Verinopolis or Berinopolis () was a city and bishopric in

ancient Galatia Galatia (; , ''Galatía'') was an ancient area in the highlands of central Anatolia, roughly corresponding to the provinces of Ankara and Eskişehir in modern Turkey. Galatia was named after the Gauls from Thrace (cf. Tylis), who settled h ...

, central

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

(modern

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 ...

History

The city is known only from its bishopric and as an administrative unit, from the 7th to the late 13th centuries. Its location is unknown, and its traditional identification (e.g. by

William Mitchell Ramsay Sir William Mitchell Ramsay (15 March 185120 April 1939) was a British archaeologist and New Testament scholar. He was the foremost authority of his day on the history of Asia Minor, and a leading scholar in the study of the New Testament. R ...

or Raymond Janin) with the

late antique Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodization has since been wide ...

waystation of Aegonne or Euagina, localized near the modern settlement of Büyük Köhne (today Sorgun), is most probably incorrect. The city is not known before the 7th century, but obviously existed earlier, since it was named or renamed from a previous, unknown name, in honour of Verina, wife of the Emperor Zeno. The city belonged to 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 ...

of Galatia Prima, and later to the Bucellarian Theme, until Emperor

Leo VI the Wise Leo VI, also known as Leo the Wise (; 19 September 866 – 11 May 912), was Byzantine Emperor from 886 to 912. The second ruler of the Macedonian dynasty (although his parentage is unclear), he was very well read, leading to his epithet. During ...

() detached it (along with the neighbouring ''

banda Banda may refer to: People * Banda (surname) * Banda Prakash (born 1954), Indian politician * Banda Kanakalingeshwara Rao (1907–1968), Indian actor * Banda Karthika Reddy (born 1977), Indian politician *Banda Singh Bahadur (1670–1716), Sikh ...

'' of Stavros or Stavropolis and Myriokephalon) to form the new ''

tourma A ''turma'' (; plural ''turmae''; ) was a cavalry unit in the Roman army of the Republic and Empire. In the Byzantine Empire, it became applied to the larger, regiment-sized military-administrative divisions of a '' thema''. The word is often tran ...

'' of Saniana in the

theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical appearance for certain software. * Theme (linguistics), topic * Theme ( ...

Charsianon Charsianon () was the name of a Byzantine fortress and the corresponding theme (a military-civilian province) in the region of Cappadocia in eastern Anatolia (modern Turkey). History The fortress of Charsianon (Greek: Χαρσιανόν κάστ ...

. In 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 ...

'' of the

Patriarchate of Constantinople The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (, ; ; , "Roman Orthodox Patriarchate, Ecumenical Patriarchate of Istanbul") is one of the fifteen to seventeen autocephalous churches that together compose the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is headed ...

, the bishopric of Verinopolis appears as a

suffragan see A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, ...

of the Metropolis of Ancyra; in later lists, beginning with the ''Notitia'' 7, under Leo VI, it appears to have become a double bishopric together with Stavros/Stavropolis. Under

Michael VIII Palaiologos Michael VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus (; 1224 – 11 December 1282) reigned as Byzantine emperor from 1261 until his death in 1282, and previously as the co-emperor of the Empire of Nicaea from 1259 to 1261. Michael VIII was the founder of th ...

() it may have become an

autocephalous Autocephaly (; ) is the status of a hierarchical Christian church whose head bishop does not report to any higher-ranking bishop. The term is primarily used in Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches. The status has been compared with t ...

archbishopric, or even a metropolis, but it vanished soon after.

Bishops

*Stephen, attended the

Third Council of Constantinople The Third Council of Constantinople, counted as the Sixth Ecumenical Council by the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches, and by certain other Western Churches, met in 680–681 and condemned monoenergism and monothelitism as heretical a ...

(680) and the

Quinisext Council The Quinisext Council (; , literally meaning, ''Fifth-Sixth Meeting''), i.e., the Fifth-Sixth Council, often called the Council ''in Trullo'', Trullan Council, or the Penthekte Synod, was a church council held in 692 at Constantinople under Ju ...

(692) *Anthimus, attended the

Second Council of Nicaea The Second Council of Nicaea is recognized as the last of the first seven ecumenical councils by the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. In addition, it is also recognized as such by Old Catholic Church, Old Catholics and others. ...

in 787 *Sisinnius, attended the councils of Constantinople in 869/870 and 879/880 *Andronicus, attested in a list under Patriarch Alexios Stoudites (1025–1043), unclear whether he was of Verinopolis in Galatia, or Verinopolis in

Lycaonia Lycaonia (; , ''Lykaonia''; ) was a large region in the interior of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), north of the Taurus Mountains. It was bounded on the east by Cappadocia, on the north by Galatia, on the west by Phrygia and Pisidia, while to ...

( Psibela).

References

Sources

* * * {{Authority control Populated places of the Byzantine Empire Defunct dioceses of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople Byzantine Anatolia Populated places in ancient Galatia Former populated places in Turkey Lost ancient cities and towns Catholic titular sees in Asia