Parium (orParion;Greek:Πάριον) was aGreek city ofAdrasteia inMysia on theHellespont. Its bishopric was asuffragan ofCyzicus, themetropolitan see of theRoman province ofHellespontus.
Founded in 709 B.C., the ancient city of Parion is located in the village of Kemer in the township ofBiga inÇanakkale province ofTurkey, currently. A major coastal city with two harbors in the Roman period, Parium had intensive relations withThrace andAnatolia throughout history. This was the main customs station through which allIstanbul-bound goods from Greece and the Aegean had to pass.
According toStrabo, it was a colony ofMilesians,Erythraeans, andParians.[1]
It belonged at one point to theAchaemenid Empire. Herophantus was a tyrant of Parion underDarius I.[2]
It then belonged to theDelian League. In theHellenistic period it came under the domain ofLysimachus, and subsequently theAttalid dynasty. InRoman times, it was acolonia, within theprovince ofAsia; after that province was divided in the 4th century, it was in the province ofHellespontus. The ancient coinage of Parium is quite abundant, attesting to its great output and advanced mint (in Hellenistic times, the city's badge shown on coins was theGorgoneion).[3]
The Acts of themartyrSt. Onesiphorus prove that there was a Christian community there before 180. Other saints worthy of mention are:St. Menignus, martyred underDecius and venerated on 22 November;St. Theogenes, bishop and martyr, whose feast is observed on 3 January;Basil the Confessor, bishop and martyr in the eighth century, venerated on 12 April.
Le Quien (Oriens christianus I, 787–90) mentions 14 bishops, the last of whom lived in the middle of the fourteenth century. An anonymous Latin bishop is mentioned in 1209 byInnocent III (Le Quien, op. cit., III, 945) and a titular bishop in 1410 byEubel (Hierarchia Catholica medii ævi, I, 410).
At first a suffragan of theArchbishopric, Parium became anautocephalousarchdiocese as early as 640 (Heinrich Gelzer,Ungedruckte ... Texte, 535) and remained so till the end of the 13th century. Then the EmperorAndronicus II Palaeologus made it ametropolis under the title ofPegon kai Pariou.
In 1354 the residential see ofPegae and Parium (the Latin forms of both names) were suppressed, the incumbentmetropolitan receiving in exchange the See ofSozopolis inThrace (Miklosich and Müller, "Acta patriarchatus Constantinopolitani", I, 109, 111, 132, 300, 330). This was the end of the residential see.
The see is included in theCatholic Church's list oftitular sees.[4]
The ruins of Parium were under Ottoman rule at the Greek village ofKamares (the vaults), on the small cape Tersana-Bournou in thecaza andsandjak ofBigha.
Archaeologists have been carrying out excavations at the ancient site since 2005. Sarcophagi and graves, as well as ancient artifacts were found in the area. In 2017, ancient toys from theHellenistic Period have been discovered inside tombs belonging to children, believed to be buried with the aim to accompany the children on their journey to the afterlife. Also, a baby bottle was discovered around the same necropolis.[5]
In Parion there was a monumental altar which, according to the ancient writerStrabo, had sides the length of astadion. The building was sometimes classified as one of the sevenWonders of the World, but there is no archaeological evidence of it.[6]
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913)."Parium".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Parium".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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40°24′58″N27°04′13″E / 40.4162°N 27.0703°E /40.4162; 27.0703
