Delas (, , from ) is a city in Beni Suef Governorate of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, situated on the left bank of the

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

. In Ptolemaic and

Byzantine Egypt Roman Egypt was an imperial province of the Roman Empire from 30 BC to AD 642. The province encompassed most of modern-day Egypt except for the Sinai. It was bordered by the provinces of Crete and Cyrenaica to the west and Judaea, l ...

it was known as Tilothis () or Nilopolis (). It was an

episcopal see An episcopal see is the area of a bishop's ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Phrases concerning actions occurring within or outside an episcopal see are indicative of the geographical significance of the term, making it synonymous with ''diocese'' ...

that 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 the metropolitan of Oxyrynchos, in the

Roman province The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...

Arcadia Aegypti Arcadia or Arcadia Aegypti was a Late Roman province in northern Egypt. It was named for one of the reigning ''Augusti'' Augusti, of the Roman Empire, Arcadius () of the Theodosian dynasty when it was created in the late 4th century. Its capital ...

, and is included as such 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. 941]

History

In the 2nd century

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

identified Tilothis, later renamed to Nilopolis, as part of the Herakleopolite nome, but by 225 A.D., it had become an independent nome. This fluctuation between independence and integration continued into the 6th century, with Nilopolis maintaining considerable economic and administrative significance. Ptolemy (IV, v, 26) also noted its unique location on an island in the Nile. During the 5th and 6th centuries, its economic strength was evident in corn production and trade, comparable to the neighboring Herakleopolite and Oxyrhynchite nomes. Despite producing less corn than the Herakleopolites, its substantial tax contributions pointed to a thriving trade, bolstered by its strategic position on key trade routes. Delas had a temple of

Heracles Heracles ( ; ), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a Divinity, divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of ZeusApollodorus1.9.16/ref> and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive descent through ...

, while a cult of Isis Lochia was also popular in the city. Eusebius (''

Ecclesiastical History Church history or ecclesiastical history as an academic discipline studies the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception. Henry Melvill Gwatkin defined church history as "the spiritual side of the ...

'', VI, xli) mentioned a bishop, Cheremon, in the city during

Decius Gaius Messius Quintus Trajanus Decius ( 201June 251), known as Trajan Decius or simply Decius (), was Roman emperor from 249 to 251. A distinguished politician during the reign of Philip the Arab, Decius was proclaimed emperor by his troops a ...

' persecution, highlighting its ecclesiastical importance. "The Chronicle of John of Nikiou" and Arabian medieval geographers also referenced the city, with the latter still using its original name, Delas. By the 14th century, despite its decline from raids by Berber Luwatah tribe and a reduced population, as noted by al-Idrisi, remained significant, paying 20,000 dinars in taxes and encompassing a large area of land. In the khedival period, Delas was a part of the moudirieh of Beni-Suef in the district of El-Zaouiet, and had about 2500 inhabitants of whom nearly 1000 were nomadic Bedouins.

References

{{Authority control Populated places in Beni Suef Governorate Catholic titular sees in Africa