Augustopolis in Phrygia (Greek: Αύγουστούπολις) was a city and bishopric in theRoman province ofPhrygia, which remains a Latin Catholic and an Orthodoxtitular see.
It was situated in the plain of Akar Çay (Kaystros).[1] It was located in the middle part of the plain, but its exact location is not known.[2]: 196 TheAnnuario Pontificio associates it with a modern Surmene, not theSürmene on a part of theBlack Sea coast, which belonged to the late Roman province ofPontus.
The1911 Encyclopædia Britannica said that this Augustopolis (which presumably had its name changed in honour of the EmperorAugustus) was "formerlyAnabura (Surmeneh)".[3] The Phrygian town of Anabura is mentioned byLivy as lying on the route of the consulGnaeus Manlius Vulso fromSynnada to the sources of theAlander.[4]
Augustopolis was the hometown of the grammarian Eugenios, who worked under the emperorAnastasios I around the year 500. The 6th-century patriarchEutychius of Constantinople was born at the nearby village of Theioukome and received his education at Augustopolis. The 10th-century Arabic writeral-Mas'udi mentioned Augustopolis, asGhuṣṭūbulī, as a place in the theme ofAnatolikon where an annual perfume market took place. Later,Anna Komnene names Augustopolis (as "Agrustopolis") as the site of a battle in 1097, during theFirst Crusade. She wrote that the crusader army defeated Turkish forces underDanishmend,Qilij Arslan I, andHasan of Cappadocia here and atHebraike. Then in 1116, the Anatolian Seljuk sultanMalik Shah led an unsuccessful attack on a Byzantine army underAlexios I Komnenos before ultimately negotiating peace on the plain between Augustopolis andAkroinos. This last episode is the most important piece of evidence for locating where Augustopolis was. Augustopolis remained in diocese lists until the 12th century.[2]: 196–7
Augustopolis in Phrygia became aChristianbishopric. In the Late Roman province ofPhrygia Salutaris Prima, it was asuffragan of the capitalSynnada in Phrygia's Metropolitan Archbishopric.
The names of four of its residential bishops are known because of being mentioned in extant documents.
Augustopolis in Phrygia is today included in theCatholic Church's list of titular sees[7] since the diocese's nominal restoration in the 15th century as atitular bishopric, under the nameAugustopolis, until its renaming in 1933, avoiding confusion withAugustopolis in Palestina.
It is vacant since decades, having had the following incumbents, of the lowest (episcopal) rankwith an archiepiscopal (intermediary rank) exception:
It is also an Orthodox titular metropolis in Turkey of theEcumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
38°43′10″N30°43′42″E / 38.71944°N 30.72833°E /38.71944; 30.72833
