are mentioned by Le Quien, from 1298 to 1549, of whom the last two, Dionysius and Joannes Franciscus Verdura, were present at the

Council of Trent The Council of Trent (), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation at the time, it has been described as the "most ...

. Another bishop of Chersonesus was Pietro Coletti, at the beginning of the seventeenth century a Catholic, but whether of his native Greek Rite or of the Latin is unknown. No longer a residential bishopric, it remains a

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 ...

of the

Roman 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 ...

. The site of Chersonasus is located near modern Limin Khersonisos.

References

Populated places in ancient Crete Former populated places in Greece Cretan city-states Catholic titular sees in Europe Hersonissos {{AncientCrete-geo-stub